Government

  • Human Capital

    Ep. 714

    A 10-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by a man in Ohio was denied an abortion in that state after the US Supreme Court ruled last week that it overturned Roe v. Wade, demonstrating the tangible impacts that the high court’s decision is having on patients seeking access to the medical procedure.

    A 28-year-old Helena man has been charged with multiple felony offenses including repeatedly raping a child younger than 13. David Allen Caves is charged with seven felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent, felony strangulation of partner or family member, felony assault with a weapon, felony sexual abuse of children, and his first misdemeanor partner or family member assault offense.

    A 21-year-old man who coerced a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship in 2021 was sentenced for felony crimes in Gallatin County on Tuesday. Oliver Owens Temple, 21, pleaded guilty to felony sexual intercourse without consent. The plea was not part of an agreement. Gallatin County District Court Judge Andrew Breuner sentenced Temple on Tuesday to an eight-year commitment in the Montana Department of Corrections. Five years will be suspended.

    The Bozeman March for Reproductive Rights partnered with the Bozeman United Way will hold protests every Friday evening at 7 pm at the Gallatin County Courthouse starting Friday, July 8. The group held a march on the Fourth of July with attendees carrying signs with phrases like “My body, my choice” and “I will not go quietly back to the 1950s.” The marches are growing in numbers following the US Supreme Courts’ decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and take away a woman’s right to abortion.

    Human Capital Ep. 711

    An American woman vacationing in Malta who was denied a lifesaving abortion while miscarrying was able to get care in Spain, the same day Roe v. Wade was overturned in the United States. Andrea Prudente, 38, and Jay Weeldreyer, 45, planned to leave their babymoon in Malta with a slew of pictures and cherished memories. Instead, they left on an emergency flight to Spain. Malta has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world — something the couple didn’t know before booking their vacation.

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  • Election 2021

    Candidate Forum

    On Oct. 28, 2021, the Bozeman for CEDAW Task Force held a forum for the candidates for the mayor and for three city commission seats, two four-year terms and one two year terms. The forum was held via Zoom and moderated by Lei-Anna Bertelsen. The participants were the candidates for mayor: Brian LaMeres, Terry Cunningham, and Christopher Brizzolara; candidates for the two open four-year city commission seats: Emily Talago, I-Ho Pomeroy, and Christopher Coburn; and the candidates for the open two-year city commission seat: Evan Rainey, Joey Morrison, and Jennifer Madgic.

    City Commission Candidate Forum

    On Oct. 21, 2021, the League of Women Voters, Bozeman Professional Women, AAUW, Bozeman Public Library, and Belgrade Community Library sponsored a forum for the candidates for three open Bozeman City Commission seats. The forum was held at the Bozeman Public Library and was presented as a Zoom meeting. The forum featured the three candidates for two open four-year City Commission seats: Chris Coburn, I-Ho Pomeroy, and Emily Talago. It also included the three candidates for an open two-year City Commission seat: Jennifer Madgic, Joey Morrison, and Evan Rainey. The forum was moderated by Sally Maison.

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  • Policies and Politics

    Marc C. Johnson Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate

    On the evening of September 20, 2023, in MSU Bozeman’s Student Union Ballroom A, The Burton K. Wheeler Center hosted historian, Marc C. Johnson as he discussed his latest book, Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate. The lecture entitled “Montana, Mansfield, and the Lost Art of Bipartisanship,” began with an introduction by Burton K. Wheeler Center Board Chair, Chuck Tooley.

    Some of the many achievements of Mike Mansfield’s leadership in the US Senate include: The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Civil Rights Act; Voting Rights Act; Wilderness Act; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Medicare/Medicaid; Gun Control Act; Food Stamp Act; Clean Air Act; Freedom of Information Act; Fair Housing Act; Highway Safety Act; Head Start.

     

    Barbara Lee with Amy Goodman, Tope Folarin & others

    Three days after the 9/11 attacks, CA Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee cast the sole vote against war in the entire Congress. She recognized that a “rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed.” She faced isolation and opprobrium from huge pro-war majorities in the Congress and across the country. But she stood fast, and has remained a leader in the movement to repeal of the authorizations for war that George Bush launched twenty years ago.
    But despite her isolation in Congress, Barbara Lee did not stand alone. Anti-war and other progressive organizations stood by her and mobilized powerful movements that over the years succeeded in transforming public opinion into widespread opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    In this Zoom event, recorded on 9-8-21, organized by The Institute for Policy Studies, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviews Representative Barbara Lee, along with questions from Diane Randall, General Secretary of the Friends Committee for National Legislation, Tope Folarin new executive director the Institute for Policy Studies, and Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War. It includes her speech on the floor of Congress before casting her vote against the war.

    To read this 9/10/21 article by Barbara Lee, “Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11?,” click on this link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee

    Thanks to The Institute for Policy Studies for permission to broadcast. You can find out more by going to their website, https://ips-dc.org/

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  • Representing Montanans

    Senator Jon Tester – Bozeman Town Hall Meeting

    On April 16th, 2019 Senior Montana Democratic Senator, Jon Tester, held a town hall meeting in the ballroom of the historic Baxter Hotel in downtown Bozeman to a standing room only crowd. After a brief report of his recent work, he took questions from the crowd, ranging from Immigration, Health Care, The Violence Against Women Act, with particular attention to missing and murdered Indigenous Women, Veteran Issues, particularly the high rate of suicides, Wildlife and Wildlands Protection, Climate Change and the Green New Deal, as well as extricating US Troops from Wars in the Middle East.

    Tester on Montana community banks and Dodd-Frank regulations

    Tester’s bill, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, aims to increase access to capital by cutting red tape for community banks and credit unions, while protecting consumers against risky Wall Street bets. Tester took to the Senate floor today (watch video) to underscore the urgent need to provide community banks and credit unions with regulatory relief to prevent further bank consolidation in Montana.

    According to Tester’s office, Montana has lost 23 chartered banks since 2008: “Many of these banks have consolidated and closed down as a result of the costs related to complying with regulations that were targeted to reign in the behavior of the nation’s largest financial institutions.”

    An Associated Press fact check of Montana banking statistics was carried in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

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