First elected in 2006 after campaigning against the Patriot Act, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) is still raising money off of the issue (and Libertarian Dan Cox is disappointed). An alternative to the CSKT water compact is being floated for the Flathead Reservation. The Rainbows seek acceptance while we seeks jobs. Congressman Steve Daines (R-MT) leaves a door open for the Senate. A Colorado US Senator’s brother is missing in Wyoming. And Coors goes landfill free…all that and more is included below in this week’s “Political Trough:”
Daily Inter Lake: Kalispell Gears Up for Common Core
Zorn and Superintendent Darlene Schottle agreed that one of the drawbacks is the technology required to take the new assessments. After a three-year transition period, tests will be taken solely on computers in a time when the district is struggling to maintain its current equipment and bandwidth. More than 2,000 elementary students and 600 10th-graders will test on computers.
CNBC.com: Coors Goes Landfill Free
Among the more than 2,500 breweries in the United States, MillerCoors said it has accomplished something no other brewer can claim: landfill-free status.
MillerCoors changed its production process at its largest facility, in Golden, Colo., so no waste is sent to any landfill. The brewery reuses or recycles 100 percent of the waste it generates, including all glass, paperboard, plastics, metal and brewing byproducts, such as spent grain.
In all, more than 135 tons of waste per month have been eliminated from the Golden facility. MillerCoors announced Monday it moved to landfill-free status. The facility is the fifth of MillerCoors’ eight breweries in the U.S. to gain landfill-free status.
Pete Coors was actually here in Montana last week, and was a guest on our statewide radio talk show, Voices of Montana. He mentioned the brewery being landfill free. It was also interesting to learn how the local MillerCoors grain elevator in Huntley, Montana leaves nothing to waste from their barley process either. Click here to listen to the interview with Pete Coors.
The Daily Caller: Colorado Senator’s Brother Missing in Colorado
Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall’s brother Randy is missing in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains, and a search and rescue operation involving both ground and aerial searches has been underway since Friday, Denver’s 9News reports.
TheHill.com: Daines Not Choosing Race in Fundraising Letter (h/t Don Pogreba)
In a fundraising email sent Friday, Daines did not try to pick a race. Instead, he attempted to raise money off both potential campaigns simultaneously.
“The nation is watching Montana closely,” Daines said in the email. “The path to the Senate majority runs through Montana, and Nancy Pelosi already knows that regaining this House seat is critical in her quest to regain the Speaker’s chair.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/308429-montana-lawmaker-not-picking-race-yet#ixzz2XnnpD4LP
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Jobs- thats what we hear in Montana want. What do the Rainbows gathering near Dillon want?
Acceptance.
That’s what more than a few people at the Rainbow gathering near Jackson said they sought when asked this week to explain why they’d made the trek to the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
That was the lead-in for this Montana Standard report on the Rainbow gathering.
While thousands of Rainbow gathers can head into the woods with apparently no problem, it is not as easy, of course, for Montanans to access the forests, even if it means cleaning up dead and dying timber.
In case you missed this from the AP:
A federal judge this week blocked three Montana logging projects in two national forests, saying the U.S. government did not properly examine the effects the projects might have on lynx and the threatened animal’s habitat.
That makes four timber projects since May in which U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen found fault with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ conclusion that cutting and burning in those areas would not significantly harm the big cats’ territory.
MT GOP: Baucus, Tester Support Illegal Immigration Bill
Montana’s two Democrat Senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, voted for the immigration bill yesterday.
Fortunately, Montana has Steve Daines in the U.S. Congress, who has announced his intention to resist this bill, saying, “I will not support proposals that contain amnesty for illegal immigrants.”
The Great Falls Tribune had the story mentioned by the Montana GOP:
Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana voted Thursday with a majority of the Senate to pass a sweeping immigration reform bill that would boost border security, overhaul the visa system and provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The bill, at more than 1,200 pages, now moves to the Republican-led House, where its future is uncertain. House leaders have so far favored a much narrower, piecemeal approach to reform that does not include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Daily Inter Lake: Alternative CSKT Water Compact Bill Floated
Under the premise that water rights holders in Western Montana were not adequately represented in negotiations for a Confederated Salish-Kootenai tribal water rights compact, two legislators presented an “alternative” compact to Flathead County commissioners Thursday.
“The intent of this exercise is to offer a comparison compact that shows what an ‘acceptable’ compact would look like to the citizens of Western Montana,” states the draft proposal submitted by state Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, and Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell.
It’s only been 7 years right? From Watchdog.org, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) is still raising money off of the Patriot Act, and don’t worry, Libertarian Dan Cox (who many credit with handing the 2012 Senate election to Tester) is dissapointed:
The email asks recipients to sign a petition in support of the idea. Of course, it pushes signers to submit their email address, surely to be safely stored in a Tester’s email bank for use in his next campaign.
The pitch also comes with this: An offer for supporters to donate to Montanans for Tester, the senator’s campaign committee.
During the campaign, Cox admitted that Tester had the better record on privacy issues, but Thursday he told Watchdog.org that the senator “hasn’t lifted a finger” to repeal the act, despite the 2006 promise.