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12/29/2025

One week at a time in 2025

Mondays are usually the most stressful days of the week for me, because the newsletter cards are empty. Those are quarter-sheets of scratch paper that I use to track news leads for the Great Falls This Week newsletter. Sometimes leads are planned before Monday comes. Other times, it’s truly a blank slate at the start of the week.

A year’s worth of newsletter cards and Smudge the cat. Credit: Matt Hudson/MTFP

On Fridays, it’s fun to wrap up newsletter work and see where the week took me. Newsletters in 2025 recounted the travels of Great Falls’ so-called “most interesting man,” inventoried empty storefronts in the mall and paused to appreciate pretty sunsets in between the regular local government coverage.

There were 49 editions of Great Falls This Week in 2025. They’re archived here.

Regular readers will know that, in addition to the weekly newsletter, I report and write stories that appear on the MTFP website. I wrote or contributed to 38 articles this year, from tariffs to trash and other hot topics in between.

The top five Great Falls stories in 2025, based on website visitors, were:

Great Falls candidate suggests congregated neighborhood for unhoused as tourist attraction

Cascade County inmates positive for hepatitis C after being served blood-contaminated food, lawsuit contends

A year in, Great Falls’ $20M pool and rec center struggles to find financial footing

University of Providence in Great Falls plans to cut staff and courses to account for multi-million dollar budget shortfall

The Border Patrol agents in Montana called them gang members. Defense attorneys saw no evidence of that as a judge dismissed their cases

As always, thank you so much for reading.

— Matt Hudson

Photo Op 

Credit: Kristen Inbody

Reader Kristen Inbody shared this photo of a more wintry time just weeks ago in mid-December. In the foreground, Stormy looks out across the Giant Springs footbridge.

Calling all photographers: Submit a photo for Great Falls This Week to [email protected].

Programming Note

MTFP staff members are taking a short holiday break. The next edition of Great Falls This Week will publish Jan. 12.

See you in 2026!

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ABOUT MTFP

Matt Hudson has covered Great Falls for MTFP Local since 2024. He also writes Great Falls This Week, a recurring newsletter about local issues. He is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism, and previously worked as a reporter for the Owatonna People's Press, in Minnesota, the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell and the Billings Gazette. He lives in Great Falls with his family. Reach Matt at [email protected].