As Ryan Busse sets out on his campaign for the governor’s office, the Kalispell Democrat hopes to unite voters around public lands and personal freedoms.

Busse became the first Democrat to throw his hat in the ring for Montana’s 2024 gubernatorial race, posing a likely challenge to incumbent Gianforte. Unlike the billionaire governor, Busse is focused on strong public education, a fair tax system, affordable housing, access to public lands and so much more.

With right wing at­tempts to control chil­dren's classrooms, book ban­ning pre­sents many neg­a­tive ef­fects for teach­ers, stu­dents, and class­rooms. Book ban­ning has a long his­tory through­out the world. Books are con­tin­u­ously chal­lenged and banned at lo­cal schools and li­braries. When a book gets chal­lenged or banned, some­one else is try­ing to de­cide what is best for every­one based on his or her own be­liefs and feel­ings.

So far this school year: 1,477 books banned.

Continuing his push to improve veterans’ access to earned benefits, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced bipartisan legislation this week to strengthen VA’s process of evaluating the medical connection between a veteran’s medical condition and their military service when filing for VA benefits.

Tester has long proven himself as a champion for veterans, driving cost of living increases recently signed by Pres. Biden.