Montana Public Service says public can't have documents related to data centers.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

“For more than 40 years, Cabinet Resource Group has been the ‘barking dog’ at a string of mining companies changing hats and CEOs, all just bad actors. They leave a path of faults and degradation to Earth with not so much as a look over their shoulder. Mining is never clean. The Cabinet Mountain Wilderness is definitely out-of-bounds for their trial and errors.” – Colleen Hinds, an original member of the Cabinet Resource Group, which filed a lawsuit challenging mining operations in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.

Six conservations groups file a lawsuit in federal court saying that neither the United States Forest Service nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered the science they had at their fingertips when permitting an exploratory mine in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.

Christy Clark, the head of Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks, is emphasizing that though “corner crossing” to access public land may be legal in some western states, it is still not legal in Montana, leaving many sections landlocked among private property.

Speaking of Montana FWP, officials there are looking for answers about who is blow-darting ducks in the Billings area.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tells reporters that even though some Republicans in Congress have said that the war with Iran will not have a ground game, he said that he is sending troops to the Mideast in case they’re needed on the ground, escalating war tensions as gas tops $4 per gallon.

An investigation shows that many states are specifically writing “pregnancy crisis centers” out of regulation at the state level. These organizations intervene and try to help pregnant women decide against abortion.

A federal judge said that President Donald Trump’s decision to defund National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service through the Corporation for Public Broadcast was likely illegal.

In a major shake-up, the Trump administration announces that the United States Forest Service will move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City in a move that mirrored what the Trump administration had tried to do during the first Trump presidency by trying to move the Department of The Interior to Colorado.

Note: some links may lead to stories behind a news organization's paywall

Our next three items come from our friends at the Smithsonian magazine. The first one starts off with a subject we all like — dogs. And, it turns out that a recent discovery resets the timeline of dog-human companionship by about 5,000 years.

A man wanted to return a piece of his family’s history. His father had brought home a piece of the famous Parthenon in Greece when he was in the military. The object he had was kept in the family home for decades had been placed on the mantle. Yet, when he gave the piece of a building back, it turned out to be a piece from a much older building.

Scientists and astronomers have found what appears to be a primitive star. That is, a star made out of matter from the earliest fragments of the “big bang.” The star, which is around 150,000 light years away, is part of a faint, primordial galaxy that could help continue to fill in the missing parts of our universe.

As I was doomscrolling the other day, figuring out what terrible news I had missed all while being momentarily absent because I went to the restroom, I came across the a cappella vocal group Cantus and their performance inside a massive and cavernous Boston church. I clicked on it just to hear the sound, and it was hauntingly beautiful. It took me a moment to register that it was also one of my favorite hymns.

“Be Still My Soul” is otherwise known as “Finlandia,” and while I have always loved the lyrics, there may be no better time than now to share it.

Like all things on social media, the video was fleeting, but I found a similar video done by Cantus, this time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was just as touching then.  

Song of Peace (“Finlandia”)

This is my song,
O God of all the nations
A song of peace, for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine

If you have a song that you’d like to share, or would like to get in touch with us, please send us a note at [email protected]

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