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In late September, I got word on social media that a movie was being filmed in Livingston. Someone posted a social media video about “pro-ICE propaganda” closing down a couple of blocks in a residential neighborhood. As it just so happens, that neighborhood is also where I live. The post encouraged people to honk car horns and play music to disrupt the shoot. As I got back to work, I could hear a car alarm sounding nearby. So I stepped outside to my front porch.
The road closure for the film set started just down the block. On set, crew members were preparing to shoot, and actors were milling about.
That same day, I got my hands on a leaked script. The film follows an ICE agent who apprehends an immigrant he suspects of being part of a violent gang. He drives through a crowd of antifa rioters, when — in a thinly veiled allusion to the killing of Renee Good — a protester slams into his car, killing his law enforcement partner. He shoots and kills the protester through her windshield. From there, the ICE agent holes up in a pawn shop, fighting off violent rioters and, eventually, members of the gang MS-13. The script is rife with conservative tropes about protesters, immigration and even college education. I also confirmed that the movie was affiliated with conservative news outlet The Daily Wire.
Sometimes, life imitates art. As I meandered through the area, fake ICE agents and protesters munched on snacks as real-life protesters drove by, yelling expletives about the polarizing federal agency. The cast shook their heads, laughing.
It was only the very beginning of what would become a two-and-a-half-week ordeal in which tensions escalated and national and even international attention took the small-town story and ran with it.
As the shoot wore on, there was clear friction throughout town. At breweries, coffee shops, on local social media — there was no escaping it. Protesters and production folks alike pointed the finger at one another for increasing hostilities.
Protesters tried their best to disrupt production: They played copyrighted music near the set; they read the Constitution into megaphones; they chanted and sang. The film’s production team alleged that the protestors contributed to an unsafe environment on set. In response, they hired heavily armed private security of their own.
Meanwhile, community members alleged the production violated its city-issued permit. They said the filmmakers hadn’t adequately notified community members about the make-believe gunfire, explosions and overall nature of the shoot. The local food bank was a particular focal point: The front of the building is located within the area closed for filming. For days, vulnerable members of the community had been cut off or felt too unsafe to pick up their food.
The city paused filming and then allowed it to resume after two lengthy and contentious commission meetings.
Across the country, the film shoot became a political Rorschach test: Onlookers saw either a runaway, radical film production trampling a small town unprepared for it, or a leftist mob hellbent on censoring freedom of speech.
Now, some of the protesters seem to be asking themselves whether they gave the movie’s producers exactly what they wanted. The widespread media attention put millions of eyes on the indie film that most of the country might never otherwise have heard of.
As I write this, protesters are holding a silent protest outside the film set. “National news is telling a story that isn’t who we are,” an organizer said in an email. “Let’s show them the true story of our community. Unity.”
Filming will end Saturday, but I’m curious to see how much tension remains after it’s over.
— Nick Mott
For the Record 📣
President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order suspending a federal law that bans the use of red-dyed diesel in vehicles on public roads. But Montana state law means it’s still illegal to do so.
The price of diesel has spiked this year because of the U.S. conflict with Iran and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. The cost hike has squeezed Montana farmers and truckers.
Red-dyed diesel is the same as diesel, except for its color and substantially lower federal tax rate. The fuel is meant for agricultural use. That’s why it’s exempt from taxes that pay for highways and why it’s illegal to drive with red-dyed diesel on public roads.
Trump’s order pauses that federal ban, allowing diesel vehicles to drive on public roads using dyed fuel.
But at the state level, Montana has its own law prohibiting dyed fuel on public roads. That law hasn’t been waived, according to a statement this week from the Montana Department of Transportation. MDT cannot waive the law, but the governor could via executive order, according to agency spokesperson Charity Burns.
Megan Van Emon, an extension specialist at Montana State University based out of Miles City, said that the competing state and federal laws make it difficult to anticipate what impact, if any, the order will have on the state’s farmers and ranchers.
“There’s just a lot of questions,” Van Emon said.
The Montana Grain Growers Association, a Great Falls-based non-profit representing farmers statewide, wrote in an email to Montana Free Press that it was “still too soon to assess the full impact.”
“We appreciate the administration’s efforts to address high diesel costs and its recognition of the significant financial pressure those costs place on Montana’s farmers,” Shawna Severson, MGGA’s executive vice president, wrote to MTFP. “We welcome the attention to this issue and look forward to reviewing implementation guidance to better understand how this will work for our producers.”
— Zeke Lloyd
Verbatim 💬
“You are a poor excuse for leadership. I am tired of it. The initiative is ironclad, and you don’t like it because you have to do your job.” — Kassi Solberg, sponsor of the ballot initiative aimed at stopping data centers in Yellowstone County
A meeting of the Board of County Commissioners in Yellowstone County this week once again grew heated.
Residents have mobilized over the past several months to try to assert some control over a massive data center project just outside the tiny town of Broadview. But their efforts have faced hurdles.
First, it was the missed deadline for collecting signatures. Petitioners were rankled by a county mistake that meant they had one month less time to collect signatures than they had been originally informed. But it’s unclear if the outcome would have been different otherwise. Petitioners didn’t begin the process until June 12, giving them just one month to qualify for the ballot.
Next, it was the language of the initiative itself that the county flagged for possible legal trouble. The county can’t place a voter initiative on the ballot if it isn’t legal in the first place, according to Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito. Twito said repeatedly that the county is challenging only the legalities of the initiative and not its merits.
“If I didn’t advise you to do this … I would be violating my oath of office,” he told commissioners when asking for a judge’s review of the initiative. “We need this determination before we move forward.”
Finally, repeated requests to enact emergency interim zoning and to pause the data center project were a nonstarter with the county commission. While some legal experts believe the county is free to enact interim zoning, the county attorney’s office and its advisors at the Montana Association of Counties believe a new law prevents them from doing that.
You can read more about the legal complexities in our latest story.
For the meeting drama, read on.
Some commenters this week, like Elizabeth Gilg, highlighted the fact that the commission voted to sue over the ballot initiative before opening the public comment portion of the meeting. (Some comments were sent to commissioners in advance over email, including from residents around the state.)
“You guys are just more government officials in Yellowstone County and the state of Montana not doing your job,” said Gilg, who appeared by video. “I’m disappointed in you guys. Seriously, I’m seriously disappointed. I’ll be coming to every single meeting from now on, so look forward to that.”
Wendy O’Leary told commissioners that they should reverse course and “work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen,” referencing the development of the Quantica data center.
“You’d be not just hometown heroes, you’d be state heroes if you changed your mind,” O’Leary said.
— Phoebe Tollefson
Say Again? 🤔
The Montana state health department Monday confirmed that a recent pediatric death in the state was caused by complications from an Haemophilus influenzae type b infection — commonly known as Hib.
The death was the first account of a Hib death in Montana in nearly two decades, and possibly longer. A spokesperson for the health department, Jon Ebelt, told Montana Free Press Wednesday that, of previous Haemophilus influenzae deaths dating back to 2007, none of the infections were documented as type b, or Hib.
Illnesses and deaths linked to Hib have become exceedingly rare in the U.S. since a vaccine became available in the late 1980s. But as vaccine skepticism and avoidance percolate across the country, medical experts have begun seeing Hib cases crop up, sometimes for the first time in years.
“It’s certainly not a common thing anymore,” said Dr. Peter Bulger, the medical director of the Gallatin City-County Health Department and the infectious disease medical director at Bozeman Health, in a Thursday phone interview. “I’d say this was a more common situation back before I was in this business.”
Montana’s announcement disclosed that the patient had not been vaccinated against Hib, one of the routine immunizations advised by public health and medical officials for children beginning at two months of age.
“This tragedy is a reminder that these diseases still exist and can have devastating consequences,” said state medical director and the state’s soon-to-be-director, Doug Harrington, in the Monday release. “I encourage Montana parents to consult with their medical provider to keep their child up to date on all recommended vaccines, including the Hib vaccine.”
The state’s announcement did not disclose the age or county of residence of the victim, but did say that the death occurred in September. (In later emails, Ebelt confirmed to MTFP that the person did not live in Phillips County, despite that county’s health department posting about DPHHS’ confirmation of the case on its Facebook account last Thursday.)
The state health department said that the underlying infection, H. influenzae, is a bacterium that can cause a diversity of illnesses ranging from mild conditions, like ear infections, to “invasive infections” that can be severe and lead to bloodstream infections, pneumonia or meningitis.
For physicians, Hib is rare enough that it might be overlooked as a possible cause if a child develops a fever or other symptoms, said Bulger. But when a child is unvaccinated, the calculation changes dramatically.
Bulger said the arrival of a Hib case — alongside Montana’s recent resurgence of measles — could indicate that parental confidence in childhood vaccines is slipping in a dangerous way.
“I think it’s just a sort of, I hate to say, a canary in the coal mine,” Bulger said. “But I think with all the anti-vaccine sentiment going around in this country right now, we’re going to start to see more of these diseases that were a thing of the past all of a sudden coming back.”
— Mara Silvers
Hot Potato 🥔
Gov. Greg Gianforte traveled to India and Sri Lanka this week to promote trade with Montana. The trade mission drew ire from Libertarians and hard-right conservatives nervous that the trip would lead to increased immigration.
This isn’t the first time Gianforte has gone abroad to promote trade with Montana. In 2025, Gianforte traveled to Japan and South Korea, where the state ships enormous quantities of grain. In 2023, he went to Taiwan.
On X, the Montana Freedom Caucus and the Montana Libertarian Party ranted against the state’s top executive traveling to India and Sri Lanka, arguing that it would lead to foreign nationals taking Montana jobs.
“Will H1-B (sic) visas flood Montana with imported labor and take over the few jobs that are available? Will our universities replace Americans with Indians and Sri Lankans?” the Montana Freedom Caucus, a coalition of hard-right Republicans in the Montana Legislature, posted on the social media platform.
H-1B visas are designed to fill highly skilled roles for which there aren’t enough American workers, according to The Associated Press. Indians make up about three-quarters of H-1B visa approvals.
President of the Montana Freedom Caucus, Rep. Jerry Schillinger, R-Circle, told Montana Free Press on Wednesday that his biggest concern with the governor’s trip was that the state would “continue to recruit foreign people when we have fully qualified people in this country to fill those jobs.”
“The H-1B visa has been used over and over again to hire cheap labor overseas,” Schillinger said.
Brigitta Miranda-Freer, executive director of the Montana World Trade Center, called criticism of the governor’s trip a “fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of it.”
“The purpose of this trade mission is to demonstrate in person that, ‘Hey, this is an important relationship for us that we would like to develop further, and we’re there for you as your long-term trade partner,’” Miranda-Freer told MTFP.
Kaitlin Timken, a spokesperson for the governor, emailed MTFP a statement also dismissing criticism.
“Gov. Gianforte and the over 30 members of the delegation believe this mission presents a historic opportunity for the Treasure State to secure investment and jobs for Montanans and look forward to recounting the positive impact in the months to come,” Timken wrote.
— Zeke Lloyd
Following the Law ⚖️
A year-long leadership dispute within the Northern Cheyenne Tribe intensified in recent weeks, following a court ruling and continued conflicting statements about who is in charge.
To recap: In the spring of 2025, Northern Cheyenne Tribal President Gene Small initiated an audit of the council’s use of federal COVID-19 relief funds. Ten elected members serve on the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council, and while some council members objected to the audit, the body ultimately approved the examination.
In the fall, the tribal council voted to remove Small from office, citing constitutional violations unrelated to the audit. On the same day, a group of traditional leaders, called chiefs, issued a declaration calling for the removal from office of the eight council members who voted to oust the president. The chiefs then selected eight new temporary council members, and the tribe held a special election to fill the eight seats.
Conflicting speculation and claims about who’s in charge have roiled the small tribal community for more than a year, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs declined invitations to intervene from both Small and the ousted council members, meaning no federal arbiter would help resolve the standoff. The conflict has also ignited a community-wide discussion on the value and meaning of constitutional law vs. traditional law.
So, where do things stand now? In August, a tribal court judge ruled to reinstate the eight ousted council members and void the election that was held to replace them. In late September, a tribal appellate court judge upheld the lower court’s decision, finding that the defendants “have been governing (unlawfully) for the past year.”
The council on Sept. 30 voted to remove Small as president and elected Ernest Littlemouth Sr. as interim president of the tribe. Since the vote, the council has met and voted on several other resolutions. Small has said he remains president of the tribe.
In a video statement shared to Facebook Tuesday, Small said, “This is just getting a little out of hand, people.”
“So, I’m going to stand my ground.”
— Nora Mabie
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
• Montana election administrators discuss tracking ballots, reassuring voters and what their jobs look like a month out from Election Day.
• A state judge has ruled that requiring Montana voters to include their birth year on the return envelopes of absentee ballots is unconstitutional.
• And for a little non-election news (thank goodness), a tourism company wants to build a 100-person tram near Glacier National Park.
On Our Radar
Katie — Something about fall makes me curate everything to fit the season. Atmospheric autumn playlist? Check. To-be-read list of cozy fantasy, horror and fairytale-inspired books? Check. Revisiting my favorite paranormal TV shows and movies and finally getting to the fall classic “When Harry Met Sally”? That’s the plan for this weekend.
Zeke — I’m right there with you, Katie. This weekend, I’m planning to cozy up under several warm blankets and watch “Coraline,” a haunting animated classic from 2009.
Jacob — Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering computer scientist whose software helped put humans on the moon, died last week at the age of 90. She was a true giant in the software world and coined the term “software engineer” at a time when software was not always treated as serious engineering work. And when Apollo 11’s computer overloaded on its descent to the moon? The software that her team designed helped keep its lunar landing from going sideways. Modern software engineering — and the world — owes her so much.
Lauren — I’ve been unfortunately running a lot again in preparation for a race in November. Though my body and mind currently reject it, what I have loved are the hours of podcasts I’m logging on those runs. I recently listened to Andrew Garfield’s “Modern Love” interview from a few years ago during a dalliance on the trails, and it blew me away. I even stopped running for a few minutes just to sit with it. Be warned: You will feel all the feels.
Mara — In my short tenure as an amateur gardener, all of my growing efforts have been limited to the feverish months between June and October. This year, I want to up my game: Which plants should I try to overwinter? How do I prep the other beds for spring planting? Expert gardeners, send me your wisdom.
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Lowdown is edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy editing by Mara Silvers.