A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Tomorrow is Confederate Memorial Day, a state holiday in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. Will Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio join the festivities? Will Hillary denounce the event? Will Ted Cruz strut down the street waving the stars and bars and singing Dixie?
The Montana Legislature may finish its business and adjourn sine die tomorrow. That’s probably the plan, but legislative sessions have a habit of expanding to fill the time allotted for them. The final sticking point is how to pay for statewide infrastructure improvements. Democrats, noting interest rates are low, want to issue bonds, which is the smart move. Some Republicans, enough to deny the two-thirds majority needed for approving bonds, want to take the surplus out of the state’s piggy bank. Austin Knudsen now knows how John Boehner feels.
Police cameras are being purchased by Kalispell’s cops and the Flathead County Sheriff’s department. Police cameras aren’t a panacea for police brutality, or false accusations thereof, but they’re a credible deterrent to such misbehavior, and will provide valuable information for law enforcers and citizens alike. But there are yet unresolved issues over access to cop camera videos and protection of privacy. That’s why the legislature made a mistake when it tabled in committee HJ-22, which would have authorized an interim study of these issues.
Oil trains from the Bakken fields will be under close scrutiny in the state of Washington thanks to legislation just approved in the WA legislature. The refineries at Anacortes and Cherry Point are more and more relying on Bakken crude, which means more and more crude cars cruising down the canyon of the Middle Fork Flathead and through Whitefish. There also are plans to build a new refinery in Longview, and a huge oil terminal in Vancouver, on the Columbia River. Oil would be carried down the Columbia in barges, then transferred to ocean going ships bound for west coast ports. Barging oil down the Columbia is asking for trouble.