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Happy holidays! To close out 2025, I’ve spent time reflecting on my first full year as Montana Free Press’ local Missoula reporter. The last year has brought no shortage of interesting stories, and while plenty of those appeared in this newsletter, some of my most memorable assignments were stories Missoula This Week readers may have missed.

While I often cover local government, two figures on the national political stage came to Missoula in April — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — as part of Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. My colleague Zeke Lloyd joined me in covering the rally, which drew a high-energy crowd of nearly 7,500 people.

I got another taste of political reporting while following the journey of House Bill 643 through the Montana Legislature this spring. The bill allocated $6 million to reimburse counties for inmates waiting for a bed at the Montana State Hospital, a problem Missoula County sued the state over in 2020 and urged the state to tackle in 2024.

The bill went through a rollercoaster: approved by both chambers of the Legislature, vetoed by Gov. Greg Gianforte and restored by lawmakers through a veto override. As of mid-December, the state has spent about $452,000 of the $6 million, according to a report from the Department of Public Health and Human Services. Missoula County has received more than half of that, about $264,000, the sheriff’s department told me. Tracking this one bill gave me renewed appreciation for my colleagues in Helena who dedicate months to covering the Legislature.

This spring, I also wrote about efforts to address barriers to youth mental health services in Missoula. The story explored the use of a multi-million-dollar federal grant to improve collaboration between agencies, help youth transition between services with less waiting time, engage families in care plans and decrease crises and hospitalizations. Some of the money went to expand a mobile crisis response team in Missoula schools, which I first wrote about nearly two years ago. It’s often challenging to keep track of all the programs I report on and their outcomes, but this story offered that chance as well as a look at other organizations working to help children in crisis, including Youth Homes Montana. That organization, which runs youth group homes and a family care program, used the grant money to create a crisis care team and a crisis stabilization bed.

Youth Homes also works with young adults aging out of foster care, a population that is especially vulnerable to homelessness, a report released earlier this year found. The 67-page report linking homelessness and criminal justice involvement highlighted the challenges for youth, as well as other populations disproportionately represented in both systems. It also discusses current resources and identifies gaps in the community, making several recommendations.

Mentioned as a promising new resource was the Watershed Navigation Center. While I wrote several stories about Missoula’s response to homelessness this year, touring Watershed with MTFP photographer Lauren Miller and speaking to some of the folks accessing resources there was the most memorable. The Watershed Navigation Center, which helps connect unhoused people or those recently incarcerated to resources, opened full-time this fall. County and nonprofit leaders hope the center will help keep people out of jail by connecting them to housing, employment, health care and other services.

Homelessness and the criminal justice system, and their intersection, have been and will likely continue to be hot topics in Missoula that I’ll continue reporting on in the new year.

Thank you for reading. Missoula This Week will not publish next Friday, Jan. 2, as most of MTFP’s staff takes a break for the holidays. We will return to our regular publication schedule on Jan. 9.