Greetings! Here are the topics for today’s common-sense commentary:

• Great Falls Fire Rescue
• Christopher Martinez Marvan
• Autopen Scandal
• Epstein Files
• One More Thing

GREAT FALLS FIRE RESCUE:

I happened to catch an interview conducted with Great Falls Fire Rescue Chief Jeremy Jones by the NonStop Local news station, in which he stated that Great Falls is dangerously close to being unable to answer calls. 

I have the utmost respect for the job these professionals do daily; it’s the leadership of Great Falls that I have concerns about. 

Jones contends that Great Falls is “currently two fire stations behind where we should be for the size of Great Falls.” He also said, “We’re just rolling the dice until that bad thing happens.”

It was also reported that since the 1970s, Great Falls has nearly doubled in physical size. But the city’s emergency infrastructure hasn’t kept up. 

I think the city leaders and department heads have failed to prepare the city over the years. It may be time to bring in some new leadership to take a fresh look at the situation. The doom and gloom reports from department leaders after each incident are getting a little old. 

Let’s face the fact that it’s 2025, and it will be hard to sell two fire stations and the personnel to staff them to voters. We are already taxed to the max. 

You can read the complete interview HERE. 

CHRISTOPHER MARTINEZ MARVAN:

Lee Newspapers is reporting that U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen on Tuesday said he does not have jurisdiction over a legal challenge leveled by Christopher Martinez Marvan, who was arrested in Helena (MT) earlier this month after he was mistaken for a different Latino man.

Christensen added that Martinez may raise those issues before an immigration judge at his hearing in Tacoma, Washington, on Aug. 19.

Martinez is represented by Upper Seven Law, and they indicated they will appeal this ruling. 

AUTOPEN SCANDAL:

I have found the autopen issue that President Donald Trump brings up about former President Joe Biden interesting, as I used an autopen while working for U.S. Senator Conrad Burns.

Spoiler alert: Elected officials do not personally sign all their letters. 

Now, NBC News is reporting the following about the investigation:

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has been leading the probe into Joe Biden’s cognitive state during his presidency, with Republicans alleging that Biden’s occasional use of an “autopen” to sign documents — a practice other presidents have done as well — demonstrated that he wasn’t fully in control or aware of what his administration was doing. But documents show that some of the letters and subpoena notices Comer has sent out in connection to his investigation have been signed using a digital signature — not written by the congressman himself.

So the leader of the probe into the autopen scandal is using a digital signature and has not been signing the letters and notices himself.

Beam me up, Scotty!

EPSTEIN FILES:  

The Washington Post is reporting that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that he supported the release of the Epstein files, days after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department said the matter was effectively closed. Johnson is a close Trump ally and has never broken so publicly with the president on an issue.

There’s also a report that says nearly three minutes of footage were cut from what the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation described as “full raw” surveillance video from the only functioning camera near Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell the night before he was found dead. The video was released last week as part of the Trump administration’s commitment to fully investigate Epstein’s 2019 death, but instead has raised new questions about how the footage was edited and assembled.

People love a good conspiracy, and this is one of the best! 

ONE MORE THING:

I am now at the age where picking up a hottie at the club means buying rotisserie chicken at Costco…

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