Oh, SNAP: Montana bans junk food, candy bars from food-stamp purchases.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"While I support the administration’s efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, the White House and Pentagon have left Congress in the dark on Operation Epic Fury. In Louisiana, I’ve heard from people, including President Trump’s supporters, who are concerned about this war. Until the administration provides clarity, no congressional authorization or extension can be justified," – U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who voted with a handful of Republican and all Democrats to impose oversight on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Cassidy lost his re-election bid last week after losing the support of Trump.

Columnist, former Red Lodge mayor and attorney Betsy Scanlin writes about what was important to her father as a delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention and why those same things still matter today.

Well you know what they say: The eighth time is a charm… or at least for the United States Senate which voted to take on more oversight of the ongoing war with Iran through a war powers resolution. A similar measure had failed the other times, but with increasing pressure on federal lawmakers, and the loss by Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, he and a handful of other Republican Senators joined with Democrats to attempt putting some Congressional sideboards on the war effort.

We also are seeing a tidal wave of reporting about the effects of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in the Callais from Louisiana. That decision has radically changed the meaning of the Voting Rights Act, and how it is implemented, especially in districts with large minority populations. Democrats in Congress have repeatedly said that it is injecting chaos into elections at an especially critical primary time, and while the nation is deeply divided.

One of those examples comes from our neighbors in North Dakota. The Supreme Court has ordered a federal appeals court to re-examine its decision about how redistricting will affect the Native American communities there.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the political spectrum, Republicans in Congress are urging states which redrew Congressional districts prior to the Callais decision to consider overturning the new maps which tilt districts toward Democrats.

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Not much polling is done in the people-sparse state of Montana, but our friends at the Montana Free Press have the results of interesting polling which shows that the Treasure State is divided (like the rest of the country) on the war in Iran as well as the approval ratings for President Donald J. Trump.

We don’t get to say this often, but in Vatican news: Pope Leo XIV made headlines as the Holy See announced that it will release the first papal encyclical of the Chicago-born pontiff. These encyclicals — or essays — often cover a variety of timely topics at the intersection of religion, ethics and contemporary issues. Fittingly, the pope’s first major academic presentation will focus on artificial intelligence and the dignity of human life.

Researchers and scientists have a better understanding of what happens to us when we undergo anesthesia, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. Apparently, even when we’re sedated, parts within our brains remain somewhat aware of what is happening, including recognizing words and even anticipating the next words in a sentence — even if the experience, upon awakening, is completely unaccessible to us.

Well in honor of the United States Senate finding a backbone (albeit on its eighth attempt), and because it’s Wednesday and we need a song to power us through the middle of the week, we have dusted off the rap/dance hit, “The Power” by the Pittsburgh-based dance group Snap!

The song was a ubiquitous anthem during the 1990s, and was the predecessor of so many uptempo dance hits championed by groups like the C+C Music Factory. The song … uh, borrowed … which is a nice way to say “copied without permission” several other artists works, like so many emerging songs of that era. Many of the artists, notably Vanilla Ice, found themselves spending more time in court than on stage as “sampling” — or taking a portion of a previously released song and using it in a new song, often without permission, credit or repayment — became a new frontier in litigation, not so unlike artificial intelligence using the work of real, honest-to-goodness humans. If you want to know more about those adventures, we’d suggest this article by SongFacts. Let’s just say you may remember the song, “The Power” by Snap!, but you may not realize that singer Jocelyn Brown and rapper Chill Rob G saw virtually none of the profit while the song became an international hit.

But Snap! was no one-hit wonder. Two years after taking “The Power” to No. 2 on the Billboard charts, they had another top 10 dance that remained dominant on dance charts, “Rhythm Is A Dancer.”

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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