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News you can use
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The Washington Post reported on June 4, 2024: “More than 300 [U.S.] House [of Representative] lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.8 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts.” As a former legislative aid on Capitol Hill, we always provided travel, food, and lodging receipts. It was good government. The costs were public information. It was communicating with taxpayers it matters what ‘bills’ get paid wi...
Dear Editor: We want to extend a heartfelt thank-you to the Havre community, its businesses and so many others for the warm and hospitable welcome that was given to the more than 160 visitors from across Montana that were here last week as part of the Montana Democratic Party’s Platform Convention. As local hosts, we heard again and again how impressed people were with our community’s friendliness, amenities, park system, cultural offerings and dining options. For folks visiting Havre for the first time, there was a lot of...
Editor, Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library to ensure all children have books at home, regardless of the environment in which they live. Father’s Day is a time to recognize and appreciate the significant influence fathers have on their children’s development. From fostering creativity to instilling a love for learning, fathers play a vital role in shaping their children’s future. Plant a Seed … READ! would like to thank all the father’s and father figures in...
Having lost an election, I know it hurts to lose. I know, too, that there is a good life beyond losing because I’ve been living it for the past 20 years. I know that the people’s will in a democracy can only be determined by a process of elections; American democracy has successfully functioned on that model since George Washington. When the people lose their faith in elections, democracy is finished. There have been as many losers as winners in our legacy of elections extending back over 230 years. By their respect for the...
Out of nowhere, no foretaste, foretelling, forewarning, it dropped from the sky, swooning, gobsmacked us in the best way. Rain, glorious, wondrous, wet, rain. Before the sun settled, the rain swung low like a sweet chariot, and dropped love from the sky. The trees, the grasses, the flowers, the chili peppers, the weeds, me; we all lifted our arms in glad welcome. Lola The Dog scurried into her wee casita and hovered against the back wall. Lola is not a water dog. She cools...
My dad doesn’t like asking for help. He told me this recently when he asked if I could help him put out the dock. His knee was bothering him, and the dock was pulled up on shore at a steep incline. The dock frame was rolled into the water and then the boards of the dock were laid into place. It was a good job for two people and two sets of hands, especially since my dad’s knee is bothering him and he’s been legally blind for a number of years. My dad doesn’t like asking...
The dangers of lead exposure for children are well known and many schools across Montana have made great strides to protect students and staff from lead in drinking water. But a number of Montana schools have not yet taken action and the possibility of lead in school drinking water continues to be a serious concern. Children are particularly at risk because their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults and the risks from lead include anemia, kidney and brain damage, as well as learning disabilities and decreased growth. B...
Truly. I’ve nothing to say. My mind is fried, blackened to a carbon crisp beneath the unrelenting heat dome. The way it is today is the way it will be forever and ever, amen. I know that is a big, fat lie, but it is the way I feel. Discouraged. Every morning I scurry to get basic cleaning done before 9:00 because three-digit heat comes with companionable dust. I knock back the most visible dirt and mop the floors because that layer of dust is slick and slick is dangerous to o...
I’m about the only person I know without a tattoo. Well, this is not true. My parents don’t have tattoos, and I don’t think most of their friends do — although I’ve not done a close inspection. That would be hard to do, and probably not very polite. But among people my age and younger, I’ve become something of an oddity, yet I can honestly say I’ve never considered getting one. This isn’t because I have anything against tattoos. I’ve seen some that were beautiful. But I’ve als...
Recently, I joined other National Farmers Union leaders in meetings with the House Ag and Senate Ag committees about each of their versions of the 2024 Farm Bill. Based on those discussions, a tight timeline, and the need for modifications to both versions, I’m not optimistic for the passage of a 2024 Farm Bill but foresee another extension. The Senate version and the House version of the Farm Bill are strikingly different — and, in the current Congress, “compromise” is a dirty word. Nonetheless, Congress will not allow t...
We’ve most of us inadvertently swallowed a bug or two, usually a mosquito. Right? Here the gustatory bugs are most likely Argentine ants. They are taking over the world, by the way. Saw that on a You Tube documentary. Moving north, house by house. It is so. You might not even notice them, they are so tiny, like a speck of dust on legs. Anyway, what happened that busy morning when I was sewing a tunic top, is that I sat my glass of agua fresca, a fruity drink of papaya, p...
“I don’t even know what game we’re supposed to be playing!” my husband, Peter, told me. He and our cat, Felix, have been playing their nightly game of chase and tag. Peter always loses. This might be because Felix makes the rules — and is the referee. “When is the game over?” I asked. “Whenever Felix wins!” Last night, I was already in bed while the game was wrapping up. Felix was nowhere to be seen. Peter was silently creeping around the bed and out the bedroom door. Sud...
If there is one thing every business owner, rancher, and manager agrees on, it’s that if you don’t have good people, you don’t have much. And if there’s one thing Montanans (and, increasingly, outsiders) know, it’s how good our hunting and fishing opportunities generally are. They make life here special. They feed our families and shape our lives. We tend to assume these same opportunities will continue for our kids, regardless of income—but Governor Gianforte and Fish, Wildlife & Parks Director Dustin Temple have shown...
The governor had made the claim of preserving the government-to-government consultation with the tribes in Montana. In the 2023 Legislature, the governor signed HB 317 — Montana Indian Child Welfare Act — in to law. If the governor of the state of Montana is true to his word of preserving the government-to-government consultation, he would have brought this issue to the tribes’ attention. I have no idea if he did or not. I’m not privy to the governor’s meetings with the tribes, or if he even met with any during this inte...
Montanans are considering who to vote for in the upcoming primary election June 4 — and the candidates are doing everything they can to try to earn those votes. One fact should be top of mind: voters 50-plus decide elections, and candidates who ignore this powerful segment of the electorate do so at their own peril. Voters 50-plus are the majority in every election. In fact, in 2022, 65% of the electorate in Montana was 50 plus. We want to see politicians address our day-to-day challenges, such as caring for our loved ones t...
I never learned my multiplication tables. Not really. To this day, if you ask me, “What is six times nine?” out of the blue, with some urgency, I will panic. (Please don’t do this.) The troubles started when I was transferred from one math class to another in the third grade. I now understand that this was some sort of promotion from lower math to higher math, but it did not feel like that at the time. Almost immediately, I realized everyone around me was privy to some secret...
Growing up as a kid in Big Sandy, I learned from a young age about the incredible service and sacrifice of our servicemembers when I played Taps at the funerals of veterans of both World Wars. It’s something that has always stuck with me, and I carry with me every day. Montana is the greatest state in the greatest country in the world. But it didn’t get that way by accident. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought to defend our freedom and protect our democracy, with many paying the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free....
All things being relative, we have water. The drought is not over. I’ve forgotten what a cloud looks like. However, the valve directing water to the ranch property has been fixed, replaced, repaired, and, just like that, we have more than a daily dribble. I still judiciously use water. Mop water, dish water, still get dumped on potted plants, whichever ones look most thirsty at the moment. I still have brown grass and dusty patches and will have until the rains come. If t...
Dear editor, May 12-18 is National Stuttering Awareness Week. One in every 100 people stutter. That’s 80 million people worldwide! Yet stuttering is often misunderstood and even laughed at. To address the many myths surrounding this complex disorder, the Stuttering Foundation has compiled a list of “75 Must-Use Resources for the Stuttering Community”—available free on our website: StutteringHelp.org. The Foundation’s most popular content represents a mix of time-tested favorites and newer innovations: Drawings and Letters f...
My hen-and-chicks, a succulent in my rock garden, is burned to a crisp. The leaves look like ashes. While April, May and June are our hottest months, here in Jalisco, relieved by a welcome cool-down when the rains begin late June, the old-timers tell me this we experience now is extreme, unusual. A day or two of ultra-high heat followed by a windy reprieve; that is the usual. The old, former usual. We have experienced weeks, multiple weeks, where the daily temperature climbs...
My Aunt Ruthie used to make the best pickles ever. Ruthie was my mom’s sister, and she died a few years back in a car accident that left us all sad and shaken and filled with memories. I remember her dry humor and her sharp intellect and her voracious reading habits. I remember her never-ending kindness and resilience. And I remember her pickles. Ruthie always gave me a jar of pickles whenever she made them. They were a treasure. One year, the glass Mason jar filled with pickl...
New York has been voted the ugliest American city, not because of its architecture, but because of its people. Just kidding. It’s because of its architecture. Probably. Europe does things a little better, but not by much. There’s a building in London called The Walkie-Talkie, presumably due to its resemblance to a refrigerator. So neither of these two major cities is wholly pretty. But I have to be fair. There’s not much to brag about in my home state of New Jersey, unless you count some oddly-shaped potholes. When did we de...
It may be that Stubby is gone for good. In the summer of 2022, I started writing about my mother’s new pet, a red squirrel who she reluctantly began to care for. My parents live on 20 acres in the woods up north in a house my father designed when he retired 35 years ago. The house looks over the lake and, for most of the winter, my parents have few neighbors, except for the birds at their feeder and the deer making their way through the deep snow and, of course, red s...
If you want to see a flying whale, go to the Natural History Museum in London. Well, the whale isn’t technically flying. That’s because it’s dead. Even live whales don’t fly, unless there’s something David Attenborough hasn’t told me. Right when you enter the museum, you see that enormous skeleton suspended from the ceiling: a whole blue whale, or what’s left of it. Gazing at this miracle of creation, you forget your dull, everyday concerns. It doesn’t matter where you’re going to have lunch, or what day of the week it is, o...
With the completion of the poll of the Legislature on whether to override the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 442, I want to explain my consistent opposition to the bill, including voting against overriding the veto. The bill would have incorporated $ 16 million in annual expenditures for county roads into the existing allocations of marijuana tax revenue with corresponding reductions to the general fund. When the voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2020 through initiative (I-190), the ballot language read: “I-190 leg...
