It’s time to get logged in to the week in review.

Next weekend is the Fourth of July, and I want to make sure you’ve got it on your calendar. Come on out to Lewistown for the festivities, and head to the fairgrounds beginning at two o’clock, where the American Legion will conduct an opening ceremony and the Judith Mountain Players will put on a “Reenactment of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence”. This is the 250th anniversary of this great nation, and that’s worth celebrating right here at home.

Now, to the week.

It started out Monday morning when I headed over to the Yogo Inn for a 2-day small business seminar — except I had the wrong start day on my calendar and showed up a day late thinking I was ten minutes early. I did get to visit with a few folks, including a woman who runs a business called Wide Oak Pastures out of Georgia. By all accounts, she gave a good presentation to those who actually had the right day written down.

From there, the week picked up considerably. I sat in on an AI zoom meeting covering the pros and cons of artificial intelligence data centers in communities like ours. Locally, the sentiment is pretty clear — people are concerned about the electricity draw and the water usage that come with large hyperscale AI data centers. I hear that. Those are legitimate concerns. But here’s what I want folks to understand: those are technically solvable problems. My position is that if a hyperscale AI data center is going to come to Montana, it comes on our terms — not on the industry’s terms. Montana has a history of getting the short end of the stick when outside industry moves in fast and we’re not prepared. We’re not going to let that happen here.

That said, let’s be clear about something. Artificial intelligence is already here. You’re using it right now. Online banking? Data center. Your iPhone? AI. We already have somewhere between twelve and thirty data centers operating in the state of Montana. The conversation we need to be having is specifically about hyperscale facilities — and we need to define that problem precisely before we start writing law around it.

My deeper concern with AI isn’t the buildings. It’s the intelligence itself. There are things AI may already be doing that we don’t fully understand, and we need to find out. If it’s doing something it shouldn’t be, we rein it in. If it’s doing something it should be doing, we set the guardrails and move forward responsibly. That’s not anti-technology — that’s just good governance.

Legislative days ran Thursday and Friday in Helena. I showed up a day early to attend an event sponsored by the Leadership Institute, which was a meeting that focused on pulling our caucus together after a tough primary season and getting our legislative agenda squared away heading into the general. Thursday brought a plenary session at the Capitol with solid ethics training — what money legislators can accept, how can it be accepted, and what the law says clearly on all of it. Good, thorough work. We also covered wildfire funding, which is a complicated conversation involving taxing jurisdictions and who bears the cost when fires burn across different land categories. That one will keep developing.

There was also a breakout session on Montana’s judicial system. As I shared last week, I was at the Fergus County Courthouse with Chief Justice Cory Swanson and District Judge Heather Perry. Cases are backlogged. Citizens aren’t being served as efficiently as they deserve to be. That’s a problem worth fixing, and I’m glad it’s getting attention at the legislative level.

On Saturday, we said goodbye to Bob Gacke — a friend to Lewistown and a friend to me personally. I first heard his voice when I was out on the ridge at the ranch, cutting trees for a fuels mitigation project, and my cell phone rang. Bob was instrumental in helping me bring a US Constitution class to Lewistown, which ultimately put me on the path to serving in House District 37. Teaching the Constitution to adults and homeschoolers taught me something I carry with me every day: a constitutional republic only works when the people who live in it stay engaged. Bob understood that. Thank you, Bob. Honored to have known you.

Finally — vote Dan Wilson for Montana Supreme Court Associate Justice this November. He’s a constitutionally grounded judge who lets the law drive outcomes. We need that on our Supreme Court.

Until next week, stay engaged.