News you can use
News you can use
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This morning after I got dressed, I did something outside of my routine. I looked in the mirror. Hmmm, said I, to myself. Not bad. The layers match this morning. The socks don’t match the tops. Oh, well. They match each other. Mates. A pair. But if they didn’t, oh, well. No matter. Socks matter on these old feet. Warm matters, especially in the cool morning. I walked into the kitchen to fill the kettle with water for coffee. That bag of flour is still sitting on the island. Wh...
I am concerned about the high price of prescription medicines. I depend on prescriptions to manage health conditions such as chronic asthma, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The price of many medicines in Medicare has increased faster than inflation in recent years, leaving seniors struggling to make ends meet. I’m looking forward to the implementation of the new Inflation Reduction Act law that will require Medicare to negotiate for lower prices in the future. Drug companies have raised their prices...
As Republican and Democratic legislators representing a mix of Montana’s cities and rural areas, we have our fair share of political differences. When the Governor asked us to join a task force to address Montana’s housing crisis, we could have said no. We could have let our disagreement on other issues get in the way. We could have refused to work with one another out of fear of giving the other side a political “win.” But with a growing number of Montana families getting priced out of their own state, we decided to say yes...
A few weeks before Halloween and many years ago, when I was still married to my former husband, he and I and a couple we knew all decided we would celebrate Halloween dressed as the Midwest. At the time, it seemed like a clever idea. I was from Minnesota, my former husband was from Wisconsin, our friend, Becky, was from Iowa, and her husband, John, was from Illinois. We were all in our early twenties, all living in Oregon, and, as we imagined ourselves dressed as our home...
Dear Editor, This letter goes out to the members of the Bear Paw Credit Union. It pertains to the proposed merger with Altana Federal Credit Union. I am urging all members to vote no on the merger until all facts can be gathered. I received a letter from the president of the board of directors asking for our vote on this issue. Very little information about the tentative merger was mentioned, and they asked that we submit our ballots by 4 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2022. A special meeting will be held that same day at 5 p.m. to discuss...
Editor, The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest, these words are enshrined within the Montana constitution under Article II section 10. Section 10 of Article II guarantees all Montanans the fundamental right to privacy and has been challenged throughout its inception as all good things are that benefit the public at large. This right to privacy currently encompasses but is not limited to the right to an...
Editor, The Montana Constitution is an admirable work, and I marvel at it because, being from Colorado, not even our state constitution can compare to it. Recently, “the right to know” in the Montana Constitution has caught my eye. I want to know what my legislators are doing and how their choices behind closed doors will impact my life. How it will affect my neighbor’s life, my friend’s life, heyy ... maybe even my dog’s life. I want to be in the know, and I want to be in a room where things happen metaphorically. If these...
We get used to using particular products in our daily living so when those items are not available on store shelves, what is a person to do? Ha! I have the answer. We make do! Generally I’m not too fussy and don’t get into a flap about bare shelves. And I don’t play the blame game. That’s futile. Pandemic? Climate disasters? Politics? Maybe they all play a part. But that doesn’t change my challenge, to live as simply and comfortably as possible with what’s on hand, right? But...
How did we get where we are? Quantum entanglement is back in the lime light again after three scientists won the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics for their research in quantum whatever. The quick summary of quantum entanglement is when two particles, such as photons, electrons, neutrinos and molecules, link together in a certain way that no matter how far apart they are in space their state remains the same. (And as an FYI, state means condition or status not, like, Montana or...
Editor This year, Montanan’s are facing the most critical general election in recent history with results that will have significant impacts on future generations. We Montana citizens, no matter the party affiliation, have certain, unimpeachable duties which must be performed intelligently and with empathy. We are instructed in Isaiah Chapter 1 Verse 17: “Learn to do good, make justice your aim; redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” Learn to do good, make justice your aim. We are urged by these w...
Editor, As we are falling into the full swing of autumn, hunters around the state are gearing up for the opening of deer and elk season. Before the season opens on Oct. 22, it’s a great time to celebrate the protections that Montana’s constitution provides for hunters. Article 10, Section Seven of the Constitution protects Montanan Harvest Heritage. This section holds that hunting, fishing and harvesting wildlife is a way of life in Montana. Harvesting wildlife is something that’s always been done here, and the const...
Editor, For the last 50 years, Montana’s constitution has protected some of the most basic and widely undisputed rights of Montanans. Here we have the right to live our lives without the government dictating how we should go about doing so and to thrive on our land. Few states feel the need to protect the privacy of their citizens, but Montana is an exception. Through the decades, Montanans have benefited countless times from Article II, Section X of our constitution, with protections for online data, health care d...
We are down to days before the election Nov. 8. I have been campaigning by attending many functions, speaking at events, and listening to the issues at all my stops. I am fortunate and thankful to have the support and encouragement of so many of our family, friends, neighbors and strangers as we roll though these final weeks. Saturday Oct. 8, my family took in the Northern football game. It was a special day as we have a grandson playing on the team and two of our daughters were there to cheer on the team, as well. Our ties...
I love Little Free Libraries. If you don’t have these in your neighborhood, they are little boxes that look like tiny houses — not much larger than a big birdhouse — with a glass door on the front and books inside. People leave books they have read and pick up books they want to read and, somehow, the whole thing seems to work out pretty well most of the time. During the pandemic, I noticed that some little libraries went empty. The regular libraries were closed, and peopl...
Did you hear the story about Pramila Jayapal and Matt Rosendale, in the U.S. House, and Elizabeth Warren and Steve Daines, in the Senate, joining forces to get their congressional colleagues to give up insider trading on the stock market? At the beginning of September, Jayapal, a House Democrat from Washington, and Montana's Rep. Rosendale announced their Bipartisan Ban Stock Ownership Act, which would require members of Congress, along with their spouses, to sell any...
According to the latest research, now I’m apparently supposed to thank my dad for trying to drown me when I was a child. That seems pretty messed up, right? Or fitting for these illogical times. In the swimmer’s version of that infamous parental order to “stop you’re crying or I’ll give you something to cry about,” when I was too scared to swim away from the lakeshore in water that was over my head, my own father picked me up and chucked me off the end of the dock. And h...
The opinion piece favoring a city manager position that ran in Tuesday’s edition of Havre Daily News left too many unanswered questions. The statement that the manager position “would likely be a cost savings to the city budget as well” was completely unsubstantiated. How do you add a new position, which likely would require a salary of at least $100,000, and have a cost savings? Also, I think this position would require, at a minimum, one support staff employee. Where do you find this individual who in addition to being...
October is Fire Prevention Month. This is a good time to check your fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, and to make sure your family has a plan for leaving your home in case of a fire. Another way to stay safe year-round is to eliminate smoking from your home. Not only will this help prevent accidental fire, it also will protect your family members, visitors, and pets from secondhand smoke. Montana statistics from the National Fire Incident Reporting System show cigarettes contributed to at least 38 residential fires in...
Now and then I have these great ideas. Not that I do anything with them. Not that I even want to do anything with them. My time, well, that was a younger chapter in my life. Come and gone. I’ll just throw this out there to see if you wish to do something with it. For free. Gratis. No charge. You are welcome. My million-dollar idea of the day. Once upon a yesterday I had a friend who proclaimed we each had a million-dollar idea a day but never recognized it or dismissed the d...
The economic case for replacing the Beaver Lodge at camp Kiwanis is being made. There is another case to be made and that is the local cultural and quality of life values. 100-plus years ago, local community leaders foresaw the opportunity for a park and “playground” for the benefit of the local area. We are forever grateful for their foresight. Their action made our Beaver Creek Park a unique feature for our local community and the quality of life we enjoy. Through the years, our predecessors developed opportunities inc...
’Tis the season for political debate, and while each of us differs on various issues and support our respective candidates, there is one thing we can definitely both agree on: We support a Havre city manager, and urge you to do so as well. Ballots are about to arrive in the mail for many absentee voters and for those who choose to vote at the polls Nov. 8 an important question for city of Havre voters will be on the ballot and that is the question on whether to approve a Havre city manager. The Havre city manager position, if...
Last week, Gov. Greg Gianforte’s Housing Task Force released its draft recommendations to address housing in Montana. These include forcing every community to allow accessory dwelling units — ADUs — on every residential lot, removing local restrictions on how small lots can be, and stopping local governments from requiring parking spaces for new development. These recommendations to remove local regulations are not surprising because the Task Force began with the assumption that local regulations are the primary cause of th...
This past week we attended the memorial for my husband Peter’s oldest sister, Shelley. Shelley went through a long battle with cancer, and Peter lost his second sister in two years. The pandemic had just started, her husband had just died, and Shelley moved 900 miles across the country to live near her kids. Then, almost immediately, she discovered she was gravely ill. She moved in with her son, Joel, and daughter-in-law, Dani, and never left. Shelley had several operations t...
We all know a bear or two, right? Maybe not personally, but we know about black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears and giant panda bears. Perhaps you also have heard of Eurasian brown bears, Asiatic black bears, Andean bears, sun bears and the unfortunately named sloth bear. Surely you’ve heard of koala bears, which aren’t bears at all, and teddie bears, which aren’t real bears, either, but for different reasons. If, though, you have never heard of water bears, you should sit b...
Beaver Creek Park is about to lose a beautiful icon and the best used venue for weddings, youth groups and reunions. It is the Beaver Lodge. Built in 1974 and opened in 1976, this log structure has been used by over a 100,000 people in the past 50-plus years. Many memories were born in the lodge, but the fate of a lodge is now in the hands of Hill County voters. Within a year or two the lodge will need to come down due rotting logs, walls moving because of age, weight from the roof and snow. Around 2009, rotting logs were...
