Happy First of July and welcome to the snap, crackle, and pop edition of Caught My Eye!

By the way, I can always tell it’s getting close to July as my favorite baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, have moved into their normal spot (last place) in the American League Central.

If you are a first-time visitor, Caught my Eye is my weekly column devoted to the stories that I did not have time to write about during the week – and sometimes I use just a little sarcasm when writing about the stories!

This week I take a look at a wedding, Skype, the Pope, squirting, the big family in Helena, sex offenders, no recess, a couple departures, plus Jack’s Political Inbox – and there is a lot more!  

The Wedding:

When I first heard about the upcoming wedding between U.S. Senator Max Baucus and his former State Director, Melodee Hanes, I wrote a column called “Wedding Planner.”

We’re excited and sad for the couple.  There are supposedly 150 friends and relatives attending and nobody here at The Western Word has been invited – and nobody can tell us where they are registered.

The wedding occurs this Saturday at Sieben Ranch north of Helena.

Rumors are floating around that Vice President Joe Biden will be attending because he says it’s a “big effing deal.”  We’ve also heard a rumor that Ms. Hanes has a prenuptial agreement that forbids the senator from hiring another female as his state director…

We do wish the newlyweds our best…

You Are Now Cleared to Skype:

Moving right ahead into 2011, the U.S. “House will for the first time allow the use of Skype for official purposes…”

This all happened after Rep. Weiner left.  Coincidence?

BTW, Skype has been around since 2003.

The Pope Tweets:

Keeping pace with the U.S. House, “Pope Benedict XVI has fired off a tweet to the world, launching the communications-challenged Vatican into yet another new media realm.”

So you’re not on Twitter, but the Pope is…

Oh My…

Sometimes the stories just write themselves:  “When deputies attempted to remove Robinette from the vehicle, she advised the deputies that she was a breast feeding mother and proceeded to remove her right breast from her dress and began spraying deputies and the vehicle with her breast milk.”  Full story HERE.

She would be the life of the party, heh? 

One Big Family in Helena:

The Helena IR published a story on Thursday that told us that “Former state Sen. Jesse Laslovich, a prosecutor and consumer advocate, filed the paperwork Thursday to raise campaign money to run as a Democrat for attorney general in 2012.”

Insiders say that the current Attorney General, Steve Bullock, will run for Governor in 2012.

When one political party controls most of the statewide offices for several years (or decades), people get too comfortable there.  The shuffling around Helena by the lefties there has been quite interesting.

Montana Sex Offenders:

Maybe the folks at the Montana Department of Justice should devote just a few more hours of the day to their jobs instead of campaigning…

If you owe the state a few dollars they will hunt you down like a crazed dog, but if you are a sex offender, a new report says “The addresses for one out of every four offenders in Montana’s sexual and violent offender registry are unverified and possibly unreliable, casting doubt on the credibility of the registry used by everyone from concerned parents checking out new neighbors to house hunters in search of a safe neighborhood.”

Maybe Attorney General Bullock is too busy fundraising and ensuring the office stays in the family.

I remember back in 2008, GOP Candidate Tim Fox said “The Montana Department of Justice (DOJ) is not sharing vital information about sexual predators which puts our children at risk…”

It seems nothing has changed.

Jack’s Political Inbox:

Since June 30 was the end of second quarter fundraising, most of the e-mails I received were about helping the candidate put up good second quarter numbers (money in the bank).  I received e-mails from:

–Brian Schweitzer (for Jon Tester)

–Erik Iverson (for Denny Rehberg)

–Steve Daines (for Daines)

–Rick Hill (for Hill)

– James Carville (for democrats)

–Preston Elliott (for Tester)

–Al Franken (for senate democrats)

–John Cornyn (for senate republicans)

–Barbara Boxer (for senate democrats)

–President Obama sent me several e-mails asking me out to dinner…if I send him five bucks.

–Senator John Kerry sent a unique e-mail with the subject “different race” in which he writes, “If your inbox is anything like mine, you’ve been flooded with emails the last few days asking you to give to really important races across the country.”

Kerry is raising money to fight cancer…

-The Montana GOP sent me an e-mail with the subject “Bullock and Gallik’s Conflict of Interest” in which they say, “Today the Montana Republican Party urged Commissioner of Political Practices Dave Gallik to end the apparent conflict of interest in his decision making.  On June 15, the Billings Gazette and other Lee Enterprises newspapers revealed that Gallik had made political contributions to Attorney General Steve Bullock before ruling in his favor on a campaign finance complaint.”

The Commissioner of Political Practices office is tainted – nobody will believe any ruling that comes from any commissioner who has donated money to someone who has a complaint against them. 

Staying in from Recess:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote for Tuesday July 5, which means the senate only gets a three-day weekend like most of us, instead of a week-long recess.  He did this after President Obama said they needed to be working.

Hopefully this short recess will not impact the Baucus/Hanes wedding. 

Whom will you miss more?

Yesterday was unique as both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Fox News host Glenn Beck left their jobs.

One of them received a medal…and deservedly so…

To Catch a Predator:

According the Los Angeles Times blog, “Chris Hansen, known for his “To Catch a Predator” series of reports for “Dateline NBC,” has been caught on hidden camera himself in what is could turn out to be a compromising situation.”

Yep, it’s a woman.  Hansen is married and father of two and this was not his wife, reports say.

Predators around the country caught by Hansen are probably smiling…

Closed for Business?

In what set back the pro-business climate in Great Falls a few decades, the Great Falls Tribune reports that, “The owner of a new downtown business that employs Great Falls Rescue Mission workers said the city’s enforcement of zoning regulations might force him to close down and move to Canada.”

City officials contend the business does not comply with the zoning in the area the business is located.

Nice work city officials.  Nice work.

A Real Mess:

If there’s one thing I have learned from following the Medical Marijuana issue in the state and following the Montana Legislature as they try to “fix it” is that our legislature is not ready for the big stage of…shall we say…legislating.

A judge in Helena (State District Judge James Reynolds) probably feels the same way (but he is nicer than me).  He issued a temporary injunction blocking parts of the new law.

I don’t think anyone really knows what is up with the law, now.

Twitter:

More folks are following @TheWesternWord on Twitter than ever before – and you should be, too!

A Couple of Important Notes:

Please be careful this holiday weekend PLEASE!

-Don’t drink and drive and please use a designated driver to arrive at your destination safely.

-Don’t drink and try to blow things up, either…

-Most importantly – don’t forget to stretch…