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  • Looking out my Backdoor: I wanna be a tree

    Sondra Ashton|Updated May 9, 2024

    "In my next life, I want to be a tree." "A tree? Why, Mom, would you want to be a tree?" "Because they are more intelligent and kinder than humans." "A sycamore, Mom. Be a sycamore. I don't even know what one looks like but that tree popped into my mind." We each went to our computers and landed on the same site. Though we are 2,500 miles separated geographically, we are otherwise quite close. "Holy guacamole, these trees are beautiful." "Ooooh, I want to be a sycamore." I...

  • Letter to the Editor - Thanks and congratulations on Community Baby Shower

    Updated May 9, 2024

    Editor’s note: Due to an editing error at the paper, the wrong name was listed as the writer of a letter published Feb. 20, 2024 on the Opinion Page of Havre Daily News. The full corrected letter follows. Editor, Congratulations to all those new and expecting moms out there and thank you everyone to came and supported our Community Baby Shower. We had some awesome vendors and supporters. Extra congratulations to the winners of the baskets, Mariah Kellam, Cheyenne Chinadle, Baliey Schaub, Mackenzy, Abbey Chivilicek, Pam O...

  • Letter to the Editor - Veteran survey: Make your voices heard

    Updated May 2, 2024

    Editor, Montana’s veterans deserve to live with dignity and independence. The Department of Public Health and Human Services is conducting an important survey to understand and improve the living conditions for our veterans. We at the Veterans Navigation Network encourage every veteran, caregiver, and family member in Montana to participate. This survey will help the state understand what veterans need to live well in their communities. It looks at healthcare access, financial stability, and opportunities to connect with o...

  • Our View: A new era for Havre

    Updated May 2, 2024

    Change is never easy and yet it is the only constant in life. This week, we close the chapter on the Havre Daily News and open a new one as the Havre Weekly Chronicle. Before we go into what this change will mean, we would like to explain what this change does not mean. It does not mean this newspaper is close to closing. Switching from a daily to a weekly means giving your community newspaper an opportunity for long-term sustainability and viability. A newspaper is no different than any other main street business. It needs c...

  • Looking out my backdoor: Hacking through brambles in the rabbit hole

    Sondra Ashton|Updated May 2, 2024

    Like Alice, now and then I take a dive down a rabbit hole, purely for entertainment. Oh, well, and so I can feel superior, yes, smug in my own knowledge. I’m not on Facebook, but when I check weather on my computer, I get a sidebar of widgets, (love that word), that is every bit as good as FB for misinformation, from what I’m told. So, there I am, trawling along through non-news, political rants, hundreds of chocolate-chip cookie recipes and other trivia, when I spy a hou...

  • The Postscript: A good cat

    Carrie Classon|Updated May 2, 2024

    Our cat, Felix, has a new home. We adopted Felix in Mexico while we were staying there. The woman who fostered him, Marcela, thought he was a kitten because he was so small — except for his tail, which appears to be intended for a much larger cat. But when I took him to the vet, they said he was two years old. I worried he was going through a lot of changes rather quickly for a two-year-old. He lived on the streets until he was picked up by Marcela, then he came to live with u...

  • The debacle of SB 442: Good bill and bad politics

    Updated May 2, 2024

    The two of us are from different political parties, don’t always agree on legislation and actually ran a spirited campaign against one another several years ago. Having said that, we are not enemies. In fact, it’s just the opposite. We are friends that actually get along and work together as much as possible for the betterment of the Hi-Line and those who live and work here. One legislative proposal we both were pleased to enthusiastically support, along with 86% of our House and Senate colleagues, was Senate Bill 442, spo...

  • Letter to the Editor - I"m tapped out

    Updated Apr 26, 2024

    Dear Salvation Army, I have donated pretty faithfully in the past years, but now I am also struggling to make ends meet. Perhaps you could ask Ukraine or some of the other dozens of countries we send foreign aid (my tax dollars) to if they could spare some cash. Maybe some of the illegals coming freely across our borders could share a bit of the money they are given, whatever the source of funding that is. Perhaps our politicians could share some of their pay and perks. Maybe they could hook you up with a sweetheart deal...

  • Looking out my backdoor: Heart attack

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Apr 26, 2024

    The other morning, I visited with a long-time friend who lives in California. We don’t visit frequently, but when we do, it’s always good. Ideas fly and grow and develop and land in our deep hearts. My friend Anne belongs to a small church with an aim to make a difference in their community, to really matter to those they serve. With all the best intentions in the world, they formed a committee to put together gift bags for people in their area with no fixed abode. “Ho...

  • Tackling the rising cost of housing in Montana together

    Updated Apr 26, 2024

    More than 100 years ago, my grandparents made a life for our family on a homesteaded plot of land outside of Big Sandy that we still farm to this day. I’ve been blessed to call Montana home my entire life and to always have a place to rest my head after a hard day’s work. Unfortunately, finding an affordable place to live has become a challenge for far too many Montanans. As I travel across Montana, I hear about how housing challenges are hurting working families. From Missoula to Kalispell to Bozeman, all the way to sma...

  • The Postscript: Waiting for Estefan

    Carrie Classon|Updated Apr 23, 2024

    I ordered the sofa cover as soon as we adopted our new cat, Felix. The sofa in the little apartment my husband, Peter, and I rent in Mexico has seen better days, but we didn’t want to be responsible for ushering it into an early retirement due to cat scratches. So I bought a beautiful turquoise handloomed bedspread from a woman across the street to use as a throw. And the job would have been done right then and there if I’d kept my mouth shut. Instead, I asked the woman if...

  • Strengthening families month is a great opportunity to help a local child

    Updated Apr 23, 2024

    April is Strengthening Families Month, a time to promote the safety and well-being of Montana’s kids. If you’ve been wondering what the blue pinwheels are around town, these are the symbols of this month and drawing attention to the issue of child abuse. Communities around the state and country put them up in April. CASA of Hill County is also hosting a Kids Carnival on April 27th to wrap up Strengthening Families month and celebrate happy childhoods. We will have free games with prizes, free lunch, and door prizes from 11...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Summertime, and the living is dusty

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Apr 19, 2024

    That may not be how the song is sung but that is how we sing it in Etzatlan this summer. We juggle the procession of seasons, winter flips into a few days of spring, which gets dropped on the floor and immediately flames into summer, temps in high 90s up to 100 this week. Dry and dusty. What little breeze we get brings cane ash and field dirt, right into my casa where I can enjoy it at leisure. I yearn for what I now think of as normal times, when the rains come in June, bring...

  • A bitter pill

    Patrick Johnston|Updated Apr 19, 2024

    To our readers, Today will be my last day as a reporter for the Havre Daily News, and I want to bid the paper and the community it serves a fond farewell. I want to. I want for my final thoughts to be about the people I’ve met, the community I did my best to serve, the memories I’ve made and how thankful I am for them, and every word of the parting letter I want to write would be true. However, I’m afraid my final thoughts cannot be about those things, at least not entirely, because a recent change announced at the paper...

  • Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees ask for support on mill levy

    Updated Apr 19, 2024

    Dear Havre residents: The Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees seeks your support for the Elementary District General fund Mill Levy on the May 7, 2024, ballot. Approval of this levy will allocate an extra $138,615.45 to bolster educational initiatives for K-8 students in Havre. Passage of this proposal will result in a tax increase of approximately $7.40 per year for a home valued at $100,000, $22.19 per year for a home valued at $300,000, and $44.39 on a home valued at $600,000. HPS has diligently pursued grant funds to...

  • The Postscript: Spring cold

    Carrie Classon|Updated Apr 16, 2024

    The fact is, I am spoiled. I never get sick. I’ve never spent a night in a hospital since I was born (and then, my mother stayed with me). I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve never had a major operation. I am absurdly healthy, and I can take no credit for any of this. So, naturally, when I get sick, I am insufferable. It always starts in the same way. I get a sore throat. First, I ignore it. I have found this is the best way to deal with imminent disasters. When I used to drive...

  • Second-most unpopular man wins presidency

    Updated Apr 16, 2024

    Because of the unique qualifications of contenders Joseph Biden and Donald Trump, the Havre Daily is able to provide readers this exclusive early 2024 presidential election wrap up. While some details will have to wait for November, one election shocker is here now: a majority of Americans are still mad, and mildly depressed by the outcome. In the aftermath of the hard fought unpopularity contest, election analysts point out that both Trump and Biden maintained their respective deficits to the finish line. Former President...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Birthdays and other afflictions

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Apr 12, 2024

    I’ve never made a big deal of my birthdays. In childhood, my birthday presents were always books, which was exactly what I wanted. Coming from family raised during the Great Depression, a gift was a Big Deal. I’m pretty sure my dad never had a birthday present. For decades, beginning in my forties, I began skipping the “9” years. Instead of forty-nine, I became “almost fifty.” I did not see 49 as a positive gain. Almost sixty. Almost seventy. This year, a “9” year, I turned...

  • Clerk of Supreme Court position too important for Ellsworth

    Updated Apr 12, 2024

    Primary candidate for clerk of the Montana Supreme Court Jason Ellsworth doesn’t understand or respect separation of powers — a core tenant of our American democracy that protects us all. Demonstrated by his newly created “Judicial Oversight Committee” and now the subpoena he recently issued to the Montana secretary of state, Ellsworth continues to show, in addition to his personal criminal and civil records, that he doesn’t think the law applies to him. Worse yet, his actions undermine governmental accountability, judicial...

  • The Postscript: Bonanza!

    Updated Apr 9, 2024

    My husband, Peter, and I spend the winters in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The center of the town is a designated World Heritage Site, which means the facades of the buildings must remain as they were in the mid-1700s. The streets are made of round and sometimes slippery cobblestones. The doors are stout and covered with hundreds of coats of paint, and on the top of every building is a rooftop terrace where people can watch the fireworks that go off for no reason that anyone has ever been able to figure out. It is...

  • One for the road

    Updated Apr 9, 2024

    I just finished “Democracy in America,” which is a book by a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville on… well, it’s in the title. To write this book, Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont, who was the Dr. Watson of the duo, only without a mustache, sailed to the United States to check out its capital attractions. Not McDonald’s. Prisons. These two splendid gents got the French government to sponsor their jaunt across the Atlantic by promising they’d bring back loads of stuff on prisons. Wouldn’t you know, the plo...

  • I would bring accountability to Washington

    Updated Apr 5, 2024

    During my second tour to Iraq as a U.S. Marine, my unit was tasked to help secure the Syrian border. We had received intel that Iran was sending weapons into Syria to smuggle across the border for use against American troops. At the same time, refugees from all over the country were flooding the border to escape the war. We successfully accomplished the mission of securing the border that deployment. It is an absolute shame the Biden administration will not do the same and is allowing an unsecure southern border in our very...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Sometimes when life

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Apr 5, 2024

    Sometimes when life gives you lemons, well, you can’t make lemonade when life drops the whole tree on your head, can you? The entire last month has been terrible for my friends, Ana and Michelle. First one of the cats got strange. Cats can be strange, so what! However, when something is wrong, something is wrong. After several visits to the nearest small animal vet in Tala (Havre to Loma), Blue was diagnosed with diabetes and Cushing’s disease. Blue is on medication, blood jab...

  • Fair taxes now

    Updated Apr 5, 2024

    We are a house divided against ourselves. The evidence is everywhere. Neighbors are angry with neighbors. Republicans and Democrats accuse each other of treason and stupidity. Our government, churches, colleges and universities, scientific community, corporations and other institutions are subject to abuse and skepticism. People are even asking, “Shall we trade our democracy for authoritarianism?” There is plenty to be angry about. In that sense, the anger is understandable. There are so many problems that we could solve if w...

  • State-level marijuana legalization has been a stunning success

    Updated Apr 5, 2024

    It’s been over a decade since Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana for adults. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s fair to ask: Has this policy been successful? Absolutely. A policy of legalization, regulation, and education is preferable to a policy of criminalization, stigmatization and incarceration. Let’s be clear. Legalization didn’t create or normalize the marijuana market in the United States. The market was already here. But under a policy of prohibition, this market flourished und...

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