Welcome to Friday and “Caught My Eye!” Here are the topics that made today’s column:

• NorthWestern Energy
• Daines is Traveling
• Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner
• One More Thing

NORTHWESTERN ENERGY:

NorthWestern Energy is sticking it to us. So now we have to rely on the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) to do something about it. 

Lee Newspapers reported the following:

If you’re a NorthWestern Energy customer in Montana, the price you pay for electricity went way up, to the tune of about $204 a year on average, the day before Memorial Day weekend.

Nobody needed to give the company permission to do that, and they weren’t required to inform customers.

That price hike may be short-lived, however, as it must be reviewed by elected officials.

Lee Newspapers also reported “NorthWestern’s self-implemented rates are subject to refund, with interest, if the (Public Service) Commission’s final decision is lower than the original application rates,” the PSC’s regulatory staff wrote in a May 15 memo to the five-member elected commission.

The rate hike by NorthWestern Energy is preposterous.  Shame on them. Our PSC is more of a clown show than a regulatory agency, so I don’t expect a lot of help from them.  

DAINES IS TRAVELING:

U.S. Senator Steve Daines is visiting Azerbaijan. It’s not known where else he is headed. There has not been much coverage in Montana about the trip. His official website is silent about the trip. 

Daines is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Source)

Local media in Azerbaijan covered the visit, reporting:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received Steve Daines, member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on May 29.

Senator Daines first conveyed his congratulations to President Ilham Aliyev on Azerbaijan’s Independence Day. He expressed his belief in the significant potential for further strengthening the friendship and partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan. Highlighting that Azerbaijani soldiers served shoulder-to-shoulder with US troops in Afghanistan, and recalling that Azerbaijani peacekeepers responsible for security at Kabul Airport were among the last military personnel to depart the country, Senator Daines emphasized the vital role Azerbaijani soldiers played in evacuating both civilian and military personnel. He conveyed his special appreciation for their contribution. (Source)

I hope there’s an ambassadorship in Daines’ near future…

LINCOLN-REAGAN-TRUMP DINNER:

The Gallatin County Republicans held their Lincoln-Reagan-Trump dinner last night (May 29) in Bozeman. (Source)

The invited speakers were General Michael Flynn, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and Dan Wilson, who is running (again) for the Montana Supreme Court. 

Sponsor tables were $9,000 – $2,500. According to reports, tickets for the event are $150 per person, $250 per couple, and $90 for students. (Source)

That seems costly. 

It looks like Montana’s two U.S. Senators, both from Gallatin County, did not attend the event. Steve Daines is traveling overseas, and Tim Sheehy was parachuting into Glacier National Park, just kidding on the Sheehy part. The Chronicle reported that Sheehy “is spending the Memorial Day work period visiting with troops deployed overseas to get an on the ground update and thank them for their service.”

ONE MORE THING:

It’s a good thing that Jesus lives in our hearts. If he lived in America, he’d be in a prison camp in El Salvador by now.  (Pinterest)

## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##