By Micah Drew, Jordan Hansen and Keila Szpaller
Montanans are adamant that we keep politics out of our courts, and they want judges and justices who answer to the constitution and Montana citizens, not political parties and special interests.
Montanan for Nonpartisan Courts is the group behind Constitutional Initiative 132, which seeks to put a ballot initiative before voters to amend the state constitution by adding a section that states, “judicial elections shall remain nonpartisan.” In Montana, judicial elections have been nonpartisan since 1935.
But it has been a divisive issue, going back to the 2025 Legislature when there were a half dozen attempts by Republican lawmakers to allow judicial candidates to run with a party affiliation. Supporters of that idea said it added transparency to the system, while those who favor the current system decry adding partisanship into the judicial system. All the attempts by the Legislature to add politics into judicial races failed on a bipartisan basis except one, which allows political parties to donate money directly to candidates they support.
On Wednesday, the state Republican Party announced its executive board had passed a resolution formally opposing Constitutional Initiative 132. The party has spent $20,000 on Supreme Court Candidate Dan Wilson, while his opponent, Amy Eddy, has publicly stated she will not take any money from political parties.
Around the world, and the moon, in 10 days
I had a wonderful Friday that included a lovely sunrise run, a sunny track meet with multiple personal best performances by some of my high school athletes, and the discovery that Kettlehouse Brewing’s Brass Grizzly Mango Ale 4-packs now exist at my local market.
But the day was capped off on my drive home from a track meet when I tuned into the live NPR broadcast of the successful splashdown of the Artemis II crew off the coast of San Diego.
Were you glued to news feeds, live streams, and chatter about the Artemis II mission over the last 10 days like I was?
For those of you who might pay more attention to news closer to home, NASA sent four astronauts on a mission around the moon — the first time humans have been back towards our rocky satellite since 1972.
The crewed lunar flyby set records for the farthest humans have been from Montana (or, you know, the rest of Earth) at 252,756 miles; the first Canadian to travel to the moon; and the first woman to do so — Christina Koch, who learned she was accepted into the prestigious astronaut corps while living in Livingston in 2013.
The astronauts captured may photos of the far side of the moon including the one above, where the Earth is setting behind the moon as the space capsule orbits around the far side.
It is, as Missoula-based internet celebrity Hank Green said, “the photo that launched 1000 desktop wallpapers.”
Green is a popular science communicator and Youtuber and he put out this excellent video highlighting the top images from the Artemis II mission. Sure, it’s a little long, but what else do you have to do this weekend whilst sipping your coffee and changing your computer background?
The photo at the top of this section has a longer NASA caption explaining what you’re looking at: Orientale basin is perched on the edge of the visible lunar surface. Hertzsprung Basin appears as two subtle concentric rings, which are interrupted by Vavilov, a younger crater superimposed over the older structure. The lines of indentations are secondary crater chains formed by ejecta from the massive impact that created Orientale. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.
~ Micah Drew
(Provided by Montana Media Lab)
THE HOOK BOOK 📚 PODCAST 🌸💀🪻💀🌼
We’re changing it up this week and sending you a podcast recommendation.
Released last week, “The Obit Project” bills itself as a collection of stories about the lives of real Montanans after they die.
I’m one and a half episodes in and learning about life, how to be true to yourself, how to stay joyful and curious, even weird.
It’s co-hosted by University of Montana professor and obituary reader Jule Banville (disclosure: friend) and Radiolab founder Jad Abumrad, also creator of “More Perfect,” a SUPERFANTASTIC podcast about the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Disclosure: My dad uses the term SUPERFANTASTIC in all caps always, and therefore, I do too.)
The About page of “The Obit Project” says this:
This 12-episode production of the Montana Media Lab at the UM School of Journalism started with a class of college students learning about the long tradition of obituary writing. It culminated with them and other journalists creating a new form that explores universal truths, legacies and reckoning with the memories of those we love.
Tune in with Montana Public Radio here.
~ Keila Szpaller
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