Latest
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Close Elections And Cheating Potentials
I remember the 2000 elections – Bush won Florida, and the election, by 537 votes out of a bit over 6 million ballots cast. Admitted, Bush is Republican – but the percentage needed for chicanery is pretty small – his margin was less than a hundredth of a percentage point. (I still remember the Clinton impeachment – at that point, a handful of democrats voting to convict Bill would have given the presidency to Al Gore – and I suspect the incumbent’s advantage would have sent Bush home to Texas instead of the White House. You really do need to…
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The House just passed its version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act with Section 219 still in it. That section creates the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” It orders the Secretary of Defense to designate an executive agent inside the Pentagon whose job is to expand and speed up bilateral work on defense…
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To everyone visiting the Tobacco Valley this summer: We’re glad you came to experience one of the most beautiful places in Montana. But being a visitor doesn’t exempt you from respecting our lakes, our families, or our laws. These are not your personal race tracks. Montana law requires boats on lakes in the Western Fishing…
local
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We started the Mountain Ear (both times) because we wanted better coverage of local news. There are so many board meetings, and all of them are important. The Tobacco Valley News faces the same problem we do- not enough people and too many meetings, and their focus is on a larger area. So we started…
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An emergency meeting of the Trego school board was called again on May 4 at 4 PM to update the community on the methamphetamine contamination of the school grounds.. Although the meeting was poorly noticed, there were nearly 40 community members in attendance, these included parents, teachers, former students and teachers and interested community members.…
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Earlier this week, a meeting was held to formalize the existing long-term relationship between the TFS Community Hall and the TFS Fire Department. Tables were set to form a circle, and the meeting began with introductions. It was a joint meeting meant to prevent future problems, without any reason to expect them. The issue: an…
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An emergency school board meeting was held at the TFS Community Hall, Saturday at noon (which coincidentally is the time the Rendezvous Parade in Eureka began). The board acknowledged that they failed to provide adequate (48 hours notice) on the meeting, and cited the requisite MCA code allowing it in the event of an unforseen…
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When I went to get some repair work done, the person I was consulting advised fixing the structural issues and then putting the same ancient dilapidated siding back on the building. The rational? Property taxes. Last summer, we joked about how much the nice flowers my mother had on their porch raised their taxes. They…
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I spent most of a year away from the school after I finished my term. I attended a couple of board meetings because I was asked – on one hand, there was, at the least, the appearance of an unlawful board meeting . . . unlawful because it appeared to violate Montana’s open meeting law.…
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Historically, independent voters, and voters for minor third parties, do not get a large percentage of votes. Often, they’re considered “spoiler” candidates, who lose the election for someone by dra4wing critical support away during a close race. Or their thought of as simply “protest candidates” with no chance of winning. In Montana, for the presidential…
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Not many years ago, if you were faced with a cluster of unacceptable clowns on your ballot, you could write a name in and cast a protest vote. Hell, I guess you still can – the thing is, your write-in protest vote won’t be counted or reported. With the elimination of subsection 7 last year,…