Thousands of Montanans Attend “No Kings” Rallies

For the third time since last year, thousands of Montanans took to the streets in cities and rural towns for another weekend of "No Kings" rallies. That included Helena, where an estimated 1000 people rallied after state administrators dropped a prohibition against weekend gatherings.

In addition to the previous debate over everything from tariffs to protecting constitutional rights, speakers also had new territory for topics after this winter, including ICE and the war in Iran.

In Missoula, Political Philosophy Professor Sean Eudaily, speaking as a private citizen, reminded the crowd how the country was founded on a system of differing political viewpoints.

"So in America, our Constitution comes from the debate over our values. Not one person's values, not your values, not my values, our values," Eudaily said.

      Crowds were smaller, but still determined in smaller towns like Hamilton, with a history of conservative viewpoints.

Sheehy: Time to deal with the Iranian threat

Montana Senator Tim Sheehy believes the action against Iran over the past few weeks is proving the threat to countries in the Middle East, and also the interests of the U.S. and others to become an even greater threat with missile and even nuclear missile development.

"Who, as they've demonstrated, will use their missiles and their munitions to try to wipe Israel, try to wipe Americans and our allies off the face of the earth," Sheehy says. "So this is a righteous fight. It's, it's not easy. No one ever said it was going to be easy, but this is the right time to do it, and I hope we finish the job."

Sheehy says administrations of both parties have failed to deal with the threat (of) terrorism, which dates back to the Iranian Revolution in the late 70s.

"They've been killing Americans and essentially doing so with impunity for almost half a century. The response from the American administrations on both parties, I might add, six presidencies has really been to sanction them." -Sen. Tim Sheehy

Sheehy contends that allowing the Iranian regime to persist is like "having a serial killer in the neighborhood" that the city decided to merely fine, and then even deciding to "pay us to stop killing us", referring to the various funding schemes that were enacted by previous administrations to stop nuclear development.

Lawmakers want info on SOS postcard spending

The Montana Secretary of State's Office may have been given a clean bill of health for handling funds from the federal government. But some lawmakers want to conduct their own audit as the controversy continues over how money was spent for a postcard mailing, and sharing other voting information.

The Daily Montanan reports SOS Christi Jacobsen hasn't responded directly to questions about the mailing, which some reports have placed costs as high as nearly 2-hundred thousand dollars from the Help America Vote Act. Spokesman Richie Melby told the "Daily Montanan" the federal audit found no issues.

     However, the Legislative Audit Division is promising its own look at how the money was spent.