We’ve almost got this week whipped! Here are the topics for today’s column:

• Public Safety Meeting
• Cascade County Clerk & Recorder
• Privatizing Education In Montana
• U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff
• One More Thing

PUBLIC SAFETY MEETING:

The City of Great Falls held a public safety meeting to promote the massive levy request that will raise taxes considerably for residents of Great Falls. It was not very well attended and viewed by just a few online. Reminder: there are about 60,000 people in Great Falls.

A source at the civic center told me that “maybe 50 people” were there. I watched it online for about an hour and the average was around 25-30 viewers.

There were six officials on the stage, looking down on those in attendance. The audio was terrible at first but then got better. The city manager basically talked everyone to death. I think it was about an hour and 15 minutes into the meeting that the city manager mentioned there might be a “bond” proposal request on the ballot in addition to the levy request.

There were some questions from the audience. I did not hear any hard-ball questions. They mentioned several times that it had been a long time since a levy request had been made and that they were years behind in funding. I don’t think that is my fault. The current city manager has been here for over 15 years so why didn’t he ask for smaller amounts over those years to keep up with the need?

During the meeting, I wondered if the six people on the stage who think so highly of this proposal would consider putting some skin in the game and take a 10% pay cut to show they care.

The bottom line is that most people can’t support this massive levy request that will raise our taxes significantly. Also, it’s asinine for the city commission to put a massive bond request on the ballot with the levy. I will be a “NO” vote on the public safety levy request. I hope the commission votes “No” on the bond issue. The city should do a survey to see just what the majority of people would support for a levy and go from there. This whole issue has been handled poorly.

CASCADE COUNTY CLERK & RECORDER:

Surprised? Not Really!

The Electric reported that the Montana Supreme Court denied a request from Sandra Merchant and Cascade County to reverse the District Court’s decision to appoint an election monitor or assign a different monitor.

The only reason this last election (library levy) went more smoothly than the last election (School) was because of the court-appointed election monitor.

The feeling I get is that many voters feel better about voting and the counting of votes with the election monitor. The county should consider keeping the election monitor in place through November 2024.

Read the complete report from The Electric HERE.

PRIVATIZING EDUCATION IN MONTANA:

In a press release provided to The Western Word from Upper Seven Law, they announced that on Wednesday, a group of individual and organizational plaintiffs, including the Montana Quality Education Coalition, the League of Women Voters of Montana, Billings public schoolteacher and parent Jessica Felchle, Kalispell public schoolteacher and parent Beau Wright, and others filed a lawsuit to prevent the state from privatizing education in Montana. The lawsuit also includes a motion for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order, asking the court to stop House Bill 562 (“HB 562”) from going into effect while the litigation is pending.

Some of the key issues they have with HB 562 are:

The bill sets up a commission and governing boards that fall outside the supervision of the Board of Public Education and usurp control from local school boards. Governor Gianforte, Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, and members of the Legislature are tasked with appointing members of the commission.
Only parents of students who attend HB 562’s privatized schools and school employees can vote in governing board elections, meaning that local community members are excluded from the electorate in violation of their Rights of Suffrage and to Equal Protection.

“The Legislature cannot funnel public money to private institutions. The health of our society depends on a free, high quality public education system,” Doug Reisig, executive director of Montana Quality Education Coalition said. “We vow to stand against school privatization activists’ incursions into Montana. And the great news is, we have the Montana Constitution behind us.”

In this day and age, I can’t predict how this will be decided by the courts, but my humble opinion is HB 562 should be thrown out and declared unconstitutional.

You can find more information HERE. The Montana Free Press covered the lawsuit HERE.

U.S. REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Now the MAGA Republicans are really pissed off. One of the more hated people on the left, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, D-Calif., withstood an effort by House Republicans to censure him when 20 Republicans sided with the Democrats to vote against the censure.

NBC News reported:

The House voted 225-196 to set aside the resolution, introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to censure Schiff over his role in the House investigation into Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

Now those 20 Republicans are on the MAGA shit list. It did not take Fox News very long to publish their names and then little MAGA keyboard warriors all across the fruited plains reposted the names of the culprits and called them traitors and other things not so nice.

As you know, the U.S. House is controlled by the Republicans. In recent days they have proven that their leadership can’t keep the majority together for big issues.

ONE MORE THING:

I say or think this a few times a month (I left out the bad word) …

For many Americans, the most profound legacy of the Trump era will be the painful knowledge that a significant number of their friends, neighbors, and relatives are total ­­——- morons. -@MiddleAgeRiot (Source)

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