News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1270 - 1294 of 5551
The communities of Havre/Hill County are better than our current behavior reflect. I think an apt comparison to our current situation is to compare our response to the Bear Paw/Beaver Creek fires a couple of years ago. This was an emergency situation threatening our area. The response by the communities showed friends and neighbors doing whatever was necessary to save all from the inferno. Not all volunteers could drive a bulldozer or a firetruck, but everyone pitched in with food, drinks, equipment, water trucks, whatever....
In a time when American politics has been all about dueling realities, you’ll be happy — in a misery-loves-company kind of way — to know that it’s not just us. Nepal and China have been arguing since 2005 about the actual height of Mount Everest, which sits on the border between Nepal and Tibet, which is an autonomous region of China (basically, China’s Canada). Here’s the beef, the highest point of the of Mount Everest is the marker for the border between Nepal and Tibet,...
I’m a Sun Bunny. Sun worshipper. Sun seeker. For the past week if or when a tiny patch of sun parts the clouds, I rush out to sit, face raised toward the bounteous warmth, contented. Don’t for a minute think I’m “sun-bathing.” I’m basking in full winter gear, head and hands the only uncovered parts of me. This is winter, even here. It is cold. I live in a house with no heat source. I suspect it is difficult to grow up on a Montana farm and think baring one’s slathered bod...
Dear Editor, Both a former Hi-Liner having grown up in Saco and a professor of Spanish, I am moved to respond to a New York Times article, “Border Agency Settles with Americans Detained for Speaking Spanish,” Nov. 27, 2020 This language is no newcomer to Montana, a state named in Spanish. Our flag cherishes a logo “oro y plata,” gold and silver in Cervantes’ language. Without a doubt, Spanish is the preferred foreign language taught in our high schools. Bozeman and Missoula both offer majors in this language while Montana S...
It is a year of lower expectations. Every year, there is a chorus of folks urging us to lower our expectations for the holidays — buy less, consume less, worry less about having a picture-perfect holiday, and spend more time reflecting on what the holiday means to us. This year, it seems, we will finally get a chance to do that. I was recently asked what my childhood memories of the holidays were, and I had a couple of vivid ones. I saw myself sitting on the wooden stairway o...
Dear Havre, public schools administration, teachers, staff, parents and students Happy holiday’s from the Havre Public Schools Education Foundation! We know 2020 has been a challenging year and we hope that your holiday season bring comfort and joy during the last month of this year. The Board of Directors of the Havre Public Schools Education foundation is writing today to express our strong support for the administration and Board of Trustees of Havre Public Schools for the decisions they have made in regards to in-class i...
Editor, I started volunteering Thursdays in February 2020 and was amazed the service the Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen provided to a lot of people. Then, in March, the pandemic hit, the dine-in quit, but people still needed a meal so it became sack lunch — 50 to 80 or more a day. Janet Tams was the cook-supervisor and a wonderful lady to work for. She has since moved to California to be closer to her children and grandchildren. Janet did this job for over eight years, and we miss her. The soup kitchen needed someone to fill this...
Editor, I have enjoyed for the past several years the spectacular Christmas lights in Memorial Park on Fifth Avenue, but this year the lighting display seems brighter and more inspiring than ever. This may well be the most beautiful display of an otherwise pretty dismal 2020. Thank you guys for your work and genius. Thank you, Havre, I love you. Frank Miller, MD Havre...
I am sitting on a gold mine or, more specifically, I’m fixin’ to hatch me a gold mine. Those stinkin’ pigeons in my barn that I’ve been complaining about for years? They could be worth money, real money, like really real money, according to an article in Reuters. In November, a 2-year-old racing pigeon from Belgium sold at auction for — are you sitting down? You should be sitting down for this because the pigeon sold for $1.89 million. One point eight nine MILLION dollars. For...
Dear Editor: A safe, effective and accessible COVID-19 vaccine can help bring an end to today’s economic and health crisis — so our families are safe, so we can get back to work and live our lives again. But only if everyone has access to it. Despite largely being funded by public money, Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines have yet to make the necessary commitments to ensure global production and global access for a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s why I joined more than 100 leaders from public healt...
Editor, As we approach the end of 2020 you may be thinking about donating to one of Montana’s charities. Your donation helps these organizations provide critical services and this year many need your help. In addition to helping charities, your donation can earn a tax deduction. It is critical that you have the correct documents with the correct language for your donation to qualify. IRS rules require that the correct documentation be obtained before the earlier of: a. The date you file your return for the year you make the c...
Editor, We’ve seen letters from parents advocating the school district to go back to in-school learning. They’ve expressed how their kids are suffering from the lack of social contact with teachers and friends. These parents are defending their kids because they can’t do it for themselves. I’m writing to defend Northern Montana Care Center residents because somebody has to stick up for them, too. Imagine how the residents are feeling with this isolation. The main reason many of them have for living is to see their familie...
Perception is all. I love the Big Sky Country. I like to picture it this way: I stand and slowly turn a whole circle. When I look downward, I see the earth. When I look outward and upward, the sky is a gigantic bowl, covering and visibly encompassing, caressing the earth. I love this new country of mine, the Big Earth Country. That's the wonderful thing about love. There is always room for more. Here I stand and turn a circle and all around me is the earthy world, the fields...
Editor, As a well-known constitutional conservative and private property rights proponent, some may be surprised to find that I take exception and disagree with the four obstructionist members of the Flathead County Health Board and the openly defiant Republican Caucus at the Legislature in Helena. In defending property rights, I have consistently maintained that the owner has constitutional rights to utilize their property as they choose — provided they do not adversely affect the health and safety of others. Likewise, c...
My friend Anita is felting up a storm. Philip is cooking something new and posting a photo of it every day. Megan is reading Shakespeare on video, Jason is doing woodwork projects, Tom and Mary and Katie are sewing thousands of masks, and Peggy is studying Spanish, German and Latin — all at once. Then there are the folks who are just trying to make it through the week, working jobs that demand more and more of them every day. There is no right way to do this. I decided to p...
The Montana Rural Teacher Project is determined to solve Montana’s teacher shortage by paying Montanans to pursue a master’s in teaching and helping them land a job educating Montana’s future leaders. Public schools are the nerve centers of neighborhoods across Montana. In every corner of our great state, our K-12 public schools make the future possible. But this remarkable system of public schools cannot function without remarkable public school teachers. Today, there is a growing teacher shortage in the United State...
Editor’s note: Due to an editorial error, this column did not run before Thanksgiving. My world is circumscribed by the boundaries of the gringo part of the rancho. I walk the lanes. This morning when I arrived at my turn-around spot out by the entrance to the highway, I stopped to marvel. I saw, heading toward Ahualulco, a man on a three-wheel motorcycle, a custom job, wearing a modified helmet to resemble something from WWI, you know, Snoopy and the Red Baron. The bike i...
Last week, Montana hunters and anglers got our first sense of the direction that Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte wants to take public land, access to critical hunting and sport fishing habitat, state parks and Montana’s $7.1 billion recreation economy. Gianforte offered an unbalanced slate of names of those who will be advising him on new leadership for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Hunters and anglers in Montana better be prepared to speak up and act to protect our s...
That famous movie clip from “Man from Snowy River” showing the epic scene, with the hero launching his horse off the top of a mountain and galloping headlong down the near-vertical mountainside, made its rounds on the internet again this week. I remember when the movie was released and horse people couldn’t get enough of that scene, some out of excitement, some horror, and everyone wanted to own or at least ride in an Aussie stock saddle. That’s all pretty much still true to...
Editor, I respectfully request that Congress pass the Recognizing Motorsports Act, H.R. 5434/S. 2602, in 2020. The bipartisan RPM Act protects the right to convert an automobile or motorcycle into a race car used exclusively at the track. Modifying a vehicle into a race car is an integral part of America’s automotive heritage. Many types of racing, including NASCAR, were founded on the premise that street vehicles, including motorcycles, can be converted into dedicated racing vehicles. Racing events are an economic driver f...
Editor, I would like to say a great big “Thank you” to all of the volunteers in the past who have helped people in Havre on Thanksgiving. This year, the dinner had to be canceled because of COVID. I’m pleased that the Thanksgiving volunteers will be home safe with their own families. Happy Thanksgiving to all and God bless. Rickie Magnussen Havre...
I have always loved Thanksgiving. I love that it is a holiday built around a full table and homemade treats. I love the recipes handed down on index cards that only get made once a year and traditions that bring back childhood memories and the chance to use linen napkins and the idea that sitting around a table — just sitting around a table — is reason enough to celebrate. I think it might be my favorite holiday. I like that expectations are reasonably low and yet the hol...
Editor, This year has been different in so many ways, however one way it will remain the same is that flu season is coming. Montana physicians and the Montana Medical Association see this flu season likely to place an unprecedented strain on our health care system thanks to COVID-19. Chills and sore throats, that might have been treated with a few days of fluids and rest in past years, will now require additional scrutiny and monitoring. In the coming months we will certainly need our health care providers even more than we...
We the undersigned clergy, representing diverse faith communities across the state of Montana, pledge to do all in our power to keep our congregations and communities healthy and safe in the midst of this pandemic. While we have varying practices and theologies, all our traditions hold life as sacred and believe the imperative to protect and preserve life outweighs all other considerations. Our state and our country are facing a crisis and we must meet this challenge together. As people of faith, we trust in a higher power...
My son and others need to get back to school. They have already lost more days than I would care to think about that can never be made up. I know my son will graduate just fine. In fact, my belief is that every student in the HPS system will pass. How can they not. I don’t think anybody will decide to fail a single student and in that respect you have failed so many. At the last board meeting (Highland Park Early Primary School Principal Mark) Irvin … (said) they were having some successes with some of the students and som...
