News you can use
News you can use
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I’ve spent considerable time pondering the Montana Republican Party’s rebuke and excommunication of Marc Racicot. It’s clear to me and other conservatives who know Marc well that it’s the party’s leaders—not him—who have abandoned principle. My family has called Montana home for six generations. I served in Republican Gov. Judy Martz’s cabinet and as chief of staff for Republican Attorney General Tim Fox. I’ve spent plenty of time living in the Helena political world, and I can’t recall anything quite as embarrassing for my...
State lawmakers are considering two bills that would put at risk the lives of the most vulnerable Montanans. Bills moving forward in both the Montana House and Senate would allow parents to send an unvaccinated child to a daycare or school simply with a signed letter saying they have a personal objection to the vaccination. If either SB450 or HB715 becomes law, Montana will become home to one of the nation’s most lax policies when it comes to bypassing school vaccinations. Montana already allows parents to opt out of s...
Dear Editor: Rural access to health care has never been simpler than with Medicare Advantage. With Medicare Advantage, I know that I get quality care and peace of mind. Not only do I have affordable premiums that protect my hard-working dollars, but I also have access to benefits and programs that give me the services I need from the comfort of my ranch. With Medicare Advantage, I have more assurance that I am enrolling in a responsible and quality program. I am 1 of 30 million Americans who pays an average monthly premium...
Really, Canada? Super pigs? What were you thinking? I mean, of all the countries in all the world we might’ve imagined would bring about the end of mankind in some manner, did any of us pick Canada? Russia? Absolutely. China? 100 percent. The U.S.? Be honest. France even? You’ve seen them riot, right? But Canada orchestrating events that will make the world uninhabitable for mankind — using pigs? It all started in the 1990s when the Canadian government and some pig farme...
“The pain ran from the outer edges of my rib cage, across my diaphragm, here to here,” I told Kathy. “It started right after I got out of bed and got worse during the morning. It hurt to move.” “Sondra, you had a heart attack!” she said. “Did you go in to the hospital? What did you do?” “Funny, that’s what Dee Dee said, too, but I didn’t tell her about it until yesterday evening when it was all over.” “What happened? Do you still hurt?” “I figured it was a pulled muscl...
We just completed the first half of Montana’s 68th legislative session. This week had a few long days as we made our way to transmittal. Wednesday and Thursday were particularly stressful days as they were both right at 12 hours on the floor taking action on over 150 bills that had to get to the House before transmittal or die. At times, it can become a bit tense during marathon sessions like we had. I would say that some good things have come this session thus far. We passed legislation to get more money to schools. When w...
My husband, Peter, is learning Spanish his own way. I do Duolingo online. It is free. It is easy to do. The whole thing is designed like a game, and dancing animated creatures hop up and down and celebrate every time I get five answers in a row correct. This shouldn’t matter to me — yet I find it deeply satisfying. Peter doesn’t do any of this. Peter learns Spanish by talking with the sandwich shop staff. Since we started staying in our little apartment in Mexico, Jorge, the resourceful owner, has converted what used to be...
What if the losing candidate went away after a presidential election? Suppose the nation had heard nothing from Donald Trump these last two years, except, perhaps report of the day he scored the greatest golf tournament triumph ever? Many lament the ferocity of presidential campaigns, but the after-campaign season has become pretty nasty too. A few months after her 2016 loss to Trump, Hillary Clinton found plenty of people to blame in her book on the lost cause, from Barack Obama to James Comey to the media, but a recurrent t...
It’s not that the Constitution does not contemplate dynamic tension precipitated by differences of view. It is that it also, simultaneously, calls for self-restraint, sincere consideration of contrary views, a willingness to compromise, a mutual promise to serve the common good, opposition without oppression, rivalry without vilification, and disagreement without contempt. These are the values infused into every line and verse of the Constitution. They are an inseparable component of the Rule of Law, which the Republican P...
I sound bonkers, even to myself, when I talk about how this whole kitchen sink project has affected me. I mean, it’s a sink — houses have them in 21st century U.S.A. They do. Except mine didn’t, and it didn’t for 106 days. Give or take a few hours. Sure, there was a reason. The place is under construction and we weren’t meant to be moved in right now but life happens, as it will. And certainly, in the larger scheme of life it’s not the worst thing to happen to either my h...
“The Democrats killed two of my brothers.” That was the reply my 9-year-old father received from his great grandmother on her rural Iowa front porch when he asked her why she was such a strong Republican. Her comment reflected the bitter legacy of the Civil War. As it left the American South solidly Democratic for decades, it also made the Union upper Midwest just as solidly Republican. My father couldn’t remember ever knowing a Democrat until moving to Montana in his early teens. My mother’s family, on the other hand, was gr...
Is this the last time we’ll get to call Montana the “Last Best Place?” It seems that it could be the case if some Montana lawmakers get their way. As of this writing, more than 60 constitutional referenda have been drafted, some of which would change Montanans’ right to “a clean and healthful environment.” In 1972, I was one of 100 Constitutional Convention Delegates that enshrined this groundbreaking, first-in-the-nation right to protect Montana’s land, air, and water for future generations. Like others, as a candidate for...
Back when the earth was still cooling, back when I was a student at Harlem High, algebra was a high school subject. Now they start the kids learning simple equations in pre-school. Or near enough. Up until algebra, I’d made A’s in math. Our algebra teacher was an aerospace engineer the year the field was overbooked, clogged, with aerospace engineers and those who could not follow that path, taught math. Class consisted of Mr. X, or was it Y, ordering us to memorize the equ...
As the executive director of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence — MCADSV — for 17 years and lobbyist for the coalition for 19 years, I cannot tell you how many bills I’ve heard claiming to protect children but are poorly disguised attempts to outcast people in our communities. These types of legislation often hurt children in the process. The Drag Story Hour bill at the Legislature is a prime example. First, let’s be clear. Child sexual abuse is a problem in our state. I know because it’s an issue MCA...
Last week was the last week to get bills transferred over to the opposite legislative house in time to beat the bill cutoff known as transmittal. If the bill hasn’t moved by this week, unless it is a revenue bill, it is likely dead. With that deadline looming, it seems votes on certain bills are being leveraged for votes on other bills. This is too bad, as, in some cases, good bills can get lost in the fray. In order to meet transmittal cutoff, many Senate and House committees are running long in order to get public h...
The Montana Republican Party’s Executive Committee recently approved a resolution rebuking former Montana Republican Gov. Marc Racicot, saying Racicot’s actions in recent years disqualify him from saying he’s a “REPUBLICAN.” In a true over-reach, the resolution from this 13-member clique tries to order the news media to no longer refer to Racicot as a Republican. The news media knows, as most of the mainstream Republican voters in Montana know, that Marc Racicot represents the thinking of hundreds of thousands of Montana G...
Did you hear about the climate rally at the state capital? Nobody desecrated any paintings, but it was about what you’d expect: a chorus of progressives calling for “climate justice.” Except, we were there too. We were there: • Knowing greenhouse gas emissions threaten our natural landscape and economy • Rejecting the false dilemma of the Green New Deal vs. climate denial • Trusting free markets more than big government to solve problems • Understanding that industrial problems need industrial solutions • Believing in th...
In a good two week’s worth of miscues and mishaps and daily trips to the plumbing store on our way to a fully functioning kitchen sink, my husband, John, won the Video-worthy Fail Moment of the Project award, which doesn’t exist, but should. We’d been trading off different duties on the project and John tagged in one morning last week to install the shut-off valves on the hot and cold water lines — a task for which he had formulated a plan. I suspect somewhere there exists...
Here in Montana, tens of thousands of seniors will get relief thanks to a new law that helps to reduce out-of-control drug prices. After years of urging Congress to make prescription drugs more affordable, older Americans won the fight for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and help millions save money on their medications. Two key provisions of the new law took effect Jan. 1 of this year: First, the new law limits the out-of-pocket costs of insulin to $35 a month for people on Medicare, saving money for an estimated...
The Montana Legislature is in full swing. Over 1,000 bills and resolutions are making their way through the House and Senate. As busy as it has been, the pace will pick up as we near the first transmittal deadline on March 4. The deadline requires bills without spending or revenue attached to them to transfer from one house to the other to survive. It also marks the halfway point of the 90-day session. I am fortunate to serve on the Appropriations Committee. This is the busiest committee in the Legislature, as we are...
Please don’t grimace like that, Mrs. Hunter. I’m drunk on spring love and language is ours to play games. Spring arrives quickly here in Jalisco, the Garden State of Mexico. I declare, we are definitely in the Sprang stage of Spring. Boing. Boing. Boing. What fun it is. Light opens the sky a little bit earlier. Not much, here closer to the Equator, but a little. And it stays around a little bit longer in the evening before it drops behind the mountains. And the day warms up...
Editor, In week 7, the Senate confirmed a number of Gov. Greg Gianforte board appointments; a couple of north-central Montana locals were on the list. The governor appointed Tony Miller from Joplin to the Board of Respiratory Care Practitioners. Travis Brown, who grew up in Havre and the Hi-Line and who has since moved to Helena, was also confirmed by the Senate for a board position. He now sits on the Montana Tax Appeal Board as a public representative. A bill that brought a lot of attention from the educational community...
House Bill 405 proposes a substantial amendment to the Montana Constitution in an attempt to create something known as a “citizens’ grand jury.” Apparently, the bill is meant to fulfill the objective of a “Platform Principle” adopted by the Montana Republican Party which states that: “We … support reforming the Grand Jury laws to better root out corruption, and support limiting the ability of the MT Supreme Court to abuse its power to protect themselves.” If approved by the Montana Legislature, and then approved by the voters...
There is no singular cause for Montana’s housing crisis. Rising costs of land, materials, and labor combined with people moving into our communities, further straining our infrastructure, has made for an increasingly critical housing situation. On top of that, developers, builders, and local governments are trying to build housing under old, outdated land use and planning statutes from the 1920s. As an attempted quick fix, many of the housing bills this legislative session mandate the same zoning rules for all communities a...
My mother has a pet squirrel named Stubby. He is not, technically, her pet, as he lives outdoors as a wild squirrel. But he spends much of his time sitting on the railing, watching my mother, and my mother spends much of her time sprinkling seeds outside for Stubby, so you cannot deny they have a relationship. While my husband, Peter, and I were up north visiting, however, Stubby had a visitor. “That’s not Stubby!” my mother said, looking out the window at the red squirrel who appeared remarkably at home. It’s easy to iden...
