Welcome to The Western Word! Here are the topics that made today’s column:

• Montana Free Press Election Guide
• Gianforte’s Grand Scheme
• NFL Schedule Release
• One More Thing

MONTANA FREE PRESS ELECTION GUIDE:

Applause to the Montana Free Press (MTFP) for publishing the 2024 Montana Election Guide.  Please support their work.

According to the MTFP:

Heading into the 2024 election, Montana voters have the task of selecting from more than 60 candidates to fill 14 Montana-specific federal and state offices — not to mention picking from among the 300-plus candidates running for positions in the state Legislature.
That can be a baffling number of names to track even for voters who diligently follow political news. This digital guide, a project of the nonpartisan Montana Free Press newsroom, is an effort to make sure basic information is available so voters have the opportunity to cast informed votes.
The 2024 primary election, where voters will pick each political party’s nominee to advance to the General Election, will be held Tuesday, June 4. The 2024 general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Check out the guide HERE. Please support their work.

GIANFORTE’S GRAND SCHEME:

The Busse for Governor campaign issued a press release in which they contend that local school funding requests failed Tuesday across Montana because of Governor Gianforte’s record tax increase:  

Multiple school funding requests failed in local elections across the state Tuesday, amid Governor Greg Gianforte’s devastatingly unpopular property tax increases on Montana homeowners.
“Greg Gianforte blew a multibillion-dollar surplus on giveaways to big corporations, jacked up property taxes on Montana homeowners, then let public schools fend for themselves with hat in hand for any leftovers,” said former firearms executive and candidate for governor Ryan Busse. “This is part of Gianforte’s grand scheme to weaponize property taxes to squeeze local control out of local public schools. Montana’s kids—and their educators—are paying the highest price.”
School levies in communities like Billings, Helena, and Belgrade failed by significant margins. In Billings, two measures to fund school security cameras and staff to address gang activity and prevent dropouts got shot down by a nearly two-to-one margin. In Smith Valley, a bond to rebuild a school contaminated with mold and asbestos also fell short. In Helena, all five school funding levies failed.
Gianforte this year successfully sued Montana counties to impose higher taxes on homeowners, yet managed to give himself a seven percent tax cut on his mansion in Helena in 2023, while virtually all of his neighbors got hit with tax increases. And at his mansion in Bozeman, Gianforte’s property taxes went up only 19 percent in 2023, while his next-door neighbors got hit with a 70 percent property tax increase by Gianforte.

The Busse for Montana campaign website can be found HERE.

NFL SCHEDULE RELEASE:

 NBC Sports is reporting that with the Super Bowl, NFL Draft, and free agency in the rearview mirror, there’s a final major milestone of spring still to come: the 2024 NFL schedule release, which will provide the roadmap for the upcoming NFL season beginning in early September. While the NFL hasn’t fully confirmed when the highly anticipated release will happen, reports indicate that we’ll get the full slate on Wednesday, May 15th.

My Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs will host the 2024 NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday, September 5. The Chiefs will begin their quest for three Super Bowl wins in a row.

More information can be found HERE.

ONE MORE THING: 

Reuters is reporting that Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment. Citing a 12-year-old deposition, the Times said Kennedy stated that a doctor had told him an abnormality on his brain scan “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

It was also reported that Kennedy took to the social media platform X to make light of the health scare. “I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate,” Kennedy said.

This is going to be a great campaign season!

## THE END ##