(Kevin Leatherbarrow and Tony Rosales pictured promoting the Cascade Effect Podcast)
The Cascade Effect Podcast bills itself as “A true-crime anthology podcast investigating corruption and negligence of law enforcement in Cascade County, Montana, a county that is known for its heavy-handed police work as well as the incarceration and harassment of innocent civilians.”
The first season of The Cascade Effect investigates a confrontation between a sheriff’s deputy and a man named Michael Hanson which resulted in the death of Hanson and wounding of the deputy. Last summer a coroner’s jury deliberated for a short time and came back with a unanimous decision that the shooting was not by criminal means. The Coroner’s Jury found no wrong doing in Hanson’s death. (It’s a long, complicated story, thoroughly covered by The Electric) https://theelectricgf.com/2024/06/04/inquest-determines-feb-23-fatal-shooting-by-deputy-justified/
Subsequently, local Libertarian activists Tony Rosales and Kevin Leatherbarrow (both are currently running for legislative seats as Republicans) and local militia promoter Bart Crabtree all filed a writ of mandamus with the Montana Supreme Court seeking a citizens grand jury to investigate the determination of the coroner’s action absolving the deputy of wrongdoing. They were joined in this request by Jake Green, the producer of The Cascade Effect.
What Does Recovery Centers of Montana have to do with all of this?
Recovery Centers of Montana (RCM) has had a relationship with the sheriff’s office to provide referrals for rehabilitation services to inmates from the Cascade County Detention Center. Recently, Recovery Centers of Montana also became a sponsor of The Cascade Effect. Jake Green posted on Facebook that, four days after announcing their partnership, RCM received the email below from the sheriff’s office.
Good afternoon. Please see the directive below. From this point forward the Cascade County Detention Center will no longer facilitate or fund services for inmates associated with Recovery Centers of Montana. It has come to our attention that RCM is a sponsor of The Cascade Effect which is a podcast promoting false narratives about members of the Cascade County Sheriff’s office which we believe is a conflict of interest in dealing with RCM. Despite our differences we still intend to encourage defence attorneys and inmates to diligently work together in getting their clients into any and all forms of treatment including treatment from RCM. If you have any questions contact undersheriff Scott Van Dyke. Thank you for your time. Alicia Otis, Community Care Coordinator.
RCM said that they have not received any referrals from the sheriff’s office since receiving the email.
Those of us who have served in public office generally understand that we will have critics, and that those critics will make all kinds of public statements. But Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, in his desire to get back at The Cascade Effect because he doesn’t like their coverage of his office, has crossed a line. Not only is it unprofessional and peevish, it is likely a violation of the Montana Governmental Code of Fair Practices’ prohibitions of retaliation for human rights activity. Both The Cascade Effect and RCM can claim damages and seek payment from Cascade County. Whether either entity will do that remains to be seen. We have to wonder where County Attorney Josh Racki was while all of this was going on.
Former legislator Steven Galloway has filed to run in senate district 11 in Cascade County. This video of Galloway at some Trump event says it all. If this offends you, consider running yourself. The deadline for filing is March 4th.
Nobody understands the blather Northwestern Energy is spouting to explain its plans for Colstrip, a subsidiary, customer credits, and … perhaps … bivationary falvebarms.
The 2025 municipal election season is over so how did Great Falls do? First the new law passed by Montana Republicans in 2025 to require the addition of the voter’s birth year on the ballots with their signature led to a huge number of ballots being rejected.
In the 2023 Great Falls Municipal Election, 204 ballots were rejected.
Now we know that the new Birth Year Ballot law is working as intended. Spreading confusion, discouraging voters, and damaging trust in the electoral process. On top of that, it interferes with the work of our elections officials and reduces voter privacy. What a delight! Thanks so much Montana GOP* for your continued efforts to undermine elections! *(The House Bill 719 passed on a party line vote with no Democrats supporting it during the 2025 Montana Legislature).
How about the Election Results Themselves?
Here there are:
MAYOR
Cory Reeves: 11,650 (71.0%)
Jasmine Taylor: 4,416 (26.91%)
Write-In: 57
CITY COMMISSION
Pete Anderson: 5,249 (16.0%)
Joe McKenney: 8,756 (26.7%)
Matt Pipinich: 5,614 (17.1%)
Casey Schreiner: 8,578 (26.1%)
Write-In: 111
FIREWORKS
Yes (limit): 8,781 (53.5%)
No (do not limit): 7,294 (44.4%)
Well to be honest, the results weren’t what I was hoping for. But it could have been worse!
The Good News
We did not elect Pete Anderson to the City Commission after he proposed a homeless island where homeless people would be used as revenue-generating “tourist attraction” makinginternational headlines. The bar is in the ground and we cleared it! Let’s continue to keep out the crazies. And newly elected commissioner, Casey Schreiner, is a solid addition to the Great Falls City Commission.
The Meh News
Joe McKenney and Cory Reeves were both incumbents so their re-elections look like more of the same. A commission that seems to lack vision for fiscal responsibility with the growing deficit of the local aquatic center, a 27% utility rate hike, refusal to issue proclamations on LGBTQ rights and breast feeding, yanking of funding from our library after voters passed a levy trying to increase library funding and so much more. It’s a slow motion trainwreck as the current commission runs our city into the ground.
Thank you Jasmine, Matt, and Casey
Thankfully Jasmine Taylor challenged Cory Reeves and didn’t let him run unopposed. Her candidacy helped elevate the issues our city faces such as the Calumet tax protest situation, lack of support for the public library, and so forth. Thank you Jasmine Taylor, Matt Pipinich, and Casey Schreiner for offering a different vision for our city. A city of growth and embrace of diversity. We sure deserve better than this wishy-washy city commission untethered to moral ground as they make too many decisions based on their biases and supporters’ opinions. How about doing the right thing, not the easy thing? Maybe explain to citizens why a move is necessary even if it goes against your kneejerk surface values? What a world that would be…where politicians had a backbone and actually walked the walk of their values.
What’s Next?
Should progressives give up all hope and accept that the right-wing takeover of our town is insurmountable? Um, HELL NO. Change is in the wind. We all saw it on Election night. Although things didn’t go left in Great Falls, they RAN left in national news. Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, what an impressive rejection of the national politics led by trumple-thin-skin. It takes effort to move the pendulum left, and that means persistence. Let’s Keep Going.
Thompson had this to say about the recognition, “You shouldn’t do things just to get done, to be the first one to get done. Accuracy means more to the voter in the end result… I’d rather be the last one to finish and know that it was 100% accurate as to be the first one to finish and it not to be real accurate.” She concluded, “We want to serve the people. We want to give them the confidence and trust that, you know, elections are being conducted fairly accurately, transparent and they’re secure.”
Her competence and commitment to open and fair elections is a welcome relief after the chaos created by Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, and their gaggle of goofy election deniers. We also can’t forget the political courage demonstrated by County Commissioners Jim Larson and Joe Briggs for standing up the these folks and removing the election duties from Merchant’s office when it became clear she was not up to the job and was taking her marching orders from Commissioner Rae Grulkowski. WTF406.com wrote extensively about the attack on our election process from far right activists in Cascade County.
