02 May 2013
Posted by Larry Kline 
Editor's Note: Larry Kline has freelanced with the Vigilante for the past couple years. We told him we'd give him space to say his goodbyes and this is what he gave us. In the spirit of full disclosure, Larry worked for the Independent Record but was fired. I say that because he is critical of that organization's...
Read more → 02 May 2013
Posted by George Ochenski 
When the Legislature left Helena last week one thing seemed clear – the early infighting by Senate Republicans had come home to roost. The result? A handful of “moderate” Republicans revolted against the much more radical Senate leadership and voted with the Democrat minority to pass the budget,...
Read more → 05 Apr 2013
Posted by Shane Castle 
This story has been updated. People are always talking about the dying newspaper industry. That drives me nuts for one really important reason hardly anyone talks about because the myth version is more palatable than the truth: contraction took place because a few giant corporations bought...
Read more → 28 Mar 2013
Posted by Mary Ann Dunwell 
The week of Medicaid expansion that didn’t happen at the state legislature was a travesty of the democratic process and clear Tea Party railroad. Lines of proponents in favor of Medicaid expansion wound around the hearing rooms and spilled into the hallways at the House Human Services and Senate Public...
Read more → 15 Mar 2013
Posted by Shane Castle 
Today, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony about Senate Bill 107, which seeks to remove language from a law that has been deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. and Montana Supreme Courts — not by some lay interpreter of the law condescending to tell the rest of us which laws are constitutional...
Read more → 13 Mar 2013
Posted by Sam Lavin 
Today more than 11 members from AmeriCorps participated in a clean up at Spring Meadow Lake State Park. They picked up trash that had been trapped in the snow, but more specifically they picked up poop. Lots and lots of poop. Helenens bring their dogs to Spring Meadow for exercise, but have failed...
Read more → 12 Mar 2013
Posted by Shane Castle 
Senate Bill 138 would extend tax breaks intended specifically to incentivize green energy production to any new power-production facility -- that's right, any. There is no need to get into the weeds on this bill. It very obviously seeks to encourage companies with a lot of capital to build power-generation...
Read more → 13 Feb 2013
Posted by A Normal Guy 
Since beginning work in the Williston Basin I’ve been asked numerous times “is it as crazy as they say it is out there”? The best answer I can muster is that it’s like the Wild West. Growing up watching westerns, one might compare them to modern day Williston. Those movies portrayed towns...
Read more → 02 Jan 2013
Posted by Shane Castle 
A STATEMENT FROM THE EDITOR I decided to run this special feature in what might very well be a vainglorious attempt to spark serious dialogue about how we're to understand and learn from the recent tragedy in Connecticut. There is a reasonable tendency to respond to something so awful by recoiling...
Read more → 06 Dec 2012
Posted by Shane Castle December will likely produce an answer as to whether the proposed non-discrimination ordinance will pass in Helena. We do not know exactly what the final language will be, of course, but this paper supports the basic precepts of the ordinance as drafted so far, and its spirit. The most substantive...
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