by Ken Toole | Apr 6, 2026 | Cascade County, Corruption, Law enforcement
(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.
by Ken Toole | Feb 6, 2026 | Republicans, Voting
After controversy about spending close to $200,000 of public funds sending campaign style post cards to Montana voters featuring a photo shopped picture of her standing next to Donald Trump, Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen is in hot water again.
This time Jacobsen is being questioned about sending confidential voter information to the United States Department of Justice. On February 4, The Montana Free Press reported that Jacobsen said that she had “fully complied” with the Department of Justice’s request for an unredacted complete file of Montana voters which contain confidential information. Jacobsen subsequently denied sending the information. Correspondence to the Montana Free Press from an attorney in Jacobsen’s office said, “Your below referenced article is filled with false information, deception, and dangerously inaccurate assumptions that are causing immediate damage. You specifically state in multiple places in the article that the above was turned over. Such was not. A public voter file is entirely different from a confidential, unredacted voter file.”
Wow. They seem pretty angry and very definitely say they did no such thing. Funny thing is that Jacobsen’s office then refused numerous attempts by the Montana Free Press to obtain further information. Well, of course they wouldn’t respond. . . none of our Republican statewide elected officials talk to Montana reporters, nor do they meet with voters. It’s a page from their political play book.
Here’s a link to the full story.
https://montanafreepress.org/2026/02/04/secretary-of-state-christi-jacobsen-complies-with-federal-demand-for-montana-voter-data/
Also check out Helena Lovick’s post on Jacobsen’s post card fiasco.
Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Pricey Partisan Postcard
by Ken Toole | Jul 13, 2024 | Energy/Utilities
Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci has had a lien filed on his property by the Braden Tract Sewer Association and Braden Tract Water Fund for non-payment of bills in the amount of $1,720. In addition, the districts are claiming Pinocci is responsible for moving a fence which is encroaching on its property at an estimated cost of $5,500.
Perhaps the greatest irony in this chapter of the long, sad saga of Pinocci’s behavior in public office is that, as a Public Service Commissioner, Pinocci is responsible for regulating public utilities similar to these two small local utilities. One of the biggest problems these businesses face is deadbeats not paying their bills. When that happens, other ratepayers pick up the tab. Pinocci either doesn’t understand that or he doesn’t care. Probably a bit of both.
As the Public Service Commissioner representing PSC District #1, which includes Cascade County, Pinocci earns an annual salary of $111,179. That does not include benefits like state retirement and health insurance. His wife, Svetlana, works in the elections office. She gets a good salary and county benefits. In addition, Pinocci has real estate appraised at a total value of $1,006,303. You would think he can afford to pay his water and sewer bills. . . like the rest of us. But Randy isn’t like the rest of us.
Pinocci seems to want to play politics more than do his job with the PSC. In the last election, he ran for Lieutenant Governor drawing his big paycheck from you and me the whole time. Then there is the fact that he was prosecuted for intimidating witnesses in a dispute over one of his rental properties last October. https://wtf406.com/2023/10/more-republican-police-blotter-pinocci-arrested-again/
A few weeks before that, he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear. When he is not being arrested or prosecuted, he is galavanting around the state promoting bizarre conspiracy theories.
Thanks, in part, to an organized effort to get Democrats to “cross over” and vote in the Republican Primary here in Cascade County, voters got rid of some of the far right leaders in their party. Legislators Steven Galloway and Lola Sheldon-Galloway lost. County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski also was turned away by the voters (though the rumor mill is predicting she will be hired by Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant). Both Pinocci and Merchant also lost their bids to be elected as Republican Party precinct people. Maybe there’s some hope for sanity in the local Republican Party.
Pinocci’s term on the Public Service Commission ends in 2026. Who knows what he will run for next. Whatever it is, we can only hope he is defeated.
by Ken Toole | Jul 9, 2024 | Taxes
In November of 2023, the Department of Revenue issued a paper warning legislators and others that Montana was facing dramatic increases in property taxes because of the increase in property values across the state. This was not the first time Montana had seen dramatic increases in property values. In the past, the legislature had avoided people’s bills going up by adjusting the state property tax rate multiplier in the residential property tax formula. It has been a simple fix. For more details follow this link https://dailymontanan.com/2023/07/26/big-corporations-get-tax-benefits-while-montana-resident-get-higher-property-taxes/
As legislators, both Lola Sheldon-Galloway and Steven Galloway were perfectly happy to let property taxes in Montana increase dramatically. But now it seems they were none too happy with the tax they were paying on their own property. Maybe it’s just that all of the public outcry following the last legislature got them thinking they might be able to play the same game large corporations, like Calumet, play in filing appeals then negotiating a “settlement” with the Department of Revenue behind closed doors. (See this editorial about property tax appeals:
https://dailymontanan.com/2024/06/26/there-is-a-way-for-montana-residential-property-taxes-to-go-down/ )
In case you didn’t know it, Galloway Investments owns the Dairy Queen located at 1651 Fox Farm Road. In late November of last year, the Galloways appealed their property taxes. Specifically, they challenged the Montana Department of Revenue’s appraisal of the value of the land the building sits on. After reviewing the appraised value at the request of the Galloways, the Department of Revenue stood by its valuation of the land value of $245,187, rejecting the Galloways’ estimate of the land being valued at $70,882. The Galloways then appealed the Department of Revenue’s valuation to the County Tax Appeals Board. The hearing on the Galloways’ appeal was held in early April. The County Tax Appeals Board denied the Galloways’ ’ appeal and left the valuation of the land at $245,187. On April 13th, WTF406 filed a public information request with the county requesting information on the Galloways’ appeal. The County Attorney’s office provided the information on June 13th.
Despite the fact that the Galloways have owned the property for at least 15 years and the property taxes have slowly increased overtime like many of the rest of us, suddenly they decided they just weren’t going to take it anymore and filed an appeal. And they proposed a dramatic reduction in the estimated value of the land, from $245,189 to $70,882, amounting to a reduction of more than 70 percent ($174,305). Wow!
Their justification in the appeal was that the land valuation is “Ridiculous.” They also argue that the Fox Farm Road Dairy Queen should be similar in value to the Dairy Queen on 9th Avenue, which they also own. According to their appeal, the value per square foot of the Fox Farm property is $17.87, while the 9th Avenue store is taxed at $5.16 per square foot.
The problem for the Galloways is that the Dairy Queen on 9th is not comparable. The Department of Revenue appraises land value of the 9th Street property at $116,250. The locations of the two properties are very different. Specifically, The Fox Farm location is just off 10th Avenue South and faces Fox Farm Rd, one of the busiest intersections in Great Falls. It is across the street from The Heritage Inn. The 9th Street Dairy Queen is tucked away in a mixed use neighborhood with far less traffic than the Fox Farm Road property. Many commercial properties have value based largely on the amount of traffic that can easily access the business.
After hearing the Galloways’ appeal, the local tax appeals board agreed with the Department of Revenue and denied their request for a tax break. They had thirty days from receipt of the local Tax Appeals Board decision to file an appeal with the State Tax Appeals Board. They apparently decided not to appeal.
It is ironic that both Galloways sat in legislative seats while the property tax crisis was tumbling through the 2024 legislature and did nothing. Lola Sheldon-Galloway sat on the House Taxation Committee for two sessions of the legislature, and Steven Galloway sat on the House Business and Labor Committee. They both had an opportunity to address Montana’s increase in property taxes. They chose to ignore it.
by Ken Toole | Apr 12, 2024 | Elections
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has a bullet in his arm. The Washington Post broke a convoluted and confusing news story about how it got there. The story is convoluted and confusing, because Tim Sheehy has been telling a couple of different stories about how it got there.
Story number 1 according to Tim Sheehy- In 2015 he was in the parking lot at Logan Pass in Glacier Park. While putting things in his car, his Colt .45 pistol slipped and fell to the ground, causing it to discharge and hit him in the arm. He was ticketed by the Park Service and paid a fine. Now Sheehy says this story was a lie.
Story number 2 according to Tim Sheehy- In 2012 while serving in Afghanistan, he was hit by a bullet in the arm. He says that he doesn’t know where it came from. He says that he did not report the wound, as is presumably required by the military, because he did not want to prompt an investigation which could have drug his platoon mates through the mud. Tim Sheehy says this is the real story.
Jackie Brown over at the Western Word Blog here in Great Falls put it this way when calling on Sheehy to withdraw from the Senate Race: “As I said yesterday, Sheehy should do the honorable thing and drop out of the U.S. Senate race this week. These are not the actions one would expect from a Naval Officer and Navy SEAL. These are not the actions Montanans would expect from a U.S. Senator. To say the least, it’s dishonorable.”
We can’t say it any better than conservative lawyer and Never Trumper, George Conway, “Let those among you who have not lied about lying about shooting yourselves in the arm in a national park in order to cover up not faking a combat wound—or something like that, I can’t quite figure it out—cast the first stone.”
