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In 2015, I was laid off from my newspaper job covering state politics and government. Less than a year later, I launched Montana Free Press with the hope of building a new model for journalism, one that could sustain in-depth reporting in the state I love. I never imagined how many people would come to support this endeavor.
Ten years on, I want to start with a simple thank you.
To our readers, viewers, listeners and followers: You show up for this work again and again, whether you’re reading a story, tuning in to a podcast, showing up to an event or sharing something with a friend or neighbor. To our donors, supporters and funders: You believed in this when it was only an idea, and you’ve kept believing in it. There are far too many of you to name. Some of you know who you are. Many of you probably don’t. Please know how deeply grateful I am.
And to the staff of Montana Free Press: What has made this journey most worthwhile is getting to build this organization alongside you. From reporters and editors to our business and audience teams, you operate as a true team, and you make me proud every day. This newsroom is one of the most talented and dedicated anywhere, and that’s because of you.
When I started MTFP, I always intended to build an institution that would outlast its founder. I didn’t know when the time to step aside would come, but I figured 10 years would be a pretty good run. And lo and behold, here we are.
Earlier this week, I told our team that the time has arrived for a new leader to take the reins. I plan to step down as CEO on June 1. MTFP is primed for its next phase of growth, and our board is beginning a search for a bold, ambitious, innovative leader to guide it.
This decision wasn’t as hard as it might seem because I’m so optimistic about where MTFP is headed. As for me, I’m not yet sure what comes next, but I’m excited to explore the possibilities. One thing is certain: I plan to keep working to grow local news in Montana and beyond.
Thank you for being part of this. I can’t wait to see where the next generation of leadership takes it.
With gratitude,
— John Adams, founder and CEO
Campaign Dispatch
Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed I went on the campaign trail this week.
I reported on the Sunday debate between U.S. Senate hopefuls and caught some breaking news Monday about the dramatic departure of Montana Democratic Party Chair Shannon O’Brien. On Tuesday, I wrote about a fiery congressional debate hosted by Montana Free Press and NonStop Local in Missoula. I covered President Donald Trump’s rally in Kalispell Wednesday evening.
Heading to the Trump rally felt different than the other assignments. I prepared myself to work a much longer day, interview more than a dozen strangers and witness an unparalleled amount of raw political energy. I wasn’t disappointed.
I woke up at 4:30 a.m. that Wednesday for the second time in as many days. I watched the sun rise over the Mission Mountains while I drove two-and-a-half hours in semi-darkness. The rally wasn’t set to start until that evening, but organizers asked us to check in at Majestic Valley Arena at 8:30 a.m., about 11 hours before Trump took the stage.
An editor recommended my story include perspective from Republican voters who were not planning to attend the rally. So I ate lunch at McDonald’s and then promptly tried to interview people around the restaurant about the upcoming event. No takers.
I decided to give it another go at Super 1 Foods (where I also stocked up on snacks for the long night ahead). That’s where I found Brett Tallman, a self-identified “conservative-leaning” independent whose support for Trump has waned over the last decade. He took up a few paragraphs of my Wednesday story. One of my favorite parts of the job is the responsibility to ask strangers about their thoughts, feelings and opinions.
Before I went inside the arena, I spent about 45 minutes wandering up and down the line outside the rally. I interviewed half a dozen people. Each person shared an infectious excitement for the event ahead, describing their love for Trump and the event’s historic nature.
“It’s a great opportunity to be a part of history — seeing our president while he’s in the presidency,” Kalispell resident Malea Sweet told me.
My time inside the arena was a blur. I remember the taste of coffee, the harsh glare of a computer screen and the genre-defying, Trump-approved playlist. (Asked about the playlist on Air Force One, Trump once told reporters “I want to make you happy, so I’m playing wonderful music, happy music.”)
I will never forget the moment Trump walked on stage. I’ve seen bigger venues, but I’ve never heard a louder crowd.
My snack investment paid dividends. Around 10:30 p.m., when workers in vests had almost entirely reconverted the space into a rodeo arena, I chatted with the only other reporter left in the building while he packed up his stuff. He told me he was with a national outlet and had been covering Trump rallies since 2016. To him, it might have been just another display in another state. But to me, it was about my neighbors.
Driving around Flathead Lake on my way home, I didn’t spend much time thinking about Trump. The heart of the story, to me, and what I reflected on the most, was the Montanans.
— Zeke Lloyd
Verbatim 💬
I cannot begin to describe the level of personal insult your committee’s flippant allegation of discrimination inflicted upon me. How could a group of educated people be so ignorant? — Jodi Mackay, Laurel City Council
A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week sent a letter to the city of Laurel, saying it thought the city had discriminated against people with disabilities in its ongoing fight with the state about a forensic psychiatric facility planned for just outside of town. The letter sparked an immediate backlash from the city, including from Council Member Mackay.
The Legislature’s Long-Range Planning Interim Budget Committee voted unanimously on its Oct. 8 call to send a letter to city officials saying they had likely violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act when they declined to annex the state land proposed for the forensic facility. The state wants the land annexed so it can receive city water service, but the city put a freeze on annexation, maintaining its water infrastructure can’t support any more development.
In addition to the letter, the committee voted to recommend to the Legislative Finance Committee that funding be suspended for any municipality under investigation for alleged discrimination. That vote was divided 4-3. One member voting no was Rep. Scott Rosenzweig, D-Bozeman.
“It looks like blackmail,” he told his fellow committee members.
The letter doesn’t trigger an investigation, and the Legislature itself wouldn’t conduct one, but outside entities such as the Montana Human Rights Commission could.
The city responded with a five-page letter contesting the discrimination allegation and made several requests, including asking the committee to specify what, if any, investigation the city was currently subject to. Mayor Kris Vogele also noted that he and other city officials had repeatedly tried to set up meetings with state officials to discuss the project but to no avail.
Mackay, the Laurel City Council member, said in a statement distributed to media after the committee sent its letter that she spent her career providing care and services to people with disabilities and the discrimination allegation hit hard.
“Your committee and all our State leaders ought to be ashamed of themselves for the way they’ve treated Laurel,” Mackay wrote. “[…] My motivation in voting for the moratorium was to give our community time to evaluate Laurel’s infrastructure and ensure we can grow responsibly. My goal has been and will continue to be that I, as an elected official, do what is in the best interest of those I serve. It would do you all well to do the same.”
You can read my full story here.
— Phoebe Tollefson
The Gist 📌
Like others in Great Falls, I read a TV news story in late August about the closure of the Catholic high school. The local church leader, Bishop Jeffrey Fleming, gave few details in the story but mentioned that the school lost half of its staff over the summer. That detail alarmed me; something serious had to be going on.
It turned out that a lot was going on in that school system. Over several weeks, I spoke to about 15 parents, faculty and staff who were involved in the private school system. What I learned was that frustration took root in that community after the Catholic diocese, the church’s regional administrative body, attempted to unify three Great Falls Catholic schools under one brand: St. Patrick’s Academy.
It wasn’t strictly the rebrand that caused frustration. Stakeholders told me it was the way the diocese managed several changes. At the high school, church leaders tried to abolish references to the legacy mascot, the Central Catholic High School Mustangs, although the church didn’t have the budget to change the sign on the building. Alongside the rebrand came a change to a four-day school week, which parents said wasn’t a collaborative choice and felt like a reduction in their kids’ education, and an increase in school-day Mass services from one to four days per week. Other new mandates just seemed detached from the daily reality of school life, sources told me.
These and other issues had real impacts. Dozens of parents pulled their kids from the Catholic schools, which in turn impacted tuition revenue. St. Patrick’s Academy East, a K-8 school, announced its closure last spring. The bishop announced the high school’s closure on Aug. 20 during a back-to-school welcoming event.
The bottom line for many parents I spoke with was that they felt powerless to influence the changes that took place and, eventually, weren’t granted opportunities to help keep the schools open. And the decisions to leave were incredibly tough, they told me. Many parents placed great importance on Catholic education as a part of their faith. And while their religious faith wasn’t shaken, their confidence in the diocese’s ability to manage schools was.
There’s so much more to the story. If you haven’t yet, check out my full story on the closure of Great Falls Catholic schools here.
— Matt Hudson, reporter
Following Up
Over two-and-a-half weeks, a pro-ICE feature film distributed by conservative media outlet The Daily Wire divided the city of Livingston. The shoot garnered national attention and kicked off a debate about freedom of speech and local regulations as eyes across the country turned to the small city of about 9,000, an hour north of Yellowstone National Park.
When producers closed streets adjacent to The Gem, a local coffee shop, the owner put up a sign: “ICE IS NOT WELCOME HERE / even in ur fake uniforms lol.” The act seemed relatively innocuous to many patrons, but also offered a firm stance from the cafe.
In city commission testimony, Taylor Wallace, owner of The Gem, said he’d had to close the cafe during filming because the set’s armed security kept employees from performing tasks as basic as taking out the trash.
But on Oct. 12, Big Sky Social Club — a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of a national network of white supremacist organizations — posted on X: “Only Traitors Help Invaders Gem Cafe Livingston, MT.” The text was alongside the cafe’s Google profile and an image of the sign in their window. The post garnered more than 120,000 views.
Suddenly, Wallace alleged, the cafe was inundated with a slew of one-star reviews on Google. Many were clearly political:
“The iced coffee contained no ice very disappointed,” one review reads.
“This ‘lady’ got really defensive when I asked about having ICE in my coffee,” reads another.
Wallace posted about the influx of negative reviews on Instagram. “This stuff really hurts a small business,” he said in a social media post. “These people haven’t been to our coffee shop. They’re just trying to punish us for taking part in small-town public discourse and trying to hold a commercial film crew accountable to their permit.”
He encouraged patrons to post positive reviews of their own. Some of the negative reviews have been flagged and removed. Many more still remain online.
Now, even nearly a week after filming wrapped on the polarizing movie, tension still permeates the town.
— Nick Mott
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
• Concerned that the barrage of mailers and TV ads may not tell you all that you need to know about the candidates for Montana’s Western U.S. House District? Our Tom Lutey has insightful profiles about Republican Aaron Flint and Democrat Sam Forstag.
• A federal appeals court heard arguments over whether the wolves of the Greater Yellowstone and across the West require the protection of the Endangered Species Act.
• President Donald Trump announced during a rally in Kalispell that Montana is getting a “super range” military testing site. So far, it’s a proposal for a study, short on details and panned by Democrats.
On Our Radar
Nick E. — This fascinating article by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Natalie Wolchover explores whether there are worlds in the solar system more habitable than Earth, with life possibly more abundant and sustainable. Spoiler alert: yes.
Matt — I find the podcast from the Great Falls tourism bureau, “We’re No Dam Experts,” to be so charming and fun. I suggest diving into episode 298 on breakfast burritos and episode 255 with Antiques Roadshow appraiser Timothy Gordon.
Ellis — The cool temperatures (and early season snowstorms!) mean the natural end to my garden. Except my kale plants did not get the message. The 3-foot-tall towers of leafy greens had to finally come down this week, and I’m in a race to the finish to get it all eaten. I’ve been steadily making my way through these kale recipes from a favorite food blog of mine, or learning how to blanch and freeze it for use later on this winter! And for the kale that remains, because at this point I am half convinced it’s a regrowing hydra, I’ve thrown it into the duck coop where the ducks vacillate between eating the kale, and bedding down in it… all acceptable choices I’d say!
Mara — Queued up on my podcast list for this weekend: the series “Left to Their Own Devices” about the digital morass that has defined childhood in the 21st century. The cherry on top, I’ve heard, is a nuanced interview between Gen Z host Ava Smithing and popular author Jonathan Haidt.
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Lowdown is edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy editing by Mara Silvers.
