When do violent gun threats become acts of terrorism? Perhaps never in Montana…

In Sept. 2009 comedian Joe Lipari returned to his New York apartment after spending several hours at a nearby Apple Store. Lipari went to the store to get his malfunctioning iPhone fixed, but when the concierges ignored him for hours, the frustrated Lipari returned home and flipped on the tube.

As Lipari tells the story the movie “Fight Club” was on. There’s a scene in the film where Edward Norton’s character leaves a copy of the Fight Club rules (you know: “The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club) on the copy machine.  

In the scene Norton warns his boss to be careful who he talks to about the document he found on the machine or….

“…the button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers…”

Lipari, stoned and amused with himself, paraphrased the quote on Facebook but inserted something about the Apple Store concierges in the post.

Soon thereafter he answered a knock at his door and was greeted by fully armed members of the New York City S.W.A.T. team with their MP5 machine guns drawn.

Lipari was charged with making terrorist threats and spent the better part of the next two years in court trying to clear his name.

So what does this anecdote have to do with Montana? 

I bring it up because it makes me wonder what’s going to happen to Steve Connly, the Montana man who not only sent “hate mail” (his words) to the Helena-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies in which he specifically threatened gun violence, but who also has a habit of threatening the President of the United States on his Facebook page:

(WARNING - EXPLICIT RACIST LANGUAGE)

“Should be anti obama armory.. Barack Obama Thats right pretty nigger, millions more where these came from, just you wait.. your day will come.. and an fyi, I do not call you nigger simply because you are black.. It is because you fit the TRUE definition of a NIGGER.. Which SLAVES used to call the MASTERS before they were freed. Thats right you are a true NIGGER.”

And then there’s this gem:

“An fyi, I am probably going to be kicked off facebook again very soon. Been trolling obama's page and saying many things which should get him ticked off. Serves him right. I say execute that bastard AT the WWII memorial that he has thrown such a big fit about keeping us away from. FEDERAL LAND IS OUR LAND NOT YOURS YOU GREEDY BASTARD and you cannot keep us out of it. WE pay your overly extravagant paycheck, now WE need to hold you accountable for your actions AGAINST the constitution and AGAINST the american people. DO NOT BE FOOLED SHEEPLE, if he is not impeached this year we will have civil war. His actions prove this point. When he doesn't get his way, he throws a fit and takes it out on american people. WE WILL PUSH BACK mark my words little man, your day will come.”

How do I know the Steve Connly who made these Facebook threats against the President is the same guy who wrote to the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and said he would “love the chance” to use guns on them?

Because he admitted it on the Montana Logging Facebook page:

After the Tribune published the story of Connly’s threat, a few like-minded souls took to the Trib’s comment section to pile on the treats:

Mike Prester, of Belgrade, thinks a “shooting would be to [sic] good!!!!”

So all of this has got me wondering…. if a New York City comedian can be charged with making terrorist threats and spend the better part of two years in court for posting a paraphrased movie quote on his Facebook page, what happens to Montanans who not only make specific threats of violence against individuals, but also generalized violent threats against the President of the United States?

It’s not hard to imagine that those on the receiving end of threats of deadly force –- or their families -- are terrified. Or at least that is the intention of the threat, isn’t it?

FBI spokeswoman Patricia Speelman declined via email to comment on the status of the case other than to say:

“The FBI takes threats very seriously and investigates them thoroughly with the assistance of our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.”

For those who might be tempted to dismiss these threatening comments as “just talk,” consider the following:

According to environmental investigative group Global Witness, more than 700 environmental activists, journalists and community members were murdered worldwide between 2002-2011.

In Montana environmentalists and conservation advocates know too-well the threat of violence.

As former Missoula Independent reporter Carlotta Grandstaff reported in 2001, they’ve had their homes shot-at, burned down and vandalized:

“In the Bitterroot, at least one environmentalist has received death threats for his opposition to timber sales. Someone fired shots at another activist’s house, leaving bullet holes in a fence. The home of yet another activist was burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. Still another activist was thrown off his job when his employer learned of his involvement with environmental politics. At a public meeting on a grizzly reintroduction plan in Salmon, Idaho, one pro-grizzly speaker was booed and jeered while someone from the audience yelled, ‘get a rope.’ Then, of course, there’s the suspicious death earlier this year of Flathead Valley activist Tary Mocabee.”

In 2001 Flathead Valley activist and Tary Mocabee mysteriously drowned in a shallow creek near her home. Mocabee’s friends told producers for the PBS documentary “The Fire Next Time” that some in the environmental community suspected foul play based on Mocabee’s environmental and social activism.

And lets not forget the not-too-distant past when a group of anti-government extremists from Connly’s neck of the woods plotted to murder a long list of public officials from cops to judges to dog catchers. The Project 7 day of reckoning was supposed to commence on Earth Day.

The alleged “mastermind” of Project 7 plot, David Burgert, is still missing after disappearing into the woods near the Montana-Idaho border after a shootout with police.

There’s plenty room for civil debate and disagreement about forest and wildlife management, health care, foreign and domestic policy, etc. But when the debate degrades to threats of physical violence, we have lost our way.

In America, and in Montana, civilized citizens settle their differences within the confines of the rules we agreed to through our representative democracy.

When someone steps outside those rules, when they resort to threats of violence in order to intimidate and violate the rights of those they disagree with, they should be met with those agreed upon rules and in short order.

Reporter’s Notebook: Observations on Gov. Bullock’s first big speech

Wednesday night’s State of the State address was an interesting evening at the Capitol. It was the first time since I began covering Montana politics that a governor other than Brian Schweitzer was on the big stage, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The State of the State is a major event for a Montana governor. The address is broadcast live statewide on Montana PBS and Montana Public Radio, and just about every TV station, radio station and newspaper in the state covers the event.

Many of us in the Capitol press corps admitted prior to the speech we were unsure of how Bullock would do in his first-ever State of the State. After all, he’s following in the footsteps of one of the best orators many of us have ever seen in Montana. Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer wasn’t popular with everyone – particularly Republicans, whom Schweitzer needled at every turn – but at the end of the day nobody could argue the man’s ability to work a crowd.

Bullock brings a much different style to the governor’s office. As he pointed out in his speech, just three weeks in to his term as governor he’s “already been trying to change the tone in the halls of this building.”

While he didn’t mention Schweitzer by name, Bullock’s message on that point was clear: “I’m not Brian Schweitzer.”

The consensus among most people I talked to after the speech was that Bullock did a great job. It was a strong speech and it was masterfully delivered. Even many Republicans said they liked the speech, though they didn’t like all the spending proposals Bullock rolled out.

My first thought after he finished the address was this:

“This guy showed us tonight he is the governor.”

Observations from the floor

The press corps is mostly relegated to the east side of the House floor during speeches like this, which means we’re stationed along the GOP’s side of the aisle. That’s always an interesting place to be during a speech delivered by a Democrat. When the big applause lines come, we all watch to see which Republicans clap or stand and which Republicans keep their arms crossed tightly over their chests.

I paid keen attention to a standing ovation that came when Bullock blasted the rise of dark money groups that “target candidates and refuse to tell the voting public who they really are and what they really represent.”

“They hide behind made-up names and made-up newspapers. They operate out of P.O. Boxes or Washington, D.C. office buildings. They falsely proclaim themselves the guardians of Montana’s traditions.

These groups believe they can violate our laws and corrupt our government in order to create a system that benefits their special interests.

Montanans deserve better.”

At that point the House floor erupted with the cheers and applause from Democrats and a handful of enthusiastic Republicans.  Without having a clear view of the entire floor I can’t say for certain which Republicans stood  and cheered and which ones sat on their hands, but it was a moment many of us talked about after the speech. If anyone can produce video of that particular applause line that shows the entire House floor it would certainly been an interesting study.

Another point that stood out to me was when Bullock talked about returning from the airport after having greeted troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to find out a Legislative committee had cut funding for “wrap-around” services that would make it easier for returning soldiers to attend universities.

“I urge you to restore these funds, live up to the promises we’ve made and welcome these warriors home with more than just words,” Bullock said.

At that point Democrats jumped to their feet and most of the Republican side of the aisle joined them. However, in front of me one Republican Senator remained firmly planted in her seat, not clapping. As another Senator looked over at her and said something she shook her head and said, “I’m not clapping for that.”

All-in-all Bullock did a good job of defining his policy agenda and laying down markers for the next three months of the Legislative session. He’s going to push for more spending on education. He wants a fix to the state pension system that “honors the commitment to Montana’s public servants.” He’s going to continue to push for his proposed $400 homeowner tax rebate. He wants to expand Medicaid. And he wants campaign finance reform that gets dark money out of politics.

How much of that agenda he will get accomplished remains to be seen as the Republican-dominated Legislature continues to chip away at spending proposals and bring their own policy agendas to bear on the state budget, namely, reducing Montana’s reliance on federal dollars.

Bullock, however, seemed sincere in his desire and willingness to work with GOP lawmakers going forward.

“We need each other if we’re going to make progress,” Bullock told members of the House and Senate.

The only words that rang truer were Bullock’s closing thoughts:

“At the end of any one of our terms. . . yours or mine. . . we will be measured by the progress we have made. And the true measure will be taken not by the politicians or pundits, but by our children. Let us not forget that it is to them we are most accountable.”

Staff accuses ethics official of violations

From left, Julie Steab, Kym Trujillo, Mary Baker and Karen Musgrave, who work in the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices, have documented alleged time and office misuse by their boss, Dave Gallik, commissioner of Political Practices. TRIBUNE PHOTO/LARRY BECKNER

(Since we’re having trouble wit the link on the Tribune website I’ve gone ahead and uploaded the story to The Lowdown.)

HELENA -- The staff members in the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices say their boss, the state’s political campaign ethics and finance enforcement official, has been conducting private business from his state office since his appointment in May.

All four permanent staff members of the commissioner’s office told the Tribune Capital Bureau in interviews last week that Commissioner Dave Gallik — who was appointed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer in May — has spent nearly as much time in his state office tending to his private law practice as doing official political-practices work.

“Dave Gallik has been committing ethics violations since he got here,” said Mary Baker, program supervisor for the commissioner’s office. “He has been doing private-practice attorney work in the commissioner’s office since the day he walked in.”

The commissioner’s staff said Gallik, who earns $57,689 per year as commissioner, also has been fudging time sheets and clocking state time he hasn’t actually worked, an act they described as “stealing from the taxpayers.”

Gallik, in an interview Thursday, denied the allegations.

A former Democratic member of the state House who lost a primary bid for the state Senate in 2010, Gallik said his staff members — all of whom were hired before he was appointed — do not like him because he is “different” from past commissioners.

“The folks around here aren’t used to someone like me,” Gallik said. “What it boils down to is we have classified employees who come in here and work eight hours a day, and former commissioners who had no political background and no legal back­ground. So it’s different.”

But Baker, along with fel­low staff members Julie Steab, Kym Trujillo, and Karen Musgrave, told the Tribune their complaints against Gallik stem from the fact he isn’t doing the job he was appointed to do and is instead focusing much of his time and energy on his private practice.

Gallik said nothing he has done violates the law govern­ing his office, which says a commissioner may not “hold another position of public trust or engage in any other occupation or business if the position … interfere with or is inconsistent with the com­missioner executing the duties of the commissioner’s office.”

Gallik admitted he isn’t in the office as much as previ­ous commissioners, but he said that even while out of the office he is doing commis­sioner work, often at his pri­vate office.

“It was never a secret that I would continue my law practice,” Gallik said. “I told the governor when he appointed me that I would continue my practice.”

Gallik said state law bars him from using state offices or equipment for private work, but he can do commis­sioner work from his private office, while also being able to work on his private-practice caseload.

According to Lewis and Clark County District Court records, Gallik had at least 16 open cases in that county alone since taking office. He also has two cases open in federal court in addition to other cases filed in other state district courts.

Gallik said around the time he was appointed commis­sioner that he hired a full­time lawyer at his law prac­tice to help with the caseload. “So it’s not just me working on these cases,” Gallik said.

Gallik said that he doesn’t practice full time privately but that he works “long hours” in both jobs.

Gallik said he occasionally used his state email address to communicate with his private-practice staff to coordinate scheduling between the two jobs, but he denied using his state computer or email account to conduct private­ practice or personal business. However an analysis of emails, photographs, court records and state time sheets obtained by the Tribune appear to dispute Gallik’s claim.

Notes for a divorce settlement Gallik was working on sit on his desk in the Commissioner’s office last summer. Staff said the often saw files like this on Gallik’s desk in his office. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Gallik repeatedly sent doc­uments and emails back and forth from his law practice to his state email address. Emails between May and August showed regular communication between Gallik and his staff at his private practice on private casework.

For example, on July 19, 2011, Gallik sent an email from his state account to his assistant, Connie Anderson, in which he discussed preparations for an upcoming trial: “We need to get the exhibits and documents ready for the matters coming up,” the email states, in part. “… Put together the exhibits with an index. Once you have this I will put the exhibits in the proper order then we will put the exhibit stamp and make the appropriate amount of copies for trial. I will also need a shell for our proposed findings of fact. …” Gallik also exchanged emails with his wife, Gail Gallik — an executive assis­tant in the state Department of Commerce — regarding leases and rental agreements for property the couple owns. According to his staff, Gallik regularly leaves his computer on, logged in, unattended and unsecured for long periods of time when he leaves the office, which is a violation of the state’s computer workstation policy.

Every member of the commissioner’s staff said they’ve regularly seen emails on his computer related to his private practice. They said they’ve also seen private-­practice case files on his desk in the commissioner’s office.

In one instance Musgrave photographed files Gallik left sitting on his desk that dealt with a divorce settlement he was working on.

The photo showed hand­written notes on a legal pad regarding a divorce settlement.

“He left that kind of stuff on his desk all the time,” said Trujillo, program data technician for the commissioner’s office.

Lines drawn

According to the staff, they met with Gallik at his law office the week before his term as commissioner began in May. The staff said Gallik indicated he wanted the commissioner’s staff to work seamlessly with his private-­practice staff.

“He told us he made it clear to the governor he would not be giving up his law practice,” Musgrave said.

“He told us he wanted the political-practices staff to work with his private-practice staff,” Trujillo said. “He thought we were just going to conjoin the two offices.”

“We told him in no uncer­tain terms that he can’t do that,” said Steab, an investigator for the commissioner’s office.

Baker said she informed Gallik that under no circumstances could his private-­practice work cross over with the work of the commissioner’s office.

“We drew the line prior to him coming here as to what he could and couldn’t do,” Baker said. “I said we were not going to be calling his staff and coordinating with them.”

Misreported hours

According to his staff, once Gallik came on as commissioner he regularly clocked hours on the state payroll when he was actually doing work for his private law practice. In some cases state payroll records and court records appear to confirm this.

For example, Gallik logged eight hours of political practice work — a full day’s worth — on June 28, 2011. However, in a sworn affidavit Gallik filed in Helena District Court in a case involving one of his private-practice clients, Gallik claimed eight hours of attorney work on that same day.

Gallik said he couldn’t recall if he was in the commissioner’s office June 28, but he says he must have worked those eight hours.

“If that’s what I claimed, then that’s what I worked,” Gallik said, adding that he works “a lot of 16-hour days.” According to state payroll records, Gallik initially logged 18.5 hours of state time on July 20-22 when he was in Vancouver, Wash., con­ducting a mediation for one of his private clients. Gallik later amended the time sheet only after Baker repeatedly brought it to his attention.

Gallik said the initial mix-­up was a result of his misunderstanding of proper reporting procedures.

“I think I worked some time ahead of time and didn’t put it down, and then I just added on those days I was gone,” Gallik said. “I found out that wasn’t the right way to do it so I amended it back to the way it should have been.”

More recently, while attending the Council on Government Ethics Laws conference in Nashville, Tenn., with Baker and Trujillo, Gallik claimed a full day’s pay on Dec. 7. However, according to the conference program, the conference ended at noon that day. Gallik then toured the Opryland Hotel with Baker and Trujillo for the rest of that afternoon.

“I think what I did on that one was I took too little time on the return trip and too much time on the conference getting out,” Gallik explained.

Gallik said even if there was a “technical issue” with his timesheet — which he said there is not — he said he was appointed by the governor to a “salaried position.”

“The job is to get the job done,” Gallik said. “I respect the requirement to log my hours so I do it. I don’t cheat because I don’t need to cheat the state out of $27 per hour.”

According to payroll records, previous commissioners worked on an hourly pay scale and logged their hours.

Baker said she discussed the erroneous reporting with Gallik on numerous occasions.

However, all four staff members said Gallik gets angry when confronted about his reporting of work hours.

Musgrave said Gallik often becomes verbally abusive when challenged by his staff. “David likes to be in control,” Musgrave said.

Meanwhile, Gallik has produced very little in the way of political-practices work product, the staff says.

“We wouldn’t give a damn about what he put down for hours if he was actually getting the job done,” Trujillo said.

Work lacking

The commissioner’s staff said the many of the political-­practices decisions that were released during Gallik’s tenure were prepared by Gallik’s immediate predecessor, Jennifer Hensley, or by staff. Hensley was in the position for just a few months after replacing Dennis Unsworth, who had been commissioner for four-and-a-half years before that.

The Republican-controlled Senate blocked Hensley’s appointment during the 2011 legislative session, refusing to give Hensley a confirmation hearing.

However, the staff in the commissioner’s office said Hensley did a great deal of work in the short time she was there.

Most of the other decisions or settlements produced by the commissioner’s office were written primarily by Steab in her investigative reports or by Baker and signed by Gallik, the staff said.

“He wrote almost nothing on his own,” Steab said.

According to the staff, of the 21 decisions produced by the commissioner’s office since May, 12 were almost entirely written or outlined by Hensley before Gallik’s arrival. Many of the remaining decisions were either “cut and pasted” from Steab’s investigative reports or written­ by attorneys contracted by the commissioner’s office, the staff said.

According to the staff, Gallik has only drafted one decision on his own since arriving on the job in May.

“If he’s doing all this commissioner work when he’s out of the office, where’s the work product?” Baker said.

Gallik disagrees with his staff’s assessment of his productivity.

“I think there is a good work product to show for it,” Gallik said. “Take a look at the backlog (of political-practices complaints). It’s no worse than it’s ever been,” Gallik said.

Gallik said he’s also been integrally involved in Western Tradition Partnership campaign-finance litigation. The Montana Supreme Court ruled in December in that case that the state’s 100-year­-old ban on direct campaign spending by corporations should remain in effect.

Gallik said he’s also been working on a mandate that all candidates for statewide offices must file their campaign finance reports online.

Gallik claims that he has saved the Montana taxpayers “a lot of dough” because he has cut down on the amount of legal bills by putting his skills as an attorney to use in the office.

But Baker contends that the office’s legal bills have actually gone up since Gallik took office.

“There may be an appearance that he did save some money to this office, but if you actually look at the pending contracts yet to be paid you’d see we’ve got $34,172.50 owed to contracted attorneys,” Baker said.

Baker said the office has had to contract five outside people to work on complaints because of Gallik’s conflicts of interest, mostly resulting from his campaign donations. In one case Gallik himself is named in a complaint as treasurer of the Democratic Legislative Alumni Associa­tion PAC.

“Because of his conflicts we’ve incurred significant legal fees for outside legal contracts — the highest number of outside contracts we’ve ever had in the history of this office,” Steab said.

Issues reported

Baker and Steab said they raised their concerns about Gallik’s actions with payroll officials at the Department of Administration, Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s office, the Legislative Audit Division and the Attorney General’s office. While their claims have yet to be investigated, the office is scheduled for a legislative audit in June. However, the staff said the results of that audit wouldn’t be known until late next fall, possibly after the 2012 election cycle.

That’s why the staff contacted the Tribune last week, they said.

“If we continued to not say anything then we would be as guilty as he is,” Musgrave said. “He is stealing from the state by claiming time that he is not working, and if we remained silent we’d be helping to perpetuate that crime. We know this is going on, and we need to do something about it.”

According to Baker and Steab, in August they met with Schweitzer’s chief of staff, Vivian “Viv” Hammill, and Patti Keebler, the governor’s appointments coordinator.

According to detailed notes Baker and Steab took during their Aug. 9 meeting, they explained to Hammill and Keebler that Gallik was mis­reporting his state work time, specifically that Gallik was reporting time worked while he was out of state working on private-practice matters.

Steab and Baker told the governor’s staff that they estimated that half of that time Gallik reported to the state was spent doing private­practice work or handling his rental property business. They also said that the work the commissioner’s office had produced during Gallik’s term as commissioner was primarily the work of others.

Baker said she was especially concerned about the misreported time because she was the one who signed off on the office’s bi-weekly payroll verification form.

“I was not at all comfortable putting my signature on that form when I knew that the hours he was reporting were not accurate,” Baker said.

“At the time we thought they were very offended by what we were telling them,” Steab said.

Both Steab and Baker wrote in their notes that Hammill said Gallik’s behavior was inappropriate and the problems need to be “nipped in the bud.”

Gallik said he did have a conversation with Hammill after that meeting.

“(Hammill and Keebler) told me I couldn’t do any legal work from the political-practices office and that I had to do it from my law office, and I told them that I wasn’t,” Gallik said. “They said to try to work it out (with the staff). Try to make them understand. Try to get along.”

A request to interview Hammill, Keebler or Schweitzer was met with the following statement by Schweitzer’s communication’s director, Sarah Elliott: “When Governor Schweitzer appointed Dave Gallik he asked him to do more with less. In the first six months of being commissioner, Gallik, being himself an attorney, saved the office thousands on legal fees and decided at least 27 cases and motions. In comparison, Dennis Unsworth, the previous commissioner, decided only 13 cases in his first six months.”

Elliott went on to say that the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices is not managed or under the jurisdiction of the governor’s office.

“The governor is aware that, just like many Montanans, Gallik works two jobs,” Elliott stated. “The governor’s chief of staff did speak to him about how to properly account for his state time. Commissioner Gallik’s work product speaks for itself.”

The commissioner’s staff responded with a joint state­ment of their own: “We wish the governor would have checked with us regarding what Dave Gallik has done,” they said. “We apologize to the governor for having to give him the facts, but if he is naïve enough to believe (Gallik), and not check to see that what he is saying is true, then he will be embarrassed to find out Dave is taking credit for other people’s work.”

Gallik speculated that the reason his staff approached the Tribune with their com­plaints was to try to drive him out of office.

“They don’t like me, who I am or what I say. I’m not a pushover,” Gallik said. “I think this is an attempt to undermine my effective­ness.”

Baker, who has worked in the commissioner’s office since 2001, said Gallik’s accusations ring hollow.

“I’ve worked under four commissioners and they’ve all come from political backgrounds. I’ve adapted to all of them,” Baker said. “In order to build trust it takes time and you have to be engaged. Dave is never here.”

Senate confirms Christensen for federal bench

The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Kalispell Attorney Dana L. Christensen to be the next U.S. District Judge for Montana.

Christensen replaces U.S. District Judge Don Molloy, who began serving under "senior status" last summer.

Christensen is a civil litigator who has been a partner in the firm of Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings, & Axelberg, P.C. in Kalispell since 1996. 

Sen. Max Baucus submitted Christensen's name for the job to President Barack Obama back in February, and Obama officially nominated him in May.

The Senate on Monday confirmed Christensen and two other judicial nominees by unanimous consent. A fourth nominee was approved by roll call vote.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond and scholar on the judicial nomination process, said Christensen was a non-controversial choice for the bench as reflected by the unanimous Senate vote.

"He is so well qualified and non-controversial they just agreed without even a roll call vote," Tobias siad.

Tobias taught Christensen at the University of Montana School of Law in the late 1970s.

"He has a great temperament and is a very balanced person,” Tobias said. “He’s very patient.  He’s also well-practiced in federal and state courts as civil litigator for his entire career.”

Christensen received his J.D. in 1976 from the University of Montana School of Law and his B.A. in 1973 from Stanford University.

Judge’s order granting Barry Beach new trial

It remains a mystery how KURL 8 reporter Katie Ussin managed to get Judge E. Wayne Phillips’ order granting Barry Beach a new trial before even the Roosevelt County Clerk of Court got the signed order, but kudos to Katie for an impressive scoop.
I know many people have been waiting to read the order for themselves, so without further ado:

AP: DOT head resigns over daughter's job

Associated Press statehouse correspondent Matt Gouras is reporting Gov. Brian Schweitzer asked MDT Director Jim Lynch to resign after discovering that Lynch’s daughter was hired by the department.

From the AP article:

Schweitzer confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the abrupt resignation was over concerns that the hiring of Lynch's daughter, Emily Rask, could violate state nepotism laws. Rask holds a post in the agency's human resources department.

"I became aware that he had hired his daughter. I spoke to him about it and said, 'Jim, this is a clear violation of the nepotism law,'" Schweitzer said. "On that basis, I asked for his resignation. He had an interpretation that it is acceptable. I said, 'Look, this is not acceptable.'"

Lynch had a somewhat different explanation of events:

Lynch told the AP on Friday that he is the one who offered his resignation. He also said that both he and Schweitzer agreed the hiring did not amount to nepotism under the state law.

---

Lynch said he did not get personally involved in the hiring that took place about four years ago, and he said he made sure it was all done correctly.

---

Lynch said he was surprised the hiring became an issue after such a long time. He said he stayed out of the decision-making process, and said his daughter was hired on merit in a normal hiring process.

"When I heard that she was applying, I reviewed it with the legal department and human resources and they said it was acceptable for her to apply for the job," Lynch said. "Quite frankly, that was the end of it for me.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with what we did, we followed the process."

Liberal bloggers feuding over Tester’s record

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, once a darling of the Montana and national liberal blogosphere, appears to be having some trouble with the netroots as he embarks on a tough reelection campaign against Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg.

On issues ranging from wilderness to immigration reform to wolves the past several months have seen liberals’  irritation with Tester go from a slow simmer to a rolling boil in the blogosphere. 

National blogger Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos fame—one of Tester’s most ardent and influential netroots supporters in the 2006 election—slammed Tester in December for voting against the DREAM Act, a bill that would have created a path to citizenship for undocumented aliens who were brought to the United States as children. The bill was a top priority of Congressional Democrats last session, but Tester and fellow Montana Sen. Max Baucus joined three other Senate Democrats and in voting against the measure, which Tester referred to as “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

Wrote Kos:

“Not only will I do absolutely nothing to help his reelection bid, but I will take every opportunity I get to remind people that he is so morally bankrupt that he'll try to score political points off the backs of innocent kids who want to go to college or serve their country in the military.”

More recently a fiery debate erupted on the Missoula blog 4&20 blackbirds over a post by frequent anonymous liberal blogger JC. In the post JC criticizes Tester for breaking key campaign promises dealing with wildness protection and the use of legislative riders and accuses the senator of marginalizing liberal policy critics by calling them “extremists”:

During Jon’s first term in office he took two actions that have explicitly gone against his promises: 1) he has introduced his Logging Bill, which would release certain lands protected as wilderness under current statutes and management practices; and 2) he inserted the wolf delisting rider into the 2011 Budget Bill.

Both pieces of legislation have been heavily panned by those who supported [former progressive Democratic Senate candidate] Paul Richards in his withdrawal from the primary race, and endorsement of Tester–and by many, many others. And for that vocal criticism of Tester’s legislation, Tester labeled his former supporters “extremists.” I guess their position once upon a time wasn’t too extreme for him to shake hands with. And Jon invited “extremist” Paul onto the stage for a victory salute. But those supporters have not changed their principles, policies, or politics. Jon Tester has.

But Tester supporters were quick to fire back arguing, in part, that Tester never pretended to be the liberal the netroots hoped he’d be, and that criticism of Tester is only aiding Republican Denny Rehberg’s effort to unseat the one-term Democrat.

Wrote commenter Jake:

We must remember that the lines have been drawn and our primary focus has to be to get Jon re-elected. The alternative is not in any way acceptable. Intellectual squabbling is a waste of energy, especially as some have estimated, it could be a close race.

Helena educator and 0ne-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Don Pogreba (well, he filed for governor anyway), picked up the discussion on his blog Intelligent Discontent where he provided a lengthy rebuttal to JC’s post on 4&20 blackbirds. Pogreba says he’s troubled by the “developing trend in which progressives seem a lot more interested in tearing down a moderate-left Senator like Tester” than in attacking his opponent.

Writes Pogreba:

“The fact remains that Senator Tester is who he represented himself to be, not the person we progressives want him to be all the time. Montana’s not going to elect Bernie Sanders; it’s not going to elect Russ Feingold (hell, Wisconsin doesn’t even elect Russ Feingold anymore). What we can do is to support a Senator who looks out for the working class, did his best to create a Wilderness Bill that balanced environmental protection with political and economic reality in the state, and who has worked to protect small businesses and family farms here in Montana.”

The comments sections of each of the blog posts I reference above are well worth reading, if not lengthy. It’s too bad I don’t have the time or space to highlight them all here.

However, one interesting nugget stood out from comments on the 4&20 blackbirds piece.

Wilderness advocate Matthew Koehler, a staunch critic of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, was invited in November to become a front page author on the prominent Montana Democratic blog Left in the West.  He got the gig from Rob Kailey, a.k.a. Wulfgar!, who took over administrative duties of the blog after longtime administrator Jay “Touchstone” Stevens left in November, followed shortly thereafter by blog founder Matt Singer. 

In announcing Koehler’s elevation to front-page post status, Kailey wrote:

His issues may often be singular, and his statements may not always meet with approval. I don't care. He has a great deal to say of importance to the left.  That I do care about.

But according to  a comment Koehler left on the 4&20 blackbirds post , he apparently lost  front page posting privileges on LiTW after openly criticizing Tester for attaching a rider that removes grey wolves from the Endangered Species Act to a must-pass spending bill.

Some might argue all of this blog squabbling is much ado about nothing.

That may be true, but it’s hard to deny that the netroots played a integral role early on in Tester’s rise from obscure Montana dirt farmer to U.S. Senator…as Tester himself said in an August 2006 interview shortly after his surprising defeat of presumed front-runner John Morrison in the Democratic primary:

“I’ll tell you, I think [blogs] are critically important to this campaign…They’ve brought more people into the political process, and I have nothing but high praise for what they’ve been able to do and what they’ve given me.”

An overstatement? Maybe.

But During the 2006 Senate campaign Act Blue donors raised $342,823 from over 10,000 individual online contributions for Tester’s campaign, mostly from blogs. ActBlue donations to Tester’s 2006 campaign outnumbered donations from any single PAC, according to OpenSecrets.org.

There’s no question that an incumbent Senator—in what is likely to be one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the country—will rely less on netroots  enthusiasm and activism as he will on the the traditional party resources.

What remains to be seen is whether Tester—a candidate lefty bloggers almost universally fawned over in 2006—will electorally suffer from the divisions flaring up among what was once his most active and vocal base.

Montana ranks third in per capita stimulus spending

Montana has taken in more federal economic stimulus dollars than all but two other states, according to data compiled by the investigative website Pro Publica.

Montana raked in $1,744 of recovery dollars for every citizen. That's 33 percent higher than the national average of $1,170 per capita.

Only Alaska, at $3,145, and South Dakota, at $1,781, received more dollars per resident from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act than Montana.

According to Pro Publica, Montana received $1,687,028,601 in stimulus funds.

Residents of sparsely populated Carter County, in the southeastern corner of the state, benefitted the most from federal recovery funds. That county, which has a population of about 1,230 and an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent in 2009, received $11,064,503, or $8,966 per capita. The vast majority of those funds, $10.9 million, were allocated to paving State Secondary Highway 323 between Ekalaka and Alzada.

Lewis and Clark County, with a population of approximately 61,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent in 2009, received the most money of any county in the state and the second highest per capital dollar amount, at $7,267. The $442,754,721 that county received accounted for more than a quarter of all stimulus funding received by the state, according to Pro Publica's figures.

The reason so many recovery dollars flowed through Lewis and Clark County is because it is home to the state's capital, where most state agencies are headquartered.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services received $197,518,886 for items such as Medicaid payments, low-income childcare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, weatherization assistance and foster care. The Department of Environmental Quality took in $70,017,920 for things such as energy conservation programs, clean drinking water programs and environmental cleanups. The Department of Labor and Industry took in $55,815,027, mostly for unemployment insurance benefits.

Cascade County was ranked 21st in the state for per capita stimulus spending at $1,203. The federal government pumped $98,660,809 in recovery grants and loans into that county.

The bulk of that money was funded through the Army and Air Force.

The Army contracted San Diego, Calif.-based Sunstar LLC to perform $23,861,200 worth of repairs to foundations on 179 Minuteman Village houses on Malmstrom Air Force Base. Two other contractors received $165,435 for their part in the reconstruction project.

The Air Force spent another $19,047,332 on other repairs and renovations at the base.

Garfield County, in east-central Montana, received the least amount of federal recovery dollars in the state, at $27,132, or $23 per capita. All of that money went to the Jordon School District to improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet state academic achievement standards.

A spokesman for Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, said it's no surprise Montana is high on the list of per capita stimulus spending, given the unique geography of the state.

"In rural states like Montana, we have more roads that need repaired, longer distances to deliver drinking water, a vast border to secure and a lot of small communities whose physical infrastructure is falling apart," Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy said. "Jon supported the Recovery Act because it's creating jobs rebuilding rural America and Montana's economy."

Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican who voted against the act, said the success of the stimulus shouldn't be measured by how fast it spends borrowed money, but by the number of jobs it creates.

"Since the so-called stimulus passed, unemployment has swelled to nearly 10 percent and millions of American jobs have been destroyed. And while the unemployment rate in Montana continues to rise, the only sector that's seen steady job creation is the government," Rehberg wrote in an e-mail. "By any measure, this stimulus has not done what it was meant to do and has put America further in debt."

Protests spew over Montana-Gulf pipeline plan

As I wrote about in USA Today, Environmental groups and landowners, upset by last month's oil spill in Michigan, are urging the Obama administration to deny a proposal for an oil pipeline that would go from the Montana-Canada border to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Alberta-based TransCanada's proposed 1,661-mile Keystone XL pipeline would link up with its existing 2,151-mile Keystone pipeline, which began operations in June, and go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The Keystone XL would cross dozens of rivers and streams from Montana to Texas, including the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, and the the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast shallow underground water table that's a major source of water for much of the High Plains region.

Opponents say last month's spill underscored the dangers of the United States' reliance on fossil fuels. A pipeline ruptured on July 25 and spilled nearly a million gallons of crude oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates.

Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defense Council opposed the Keystone XL project even before the Michigan spill, but the incident has increased scrutiny and elevated concerns.

Last week representatives from some of the nation's leading environmental groups wrote a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging him refuse to issue a permit to TransCanada:

"Last week’s Enbridge oil pipeline spill of more than 1 million gallons into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan is the latest of more than 2,500 significant pipeline incidents that have occurred in United States over the last decade, which have resulted in 161 fatalities and 576 injuries. Enbridge’s operations alone were responsible for over 600 spills that released more than 5 million gallons of oil into the environment. This history of pipeline spills taken alongside the BP Gulf oil spill catastrophe, clearly demonstrate the need for additional government oversight and safety measures when it comes to our oil extraction and transportation."

***

"Recognizing DOT’s role as a consulting agency on TransCanada’s presidential permit application to the State Department for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project – the next major tar sands oil pipeline under consideration – we urge DOT to recommend that the pipeline not be built."

Groups opposing the expanded pipeline have also popped up on Facebook. Last week, protesters demonstrated outside Chicago's Palmer House Hilton hotel, where President Obama was attending a Democratic fundraiser, and hung a banner over Obama's Lake Shore Drive route that read, "Pres. Obama: Stop the Keystone Pipeline, Stop the Tar Sands."

"This disastrous oil spill in Michigan is yet another wake-up call to the tragic impacts of our oil dependence," says Alex Moore of the environmental group Friends of the Earth. “Coming on the heels of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this spill reinforces the need for us to build a clean energy economy, not more pipelines.”

TransCanada's vice president of Keystone Pipelines, Robert Jones, says the company is committed to safety and will use state-of-the-art leak-detection systems with automatic shut-off valves. Emergency response plans, he says, are already in place if a leak were to occur.

"We could react to that leak automatically," Jones says.

Before TransCanada can begin construction, it must get approval from several federal agencies, including the State Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management.

Last month, the State Department added 90 days to the review process.

TransCanada also needs permits from Montana and South Dakota.

Utility officials in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas say their states don't require permits for interstate oil pipelines. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission approved the project in March. Tom Ring of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality says a decision could come this fall.

TransCanada hopes to begin construction early next year and complete the project by early 2013, spokesman Terry Cunha says.

Once completed, the combined Keystone system would have the capacity to deliver 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day to U.S. refineries, including 500,000 barrels from the new portion, which is expected to cost $7 billion, Cunha says.

The proposed pipeline would run through part of Agnes Reeves' ranch in eastern Montana. Her son, Tom Reeves, says the pipeline spill in Michigan has exacerbated his family's concerns.

“The Michigan spill shows that pipeline spills can and do happen,” Reeves said. “That it was a terrible environmental disaster, and I certainly would not want such a disaster to occur in Montana.”

Last week TransCanada withdrew its application for a special permit that would have allowed the company to pump oil through the pipeline at higher-than-normal pressures. Critics had blasted the waiver application as a profit-boosting measure that would have increased the risk of a catastrophic pipeline failure.

TransCanada officials dismissed that accusation, saying the waiver request was based pipeline standards used in Canada.

Jones, said if U.S. demand for Canadian crude oil requires the company to expand its pipeline system in the future, then the company would consider re-applying for a safety waiver in the future.

“I think it would be speculation for us right now to determine when that would happen,” Jones said.

Patients sue over Great Falls' medical marijuana ban

(UPDATE: This post now contains new info, links and a copy of the complaint.)

Three medical marijuana patients are suing the City of Great Falls over the city’s recent ban on medical marijuana caregivers.

According to a lawsuit (which you can download here) filed Tuesday in Cascade County District Court, Great Falls medical marijuana patients Algy Thain, David Sears and Kraig Jackson say the city commission’s June 1 decision to ban any land use for the purposes of medical marijuana unlawfully prohibits them from growing their own medical marijuana and causes “substantial hardship” by making it difficult to obtain the drug.

Under the state’s medical marijuana law patients can grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use and name a caregiver who can grow an additional six plants for the patient.

The plaintiffs argue that that the City of Great Falls is “attempting to interfere with the ability of qualifying patients to receive their legal medication.” The lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing the new ordinance banning medical marijuana within its borders.

“The main argument is that the local city government is a vassal of the state and has a duty to enforce state laws, not federal,” said Carl Jensen, the Great Falls attorney representing the three plaintiffs in the case. “The (city commission) has overreached its authority, inhibiting my clients’ access to their medication.”

The ban is set to go into effect July 1.

A group called Montanans for Responsible Legislation said Tuesday’s lawsuit is the “first of many” to be filed in the state.

“Our most ill, the very people this law intends to protect, can no longer wait for equitable treatment and justice,” Douglas Chyatte, of Montanans for Responsible Legislation, said Wednesday.

According to the complaint, Thain and Sears suffer from HIV and Jackson suffers from joint degeneration that inhibits his mobility.

Great Falls City Attorney James Santoro was out of the state Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. City Manager Greg Doyon, who said city officials had not yet been served with the lawsuit, declined to comment.

The Montana Medical Marijuana Act, which voters overwhelmingly passed through a 2004 ballot initiative, has become one of the hottest issues facing lawmakers as hundreds of new patients sign up each month. The state has seen a fivefold increase in new medical marijuana cardholders in the past year. The number of registered patients now exceeds 17,000.

As a result of the boom in medical marijuana card holders, municipalities across the state have instituted bans or moratoriums on medical marijuana caregiver shops. Lawmakers are considering ways to reform the law in the next legislative session. State Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, has proposed an outright repeal of the law that allows chronically ill patients to use marijuana.

Groups on both sides of the issue agree that the current law is overly broad and needs to be modified, but Montanans for Responsible Legislation said patients should not be forced to forgo medical marijuana in the meantime.

“While it is not our intent to create an acrimonious or adversarial relationship with the elected officials of Great Falls, we realize many of our ill do not have the luxury of waiting for the wheels of the bureaucracy to churn slowly towards a solution,” Chyatte said.

Obama’s top targeter: “I’m very bullish on Montana” in 2012

Ken Strasma, founder of the microtargeting firm Strategic Telemetry, is the Democrats’ answer to Karl Rove. Strasma and his company provide microtargeting, data analysis, strategic consulting and other services to Democratic candidates.

Basically, Strasma uses a combination of telephone polling and marketing data to develop campaign messages that resonate with swing voters. Strasma was Barack Obama’s national targeting director and played a key role in Obama's success in 2008.

Strasma told Tom Schaller in an interview for FiveThirtyEight.com that Montana is his “number one pick to flip in 2012.”

“I'm very bullish on Montana. It is currently my number one pick to flip in 2012. Energy, land-management and environmental issues are key in Montana and the Dakotas. If, after four years, voters there see that Obama’s policies aren’t the caricatures that Republicans have claimed, we should do quite well.”

Some readers over at FiveThirdyEight weren’t buying Strasma’s analysis. Many readers said Missouri has a much better chance to flip for Obama 2012 than Montana. McCain won Missouri by the thinnest of margins: 49.4 percent to Obama’s 49.3 percent. Montana was a close race, with McCain garnering 49.7 percent and Obama picking up 47.2 percent, but it was a difference of 2.5 percent. Missouri was less than two tenths of a percent.

I found this analysis, by commenter e3323 particularly entertaining:

“…I can not imagine a realistic 2012 scenario where MONTANA makes the difference between winning and losing the whole election.

Like...I cant imagine being up at 2:30AM on November 7th 2012, watching CNN and looking at the magic map with every state in red or blue but Montana and hearing Wolf Blitzer say ‘We still can not make a projection for Montana but with 89 percent of the vote in President Obama trails Newt Gingrich by 1,283 votes, however *zooms in on map* Deer Lodge County, an obama stronghold with a high Native American population, only 76 percent of the vote counted, If these numbers hold up Obama could potentially catch up to Gingrich and win the state and thus the election. Again nether candidate has reached the magic number of 270 but the winner in Montana will be the winner of the election.’”

No i'm sorry...I cant imagine THAT."

Wouldn’t that be something?

e3323 probably has a point. After all, Montana has only three electoral votes to Missouri’s 11. Seems to me the Obama campaign would go after those two tenths of a percent and 11 electoral votes in Missouri before they’d make a hard run at Montana’s 3 electoral votes.

That said, we saw Obama in Montana, what?…three times during last year's campaing? Is his visit to Bozeman next week a sign that he is already taking aim at Montana for 2012? After all, midterm elections are only 452 days away and after that the 2012 presidential race begins.

I wonder if the days of presidential candidates flying over Montana on their way to bigger and better destinations are over. If Obama's 50-state strategy pays off again in 2012, could we be entering an era in which Montana gets to play ball in every presidential election? And what does that mean for Montana in the long run? Discuss...

Montana one of two states to avoid making budget cuts

Stateline.org, a great resource for state-by-state analysis of trends, policies, economics, etc., has a troubling article on it's Web site about how plunging revenues are hitting states hard.

According to Stephen C. Fehr’s report, 13 states are now facing revenue shortfalls after adopting their budgets.

In recent days, officials in Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Virginia have reported that declines in sales, income and business tax receipts will knock their budgets out of balance. Georgia and Utah officials are awaiting new revenue estimates any day, but say they could be dealing with budget gaps.

So far Montana has avoided the budget knife since the Legislature adjourned on April 28. What happens if revenues fall below budget estimates?

May and June are the last two months of the 2009 fiscal year for most states, so officials will have to cover those new gaps as well as the shortfalls they are already projecting for the 2010 fiscal year that began July 1. Governors can do that through executive orders or legislatures can take action when they next meet. The solution usually is some combination of spending cuts, tax increases or dipping into reserves.

Stimulus Watch: "ERROR"

Gov. Brian Schweitzer unveiled the new Montana recovery Web site on Wednesday.

Let's just say it didn't exactly go off without a hitch. When I logged on to the Web site...well, the above screen shot should give you the picture.

I know, I know. The site is new and I'm sure the governor's staff are working furiously to work out the bugs, so let's cut them some slack.

However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it a bit amusing. Given the level of difficulty and complexity of trying to track the state's $1 billion+ in federal economic stimulus dollars, it's at least somewhat ironic that when I logged on to the state's stimulus tracking Web site, I found this message:

The server at testportal.msl.mt.gov is taking too long to respond.

In the interest of fairness, here's what Schweitzer says the new Web site will provide once it's up and running. From today's press release:

The updated website, www.recovery.mt.gov, includes an interactive county map that allows users to click on their county for a breakdown of funding into eight categories and a state overview. All monthly agency reports are available on-line.

“We are going to track every dollar,” said Schweitzer. “Every time you see a recovery sign it means we are putting Montanans to work reinvesting in our economy, improving efficiency, increasing public safety, and making a cleaner, healthier Montana.”

The updated website also incorporates an energy home improvement tax calculator. Under the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and state law homeowners are eligible for a $1,500 federal tax credit and a $500 state tax credit for home energy improvements.

“This is a great way for homeowners to see how much tax credits they can receive for home energy conservation improvements,” said Schweitzer. “It’s a win-win for homeowners – you receive a tax credit and see long-term saving in your energy costs.”

"We really can't say we're the Saudi Arabia of coal anymore."

That’s the message from Brenda Pierce, head of the U.S. Geological Survey team that found that the U.S. coal reserves are probably about half of what they were previously thought to be.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer likes to use that phrase when talking about Montana's vast coal reserves, such as in this 2007 Time magazine piece:

"Now here's how Montana is going to save the world," [Schweitzer] proclaimed at one point. "We are the Saudi Arabia of coal," he said...

But is that characterization of Montana's--and the nation's--coal reserves accurate? Not according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal (you have to be a subscriber to read the full article).

Basically, here’s the gist:

George Warholic calculates America's vast coal reserves the same way his predecessors have for decades: He looks up the prior year's coal-reserve estimate, subtracts the year's nationwide production and arrives at a new official tally.

Coal provides nearly one-quarter of the total energy consumed in the U.S., and by Mr. Warholic's estimate, the country has enough in the ground to last about 240 years. A belief in this nearly boundless supply has led officials to dub the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of Coal."

But the estimate, recent findings show, may be wildly overconfident.

While there is almost certainly as much coal in the ground as Mr. Warholic's Energy Information Administration believes, relatively little of it can be profitably extracted. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey completed an extensive analysis of Wyoming's Gillette coal field, the nation's largest and most productive, and determined that less than 6% of the coal in its biggest beds could be mined profitably, even at prices higher than today's.

"We really can't say we're the Saudi Arabia of coal anymore," says Brenda Pierce, head of the USGS team that conducted the study.

According to scientists, carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants is the leading contributor to global climate change. (A sobering note on that point: A new study by the USGS found Antarctica’s ice shelves are disappearing faster than previously thought.) That’s why lawmakers in Washington are busy working on new federal carbon legislation. Congress is likely to pass cap and trade legislation in the next year or so, and that in turn is likely to increase the cost of coal production and consumption even more.

Coal’s future seems to be getting darker by the day.

On the upside, as coal becomes more expensive to burn, Montana could end up faring better than other coal-producing states because we have another abundant source of energy in Big Sky Country: wind.

According to National Wind, “America's leading large-scale community wind project developer,” over two thirds of Montana has excellent wind resources for the development of utility scale wind projects.

Perhaps in the future Montana will be dubbed "the Saudi Arabia of wind."Oooh....I should trademark that. Shoot. It looks like T. Boone Pickens already beat me to the punch.