Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/jennifer-fielder/)
A Washington, D.C., watchdog group filed suit Monday against Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, over her failure to produce public records the group asked for more than a year ago. The lawsuit, filed by the Campaign for Accountability in District Court in Helena, also names the Montana Legislative Services Division and asks the court to order Fielder and the state agency to release the public records in question. (more…) Continue Reading →
The people who wrote the new Montana Constitution, ratified in 1972, were admirably clear on the subject of access to public records. Under the heading of “Right to know,” in Section 9 of Article II, the Declaration of Rights, the constitution says: “No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.” (more…) Continue Reading →
In April 1864, months before one of the most contentious elections in American history, the New York World accused President Abraham Lincoln of having urged a friend to sing a comic song as they strolled among the dead and wounded two years earlier at Antietam. The World pounded on the false story for five months, eventually adding the fanciful detail that Democratic opponent George McClellan, the general Lincoln had fired for timidity and a fatal case of the “slows,” had pleaded in vain for Lincoln to show respect to the fallen. (more…) Continue Reading →
After I published my column Sunday, many readers asked which legislators were responsible for bringing in Matt Trewhella to speak in the Capitol rotunda. (more…) Continue Reading →
