The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.Dozens of voices rose up in the Capitol Rot unda March 19 as the chants of disability rights advocates rang between the polished floors and ornamented dome. Signs and posters held by attendees provided clues about the reason for the rally: “Disabled & Proud,” “Disability Rights Are Human Rights,” and “Dignity Not Dependence.”A young woman from the Flathead Valley, Opal Besaw, did her best to sum up the cause that brought her and others to Helena to appeal to lawmakers pulling the levers of state budget and policy. “It is easy when you have all the numbers and the fancy-sounding words to forget the people that those numbers represent. That is why we are here today,” Besaw said. The crowd cheered.The primary thrust of Wednesday’s rally, organized by Disability Rights Montana and other disability rights advocacy groups, was the defense of a landmark piece of federal policy tucked inside the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Known as Section 504, it prohibits any program receiving federal funding from excluding or discriminating against individuals with disabilities. But within the past year, disability rights advocates say, that guarantee has come under legal threat.Several state attorneys general filed a lawsuit in 2024 challenging a new rule issued by the administration of former President Joe Biden dealing with gender dysphoria and disability protections. In that policy shift, the federal health department said that it would approach gender dysphoria, a medical condition experienced by many transgender people, like “any other disorder or condition,” thereby conferring protections under Section 504.The lawsuit, joined by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, pushes back on the new rule, which could threaten federal funding for states that don’t comply. But the lawsuit also asks the court to grant across-the-board relief from Section 504 enforcement, calling it an example of federal coercion. The lawsuit has not advanced since President Donald Trump took office early this year. Knudsen and other attorneys general have denied that the entirety of Section 504 is in their sights, saying their lawsuit is strictly about treating gender dysphoria as a disability. The protesters in the Capitol on Wednesday weren’t satisfied by those explanations. Among their signs and posters, at least one read “Stop Lying About 504.”Section 504 protections apply to public settings ranging from prisons to schools. Besaw, who has cerebral palsy, said an educational plan required under the law was the primary protection allowing her to learn alongside her peers in Montana’s K-12 public school system. She’s now a college student at Flathead Valley Community College studying creative writing and social services with plans to transfer to the University of Montana this fall. Besaw said the recent lawsuit has made her nervous about potential changes to federal disability protections.“I’m fearful but hopeful,” Besaw said of the legal situation surrounding Section 504. “We’ve been through this fight before, and we’ll fight it again.” —Alex Sakariassen and Mara SilversCloseup 📸More than 80 people attended a ceremony at the state Capitol Friday unveiling a plaque commemorating longtime Montana journalist Charles S. Johnson. Johnson, known by friends and colleagues as Chuck, spent 45 years covering the state Capitol after launching his career covering the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention for The Associated Press. After retiring in 2017, he continued to engage with the journalism community, including serving on the board of Montana Free Press before his death in 2023.After friends, colleagues and family shared remarks about Johnson’s warm personality and sense of humor, Johnson’s wife, Pat Hunt, helped unveil the plaque on the Capitol’s third floor. The plaque, authorized by 2023’s House Bill 855, memorializes Johnson’s tenure across decades of political happenings in Montana and concludes with one of his trademark phrases:“It’s the public’s right to know. Not the press’ right to know.”—Zeke LloydThe Viz 📈Federal judges seeking to illustrate the debate surrounding corner-crossing included this fun little illustration of the “checkerboard” land ownership pattern common across much of the West as part of an opinion that has major implications for public land access:U.S. 10th Circuit Court Judges Timothy Tymkovich, David Ebel and Nancy Moritz on Tuesday issued a unanimous order upholding a lower court’s ruling finding that four elk hunters legally accessed Bureau of Land Management land “as long as they did not physically touch” the neighboring private land owned by Elk Mountain Ranch.Pharmaceutical company executive Fred Eshelman had pressed criminal and then civil trespassing charges against the corner-crossing hunters, arguing they didn’t rightfully access public land during their 2021 and 2022 hunts. Eshelman had argued in legal filings that his Elk Mountain Ranch, which spans 50 square miles of southern Wyoming, stood to take a $9 million devaluation hit should he lose exclusive access to the elk-rich public land interspersed with his holdings. Corner-crossing’s legality has long remained murky, vexing both public land advocates eager to access federal land and large landowners wary of losing exclusive access to public land bordering their own and concerned about littering, poaching and wildfire. The United Property Owners of Montana filed an amicus brief backing Eshelman’s position; hunting and conservation groups with chapters in Montana, including Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Sierra Club and Great Old Broads for Wilderness, filed briefs supporting the hunters. The ruling applies to the 10th Circuit states of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma. Collectively, those states include more than 3 million acres of “corner-locked” checkerboard land that arose from the westward expansion of railroads. Since Montana is in a different appellate circuit, this week’s ruling doesn’t apply directly to property here. However, legal experts have said there is an element of “persuasive authority” that might find its way into judges’ opinions in other circuits.READ MORE: Federal appeals court sides with corner-crossing hunters in Wyoming dispute.—Amanda EggertVerbatim 💬“A lot of people are afraid of being detained. At least with our tribal identification card, [immigration agents] will know they are Native American and a citizen.”—Fort Belknap Tribal Enrollment Director Denise Walls, speaking about the tribes’ efforts to make tribal IDs more accessible.Tribes across the U.S. are working to distribute identification cards to more of their members, responding to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration and reports that Navajo tribal members have been questioned and detained in recent immigration sweeps. Issued by federally recognized tribes, tribal IDs often contain an individual’s name, birth date and tribal affiliation. They can often be used as a form of government-issued identification and, in Montana, can be used to register to vote. Located in north-central Montana, the Fort Belknap Reservation is home to about 4,000 enrolled members. Tribal officials estimate that another 4,000 or so members live outside the reservation. Until recently, Aaniiih and Nakoda tribal members had to travel to the enrollment office in Fort Belknap Agency and pay $15 to get a tribal ID.Walls said recent changes in immigration policy spurred the tribes to make tribal IDs more accessible in an effort to help their members avoid potential harassment by immigration officials. As a consequence of European colonization, Walls said, some Native Americans have Spanish last names. “We’ve received calls from other states, with Trump in office, saying Natives are detained and they don’t have the proper identification on them,” she said.The Fort Belknap Tribal Enrollment office transferred its database to a laptop and purchased a mobile printer and remote signature pad to conduct off-reservation distribution events. Earlier this month, the department held three tribal ID distribution events in Great Falls, Hays and Billings where they dispensed 354 tribal IDs, free of charge. In comparison, Walls said she and her staff may distribute five to 20 IDs in a typical day at the reservation office. The enrollment office also held a distribution event in Havre on Thursday and is planning another in Missoula on March 27 and 28.—Nora MabieHappenings 🗓️Montana’s premier western art auction, The Russell, is this weekend in Great Falls. Hosted by the C.M. Russell Museum, this year’s auction has one of the largest art catalogs in the event’s 56-year history.The Russell auctions will take place Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22 in Great Falls, with other Western Art Week events scheduled through Sunday, March 23.More than $6 million in western art was sold at last year’s auction and this year’s event has a good chance of topping that figure. More than 300 pieces are up for auction, thanks in part to a large consignment from one family. The art includes 125 historic pieces, including works by Russell contemporaries O.C. Seltzer, Joseph Henry Sharp and Edgar S. Paxson.Museum Executive Director Chris Warden told Montana Free Press that a typical auction might have fewer than five Russell pieces. This year, there are more than 20 pieces from the man himself in the catalog. “His art is so sought after around the world that it really doesn’t come to market in this quantity or quality very often,” Warden said.This year’s catalog includes “Women of America,” a large watercolor painted by Russell in 1924 that is considered to be one of his finest works (shown at center in the photo above). An appraisal placed the painting’s value at $1.6 million to $2.4 million.READ MORE: A Stunning Russell up for auction.—Matt HudsonThe Gist 📌A 40-cent lunch may not seem like much to some, but for Montana families on the cusp of poverty, that daily bill can add up to a significant barrier. That was the gist of Rep. Melissa Romano’s pitch to fellow lawmakers March 19 as the Helena Democrat introduced House Bill 551, a proposal aimed at eliminating copayments for government subsidized school meals in the name of, as Romano put it, “feeding kids.”The free and reduced lunch program ensures the state’s lowest-income students get school breakfasts and lunches free of charge. But for those with families living just above the poverty line, the program charges a reduced per-meal rate ranging between 30 and 40 cents. With kids attending school five days a week — about 179 days a year on average — that daily rate begins to add up.Wiping out cost barriers to school meals for families has been a priority for Romano and other Democrats for years — and may be getting traction with Republicans this year as well. Her bill, which includes a $600,000 price tag, appeared to draw bipartisan interest as she presented it to the House Education Committee this week. Romano said she has also discussed the issue with members of the Legislature’s education budget committee, which last month approved a $300,000-a-year line item targeting reduced-price copayments.Funding proponents shared stories at the House Education Committee hearing about students hiding copayment bills in backpacks out of embarrassment and about districts having to chase down parents for payment or shoulder the cost of unpaid breakfast and lunch debt. Hardin Public Schools Superintendent Tobin Novasio told MTFP in an interview that reduced-price copayments can force schools to “put on the hat of the debt collector,” hobbling their ability to forge trusting relationships with the families they serve.“A lot of these kids that we’re talking about are also kids that we’re helping with school supplies and weekend meals and coats and shoes, just trying to help these families out,” Novasio said. “One of my biggest frustrations is with all the work we do in education, still the No. 1 predictor of outcomes for kids is their parents’ income level.”—Alex SakariassenHighlights ☀️In other news this week —Investigating with ProPublica, we found that Helena oncologist Dr. Thomas C. Weiner had his license renewed by Montana’s Board of Medical Examiners twice since 2021 despite the state department that houses the board having evidence that his work had harmed and potentially killed patients. Raises for state workers are headed to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte. The bill also includes a provision that would eventually raise lawmaker pay to match Montana’s average wage.Back in January, we wrote about how a property tax break intended for working farms and ranches is being claimed by thousands of owners of million-dollar homes. This week, a bill aimed at closing ag tax loopholes died on the floor of the Montana House as lawmakers balked at voting for potential tax increases on current recipients. Salish and Blackfeet hip-hop artist Shadow Devereaux has a new album out.On Our Radar Amanda —  Outside magazine published many of the most memorable pieces of journalism I’ve read, so I was dismayed to learn that many of the veteran writers and editors who produced those stories are no longer with the publication. Much of the editorial talent that remained following Outside’s acquisition by Pocket Outdoor Media in 2021 was laid off earlier this month. A postmortem published in Escape Collective includes a rich analysis of Pocket’s “relentless pursuit of scale” that ultimately decimated the institution.JoVonne — I’m not particularly a sports fan, but when it comes to my alma mater and March Madness, I can’t help but be at least curious. Unfortunately, the University of Montana men’s basketball team was defeated 85-66 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the first round of the madness earlier this week. In the words of a self-described optimist, we still have next season. Matt — I love a story that takes me into little-known corners of a particular discipline’s professionalism. That was the case for this in-depth report on the fine art of Foley sound effects. Read about how those movie footsteps are made audible.Jacob — The release of Bedmap3’s dataset by British Antarctic Survey scientists last week gives us the clearest picture yet of the land hidden under Antarctica’s ice. Based on 60 years of data sourced to everything from high-tech satellites to traditional dogsled expeditions, the map challenges the common notion of Antarctica as merely frozen wasteland. Beneath a sheet of ice that’s as thick as 3 miles in some places lies a terrain that once was home to a tropical rainforest.Zeke — Though warmer weather has me shedding layers on my daily walks as Helena emerges from my first Montana winter, I’m finding I still need to wear a hat over my headphones. I’m also finding The Walters’ soft, self-reflective 2015 album “Young Men” is an excellent soundtrack for those lukewarm spring strolls. Mara — I’ve been reckoning with the large patch of weeds in my backyard that resembled a vegetable garden at one point last year. I’m considering what measures I’m willing to take to get rid of them without poisoning myself or my family, perhaps starting with this massive black plastic tarp. Any other ideas for combatting weeds? Let me know.Eric — Finding myself a wee bit under the weather following a St. Paddy’s Day celebration last weekend, I recuperated by watching a delightful Irish farmer with a YouTube channel build a DIY railroad to service his garlic field.*Some stories may require a subscription. Subscribe!The post When disability rights policy gets personal appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less