Stay in touch with legislators
The Montana Legislature has, over time, become progressively more accessible, more user-friendly for constituents and it appears that trend is continuing with the development of a smart-phone application that will provide an interactive legislative guide.
It’s important to note that Montana has a true, part-time citizens’ Legislature that meets every other year, and lawmakers often say they greatly rely on input from their constituents. And they get just that.
Legislative proceedings have for years been broadcast on cable television through an impressive video network in the Capitol, and all bills, committee reports and other information has been easily accessible through the Legislature’s website at http://leg.mt.gov
The latest move, spearhead by the Montana Electric Cooperatives Association, is the smart phone “app” that allows constituents (and lobbyists, of course) to have access to lawmakers’ contact information, staff and committee memberships and the ability to send e-mails or place a call with one touch. It will provide links to Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. Basically, it is an electronic version of a print guide that MECA has published for 25 years.
All for the better, we say. Our elected representatives in Helena should be hearing from Montanans as much as possible.
A WOMAN from Columbia Falls is a big hit thousands of miles away in Sweden.
Last week, Anna Mohr was announced as the winner of a Swedish reality television show, “Allt for Sverige,” that pitted 10 Americans against each another for the grand prize of meeting their long-lost Swedish relatives.
Winning the program — translated into “Everything for Sweden” in English — gave Mohr the chance to meet Swedish relatives on her great-grandmother’s side of the family.
She became not just a reality TV star in the country of her ancestors but also a sort of Swedish-American hero. “I’ve heard from Swedes that I helped shape their view of Americans in a positive way, so I’m sort of a Swedish-American ambassador,” Mohr says.