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NEW: We map where people in #Montana prisons come from, going (where possible) down to the neighborhood level. This is the 12th installment in our series of reports about the geography of mass incarceration. #MTNews #MTPol /1
ICYMI, we also have reports about:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Maryland
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Washington

See them here: prisonpolicy.org/origin/
Our reports include download-able data tables of incarceration data by city, county, zip code, Census tract, state legislative district, and more.

The reports give researchers the data they need to study how incarceration tracks with other indicators of community health.
Read 6 tweets
If you’re trying to wrap your head around the connection between Eugene Yu, Konnech, and Montana, please check out my appearance on the local Fighting Back With Faith podcast from Monday #mtnews #mtpol rumble.com/v1nipos-episod…
The Montana Electronic Absentee System (EAS) is an online voting portal which allows for online voter registration, ballot marking and submission. It is used by Uniformed and Overseas Citizens to allow them to vote remotely in elections #mtpol #mtnews ImageImage
The software was developed by Konnech for the State of Montana through a Department of Defense grant award for “research and development for online wizard providing absentee voting capability for the State of Montana." #mtpol #mtnews usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD… ImageImageImageImage
Read 14 tweets
Yesterday @GovGianforte made a big splash in the news by asking the MT Supreme Court to reconsider its privacy protections in light of the Dobbs decision. The Governor’s attorneys, in filing this brief, stampede over the MT Rules of Appellate Procedure. A thread. #mtpol 1/
Amicus briefs are controlled by M. R. App. P. 12(7). “A brief of an amicus curiae may be filed only upon invitation or leave of the supreme court granted on motion.” Motions must provide a date when the amicus brief can be filed. 2/
Amicus briefs are almost always filed while a case is being briefed, that is, when the lawyers are making their legal arguments, but before the Court starts deliberating. Filing motions after a case has been fully briefed is something pro se litigants do, not State attorneys. 3/
Read 14 tweets
Montanans waking up to the news about Kansas:

State government control of your reproductive health care is *also* on the ballot here in November.

In at least three separate ways, actually. 🧵

#mtpol #mtnews
First: if Rs pick up two seats in the legislature, they'd have a supermajority.

A supermajority can place initiatives on the ballot to directly amend our Constitution and exclude abortion care from the right to privacy. They could even call a new constitutional convention.
Second: our Supreme Court affirmed in 1999 (Armstrong) that Montana's constitutional right to privacy includes abortion care.

PSC chair Jim Brown is running against current justice Ingrid Gustafson for the Supreme Court, and if elected would choose not to uphold that precedent.
Read 9 tweets
I might’ve been on to something here 😆
Since the Zinke’s Whitefish BnB isn’t designated as their primary residence that means they would have qualified for my rich out of stater’s second home property tax (0.25%) that would have cut taxes for middle class actual Montanans.

Sorry for trying to tax you, Ryan ;) #mtpol
Read 4 tweets
Excited to speak to some Missoula voters at tonight’s forum! #mtpol

You can check it out on MCAT here: mcat.org/watch/local-li… Image
Also, this new Missoula Public Library still amazes me. We are all so lucky for this public space.
My parents’ activism on behalf of our community to ensure that everyone had a right to an abortion colored my path to public service. I will pick up that fight in Congress for Montana.
Read 18 tweets
Stopped by the place that full-time Californian Ryan Zinke is claiming as his residence so he can run for Congress in Montana...and it’s a hotel.

The king of the grift & most corrupt politician of my lifetime #mtpol #mtnews #mt01
How in the world does someone enter politics with $2 million net worth and leave it with $36 million?

Corruption of course. Zinke made almost $1 million alone this year in consulting fees to the oil, gas, and mining industries.
Hope you’re enjoying your tan over there in Santa Barbara, Ryan!

Us full-time Montanans really appreciate out of state millionaires trying to divide our communities and buy our political offices :) #mtpol
Read 9 tweets
Wild thing happening in Montana:

MT GOP is refusing to allow retention bonuses to be sent to Montana nurses and instead only wants them sent to out of state recruits.

Why? A blatant attempt to harm union workers & pay to bus in new voters who are anti-vax & anti-mask.
MT GOP policies have been consistently harming Montana’s frontline healthcare workers.

From prohibiting hospitals from enacting vaccine requirements to preventing communities to enforce mask usage to using the highway patrol to intimidate hospital’s medical decisions...
The goal has been clear: divide our communities and turn them against public health workers - all for a zealot political ideology.

This has led to massive amounts of healthcare staff exodus from the profession and the state.
Read 8 tweets
Today, MT House Dems & @MTSenateDems tried again to send retention bonuses to MT's frontline health care workers. Once again, Republicans blocked this common-sense proposal. #priorities #mtleg #mtpol
"If we fail to invest resources in keeping the health care workers we have here in Montana, we are going to lose them and further exacerbate our health care workforce shortage,” said @marycaferro.
“Republicans are so focused on out-of-state workers that they are leaving Montana workers--and the communities they serve--hanging out to dry.”
Read 3 tweets
We owe a big thanks to @SenatorTester for a transformative investment in our nation’s infrastructure - w/ perhaps no bigger winner than Montana 👏 #mtpol
Politics isn’t pretty - but we got there. And now that this bill is passed it deserves to be viewed in it’s own light...

The fact is that this is a big win for the American people.
The other fact is: both @SteveDaines and @RepRosendale voted against this big win for Montanans.

They consistently put themselves (and their corrupt donors) ahead of the people of this state. Shame on them. #mtpol #mtnews

missoulacurrent.com/government/202…
Read 7 tweets
Idk, Dave...I’ve flipped a Trump +11 district in Western MT before. +7 sounds winnable to me. But I guess I’m a not your traditional Democrat #mtpol
Western Montanans have a deep sense of identity. This is my home. These are my neighbors.

And they’re tired of corrupt politicians like Ryan Zinke that fly in from their California homes when the weather’s nice. #mtpol
We used to vote for the person - not the Party here. Problem is that both parties have let us down with their corruption and false promises.

It’s the politicians that have failed us. But I still believe in Western Montana and it’s people. #mtpol
Read 12 tweets
#BREAKING: @umontana @umontanalaw dean Paul Kirgis has resigned.
Here's a statement from Kirgis:
Story TK from @zoe_buchli and I
#mtnews #mtedu
More information from @umontana regarding the transition including a statement from @umtpresident @SethBodnar:
Read 9 tweets
PSA: #mtleg literally made it against the law for local communities to do anything about COVID. If we pass a local mask mandate the state will strip our city's public funding and/or sue. It's an absolute nightmare. The only person who can take action right now is the governor.
City Councils aren't discussing mask mandates for this reason—not because we don't care. Our cities can't function (water, sewer, roads, transit) without state $$, which was the whole point of writing this threat into law. #mtnews #mtpol
"Just do it anyway, let the state sue you!" The loser there is you the taxpayer who then pays for the lawsuit on BOTH sides. And these aren't cheap lawsuits—they drag on for years. In the meantime the state has dozens of ways to punitively chop Billings' funding. #mtpol
Read 12 tweets
I've got a story to tell you about Montana local government, which is that for SOME REASON a significant number of people believe cities should be able to operate on the same budget year after year, while simultaneously calling on government to act more like a business. /1
Please tell me which businesses freeze employee salaries for years on end. Which businesses don’t have to deal with inflation? Businesses regularly raise prices to cover inflation, but when government does the same we're vilified as politicians out to "raise people's taxes." /2
Yes, cities/towns have to incrementally raise taxes. OF COURSE WE DO. Taxes are the price tag of living in civilization and year to year sewer pipes cost more, as do street lights, MET buses, police salaries, city engineers, and fire apparatus (trucks). /3
Read 10 tweets
Our billionaire governor is citing a supposed worker shortage as the reason to pull the right out from under people & get rid of extra UI benefits & he is SO FULL of bullshit.
#mtpol
The unemployment rate here is 3.8%, close to half of the US unemployment rate.

We. Are. Working. Some of us more than 1 job.

We DO have a worker shortage but it has NOTHING to do with the GOP narrative that says no one wants to work.
There's no housing. The median House price in various MT cities (ie, where jobs are):
Bozeman: $615k
Missoula: $419k+
Kalispell: $390k+
Billings: $359k
Read 10 tweets
.@GovGianforte violated hunting regulations when he trapped and killed a Yellowstone-collared wolf near the park boundary last month. Our story here: boisestatepublicradio.org/post/montana-g… #mtnews #mtpol
It's legal to kill wolves when they wander outside the park's boundaries. @GovGianforte had the necessary licenses but he failed to take a required wolf trapping certification course before he trapped and shot an adult, black wolf known as "1155."
He was given a written warning by @MontanaFWP and enrolled in the online class 3/24. He was allowed to keep the animal's skull and hide. But @Backcountry_H_A 's John Sullivan says the governor should've known better. "It's difficult to fathom accidentally not taking that class."
Read 4 tweets
.@SteveDaines helped get Isaac Sturgeon home from Morocco at the start of the pandemic. #mtnews #mtpol
This is Sturgeon's photo (upper right) from the FBI bulletin looking for information. #mtnews
Read 6 tweets
NEW: @SteveDaines staff says he is safe and all staff at the Capitol are safe.

#mtnews #mtpol
Spox for @SenatorTester says he is safe at the moment. #mtnews #mtpol
Tester staff safe also.
Read 4 tweets
Happening now: @VP calls joint session of Congress to order.
No objections for Alabama or Alaska... but Arizona is next.
Objection for Arizona being recorded "on the ground they were not under all of the known circumstances regularly given."
Read 14 tweets
Starting momentarily: press briefing with @GregForMontana one week before he's inaugurated. Follow this thread for updates. #mtnews #mtpol
.@GregForMontana says they're prepping for their move into the governor's residence in Helena. One week from today, he will be sworn in. #mtnews #mtpol
.@GregForMontana says they are inviting all Montanans to be part of a virtual swearing in ceremony, which will be live streamed on Facebook. He says rather than invest taxpayer dollars in inauguration related activities, they're going to get straight to work. #mtnews #mtpol
Read 20 tweets
Collapse of government authority, factionalism within regulatory agencies, breakdown of community trust, refusal of one branch of government to recognize another, armed vigilantes, mass infection, and resulting brain drain - there is full-on state failure out here in the West.
“Third world” is problematic. “Banana republic” is offensive. This is just state collapse, American-style. The Wyoming govt got press for cutting off svcs to their small towns, but my county is bookended by two places that have it worse: the Flathead and Bitterroot Valleys.
About 150k people live between these two beautiful places. They are represented by a health board overtaken by Bundy family acolytes, a county commission too cowardly or inept to stop them, a County Attorney who denies the Executive branch’s authority,
buzzfeednews.com/article/annehe…
Read 22 tweets
Maybe @helenaironline, as the paper of record for a state that gave the world Richard Spencer, could stop printing letters that minimize the Holocaust. #mtpol
Bu...bu...but....both sides tho!
All viewpoints are equally valid!
Read 7 tweets
So what is Direct Primary Care? Dr. Harrop from Polson describes it like this: "at it’s very basic level, DPC is an agreement between you and your doctor. I work for you, not your insurance company.”

Here's a #mtpol #mtleg thread on the benefits of DPC, in Doctor's own words:
Dr. Bridges in Missoula explains DPC fosters stronger doctor-patient relationships, helping w/ prevention:

“The average emergency room charge in this country now is like $2,600. That's 3 years of primary care paid for if I can prevent you from going into one emergency"

#mtpol
Another benefit of eliminating the insurance middleman w/ DPC is transparent REAL prices, not just estimates.

“I can tell you right now for example that the cost of a cholesterol panel is $7.50, no more, no less.” - Dr. Coleman, Whitefish

#mtpol
Read 6 tweets
More crap coverage from @bozchron, who seem to think #Bozeman's economic catastrophe just involves the feelings of businesses, instead of the fact the economy is in crisis because disgraced health officer Matt Kelley continues to lie to push awful public policy.
#MTnews #MTpol
Journalism =/= stenography

But @bozchron continues to pretend Matt Kelley has credibility -- despite him being wrong since March -- and the result of crap coverage is that crap public policy is getting worse.

#Bozeman's institutions are broken.
#MTmedia
Phase One provided undeniable proof that the shutdown was unnecessary and was the worst public policy mistake in #Bozeman history.

But instead of editorializing to #FireMattKelly, @bozchron shows contempt for #Bozeman by pretending he has credibility. The lie is killing the town
Read 6 tweets

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