News you can use
News you can use
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Editor, After enduring four years of a corrupt and immoral Trump Presidency with a similarly mostly corrupt cabinet and sycophant appointees, I had almost started to breathe a little grateful relief. That is until January 6th, another day that will go down in infamy. This seems to be an ever expanding category the United States is doomed to suffer. To my “used to be” friends, and some relatives who unfortunately fall in the same category, I should get some satisfaction in saying, “I told you so.” But my heart is so broken...
The Montana Budget & Policy Center is a nonprofit organization providing research and analysis on budget, tax, and economic issues. Imagine someone gave you a million dollars and told you to spend $1,000 every day and come back when you ran out of money. You would return in less than three years. If someone then gave you a billion dollars and you spent $1,000 each day, it would take you 2,740 years before it was gone. That’s how much money the 2021 Montana Legislature is already proposing to cut from the state budget to p...
With plenty of opportunities lately to participate in one of my favorite self-health activities — stress eating — I was prompted to do some research on one of my go-to stress foods — Oreo cookies — after reading an Associated Press article about how Oreos are going where no culinary adventurist has thought to take them before. Nor should they have thought of this: McDonald’s fast food restaurants in China have reinvented the hamburger by replacing the burger with two slice...
Bob T, a long-time friend from my past, used to compare life to a battery. In order for it to work, life must have both positive and negative poles. I, of course, wanted only the positive, the easy, the serene. Ha! Wantin’ ain’t gettin’. On my patio I have a vine that I potted some three years ago, a vine, but more branch than leaf. I don’t know why I’ve kept it; it is not a bit pretty, but rangy and the leaves fall off leaving naked brown stems. In the cold of this morning,...
My 2021 calendar is hanging from the closet door. Every year I’ve lived in this house, I’ve gotten a cloth calendar, hung from a dowel. My mother’s mother always had a cloth calendar hanging in the farmhouse kitchen. As soon as the year was over, the calendar would be conscripted into use, usually to cover cinnamon rolls as they rose, to keep them moist until they were large enough to put into the oven. Arriving at the farmhouse and seeing “1963” covering a pile of soon-to-b...
As any parent knows, time is more often measured by the milestones of our children than our own lives. When I first entered this office as Montana’s 24th governor, the sounds of young children laughing and playing rang through our household. While those sounds have since turned into silent eyerolls and embarrassment at my dad jokes as my children have turned into teenagers, they are still a constant reminder of the humbling privilege I’ve had to protect and advance the state that gave me the opportunity to go from del...
This week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a strange time, a time when every day feels like Sunday. This morning, I made a big mistake. I checked the temperature. At 10:00 it was 42! That means in the coldest hour of the early morning, it was near freezing. How can that be? It didn’t feel that cold when I walked out to my bodega. I wasn’t cold until I looked at the thermometer on the outer wall. My ceramic heater is swiveling back and forth, the setting on Hi. I’m n...
Now, after a year, the numbers have become numbing. We can’t blame the media, who were simply doing their job by reporting facts, but as thousands became hundreds of thousands it became impossible to maintain a sense of scale. What exactly do 300,000 dead Americans look like? For a few naïve months, rural Montana managed to convince itself that nothing about those horrific numbers applied to us. We were one of those enviable white spots on the map of the country that showed few if any COVID cases. Engaging in the same ki...
The annual build-up of anticipation for New Year’s Day is, I think, the clearest proof of mankind’s eternal, stalwart and irrational optimistic nature. How many times have we said it or heard it: “Ugh, 2020 has been the worst. I can’t wait until it’s over.” As if, at the stroke of midnight heralding in Jan. 1, 2021, we will pass through a portal into a modern realm that’s as happy as a nuclear family in a 1950s sitcom, or maybe we’ll skip-jump into a brighter timeline in the...
A fellow I know was grousing about the past year. His birthday was coming up and he felt, once again, that this year failed to meet his expectations. He was unhappy with the year, unhappy with himself, unhappy with the fact that he’d even allowed himself to hope that 2020, of all years, was going to be better than the previous ones. “My caring isn’t going to make any difference in how things work out,” he told me. “When I step back to accept that reality, maybe I’ll stop...
Editor, COVID-19 might be a hoax to some, but I have several reasons why I choose to treat it as a real threat to health, well-being and life. I plan and hope to complete at least one more marathon before I die. I also want to refrain from being the cause of anyone’s death, something I’m happy to have accomplished so far through my first 71 years. Therefore, I have religiously donned my mask when entering businesses, homes and school buses and will continue to do so. You see, I live in one of two counties which together hav...
Editor, I got my first car with seat belts when my child was 2. It took at least three stops on the 20 minutes to town to put him back in them. I realized how worth it this training was when I hit a patch of black ice and ended up in the ditch. In the seat belt I remained in some control. The training of my child was worth it. While fishing under a bridge near Columbia Falls with him when he was 5, we saw garbage being thrown into the river every few minutes — another life lesson. Some people without the benefit of these k...
As 2020 comes to a close, I’d like to reflect on the generosity of the Havre community. This year was the third Toys for Tots Campaign for the Havre area. We served 80 children this year; a 10 percent increase from 2019. Given all of the uncertainties the year brought us, I’m grateful for the unwavering commitment of the businesses and individuals that support the cause each year. Independence Bank, Bergren Transmission and Pacific Steel and Recycling are loyal partners that have kept the drive going since the beginning. New...
The phone rings. I grab my mask with one hand and the phone with the other. “Merry Christmas.” My new habit. Masking has become automatic. Before I leave the house I grab a mask, even if I’m going to the clothesline, expecting to see not one other person. I go masked. Just in case. I’m locked and loaded. In the holsters on the belt around my waist, a spray bottle of disinfectant rides on one hip and extra masks, gloves and a tape measure for distance — OK, the tape measure i...
Holidays are complicated. Have you ever tried to make one up on your own? Sure it’s easy to say “That (fill in the blank) is so awesome, everybody should celebrate it as a holiday.” Or “Every day is a holiday if you have the right attitude (insert three exclamation points here).” That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a bonafide, paid day off, happy, happy, joyful day of celebration which every person on the planet can participate in wholeheartedly...
Whatever you think about Christmas, I think you would have to agree we need one this year. Everyone I know seems determined to do as much Christmas as it is possible to do. My pastor announced at the beginning of Advent that we were going to have 26 consecutive Zoom Advent services. “We’re having 15 minutes of Advent reflections EVERY night!” she announced. “Surely she means every week,” most of the congregation thought. “EVERY night!” she repeated for clarification...
It was encouraging to hear that the Hill County Park Board is initiating a process to document a policy for trapping in our Beaver Creek Park. Hopefully this policy will address more than just lethal trapping of beavers and incorporate a whole park management perspective. It will be important to document a policy that is consistent with our vision for Beaver Creek Park while being workable and built on valid science, prudent natural resource management, specific infrastructure issues and sound business practices. Striking a...
Editor, Recycling seems to be a never-ending roller coaster that we ride on. The commodity market downturn in recent years prompted changes in what we can recycle here. The endpoint recyclers sort of exist in limbo, in that sweet spot between the price of producing and the price of recycling. They count on the fact that making something out of recycled materials will cost less than producing it from virgin stock. When that is turned upside down, we feel it here because we do not have any place to send our recyclables. We enco...
Editor, A heartfelt thank-you to all the businesses that donated to the Super Certificate Giveaway held Dec 5. Tire-Rama, Lewis Heating and A/C, Big Sky Images and Collectibles LLC, Cavaliers Clothing, Bing ‘N’ Bob’s, Maurices, Stromberg Sinclair, Ezzie’s Wholesale Inc., Best Western Plus Havre Inn & Suites, Ben Franklin Crafts, Bergren Transmission & Auto Care, Uncle Joe’s Steakhouse, Bear Paw Meats, Flynn Realty Inc., Havre Optometric Clinic, Taco John’s, Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, J. M. Donoven Designs in Fine Jewelry,...
I try to stay positive, but there’s just a whole lot of nope in the paper this week, and I hate to say that it’s affecting me, but here we are and I’m starting things off with chicken feathers as food. Nope. In fact, I would describe that as a “hard nope with a full stop.” I know what you’re thinking: I faked that news for dramatic affect, something punchy to open my column with. Sadly, I must inform you of another hard nope on that, too. A few sources, including Reuters, re...
I am a marked woman. Last week I announced to my little world that I am studying Spanish, obviously a language tagged as subversive. When next I arrive in Havre, I'm likely to be met on the train by armed Border Patrol, cuffed, and dragged into the slammer. Oh, woe is me. I followed the Havre news story (also in the international news, by the way) about the two young women apprehended for speaking Spanish in the convenience store. I know that Spanish-speaking women are...
“I’ve forgotten the funny name of the tree you helped us pick out,” my mother said. “Our tree this year is named Melinda.” The greenhouse where my parents get their Christmas tree every year has festive tags hanging from the trees with their names and prices. These are not inexpensive trees, so it’s fitting they are all individually christened. My mother likes to support this local business — and they do have nice trees. “Caleb. The tree I picked out with you was named Caleb...
Editor, In a time when our country is more divided than ever, leave it up to the NFR to get it right. For the last 10 days on the Cowboy Channel and the RFD Channel, this country witnessed the most patriotic, God-loving, family-oriented amazing professionals on earth. If the opening ceremonies each night didn't send shivers up your spine and bring a tear to your eye, I don't know what could. When our American flag was raised each night, every single person in that arena, of every walk of life, removed their hat and put their...
In a position where my organization — the Montana State University-Northern Foundation — relies on the generosity of others, I have been wondering, is generosity an innate characteristic or is it learned? Is it part of our DNA to be a giving person or is it something we are taught? I recently googled these questions and discovered that many studies conclude that while it’s innate for humans to be reciprocal, it’s not in our DNA to be givers. Many of us are taught by our family, friends, or someone in a stewardship role, l...
Nearly nine months into a pandemic, COVID-19 has impacted Montanans in every corner of the state. Nearly 800 Montanans have lost their lives to the virus and many others have gotten sick and are experiencing long term impacts that we don’t yet understand. Others have experienced a job loss, a lack of pay while sick or in quarantine, or being forced out of the workforce to provide childcare. Businesses and schools are struggling to maintain staffing and continue providing services to their communities. It’s clear that eve...
