As of Thursday, February 4, 2021, Montana reports 95,111 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 313 new cases reported in the last day: 48 in Gallatin County, 47 in Yellowstone County, 44 in Flathead County, 31 in Cascade County, 22 in Missoula County, and more new cases in 30 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 3,401. Statewide, 4,327 people have been hospitalized. Currently, 115 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Yellowstone, Flathead, Cascade, and Gallatin Counties. 1,308 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 451,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 26,600,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Smartmatic, an international elections equipment company, has sued Fox News for more than $2.7 billion over false reports that it was part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. The company said in a statement, “Fox is responsible for this disinformation campaign, which has damaged democracy worldwide and irreparably harmed Smartmatic and other stakeholders who contribute to modern elections.”
The suit names Fox News; network personalities Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro; and Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, the legal associates of former President Donald Trump, as defendants. It lays out 13 separate instances in which a Fox News personality or guest claimed that Smartmatic was used to rig the 2020 election. The company became inexplicably part of a sprawling conspiracy theory, often repeated on Fox, that claimed the election was fraudulent. At times, Fox’s false statements included meritless claims that Smartmatic machines could be hacked to secretly change U.S. voters’ choices. A joint statement from the head election officials in each state, as well as the federal officials who oversaw election cybersecurity, said that the 2020 election’s safeguards made it “the most secure in American history,” and a coalition of the country’s top cybersecurity experts wrote that they found “no credible evidence of computer fraud.”

Montana’s Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is looking to change state law to give him the immediate power to directly appoint state district court judges and state Supreme Court judges. Senate Bill 140, recently introduced in the Montana Legislature, would eliminate the Judicial Nominating Commission and give the governor direct appointment power. Judges appointed by the governor still need to run in the next election, all of which are nonpartisan races, although judges typically have more staying power through elections after they’ve been hand-picked by the governor. The 1973 Legislature created the judicial commission process to de-polarize the governor’s judicial appointments, a shift from the earlier 1889 state Constitution, which had given governors direct appointment power over state benches and state Supreme Court justices. While modified somewhat frequently, the judicial nominating committee is a panel of seven — a District Court judge and two lawyers appointed by the state Supreme Court, and four laypeople appointed by the governor. Historically, states have moved from away from the direct appointment process and toward the merit-based selection with a commission. Records from the 1973 Legislature nod at the decision to select judges on a merit-based system, rather than a governor’s exclusive selection, a role which had been tainted by special interest groups within the Copper Kings era before Montana overhauled its Constitution. Senate President Pro Temp Jason Ellsoworth, R-Hamilton, requested the bill to eliminate the Judicial Nominating Commission and give the governor direct appointment power. Ending the commission would also end its public interview process. The State Bar of Montana will be at least one opponent to the bill. Executive Director John Mudd said Monday the proposal would cut out input not only from the public, but the judicial branch itself.