Part 4 of 4 in a series on AI and the public utility compact

Part 3 of 4 in a series on AI and the public utility compact

Part 2 of 4 in a series on AI and the public utility compact

Part 1 of 4 in a series on AI and the public utility compact

Sheepherder Square, Big Timber, Montana

My friend Jack grew up in Anaconda, Montana.

In 1961, construction of the first Minuteman facilities began in Great Falls, Montana, putting Montana in the center of the nuclear weapons arms race.

It’s that time of year.

It’s time for Montana to take a page out of the Hoosier state’s regulatory play book to deal with the kind of dumb that’s in our living room right now:

In August, thousands of people in northern Indiana went without power for days.

Last Friday I got a text from a long-time friend (with whom I disagree almost completely about politics):

Democracy and capitalism wrestle constantly with the tension between labor and capital.

This week Hannah Natanson’s story about how the tariffs have impacted Blackfoot tribal members was published.

What Montana learned about data centers in 1893

What hockey sticks and the Sheep Creek mine have in common

Rowing across rivers and lakes brought to mind Norman Maclean’s story A River Runs Through it: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”

1910, 1988 and 2026

Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner is now set for trial in March of 2027.

Frank Little and the Irish in Butte, America

Out in Circle hunting, and in the hearing room when it mattered

Theodore Roosevelt came to the West to find something that money can’t buy.

In the American West, government transparency isn’t just good ethics.

Stop Fighting Over Scraps: The Real Villain in Montana’s Tax Crisis

Corporations don’t want to tell us who is selling, or where they sell, poop in our food.

American Prairie is a Bozeman-based conservation nonprofit that has spent more than two decades assembling roughly 500,000+ acres of deeded and leased land in north-central Montana, with the goal of r...

The End of the Montana Window Routine

Ten states elect their utility regulators. The other forty have them appointed, almost all by the governor. Montana is one of the ten.

Last week on our road trip to the Teddy Roosevelt Library, we stopped in Glendive for gas.

Growing up in eastern Montana, we had party lines.

The proposed Sheep Creek rare-earth mine at the headwaters of the Bitterroot River has been advancing with little public visibility.

Thomas Walsh, a Helena lawyer, was elected to the U.S.

Montana’s territorial governor Thomas Francis Meagher refused to be silenced.

Montana’s monopoly utilities are telling regulators one story and Wall Street another. American families pay for the difference.

The summer of 1976 was a great time to be an American kid.

The county deadline for Initiative 194 signatures is tomorrow, June 19.

The county deadline for Initiative 194 signatures is tomorrow, June 19.

Anyone ever sign a contract that says it will be governed by Delaware law?

Crazy Mountain Ranch and CrossHarbor told 150 people to put down their phones. Then they called a crisis firm.

On June 8, 1917, a frayed electrical cable ignited an oil-soaked cloth in the deep mines in Butte, starting the Granite Mountain and Speculator mine fires.

This week Montana held its primary election, and this week we also mark the anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s own fateful primary victory, and his death.

CrossHarbor Capital’s Crazy Mountain Ranch wants to take water management out of a Montana water commissioner’s hands.

My friend Phil Aaberg passed away this week.

This Monday, May 25, the Montana Veterans Memorial is hosting its 21st Annual Memorial Day Ceremony.

The phrase came from the witness stand at the hearing last week in Helena on Black Hills’ acquisition of NorthWestern. Since the hearing, people have been saying: we know we’re being taken.

Last week, the Montana Public Service Commission held its evidentiary hearing on whether to approve Black Hills Corporation’s acquisition of NorthWestern Energy.

In May of 1864, President Lincoln signed the Organic Act that made Montana a territory.

This week, the Montana Public Service Commission will be hearing about NorthWestern’s proposed merger with Black Hills Corporation. This brings to mind the issue of mergers at the U.S. Supreme Court i...

In 1868, the second Fort Laramie Treaty was signed.

On May 5, 2026, voters across the country will decide the fate of school levies for districts in Ohio suburbs, Montana mountain towns, New Mexico ranching communities, and Washington state school dist...

In 1886 the last bison was shot on the Great Plains of central Montana, the place we sometimes call, with affection, the Big Empty.