News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 962 - 986 of 5551
My husband, Peter, and I are at my parents’ cabin in the woods. The weather was perfect for a bike ride so we took a long one. We had not all been riding together in almost two years and I am not an experienced rider. So, in order to prevent my butt from getting sore, I have a big, soft seat on my bicycle. My mother, an avid cyclist, does not approve. “You wouldn’t need that big tractor seat if you had padded shorts!” she always tells me. “I’m thinking this whole idea of pad...
Editor, I’m a CASA volunteer and a Havre Public School bus driver. In each of these positions, I am not only entrusted with helping ensure children’s safety. I am also required by law to report instances of suspected child neglect and abuse as I see them. The most egregious offenses are those that negligently threaten children’s well-being and safety and those that abusively deny protections that place children in jeopardy. These can include the absence of proper clothing for weather conditions, proper diet for healthy devel...
Editor, Cattle ranchers, like me, are dedicated to caring for our animals and the land every day of the year. On our ranch, we believe that cattle are part of the climate solution. First, they are incredible recyclers, and by feeding them parts of the crop people cannot eat, we are solving a food waste issue. In the winter, when less feed is available, we feed our cattle the tops of the sugar beets and corn stalks we grow as a cash crop. Additionally, our ranch has improved the quality of the grassland and soil. By reseeding...
As expected, the Hill County Park Board has basically voted to continue with its current way of managing beaver in Beaver Creek Park. Trapping is the only means of control they have ever used and will continue to use. No mention of measures or monitoring or keeping records. There was a small mention of using other devices in certain instances but would have to be voted on by the board and to see if they have the money for it. The adopted original draft by the committee effectively indicates “the superintendent has the a...
For many of us, one of our fondest memories is going to our high school or college homecoming. If you look up the definition of the term, homecoming means “an instance of returning home” and “a high school, or university game, dance or other social event to which alumni are invited.” We want to extend that invitation to all Montana State University-Northern alumni to join us Sept. 22-25 to celebrate our wonderful 92 years of Northern. When I started at the MSU-Northern Foundation in the fall of 2019, it was only six weeks p...
I realized two things this week about the often adverse relationship between animals and man — one thing because of the lack of headlines and the other because of the wealth of headlines. First, both Yellowstone and Glacier national parks had record numbers of people visiting this summer, but we hardly had any headlines about people getting injured or killed by wildlife. A couple tourists got injured in Yellowstone, but I just don’t recall and cannot find anything about inj...
I begin my days with a loose routine of morning readings, nothing cast in concrete, but generally start with the poet Rumi. This epitomizes the week. “But for us this day is Friends sitting together with silence shining in our faces.” If friendship were a basket, this week the basket is large and we filled it to the brim. Leo announced his birthday. He’s an old soul in a 35-year-young body. I quickly put a peach/mango crisp in the oven. Leo noted that Ana and Michelle had i...
To me, “the farm” has always meant the farm where my mother grew up, one of 11 children. Every book I ever read that was set on a farm, and many other books as well, all took place in my imagination at my mother’s family farm and the surrounding woods. The farm seemed enormous when I was young. There was a barn full of cows and a coop full of chickens and a granary full of all sorts of things we weren’t supposed to climb into but did anyway. There were lots of feral cats an...
I pen this letter upon return from a 1,700-mile journey to communities across the state and numerous hours of phone and online communications these past two weeks with administrators in Montana’s public schools. The purpose of that travel and communications was to get a sense from our school leaders about the opening of the 2021-22 school year in our schools and communities all across the state. What I learned is that each community’s education team has joyously opened school with students returning with the energy and enthus...
Dear Montana, In my work as a primary care Physician Assistant I regularly advocate to all patients that they get the COVID-19 vaccine. One question I am regularly asked: “The C19 vaccine was rushed, how do I know it’s safe?” I think medicine in general struggles to explain complex subjects in a media environment where only sound-bites are heard and only a few characters on are read. Nuance and long explanation are difficult. So I want to be clear with my patients in my community: The COVID-19 vaccines are incredibly safe...
Twenty years ago Saturday, the world changed. People in the United States and around the world watched in shock and horror as terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth plane, believed to be targeting the White House or U.S. Capitol, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew heroically overcame the hijackers. And people watched the bravery and selflessness of the emergency responders who worked to fight...
If you aren’t cynical before you get into the news business, you will be soon after. And just when I think I’m too cynical to ever be surprised by the news again, along comes a news article that just lights up my brain like a bottle rocket. I know you were expecting to see the headline and a little news summary here after that opening paragraph. Normally you would, like the ol’ one-two punch, but I have to pull that second punch and tell you that the headline and the whole...
Dear Friends Your past support of the NAMI Walk has meant a great deal to us, and we can’t thank you enough for the generosity! We have this walk for the awareness to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness will be held on Sept. 19, 2021. This a major NAMI fundraiser for the year so after it we will not be asking for further donations until the next walk. Our portions of the funds raised through the walk goes to our state office so we can continue to offer education programs to family members. We offer presentation to p...
Some days, I feel like I’m living in Dali’s famous painting with timepieces slumped and limp and empty. Except with differences. My “painting” would have the clock hands clutching at the wall in futile attempt to stay put. “What do you mean, we are well into September? August began yesterday, don’t you know?” What do I have to show for a month gone by? I mean, I haven’t accomplished anything. We are supposed to, aren’t we? We are told that, aren’t we? In my self-imposed lif...
Editor, How ironic: The US Supreme Court just allowed a law passed by Texas Republicans that effectively bans abortion while Republicans in Montana have been chanting, “My body, my choice,” in protests against vaccine and mask mandates. But then again, the trademark of Trump’s party is shameless hypocrisy. The Texas ban is diabolically dystopian, a nightmare much like Margaret Atwood imagined in her novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Instead of the state of Texas enforcing the ban, the law deputizes zealots, letting them sue an...
We are reaching that point in remodeling where we seriously question whether we will ever be done. After we finally found a plumber, we thought our worries were over and progress began briskly. Our plumber had a delightful and exceptionally competent young fellow from Kenya, named Meshach, doing the tiling. We were all set for him to begin on Thursday morning, but he did not arrive. This seemed rather out of character, but we weren’t too concerned. Then he failed to show on F...
From railroaders to farm workers, rural and city, hills to the flats, and irrigated lands vs dryland farming, I continue to be in awe of the diversity we see throughout Montana Senate District 14. Ever so evident in the ag community experience this year. Harvest has been finished for over a month in the east and south parts of the district. The northwest area of the district is currently in full harvest mode. It seems the east and south were a couple of weeks ahead and the northwest is about that much behind on average. Of...
The fall of the Afghan government and the return of the Taliban has left policymakers and the public grasping for answers and apportioning blame. The deaths of 13 U.S. servicemen and -women and 170 Afghans at the Kabul Airport punctuate this tragic state of affairs. Many ask how the Afghan government, after an injection of $89 billion over 20 years, could collapse so quickly. Critical to this debate is Montana’s support for our veterans — as well as the Afghan people. We tend to assign failure to anyone who easily con...
The situation in Rural Fire District 1 is mind-boggling. It seems fairly simple. Havre Fire Department has had an agreement to put out fires in the district, a ring that runs around the outside edge of Havre. Havre’s government said violations on fire codes have been found in the district, putting residents and firefighters at risk when fires occur. That includes the Havre Fire Department responding to a fire at a location where large amounts of flammable liquid were stored that the firefighters didn’t know about. They wou...
Editor, The Gianforte administration issued a new rule discouraging mask mandates in schools. The governor rationalized this by contending that several studies show masking has adverse effects upon children. His office released a supporting document titled “Research Report on Mask Mandates”. The “research” consisted of six Twitter posts, three magazine articles, one study still awaiting peer review and one actual study that concluded, “This study highlighted the importance of masking and ventilation for preventing [COVID] t...
Buying hay for my horses this year felt like a cross between the opening moments of the New York Stock exchange in a bull market and gift shopping on Black Friday — and just a skosh, or maybe even a smidge, like negotiating a nefarious black market deal. Every hay-for-sale ad or online post, as if the starting bell was ringing in the opening of the stock exchange, sent a mad crush of humans into the fray. (For anyone born later than the movie “Trading Places,” the trading floor was like a mosh pit for money rather than music....
I suppose it’s my own fault. I should have known when the toilet tank innards up and died and bled water all over the floor. But no, I had nary a clue. Then a few days later I remained blissfully unaware when my washing machine puddled all over the bodega floor. Turned out a crack eroded in the tub which had to be replaced. I should have caught on that something was afoot more than the simple mechanical obvious. The appropriate specialist doctors came out and applied the a...
Montanans personal income grew 20 percent year-over-year, housing prices are up more than 30 percent and the number of job postings in the state were 62 percent higher in July than in February 2021. It really is a recession experience like no other. What does it mean for Montana’s economy, the businesses that support it and Montanans? Bureau of Business and Economic Research Director Patrick Barkey boiled down and explained the data for the Montana Chamber Foundation’s mid-year economic update this summer. Workforce shortages...
I met my former mother-in-law, “Mama Lou,” and my former father-in-law, “Poppo,” when I was not yet 20 years old. I hitched a ride to meet them, terrified because I’d spoken to my future mother-in-law on the phone and she sounded exactly like Lauren Bacall. I arrived at their home in Wisconsin and my future father-in-law threw open the door and said, “You must be Carrie! Can I get you a drink?” In the more than 20 years that followed, I never felt anything less than welcome...
Editor, No one has a constitutional right to infect others with a deadly disease. There is no “freedom” from vaccination or from required wearing of masks. We are not free to disregard a stop light or a speed limit. There is no constitutional right to impregnate a woman without her consent. That is absurd. In fact, Russ Doty suggests that the contrary may be true. Article II, Section 3 of the Montana Constitution provides that all citizens have a right to a clean and healthful environment. Spreading the COVID-19 virus cer...
