So this is interesting. The Montana Supreme Court basically threw down a challenge to the US Supreme Court to revisit the Citizens United decision, by upholding a state law that mandates corporate contribution limits.

The Montana group Patients for Reform – Not Repeal managed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify measure I-124 for the 2012 ballot. The initiative referendum would eliminate extremely strict new restrictions placed on the state’s medical marijuana system this year by the Republican controlled state legislature.

Montana’s Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer believes his state should follow Vermont’s lead in progressive health care reform at the state level. He plans to ask the federal government to grant Montana waivers to adopt a better system modeled after the one used in the neighboring Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

In 1804 and 1805, Lewis and Clark made history with their trip up the Missouri River, but it’s the waters coming down the Missouri that will make history in 2011. People along the Missouri are thinking less of Lewis and Clark and more about Noah these days. Water levels in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota are already at record levels, and all that water is pouring downriver. Dams can’t take any more water, and so the flow will only increase for cities and towns downstream.

It’s going to be a long, wet summer along the banks of the Missouri.

Virtually every time that Republicans or the Obama Administration talk about working together, they specifically cite the South Korea free trade agreement as a point of covergence. The agreement, modified by Obama’s negotiators last year but substantially similar to the corporate-written agreement originally negotiated under George W. Bush, looks like it’s on a glide path to passage, given that unanimity. In fact, the only person standing in the way is noted grassroots labor organizer Max Baucus.

It’s impossible to counter Schweitzer’s argument. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the Montana Governor was delivering the official Democratic radio address on this subject. The PhRMA deal in the Affordable Care Act has been universally recognized as ugly; just yesterday the AP credibly alleged that the drug lobby basically won out more than any other stakeholder. And even though Montana’s own Max Baucus can be credited with engineering the deal, Schweitzer continues to press for fair treatment for his constituents and a fair price for their medical care.

Here’s a round-up of the latest action in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Maryland and Delaware.