The experts are saying that today (Friday) will be the busiest travel day of the year. I don’t know about that, but I appreciate your taking the time to read my column today. Here are the topics:
- Voting in Cascade County
- City Elections
- Affirmative Action
- One More Thing
VOTING IN CASCADE COUNTY:
The Electric has a story posted about the bill the Great Falls Public Schools received from the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder, Sandra Merchant for the May 2 school board election.
Like just about everything that has been done by the new administration in the Clerk and Recorder’s office, it was messed up. Even when The Electric submitted a “records request” for emails dealing with the recent elections and paid for it, the request was not fulfilled.
I urge people who reside in Cascade County to read the story from The Electric. After reading it, you will probably see that Sandra Merchant and her team are still not performing their duties correctly.
Check out the story HERE.
CITY ELECTIONS:
On the Cascade County Elections page, they have decided that a primary election is not needed in the Great Falls Municipal Election, so the next election in Great Falls is the Municipal General Election slated for November 7.
The seats on the ballot are Mayor, two City Commissioners, two Municipal Court Judges, and 45 Neighborhood Council Representatives.
I think the Mayor’s race may be the most interesting with current City Commissioner Joe McKenney, Cory Reeves, former Undersheriff in Cascade County, Casey Schreiner, a former state legislator, and Abby Brown running.
But the races I am concerned about are for the two City Commission seats. The candidates are incumbents Eric Hinebauch and Rick Tryon. The other candidates are Kendall Cox, Shannon Wilson, and Micaela Stroop.
With two seats open, we can really change the direction of the commission by electing new people. The current commission has raised fees and taxes and has proposed a massive safety levy and bond levy. One of the commissioners acts like he’s the Great Falls version of Donald Trump and does not understand how government works. He’s an embarrassment to the community.
In the coming months, I hope that Cox, Wilson, and Stroop tell us about their ideas for a better Great Falls.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION:
The U.S. Supreme Court has three members (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) on it who were nominated when Donald Trump was President, and with the other conservative members of the court (Thomas, Alito, and Roberts), they are reshaping history.
Last session they overturned Roe v. Wade, and yesterday, in what is probably their headline grabber for this session, they ruled against affirmative action.
Newspapers across the fruited plains have headlines like, “Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action at U.S. Colleges” and “Supreme Court Rules Against Affirmative Action in College Admissions.”
I guess I am at the point in my life where I look at these things and think, “How does this affect me?” If I can’t think of anything then it’s not that important to me. The affirmative action ruling sure angered the liberals/progressives.
Maybe that will spur them on to work harder to elect people with their beliefs…
ONE MORE THING:
Note: I will have more time to write columns as I have started using 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner…
The Western Word 
Rosie further embarrassing Montana. Has he become a constitutionalist congressman?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-rep-rosendale-introduces-bill-prohibit-irs-purchasing-guns-armed-montana-raid#:~:text=Matt%20Rosendale,%20R-Mont.,a%20local%20Montana%20gun%20store.
If the answer to the question “how does affect me personally?” determines what we care about, then there’s an awful lot of subjects we’ve discussed on this blog that were a waste. For instance, transgender rights and what happened to Zooey Zephr don’t affect most of us personally.
Thanks for your response, Terry.
As for Zephyr, it makes me sick the way she was treated and embarrassed for our state.
There are probably more things that effect me that I don’t realize. -JmB