May 31, 2018

Montana Democrats sense a chance to capture US House seat

For more than two decades, Montana's lone U.S. House seat has been a sacrificial altar where Democratic candidates' dreams are squashed. Not only have all 12 Democratic candidates since 1996 lost to Republicans, but only two of them have since gone on to win any election at all.

But the five candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in the June 5 primary election say this year is different.

The voters who gave President Donald Trump a huge win two years ago may be having second thoughts now, and Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte appears to be more vulnerable than past incumbents, the Democratic contenders said in recent interviews and public forums.

It's an opportunity the party hasn't seen in nearly a quarter-century, and one of the keys to capitalizing on it will be deciding who will take on Gianforte and Trump.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/montana-democrats-sense-a-chance-to-capture-us-house-seat/article_b9e3cc75-312c-5da6-a85f-26e9c0481de1.html

May 31, 2018

North Dakota, tribes fail to reach settlement over voter ID

BISMARCK, N.D. — Talks between the state of North Dakota a group of Native Americans failed to reach agreement over ways that tribal members can prove their identity in order to vote.

Republican Secretary of State Al Jaeger said the two sides could find no agreement during the closed-door meeting Tuesday. He declined to discuss any of the proposals, saying they are confidential.

Discussions "possibly may continue," Jaeger said. "We're leaving the door open."

Tom Dickson, a Bismarck-based lawyer for tribal members, said he was hopeful a settlement could be reached. But he said "the ball is in the state's court."

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/north-dakota-tribes-fail-to-reach-settlement-over-voter-id/article_0edb8f3a-a019-525e-a4ce-3cd47c5cb14d.html

May 31, 2018

Poll: Cruz leads O'Rourke by 11 points in Texas U.S. Senate race.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, holds an 11-percentage point edge over U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, in the race at the top of the November ballot in Texas, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Half of Texas voters prefer Cruz in his re-election bid, compared with 39 percent for O’Rourke, the poll says.

That’s a substantially wider margin than in April 18, when another Quinnipiac University poll found Cruz with 47 percent to O’Rourke’s 44 percent.

Cruz apparently benefited from a small shift in national opinion toward Republicans in recent weeks, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.

Read more: https://www.mystatesman.com/news/poll-cruz-leads-rourke-points-texas-senate-race/O2k97nv8GRnDA2w2W0SPtK/

May 31, 2018

Sid Miller posts fake Whoopi Goldberg image, calls for canceling 'View'

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller posted a doctored photo of Whoopi Goldberg on Facebook Thursday morning showing her wearing a T-shirt of President Donald Trump shooting himself in the head. Miller wrote, “if proven true,” the photo is grounds for ABC’s daytime talk television show, “The View,” in which Goldberg is a host, to be canceled.

Goldberg first addressed the photo-shopped image on “The View” in April 2017, and spent part of Wednesday’s show to again dispel the fake image. She showed viewers a photo of her that is the basis of the altered photo at the New York women’s march last year, where she wore a T-shirt that bore the message: “And you thought I was a nasty woman before? Buckle up, buttercup.”

The doctored image, which has circulated the web since last year, was also shared by Roseanne Barr during a Tuesday Twitter tirade that resulted in ABC cancelling her revived sitcom.

“While I in no way condone the highly inappropriate tweet sent by comedian Roseanne Barr, I call on ABC Television to maintain the same standards that they used in cancelling the Roseanne show and also cancel The View,” Miller’s Facebook post said. “If proven true, Whoopi Goldberg’s wearing of shirt depicting our President being shot in the head us grounds for immediate termination. At present, all I see is hypocrisy and double standards from ABC.”

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/sid-miller-posts-fake-whoopi-goldberg-image-calls-for-canceling-view/DvbeBolVGnJ5Y7RH1Yf23M/

May 31, 2018

After snubbing TIF request, the Missoula County proposes a moratorium on new cryptocurrency mines

Bonner mill site developer Steve Nelson stormed out of the conference room.

“Un-fucking-believable,” he could be heard muttering to himself.

For nearly a year, Nelson fielded complaints from area residents whose lives have been disrupted by the nonstop roar produced by the bitcoin mine, Project Spokane, leasing his property. He worked with the company to propose and test a $135,000 solution to the noise that would entail installing 424 new fan blades. And he figured the tax increment generated by the mill site could pay for it, as an “improvement of facilities or equipment for reducing … pollution,” per state law governing use of tax-increment funds.

But members of the Missoula Development Authority board didn’t just deny his request at their May 23 meeting. They delivered a stinging rebuke of Nelson and his partner, Mike Boehme, saying the men more typically celebrated as economic saviors for revitalizing the former Stimson mill site had in fact brought a “monster” to town.

Read more: http://missoulanews.com/news/after-snubbing-tif-request-the-county-proposes-a-moratorium-on/article_d8a3e676-643c-11e8-b7fe-37382e90c05c.html

May 31, 2018

What an Idiom: Rosendale exposed as embodiment of 'All Hat No Cattle'

It’s a tale as old as Ft. Benton: wealthy out-of-stater shows up, buys ups some land, slaps on a hat, and calls himself a rancher. Yet somehow, Matt Rosendale thought he could pull one over on Montanans.

During his quest for the GOP nomination for Senate, Matt Rosendale has re-branded himself a rancher. But a news story from Talking Points Memo shows that Rosendale thinks branding is a PR exercise rather than cauterizing flesh.

Talking Points Memo does a deep dive into Rosendale’s shallow ranching history. The entire story is worth a read, but the documentation of Rosendale’s lack of ranching speaks for itself.

According to Talking Points Memo:

Read more: http://mtcowgirl.com/2018/05/29/what-an-idiom-rosendale-exposed-as-embodiment-of-all-hat-no-cattle/

May 31, 2018

Actors' use of redface in Jackson Hole parade sparks public outcry

Some residents raised concerns over the use of redface in Jackson Hole’s annual Old West Days parade.

The Bar T 5 chuckwagon parade entry Saturday included Native American characters in red facepaint and black wigs played by non-Native American employees. The costumes are also used in Bar T 5’s chuckwagon dinner shows in Cache Creek canyon.

Several paradegoers confronted Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Anna Olson at the parade, demanding to know why the chamber allowed the costumes.

“This happens every year,” Jackson resident Melanie Schuerch said. “This is racism. The only thing there is to discuss is will we allow racist behaviors in our parade or not. And it should be not.”

Read more: https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/town_county/article_b4983ad0-431b-5450-95bf-28091e0ab06a.html

May 31, 2018

Democrats hope to flip a seat as Teton County GOP tries to moderate

Look! Up in Jackson! It’s a luxury condo! It’s Kanye leaving the studio! It’s ... a competitive general election race for a Wyoming legislative seat? That’s right, a Democrat and Republican are expected to be locked into a genuinely competitive contest for an open state Senate seat. Even more unusual, it’s Democrats who are hoping to flip the Teton County seat blue.

With Sen. Leland Christensen, R-Alta, running for treasurer, Democrats initially hoped Mike Gierau, a popular Jackson state representative, would cruise to an easy victory to replace Christensen in the only Wyoming county that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“It's pretty clear that the voters in that district have preferred Democratic candidates in the last couple cycles,” said Wyoming Democratic Party chair Joe Barbuto.

But the entry two weeks ago of Republican Kate Mead, the governor’s sister-in-law, has complicated Democratic ambitions. A respected community member, the Jackson attorney and rancher has moderate policy positions and past electoral success on her side.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/politics-dems-hope-to-flip-a-seat-as-teton-county/article_d74caecb-7ea6-5be0-bf73-9677a1746b1e.html

May 31, 2018

Records quest for 800 Wyoming agencies drives open records review

Lawmakers are eyeing changes to public records law after a national group dedicated to government transparency flooded 800 Wyoming agencies with records requests last spring.

Openthebooks.com, a project of Illinois-based 501(c)(3) organization American Transparency, filed the requests to collect Wyoming data for an online repository of spending by state, local and federal governments. Its requests went to more than 800 agencies, districts, boards and other municipal and state government entities, Wyoming Liberty Group executive director Jonathan Downing said. His organization, a conservative think tank in Cheyenne, assisted Openthebooks.com with the requests.

The inquiry has sparked a review of public records law by the Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee, even as the state implements new rules to charge its citizenry for accessing public records.

Broad records requests gum up day-to-day operations for some government offices in the Equality State, particularly rural ones with only one full-time staff member, public officials told legislators on the Corporations Committee in Lander last week.

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/records-quest-for-800-wyo-agencies-drives-open-records-review/

May 31, 2018

ACLU of Utah, Disability Law Center file suit over Davis County Jail standards

SALT LAKE CITY — The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and the Disability Law Center have filed a lawsuit against Davis County and the Utah State Records Committee in an effort to make jail standards for the Davis County Jail publicly available.

The origin of the ACLU and DLC lawsuit — filed May 21 in Farmington’s 2nd District Court — started in October 2017 when the organizations submitted a public-records, or GRAMA, request to obtain a copy of the Davis County Jail’s operating standards.

In December, the request was mostly denied by Davis County, and officials said the jail standards were the property of Gary DeLand, a former director of the Utah Department of Corrections who wrote, copyrighted and sold the jail standards to counties around Utah and other states.

The two organizations appealed the decision to the Utah State Records Committee, and in April the committee ruled in favor of keeping the jail standards secret.

Read more: http://www.standard.net/Courts/2018/05/30/ACLU-Utah-Disability-Law-Center-file-lawsuit-over-Davis-County-Jail-standards.html