Welcome to a new week and to The Western Word! Here are the topics for today’s commentary:

• City of Great Falls
• Montanans For Rehberg
• A Nothingburger
• Big Sky Country

CITY OF GREAT FALLS:

We were made aware of a couple of developments last week in city government, thanks to the local online newspaper The Electric.  

First, The Electric reported that City Manager Greg Doyon was given a 4% pay increase, bringing his salary to $197,747.68. Doyon has been city manager for 16 years.

It seems kind of crazy for the city commissioners to whine about not having enough funding, but decide to give Doyon a large pay increase. What does that say to the citizens of Great Falls about fiscal responsibility?

One other piece of information provided by The Electric is that (Mayor Cory) Reeves moved to increase Doyon’s base salary by 4 percent and commissioners unanimously approved the contract amendment. Commissioner Rick Tryon was not at the table during the vote.

This was Taco Tuesday, so maybe the commissioner had too many tacos…

The other development is that the city decided to stick it to us once again. The Electric reported that City Commissioners unanimously approved increases for water, sewer, storm drain and sanitation during their May 7 meeting. The new rates are effective June 1.

The key thing to remember is that the rate increases were “unanimously approved.” Not one member of the commission had the guts to vote no. Even after the latest election, it does not seem the citizens of Great Falls have anyone on the city commission who is looking out for us.

Check out the two articles HERE and HERE.

MONTANANS FOR REHBERG:

On Friday, I wrote about an attack ad from Troy Downing against Denny Rehberg. They are both near the top in the race for the U.S. House in the eastern district of Montana.  I said Rehberg must be getting some traction as I see that candidate Troy Downing has spent money on an attack ad against Rehberg.

On Saturday afternoon, the Montanans for Rehberg 2024 campaign sent me two text messages an hour or so apart with this message:

Breaking News

Child Support and violent threats plague Downing’s bid for Congress

Have you seen the news? Troy Downing threatened to kill his wife and tried to underpay his child support obligations.

That’s right when Troy Downing was a California resident, his wife testified in court that he threatened to kill her and was forced by the court to pay the proper amount of child support for his kids.

Read the full story here: https://bigskyheadlines.com/2024/05/child-support-and-violent-threats-plague-downings-bid-for-congress/

California Troy Downing, wrong for Montana

Reply STOP to Opt out

Paid for by Montanans for Rehberg 2024

If the link does not work, click HERE.

I don’t know if any of the information listed above is true. There aren’t any sources linked to the story. I have not seen a response from Downing. If I do, I will post it.

This hit piece was sent just as ballots were being mailed.  I received my ballot on Saturday.

A NOTHINGBURGER:

Some MAGA folks are posting information about the Judge (Juan Manuel Merchan) in the Donald Trump hush money trial having a daughter (Loren Merchan) who leads a digital marketing agency that works with Democratic Party candidates and non-profits. (Source)

A person named Laura Loomer, who claims to be an “Investigative Journalist” posted the following:

ATTENTION MONTANA
Did you know that @jontester is a client of Judge Merchan’s daughter Loren Merchan and her company Authentic Campaigns @Authentic_HQ?
Tester, who is running for US Senate in Montana, has paid Judge Merchan’s daughter’s company MILLIONS of dollars over the last year.
President Trump has endorsed Tester’s opponent @SheehyforMT.

Merchan also has several other clients who are Democrats.

Once again, the MAGAs are trying to make something out of nothing.

This is a nothingburger…

BIG SKY COUNTRY:

It was an interesting weekend in the sky around Great Falls. I took photos!

The first photo shows the chemtrails/contrails being sprayed over Great Falls Friday.  Of course, some believe this is a conspiracy, but do we really know? 😉

Then we had the multicolored auroras/northern lights making beautiful portraits in the sky. The last two photos were taken north of Great Falls on Morony Dam Road late Saturday night.

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##