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July 24, 2010

THE BUZZ

Gov. Brian Schweitzer was in Las Vegas Thursday to kick off the 5th annual convention of the progressive group, Netroots Nation.

The organization, an influential voice on the left, was originally organized by readers and writers of Daily Kos. The term netroots describes political activism spurred by blogs and other online media.

Other speakers includedHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, and MSNBC personality Ed Schultz.

UPDATE: Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, railed against "bull... Democrats" at the kickoff event, and urged Schweitzer to run in the 2012 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate against Max Baucus. Baucus is blamed by many liberals for sinking the chances of a "public option" in this year's health care bill.

Travis R. Kavulla, the GOP candidate for the Public Service Commission in District 1, has been profiled in what might seem an unlikely spot: The Harvard Crimson. But then, Kavulla earned the honor by graduating from Harvard just a few years ago.

As a student, he wrote a column for the Crimson and served as editor of The Harvard Salient, which garnered national attention by republishing the infamous Danish cartoons that aggravated many in the Muslim world. Later, the Montana native worked for William F. Buckley's National Review, and toured east Africa. During his travels and studies, he wrote about subjects ranging from religion to energy.

“I've always been kind of an energy policy nerd,” Kavulla told the Crimson.

Kavulla told the Crimson his conservative views were often challenged at Harvard --an experience that helped him to appreciate that “so many people of such different political persuasions have very good points.”

There's an odd twist to the news that San Diego Gas & Electric wants to invest up to $600 million in a wind farm on the Montana Hi-Line.

And the twist? The power wouldn't go to Southern California, but would be shipped to Canada, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. So why would the San Diego utility be investing in a Montana wind farm if the power won't be shipped to California? It's because the utility can use the investment to meet an arcane California requirement that utilities get 20 percent of their power from wind, solar and other alternative sources.

The program is called the Renewable Portfolio Standards, or RPS, and the utility could earn RPS credits by investing in the Montana wind farm.

Consumer groups are expected to protest the San Dieto utility's plans to the California Public Utilties Commission. "It's (the utility's Montana investment) a disturbing example of how this Commission's obsession with renewable power results in perverse incentives for utilities," said Michael Shames, executive director of UCAN, the Utility Consumers' Action Network. "And a very compelling reason why the regulators have to seriously reassess its tradeable renewable energy credit policy."

Last year, San Diego Gas & Electric signed an agreement with developer NaturEner USA to purchase 309 megawatts of power from the $800 million Rim Rock wind farm in Glacier and Toole counties. In a July 15 filing with the state of California, the utility asked to amend the original power purchase agreement to allow the $600 million equity investment in Rim Rock.

Sen. Jon Tester is being targeted by a group that doesn't like him messing with the gun laws in Washington, D.C.

Tester is the sponsor of a bill that would eliminate any locally enacted firearms regulations within the District. That has drawn the ire of a group called the Free and Equal D.C. Fund, which claims the bill would let people in the District carry around semiautomatic rifles and is just an effort to score "cheap political points" with the NRA.

The group has started running a radio ad in Montana that accuses Tester of ignoring Montana interests and instead wasting time on D.C. matters. The ad doesn't mention what precipitated the controversy: Tester's gun legislation.

If it did, it probably would score points for -- rather than hurt -- Tester. Of course, Montanans may be so curious about the ambiguous ad that they do a little digging. If they do and they find out that Tester is sticking up for gun rights, it is unlikely that the ad will do the Democratic senator much, if any, damage.

Montana ranked a measly 36th in CNBC's annual survey of the "Top States for Business."

Montana got its best scores in the Quality of Life and Economy categories. It ranked 15 in both categories, compared to the countries other states.

The Treasure State was weakest in Technology and Innovation (rated 44) and Business Friendliness (rated 42).

Montana has, for the most part, avoided the severe economic stress that some states have experienced. Yet this survey suggests it has considerable work to do to boost its appeal to the business world.

President Barack Obama's poll numbers may be slipping, but he's still an inspiration to White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, a University of Montana graduate who also once served as Sen. Max Baucus' chief of staff.

"It's like a dream every single day," Messina said about his job in the White House. "It's the single best thing. It is as cool as you think it is."

Dana Milbank, an acerbic Washington Post columnist, wrote about Messina's comments to a group of young Democrats in a column that surmised that one reason for Obama's struggles is that he "set impossibly high expectations." Milbank said Messina's remarks showed that Obama's deputy chief of staff showed that he still believed his boss "walked on water."

Milbank said Messina called Obama "the leader you all wanted him to be" and proclaimed that "I couldn't be any more proud of the guy."

He even held out the possibility that the students could someday "be Jim Messina," a status that allows you "to have a cool car and work for a cool president."

In the Bitterroot -- and around the country for that matter -- rock star Huey Lewis and finance tycoon Charles Schwab are pretty well known. But on the Internet's hot social networking site, Facebook, neither Lewis nor Schwab can hold a candle to the Bitterroot's Allie Brosh.

And who, you might ask, is Allie Brosh?

Brosh is a 25-year-old University of Montana student and writer who created a blog called Hyperbole and a Half last summer as sort of a distraction from her heavy course load. She had few readers in the beginning, but with her breezy style and self-deprecating wit, Brosh soon became a Facebook sensation. When one popular social media news site recommended her blog, she had 400,000 hits in one day. Today she has close to 33,000 fans. She's even had inquiries from book agents and a book-publishing companies.

"I try to be as silly as possible. I feel like you can do more with craziness," she told the Ravalli Republic.

Brosh says she's shocked by her success, and for a long time she resisted readers' entreaties to put a Paypal link on her site. She finally relented a month ago -- and admirers have sent in more than $6,000 since that time. Brosh has even started thinking about a career in writing, though she's majoring in human biology.

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Stuntman Spanky Spangler makes another of his patented jumps at the annual Evel Knievel Days in Butte, this time off the roof of the eight-story Metals Bank building, to the cheers of thousands of onlookers Friday evening. The event continues with one more day of (Walter Hinick / Montana Standard)