Tuesday’s Quick Hits

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Hello August! You’re looking hot!

Here are the topics I am commenting about today:

  • Rate Increase
  • National Voter Registration Act
  • U.S. Space Command
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup

RATE INCREASE:

The Daily Montanan is reporting that the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) should approve a rate for Montana-Dakota Utilities that translates to a 9.1% increase for residential customers, or $96.09 more a year, according to a PSC staff recommendation released last week.

According to the article, the proposed rate increase would affect 25,600 electric customers in eastern Montana.

Still, Montanans have to be asking when will these rate hikes, tax and fee increases stop?

I thought the following two sentences from the article kind of said it all:

If approved by the PSC, the settlement would bring another $6.1 million to MDU, which had initially requested an additional $10.5 million, according to the stipulated agreement.
The PSC staff memo notes the original proposal would have cost residential customers 19.1% more.

So, I bet some of the brightest members of the PSC believe they are saving customers 10%.

The five members of the PSC are all Republicans.

NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT:

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) has started in Cascade County. The headline in the Great Falls Tribune did not tell the whole story: “Quarter of Cascade County Voters at Risk of Losing Voter Eligibility.”

That probably won’t happen. It’s not a conspiracy to take away the voting rights of Democrats, either.

The Elections Department posted the following on its website:

NVRA process has begun!

What is the NVRA process? NVRA, was enacted in 1993. This Act lets voters confirm if they have moved, asks them to update their registration, and tasks the election administrators with removing people who do not respond to confirmation mailings and subsequently fail to vote in two federal general elections. Elections officials within the United States are annually tasked with the responsibility of sending notice to voters who fit these criteria.
Cascade County has now begun this process. The office has sent the first required NVRA notice. If no response is received back to our office within 30 days a second NVRA notice will be issued. If no response is received back within another 30 days, the voter will be inactivated as part of maintaining accurate voter registration lists.
It is critical that, if you receive a notice, that you follow the instructions to fill it out and return it to the Elections Office at PO Box 2305, Great Falls, MT, 59403 to update your registration. This will ensure that you are not removed from the official voter registration list.

So, if you get a notice, follow the instructions. It’s very simple.

Check out the notice from the Elections Department HERE. Read the Tribune article HERE.

U.S. SPACE COMMAND:

The Associated Press is reporting that President Joe Biden has decided to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the Trump administration to move it to Alabama. (Source)

Politics played a role in Biden’s decision just as politics played a role in Trump’s decision.

It should not be political, but many of these moves are. Since they are political, is the Montana delegation doing any fighting for new missions? They got their butts hurt when the Powder River Training Range was approved with all the members being against the expansion into Montana. Read one of my commentaries about it HERE. With the delegation siding with cows and sheep over national defense, we may never see a new mission in Montana.

It would be great to once again hear jets flying over Montana.

FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP:

The U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) played Portugal very early this morning (Tuesday) in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The match started at 1:00 am. I got up to watch it.

The Associated Press (AP) reported it like this:

The Americans slipped through to the knockout round Tuesday despite a listless, uninspiring 0-0 draw against Portugal. The U.S. won only one game in group play for the first time in tournament history and scored just four goals over three games.

Late in the match, the USA team came within an inch of losing and being eliminated when a kick by Portugal hit the crossbar and bounced away.

The USA team will now move to the knockout round of 16. They are scheduled to play Sunday, August 6, at 3:00 am Mountain time.

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5 thoughts on “Tuesday’s Quick Hits”

  1. Those eastern Montana customers of MDU are getting off cheap with just 9% raise. Last I read the PSC is mulling a 25% raise for Northwestern Energy residential customers. Gotta keep those stockholder MT legislators happy.

    Home solar looking more and more attractive.

  2. I don’t quite understand that Trib NVRA story.

    It quotes the elections office, “This Act lets voters confirm if they have moved, asks them to update their registration, and tasks the election administrators with removing people who do not respond to confirmation mailings and subsequently fail to vote in two federal general elections”. SUBSEQUENTLY is defined as “following, afterwards”.

    But the article seems to imply that the elections office has already got data from the SOS office on who didn’t vote in the previous two federal elections, and failure to respond to these new notices will get you 86’ed 60 days later, no subsequent elections involved.

    I’ve never read the law. Anyone? Bad writing on part of county or Trib? Me reading it wrong?

    (Note: The good news is if they didn’t vote in the last two federal elections 2022 and 2020, they didn’t cast any of those mythical fraudulent votes against His Highness Trump.)

  3. I didn’t realize how rare sonic booms were until my son who is in his forties said he has never heard one. I was working on a missile site near Lewistown years ago when I saw a shadow and right after what sounded like an explosion. I never saw the jet but it felt like it was a foot above my head. Beat every boom I ever heard before. I remember some guy north of town heard said a sonic boom caused his mink to kill each other. Olden times.

    • Great story. Thanks. Imagine if you’re the enemy – you’re done before you know it. -JmB

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