News you can use
News you can use
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Editor, This letter is in response to Jeff C. Dibblee’s and Fran Buell’s letters to the editor. I find it quite interesting that someone else’s opinions and facts are unacceptable and open to criticism and ridicule if it doesn’t align with your thinking. I believe everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if we disagree. In answer to your questions about Beaver Deceivers and if they work, unlike trapping, they are quite effective and are being used throughout the country with much success. There are different versions dependi...
After session adjourned, Judy and I took a few days for ourselves. We have six grandkids in Wyoming from ages 4 to 17. So, we went south and celebrated two birthdays and attended both a track meet and soccer game while visiting two of our kids and both their families. Seems, “Let’s go, Papa” was the word for the visit. The youth do step out at a brisker pace than I most often use. That being said, it was good to get home just in time for 8-plus inches of snow following about a half inch of rain. As I mentioned in my last...
With one headline, Live Science promised me an epic tale of adventure, heroism and more than just a little absurdity: “After a Chinese zoo covered up a leopard escape, 100 chickens are searching for the big cat.” My gaaaawd! The chickens in China are forming a hunting party to track down an actual leopard? One hundred chickens, all focused on one objective against a fierce predator? Chickens? Hunting leopards? Imagine that if you will, if you can. Maybe they’re hunting in pa...
How many ways are there for illegal migrants to die crossing or trying to cross our border? The list keeps growing, encouraged by policies and messaging from the Biden administration. Three people were recently killed, and dozens hospitalized, after a smuggling boat overturned and broke apart off the San Diego coast. The Border Patrol said there has been a 92 percent increase in maritime apprehensions of smugglers in 2020 as compared with the previous year. In March, 13 people died when an SUV, filled with 25 illegal...
I am a blade of grass. When I don’t have water I turn brown, crisp, wither into the ground. I lie dormant until such time as rains come. I am the same as a blade of grass — except that I can reach for water. My cousin, that blade of withered grass, can send its roots only so far into the ground until it hits bedrock or can grow no further. On second thought, I am a blade of grass. It rained. You would have thought Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July, and my birthday all cam...
Love them or hate them, most Americans pay their fair share of taxes into the government’s coffers as a basic duty. In return, we get roads, schools, law enforcement, health services, clean air and water, and other public goods that benefit everyone. But for too long, the rules that apply to most of us have been shirked by the richest households and corporations — those who can afford to pay their fair share, but thanks to loopholes, lobbying and preferential treatment, seldom do. Every year, dozens of Fortune 500 cor...
Editor, The Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act currently being debated in Congress is a piece of legislation that is critical in order to further protect and sustain Montana’s public lands for recreational enjoyment for all Montanans. Specifically, the bill authorizes protection of an additional 79,000 acres of land in the vicinity of the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, opens an additional 3,800 acres for mountain biking, 2,000 acres for snowmobiling, and authorizes further access of recreationists to Lolo National Forest t...
Everyone knows that I am attached to my desk. I would argue I have good reason. My desk is an extension of myself. Whereas other people are attached to their phones, I frequently lose track of mine. (Just writing this made me wonder where it was. Don’t worry; I found it.) My desk is my home inside my home. I hear about people working from their couch or from their kitchen table or even from their bed and I cannot imagine it. My desk is always tidy. I always have fresh f...
At the May Park Board meeting we were told that the park will continue to lethally trap beavers until the “population is under control.” When questioned “what will be the standard for the population being under control,” other than a comment about activity, there was not an explanation of what the standard and or measure of population will be. When further pressed about the consensus of the board considering wildlife or wildlife habitat in decisions for the park, the response from the chairman was: It will be conside...
Editor, I have been following the debate over the beaver situation in our Hill County Beaver Creek Park. We are losing a tremendous amount of trees and access to the creek itself by a common rodent. The beaver. Now that the anti-trapping people and other humane special interest groups have been called to graciously help solve our problem there have been many questions left unanswered. 1. How much will these Beaver Deceivers, pond levelers, cost? (I was told it was $12-15,000 each. 2. What is the effective range of a Beaver...
Superintendent of Public Instruction Arntzen, as an elected official, has the responsibility to serve all Montanans — not just some. Instead, she needlessly and recklessly chose to place Montana’s public education system in the crosshairs of a national political debate. Her recent opinion piece undermines long-established critical race theory that recognizes slavery, segregation, redlining, and other oppressive policies and laws are part of America’s history. When we do not acknowledge and examine how those things impac...
Today’s students are tomorrow’s citizens. We need all Montanans to understand, and care about, the future of our state and nation. We need them to study our founding documents, and understand what makes the United States so exceptional. And we need them to comprehend when our country has fallen short of its lofty goals, and how ordinary citizens and leaders alike have come together to enact change to guarantee we learn from our history and that the same mistakes are not repeated. In order for that to happen, we must ens...
Editor, Hopefully most of the citizenry of Havre have become aware of the billboard along the highway east of Havre. If not, please check it out. The billboard was paid for by an anti-trapping organization, “Trap Free Montana Public Lands” based in Hamilton. Their anti-trapping activity has been concentrated mostly in the western part of the state. It seems coincidentally suspicious that a billboard with a message to “Protect Beaver” appears in Havre while meetings addressing the management of beaver in Beaver Creek Park th...
We’ve all got answers to life’s problems, but they ain’t all interesting, so today I want to talk a little bit about innovative solutions. Remember the Suez Canal fiasco a few months ago when a ship captain accidentally grounded a cargo ship against the canal’s soft, sandy bank and the waterway was blocked for six days? (Side note: I thought the entire canal was lined with concrete but, obviously, I am not well-read or attentive to news from 2004 and 2006 when this happene...
Without a doubt, improving access to high-speed internet was necessary before the pandemic, but since COVID hit, the “digital divide” in Montana has only become more apparent. Tuesday May 11, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed “The ConnectMT Act — To establish broadband deployment,” Senate Bill 29, into law. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Jason Ellsworth of Hamilton and passed the Montana Legislature overwhelmingly. This new law leverages $275 million in federal money available through the American Rescue Plan Act to expand br...
We Americans are so tethered to our cars. It’s as though there is an umbilical cord between our brains and the ignition switch. When I first moved to Mexico, driving my vehicle stuffed to the roof with bare essentials, I lived in the fair-sized city of Mazatlan. In the first six months, I drove my van exactly one time. Public transportation in most of Mexico is good, easy and inexpensive. I was there on a six-month tourist visa so my trusty van and I had to exit Mexico. On r...
Tanner and Dakota are waiting for me. They’re standing at the corner of their chain-link fence, watching the sidewalk. They know I’m coming, even if they don’t know exactly when, even if they can’t see the sidewalk very well and can’t hear at all. Tanner and Dakota are my two oldest dog customers, dogs I give treats to nearly every day. My husband, Peter, has decided against paying the big bucks for high-priced dog treats full of questionable ingredients. He bought himself a d...
I’ve never been good at training two horses at the same time, and yet here I am, on the verge of my rocking chair on the porch years, breaking two horses to ride, and they couldn’t be making it harder on my brain if they tried. It’s not whether they are well-behaved and or trainable, or if they’re difficult, tricky, obstinate, or otherwise constitutionally against being trained to interact with humans in a positive and productive manner which requires them to do what the human...
Montana voters spoke clearly last November. They elected Republicans up and down the ticket, giving legislative Republicans a clear mandate to make good on our campaign promises of protecting the Montana way of life, improving economic opportunities, protecting Montanans’ rights, and preventing government overreach. The fearmongering about the 67th legislative session started up shortly after the election with certain folks making dire predictions about COVID-19 at the Capitol and demanding the Legislature not meet. We r...
We are one week plus days past our second vaccination shots and feeling great. Carol said, “I wonder if the syringe had anything in it. Ben sent me a cartoon, unsigned, so I’ve no idea the artist. It depicts a stick figure saying, “Hi. I’m here to visit!” From behind an open door, “Do I know you?” “No. It’s cool. I’m two weeks past my second dose.” Below is a blurb: Remember, once you’re fully vaccinated, the CDC says you’re free to visit other people’s houses. Well, it...
Montana is facing a housing crisis. A lack of affordable housing is keeping working Montanans out of homes and forcing families to pay up 50 percent or more of their monthly incomes in rent. Lumber prices and labor shortages make it even tougher for developers to offer affordable homes to working families. HB 397 bill will provide a state-based funding resource to help private developers make homes affordable and economical. Both chambers of the 67th Montana Legislature passed House Bill 397, and it is now on the governor’s d...
Editor, As the Havre-Hill County Library is slowly opening after the COVID-19 shutdown, the library staff has discovered another hurdle. The passenger elevator can no longer be repaired with a quick, inexpensive repair. The cylinder at the ground level no longer has solid footing. The Havre-Hill County Library Foundation has voted to help the city/county cover the costs to repair the elevator. In the next few days, many of you will receive a postcard in your mailbox asking you to renew or to become a member of the Havre-Hill...
It is a well-known fact that we are allowed to chew out the people we care about. Most recently, this came to mind when I gave my old friend, Andrew, a serious tongue-lashing. Andrew is a lifelong bachelor, and a committed curmudgeon. He is better than most curmudgeons at being curmudgeonly because he started young. Andrew showed signs of being a grumpy old man when he was still in his 30s. But Andrew is no longer in his 30s, and this is what brought us to our recent conflict....
Editor, What will free-roaming bison do? This is a hotly debated question in Montana now. But we can look to Utah for an authoritative answer. In 1941, 18 bison from Yellowstone National Park were released in the remote Henry Mountains in southeast Utah. The animals were set free in the arid desert known as Robbers Roost. But the bison were allowed to wander where they would. Within a few years, the herd, now growing in size, wandered closer to the mountain terrain where the grass was more plentiful. Soon they crossed the...
“You Bugger!” This is my favorite expression used by my dear friend Loretta Loftus who passed away last week. I counted it a real coup when Loretta and her husband Kermit walked into Community Alliance Church one Sunday. They had been faithful members of Calvary Baptist Church but when that church closed, they came to us and they stayed for many years. Not only did they stay but they also brought family and friends and invested themselves into the life of the church. My wife, Karen, and I spent many hours with Loretta lis...
