Has anyone else noticed a pattern in the Great Falls Tribune’s education beat? Do you recall its blatantly inaccurate coverage a couple weeks ago? In an article about this Tuesday night’s GFPS budget meeting, Trib reporter Sarah Dettmer pointed to rising K-8 enrollment, but less high school students in the district this year: According to the final 2016-2017 school…
There’s comedy, there’s high comedy, and then there’s the Montana Democratic Party. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s Troy Carter has a story up that Montana Democrats hope will quietly just… go away. Of course, they have no one to blame but themselves: Montana Democrats have announced that they’re bringing in a New Jersey politician for their keynote…
Have you seen the City of Great Falls’ new website? It’s very well done, and is for the most part a user-friendly hub of relevant information. In addition to the City directory and meeting minutes, there is also the City Manager’s Weekly Packet. While not strictly released on a weekly basis, the latest installment contains some awfully interesting items,…
Rep. Adam Hertz is the man. He’s young, he’s smart, and he’s getting things done in Helena. (Two of his bills, HB 297 and HB 300, were passed out of committee unanimously.) Before entering the Legislature, Hertz served a term on the Missoula City Council, where he opposed Missoula’s unconstitutional gun ordinance. As a fiscal conservative, he found himself…
Three School Board seats are up for grabs in this year’s Great Falls school election, set for May 2, 2017. The election will be held by mail. Thus far, according to the Commissioner of Political Practices’ website, incumbents Jan Cahill (Board Chairman) and Don Ryan have filed for re-election. Trustee Jason Brantley is also up…
How spineless. Bozeman will not become a sanctuary city. This evening, the Bozeman City Commission instead passed a mayoral proclamation declaring Bozeman a “safe, welcoming, and inclusive community,” to the chagrin of a handful of residents. The proclamation reads: WHEREAS, for more than twenty years the City of Bozeman has passed Resolutions declaring itself to be a…
On Friday, the Great Falls Police Department issued a media release responding to a Tribune story about the Great Falls Rescue Mission. You can read the Tribune’s response to the GFPD release here. Can anyone recall the GFPD ever scolding local media like this? The fact that our (excellent) police department felt compelled to make any kind of statement says a…
The City of Great Falls delivered a hat trick of ordinances last night, with the passage of Ordinances 3148, 3149, and 3153 — all of which were opposed by Commission-goers but adopted unanimously by the Commissioners. This before Assistant City Attorney Joe Cik at one point amusingly referred to himself as “some sort of medieval person on an epic quest” to clean…
Sarah Dettmer, the Great Falls Tribune’s education reporter, seems to have it out for Elsie Arntzen. Yesterday, Dettmer published a heavily self-referential, self-congratulatory article to explain away some of the blowback from her hit job on the freshly-elected Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Republican Elsie Arntzen. Dettmer writes: Then, Great Falls Public Schools Superintendent Tammy Lacey stood up to…
After our reporting (and thanks to our tipsters!), KRTV ran a story about Brett Doney’s gloomy review of the Great Falls job market. Apparently, the state of Montana disagrees with Doney: But the Montana Department of Labor says the GFDA report is inconsistent with state numbers. Chief Economist Barbara Wagner says there were roughly 300 jobs…