Adding some ‘screen’ back to my scene!

What do I do with this thing again?

In addition to my work at Montana Public Radio, I’m jumping back into my old mold as a TV reporter too! Just a little bit, just one story per week–but I’m so jacked! Telling TV stories is a totally different thing than radio pieces. Now I have the opportunity to work in both realms! Bliss!

These TV stories will air on the Montana Television Network (the CBS channels in the state), usually on Sunday evenings. KRTV-Great Falls and KXLH-Helena will air them for sure, but stations in Missoula, Billings, and my ol’  TV stomping grounds in Bozeman can grab them if they want.

My first story airs tonight. It’s about the Montana Gambling Control Division’s gaming ‘test lab.’

Wish me luck!

One month after Christmas…

I suppose I should have written this post yesterday. But I didn’t–bah humbug.

I wake up to a text from my old friend, Colt Gill:

“It’s beginning to look a lot like exactlyonemonthafterChristmas…”

Ah Baby-Horse, you always know how to take me back.

Riding the school bus growing up, Colt and I used to mark one-month after that most cherished of holidays with a forlorn alteration to the classic Johnny Mathis song. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but something like:

It’s beginning to look a lot like exactlyonemonthafterChristmas

The toys are all sold ouuuuut.

And now we’re sorry to see

That the holiday will be

Gone from within ouuurrr heaaaarrrrrts

We were in elementary school, after all.

Well Look What We have Done!!!

Hey all! Thanks to everyone who has been checking here on this blog to read and hear the stories I’ve been producing as the Capitol Bureau Chief at Montana Public Radio.

It’s been going well enough we decided to take the same general format and apply it to a blog for all of the stories coming out of the Montana Public Radio newsroom! So without further interruption, we unveil:

MTPR NEWS!

We’re really excited about the opportunities this brings. We also thank you for your patience as we work out the kinks and figure out exactly how we want to use the blog moving forward.

As for this site, it will revert back to what it was before I started at MTPR–a general ‘I’m a guy that does stuff’ kind of a blog.

Ahhh, progress.

Unionized MDT employees threaten strike

State Human Resources Division Manager and Governor Schweitzer’s Chief labor negotiator Paula Stoll says she takes this strike threat very seriously.

“We’re interested in getting to mediation as quickly as we can,” Stoll said.
Stoll said most state employees haven’t received raises since 2008. Teamsters Local Union number 2 Secretary Treasurer Daniel Doogan said his employees have been negotiating raises for about a year. He said the timing of this strike would highlight the work his members do.

“One of the critical functions that they do for the state of Montana is plow the roads in the winter time. So that gives us more sense of urgency and leverage at bargaining,” Doogan said

But the state doesn’t have much to bargain with. Stoll said the state legislature did not pass a negotiated agreement with the unions for the first time since she assumed the role in 1995. So the state doesn’t have any money set aside for raises, and MDT cannot just take money from anywhere in their budget.

“Generally speaking, if an agency is facing a strike threat and they don’t have money to fund the proposed pay raises they’d have to look probably at reorganization and layoffs,” she said.

“I think they are in a tough bind but I still have my job to do and it’s represent my members,” Doogan said, adding the next couple of weeks of negotiation will be critical.

“That very likely could include not showing up for work and not plowing the roads that’s an option that we have and I’m not taking that off the table,” he said.

The negotiated agreement killed by the legislature called for a one percent raise this year and a 3 percent raise in 2013. Doogan said the Teamsters are asking for a 5 percent raise each of the next two years.

University of Montana President addresses Board of Regents on sexual assaults

The state Board of Regents said they will begin working on a new approach to handling sexual assaults across the Montana University System during a meeting on Thursday. University of Montana President Royce Engstrom took questions from the Board regarding a series of sexual assaults of students that have recently come to light.  The board hopes some good can come from the situation.

President Engstrom started a presentation to the regents by reflecting on a public meeting on the alleged assault cases held earlier this week.

“The community forum the other night was probably the most challenging thing that I’ve done in my professional career,” Engstrom said, adding this was not due to the nature of the audience. The crowd of about 125 was respectful and largely constructive.

“But the topic of discussion was clearly among the most serious topics that any of us can deal with,” Engstrom said. “And it gave us all at the University and continues to give us great pain that this is an issue that we are confronting.”

The alleged sexual assaults of two UM students were reported in December. Since then other women have come forward reporting alleged assaults. President Engstrom has put forth a list of five actions he is directing the University to take. It includes the likes of pursuing an aggressive and rapid investigation into the assaults and launching a much bigger education effort on campus.

The regents commended President Engstrom on his handling of the matter. Student Regent Joseph Thiel says this is not just a problem facing the University of Montana.

“I’d encourage campuses to be more proactive about starting conversations on their own campuses with similar public forums so that we can try and talk about this on a broader base,” he said.

The other regents agreed, saying lessons needed to be learned across the state. Higher Education Commissioner Shiela Stearns said proactive education efforts over the past few decades have tackled other problems, such as student tobacco use.

“We can make a system we can perhaps now turn this to a real positive, President Engstrom, and lead the way in a real systemic, long-term approach,” Stearns said.

University of Montana student president Jenifer Gursky said doing something about sexual abuse on campus cannot be approached lightly and must involve students.

“I don’t know how much more passion I can say this with but reports, meetings, committees, discussions void of student input will not have long-lasting results,” Gursky said.

President Engstrom wanted to assure the Board of Regents he knows incidents like this can not only seriously damage individuals, but his entire institution.

“One, we are gonna do the right thing, we’re gonna get at the truth and we are gonna be as open as we possibly can be about this,” Engstrom said. “The damage done to institutions usually is not from the incident itself but how the institution has handled that incident.”

The Board of Regents will hear ideas for system wide changes to campus sexual assault policies during their March meeting.

MT Commissioner of Political Practices Resigns after accusations of ethics violations

Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices, Dave Gallik handed his letter of resignation to Governor Brian Schweitzer Wednesday.

The decision comes on the heels of a Great Falls Tribune article this weekend in which the four staff members in the office of political practices accused Gallik of ethics violations. These include doing work for his private law practice while on state time and writing down more hours than he actually worked.

Gallik flatly denies doing anything wrong.He said he is performing his duties and is doing so exactly as he said he would.

“Yeah, I’m not here all of the time. I made it perfectly clear to everybody when I took this job that I could not afford to not continue my law practice. I will cut it way back. I’ve hired a full-time lawyer to make sure that she can take a lot of the load that I had at my law practice. But I can’t afford to give this up,” Gallik said. he said he decided to resign after the office staff called the Helena Police Department this week. He said that was completely inappropriate and crossed the line.

“And I got to thinking I said, you know, is there any depths that they’re not willing to drop to? What’s next, what’s the next false allegation? There’s me in that little office with the 4 women that obviously have a huge vendetta to get rid of me,” he said.

Gallik’s accusers have a different take on the matter. The Office of Political Practices is charged with statewide campaign finance laws and other ethical codes. The staff  say they could not let an agency dedicated to ethics be run by someone they say is unethical.

The staff of the Office of Political Practices

“This has been a very difficult situation for all of the staff members,” said Political Practices Office Program Supervisor Mary Baker. She said problems with Commissioner Dave Gallik started almost as soon as Governor Brian Schweitzer appointed him last May.

“I would see discrepencies in his time sheets just about every pay cycle,” she said.

She said sometimes only a half-day would be spent with his political practices work, but Gallik would put 8 hours down on his time sheet. Or she said he would be in his state office but would take conference calls and do work for the Gallik Law Firm, his private practice.

Gallik is also licensed to practice law in Washington state. Political Practices Investigator Julie Steab cited one extreme example where Gallik left for 2 and a half days to Vancouver.

“He attributed that time to the state and we knew he wasn’t here. We knew he was at this mediation for his private practice work. So he put that down on his time report and he didn’t correct it until after Mary asked him several times,” Steab said.

Program Supervisor Mary Baker said she tried addressing the office’s complaints with Gallik. She first tried contacting the Governor’s office last August, and was eventually referred to the Legislative Audit Division.

“Legislative Audit was diligently keeping track of the information and working on advising us that there will be an audit and all of this will come out in an audit but as you know those take a long time.”

The audit would not have begun until June. Baker said that was too far away for the Political Practices staff. That’s why they went to the press.

“The office has to be beyond reproach. You have to be ethical. Even an appearance of impropriety stirs up issues,” she said.

Governor Schweitzer’s office declined comment, but Schweitzer has sent a letter to the state legislature asking for a list of nominees for a new Commissioner of Political Practices by next Wednesday.

Montana oil and gas leases hit new highs; production flat

Montana officials announce oil and gas leases are hitting record levels in the state.

But that does not mean more drilling is going on.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer was happy to discuss the statistics during a review of 2011 state leasing figures.

“During the last 6 months, there have been more leases in terms of acres and more dollars paid per lease than any time in history,” he said Tuesday.

The Montana Petrolium Association said leasing sales on both state and private land have been on an upward swing for several years now. But Executive Director Dave Galt said oil and gas production over that time has gone the other way.

“Our peak oil production was in 2006 and we’ve slid at a rate of about 9 percent per year since 2006,” Galt said.

Just because a company buys a lease on a plot of land doesn’t mean they are going to drill on it. But drilling technology has been changing at an incredible rate over the last 10 to 15 years. Galt uses the famous Bakken formation as an example. When he started in his position in 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the Bakken held about 800 million barrels of oil.

“2008, the USGS after extensive additional review estimated that oil reserve as recoverable barrels at 4 billion barrels of oil. There’s speculation now that that number is considerably higher,” he said.

The reason it increased so much during that time wasn’t necessarily because USGS estimates were wrong—new technology just opened up that much more.

Montana’s share of the Bakken is pretty limited. Governor Schweitzer compared it to the wading pool, while North Dakota is more like the deep end. If technology keeps at the same pace, though, new types of oil and gas formations could suddenly become economic to drill. A technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking is where a lot of this technological advancement is being made. But it’s controversial and it makes Melville Rancher Paul Hawks nervous.

“So our main concern in our water and anything that could affect our ranching lifestyle,” Hawks said.

He was part of a group that sponsored a bill last legislative session that would require oil companies reveal the types of chemicals used in their new fracking processes. The companies said those chemical combinations are trade secrets. The legislature did not pass the bill. Hawks said he is not against the industry.

“As long as we move forward ensuring that our water resources are being protected and we have the resources in place to protect those resources and our interest in them then fracking and ranching can probably co-exist,” he said, adding the state still just needs to find a way to make sure that is happening.

Really, Starbucks coffee cup manufacturer!?

twisted

My roommate gave me this travel coffee mug. He doesn’t drink coffee or tea and thus has no use for it.

Trust me, his general energy level does not suffer for it.

In almost every respect, this is an outstanding travel mug. It’s hefty with thick insulated sides that keep those coff-drops nice and warm all through the morning. It says Starbucks on the side–ok, I’m pretty neutral about that. The handle is not loose, which I find happens a lot with these things. I gave my last one to my Dad because the handle fell right off.

He’s too grizzled to care.

But it has one very frustrating flaw. And it is a flaw nigh unjustifiable!

You know how the threads in these cups are sort of non-specific? Depending on how you screw the lid on, it closes tight in a different position? Well, usually you can make it happen so the intended coffee spout is where you want it to be–or close.

NOT WITH THIS ONE!!!

I swear, no matter how many different positions I’ve tried with this lid, it always ends up getting tight with the spout facing right at the handle or directly opposite the handle!

I KNOW, RIGHT??!!!!

I don’t like either of those options!

How do these ones leave the factory!? Where’s the passion for one’s craft, coffee mug-smiths!?

Senate Committee investigating legislation requiring greater transparency from electric coops

A State Senate Committee focused on energy issues said they are looking legislation to bring more transparency to the dealings of electric cooperatives. This comes after the October 2011 bankruptcy of the Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative.

Five smaller electric cooperatives and the city of Great Falls make up this larger Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Co-op. The Generation and Transmission Coop (G&T) is charged with getting the wholesale electricity to split among the member electric cooperatives.

Within the last couple of years, the Co-ops contracts to buy power from the federally-owned Bonneville Power Administration have expired. So the G & T had to find other ways to get electricity.

“We invested quite a little. We were in hopes we would get a coal plant built, we didn’t,” said Tongue River Electric Cooperative Board President Keith Bales. Tongue River is a member of the G & T.

The G & T wanted to build a coal fired power plant to make their own power. That project was scrapped due to skyrocketing costs. The Highwood Generating Station natural gas plant has been built but has not yet shown itself an economically viable option. The G & T also turned to PPL Montana to buy wholesale power, but signed contracts to buy way more power than was needed. These factors led the G and T to bankruptcy last October.

The City of Great Falls and one of the G & T member co-ops, Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative ,are both suing the G & T. They say many decisions leading to the bankruptcy were made behind closed doors without all member’s knowledge.

“We asked good, probing questions and demanded answers and they refused to give us those and they thought it might be best to isolate us, get us out of there—then they can run things the way they want to,” said Terry Holzer, who just retired as General Manager of Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative. Holzer said that is not how member-owned electric cooperatives should function.

Republican State Senator Alan Olson agreed.

“The board was just too eager to rubber stamp proposals,” Olson said. “I don’t think the board and the membership of Southern Montana Electric did their due diligence and it was kind of a rush to the end of a process and consequently these co-ops and these co-op members are going to suffer for it.”

The Senate Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee is now looking into legislation saying Generation and Transmission Cooperatives would not be able to go into debt to build a power plant without the support of the members of the coop.

The same would go for long-term energy contracts and predicting how much power the G and T co-op would need in the future.

“A lot of decisions were made without co-op membership knowledge. A lot of co-op members felt they were left out of the decision making process,” Olson said.

Senator Olson himself is a member of one of the Cooperatives in the G and T. He said his power bills right now are about 60 percent higher than his neighbors who receive their power through Northwestern Energy.

Tongue River Cooperative Board President Keith Bales still believes in the G & T.

“And my board has instructed me to do in their name everything that I can and help in any way that I can to help to bring Southern Montana out of chapter 11 bankruptcy to be a vibrant, financially solvent, viable entity to go forward in the future to be able to furnish us power,” Bales said.

The committee will pick the issue back up in May.

Record numbers on first candidate filing day

Rep. Denny Rehberg speaking in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday

Congressman Denny Rehberg rallied the Montana GOP on the state’s first official filing day Thursday. Rehberg has been clear in his intentions to run for U.S. Senate for the better part of a year now.

But now it’s all official. Rehberg is standing at a podium in the Capitol Rotunda with at least 3 dozen republican legislative candidates behind him.

He uses the opportunity to quickly set himself apart from opponent, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester.

Rehberg paints Tester as the candidate siding with President Obama the vast majority of the time, as the candidate preferring big government and big spending.

“We do need government, there’s no question about that. But to what level…and that’s what I think those that are standing behind me and i stand for is get government out of our way,” Rehberg said.

The Congressman let State Senator Taylor Brown promote another legislative cycle of Republican majorities.

“Montana Republicans can be proud that in this last legislative session we made significant headway in improving the lives of Montanans and making this a better place to live and work and raise a family,” Brown said.

Earlier in the day, it was the democrats turn.

“I don’t want to get government out of the way. I want to get government into the fray,” said Democratic state house candidate Don Judge.

Judge and almost 20 other candidates announced their intentions. Their focus was square on the state legislature, saying republican majorities wasted time and money creating an acidic legislative atmosphere. Judge said he wants to help shift priorities.

“We can invest in our public infrastructure, we can invest in our education system and by god we can give our public employees a raise and we can stay in the black doing all that,” Judge said.

Senator Jon Tester was not in Helena for the filing day, making appearances in Southwest Montana. But democrats in Helena did not stray entirely from the Senate race, saying the party is united.

“We are gonna stand together throughout the campaign and we are very interested in working hand-in-hand with the national and state-wide candidates,” said state senate candidate Jon Sesso.

Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green—Secretary of State Linda McCulloch says filing day was full of candidates.

” We had them lined up at the door at 8  o’clock, I can’t even tell you how many we’ve done we haven’t had a chance to count them,” McCulloch said early in the afternoon.

By our deadline, 121 candidates had filed on the first day—which is a new state record. The previous record of 106 candidates was set in 2010.

The closing day for 2012 candidacy filing is March 12^th.