________________________________________________________________________ In “Pretty Little Lies: Part One” we were looking at how Great Falls city commissioner Tracy Houck’s recent comments on a local Facebook post provide “an example of how public officials and politicians skew and massage facts to make themselves look better or avoid accountability.” Continuing now with Houck’s “clarification” (You can see…
In an article titled “What city is hit hardest by extreme poverty in your state?”, written by Evan Comen and Samuel Stebbins of 24/7 Wall Street for USA Today and published July 13, 2018 in the Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls gets the dubious distinction of being the hardest hit by extreme poverty in Montana. Here…
________________________________________________________________________ I happened to be reading a Facebook comment thread the other day in which quite a few Great Fallsians were weighing in on what they’d like to see in our town. One of the comments, from Great Falls city commissioner Tracy Houck, provides an example of how public officials and politicians skew and…
________________________________________________________________________ Yesterday a couple of sentences from an article by Phil Faccenda in E-City Beat caught my eye (“City Of Great Falls Caves To School District”): “One has to understand the ‘special’ relationship between the City Commission and the Great Falls Public School District. In many respects, I think the school district has more…
A Facebook friend of mine recently sent me this screenshot of a comment thread he was involved in just a couple of days ago. The Trump hater in this thread is also a Great Falls resident. The last comment in the thread is particularly troubling. It appears it’s now just commonplace to label our fellow…
I am very optimistic about the future of Great Falls, in part because so many citizens are starting to pay more attention to local public affairs and officials. Recently someone sent me the minutes from a May 25, 2010 Great Falls Public Schools Facilities Task Force Focus Group meeting at which then and current Great…
Last week I took a trip to Bozeman, MT and spent a couple of days in the area. Wow, talk about an eye-opening experience! I hadn’t been there in a good many years and I assumed it was pretty much the same Bozeman I knew from back in the day and have since heard about:…
As I have chatted with folks around Great Falls over the past two weeks since the May 8th mail-in school district levy and Park District 1 election, folks have expressed some surprise that the school levy failed while the Park District proposal passed. I’ve wondered the same thing myself because the school levy was a…
A local good old boys and gals club does exist in good ol’ Great Falls, and it has real impact on our community. Despite those who yell that I am just being negative, the facts tell the story. Crony capitalism exists to some extent everywhere and at every level, including right here in Great Falls….
There’s an interesting development in the Cascade County Sheriffs race between Sheriff Bob Edwards and one of his opponents in the June 5 Democratic primary. It first came to my attention when I saw that someone had shared Edwards’ May 4th ‘Retain Sheriff Edwards’ Facebook post following the KRTV sheriff candidates debate. In the post…