News you can use
News you can use
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Editor’s note: Clara Laird provided this statement she prepared to read during this week’s Havre Public Schools board meeting but was not allowed to read, with the board saying public comment cannot be made on personnel issues. Good evening members of the Havre Public School Board, my name is Clara Laird, I am a sophomore at Havre High School. I am here to speak on behalf of Coach Ryan Gatch, and why he should continue to be the Head Football Coach at Havre High School. Havre Public Schools has a motto, Tradition of Exc...
It is finally time for the U.S. Senate to pass the Build Back Better legislation, and it can’t come soon enough. Many families have not financially recovered from the pandemic, and with the cost of gas, food, and other necessities rising worldwide, people are really struggling. This legislation will improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Montanans. Here are a few of the most critical ways the bill will reduce poverty in Montana: Child Tax Credit. This year, for the first time, families most in need were e...
Don’t get excited. This is not a big deal. I might save a tree or two. I won’t be leading parades nor expect anybody to jump on my bandwagon. Three things linked together in my head and this idea shot out the other end. (Please, do not examine that statement too closely.) Weather devastations and our dying planet met up with my shrinking income met up with a memory of childhood when I learned to iron clothes beginning with handkerchiefs for the whole family, some embroidered i...
Yesterday I bought a Christmas tree at the hardware store. I thought it was a good day to do it both because I'd heard the rumors of Christmas tree shortages and because it would keep me away from my email for more than an hour — a near record in the last two weeks. No one tells you, when you start writing, that it involves a lot of waiting. I have sent the manuscript of my first novel off to someone, and it feels as if 30 minutes or so should be plenty of time to read 300 p...
Our Beaver Creek Park was established and acquired for recreation and a park; it was not acquired to benefit commercial and private interests. We need to keep this in mind for current and future times and constantly balance how we develop and use our park. To help maintain a present day focus on the future long run ecological/economic/sustainable/regenerative aspects of the park without prejudice, it behooves the Hill County citizens that own our Beaver Creek Park to organize and advocate on behalf of our park for the...
Editor, If Elsie Arntzen were your batty aunt, she’d be kind of fun, inspiring incessant family gossip. As in, she did what? Noooo! Tell me more! The problem is, she is our state superintendent, Montana’s chief public education officer, and she is doing a simply awful job of it. Her management has caused 90% of the Office of Public Instruction staff to abandon ship, fleeing her fanatical temper tantrums. Without their experience, OPI is no longer functioning, and superintendents across Montana are in open rebellion, cir...
The Hill County Commission apparently has appointed a new Hill County attorney. It also apparently, and ironically, broke state law in its appointment of the highest legal officer in the county. The commission’s weekly calendar for next week reports the oath of office will be administered Monday to the new county attorney, who will take the place of Karen Alley, who resigned to take a position out of the area. Appointing a county attorney to fill the term is not the problem, in fact, it is the duty of the county commission t...
In the most scandalous scandal to hit the beauty pageant world since Mary Leona Gage lied about her age and her marital and parental status then won Miss USA 1957 — proving that a married 18-year-old mother of two could beat the sashes off the 20-something-year-old single women — more than 40 beauty contestants at a festival in Saudi Arabia have been banned from competition for breaking rules that prohibit cosmetic alterations that unnaturally enhance the beauty of the con...
Editor, While families are counting down to the holidays, many are also anxiously watching a different clock — the one that is running out for the Senate to take meaningful action to address hunger and poverty in communities here in Montana and nationwide. Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, families will get their last monthly check this month through the enhanced Child Tax Credit, one of the programs of the Build Back Better Act now under consideration in the Senate. This benefit has been a lifeline for f...
Well, it is, you know. The season of too much. Christmas begins in August in the stores. There are too many presents under the tree. Excessive decorating until what would have been pretty becomes tasteless. Too much spending. Too much eating. Too much guilt. As you might surmise, I have managed to pare down my life even more. Here on the Rancho, every year we exchange little gifts. In one breath I announced that nobody was going to get a gift from me and begged my neighbors...
“It’s not about luck,” my friend Andrew insists, “it’s about gratitude.” Andrew is not some sort of New Age guide, in case you were wondering. He is a slightly curmudgeonly tax preparer and not given to feel-good platitudes. He was refuting what I had said, which was that luck has played a significant role in my life. When good things happen to me, I don’t believe it’s only because I worked hard. “Lots of people work hard,” I told Andrew. “Not everyone had the head start I...
I pray everyone had a Thanksgiving to remember as we move into the Christmas season. This past month has been a busy one for me. My education committee has been charged with a study to determine if incarcerated individuals are receiving the education the State of Montana is required to offer. We first toured the education department of the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. The education offered at the facility starts with the HISET — High School Equivalency Test — formerly known as the GED. Everyone at the prison has the...
Senators and representative, As we approach Christmas, we have one request to Montana’s federal delegation: please do everything in your power to stop the reckless taxing and spending proposal currently working its way through Congress. The biggest gift Montana could receive from Washington, D.C., this holiday season is a dose of common sense, not more federal taxes and debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said it’s his goal to pass President Biden’s $2 trillion tax and spend bill before Christmas. Meanwhile, inflat...
As tragedy, after strife, after contention, after attack rolls through the news cycle, the one news byte that really hit home is this: North Americans are facing a maple syrup shortage of such dire proportions that Canada has had to tap its national emergency strategic stockpile of maple syrup to get us through these desperate times. I am not joking about this. I have been craving pancakes with maple syrup for more than two weeks now, and the thought of not having maple syrup...
Easy to say. Difficult to pull off. Oh, oh. I see you are giving me the stink eye over my use of “Be lazy.” My friend and I grew up on neighboring farms. Our fairy godmothers waved magic wands at our births and gifted us with the gift of “Busy.” You know, as in “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop and idle hands his tools.” My grandma used to actually say that to me. Frequently. She raised my dad, of course, so I come by some things served up in a double-dip cone. Let me...
My husband, Peter, is a man of few colors: black and gray, to be exact. He has always been this way, as far as I know. Peter is not opposed to color, but I think it makes him a little nervous. He worries that one color might not go with another or that there might be too much color in one place — especially if that one place is on him. So he goes the other route and opts for no color at all — unless you call 50 shades of gray a color, which I don’t. We’ve been remodel...
Editor, In 2020, we couldn’t see a safe way to move forward with the Community Thanksgiving Dinner as life was full of uncertainties. Out of concern and respect for the health of the members of our community, we made the difficult decision to cancel the dinner. This year, we re-assessed the situation and made the choice to continue with the delivery of the meals, but not sit together in the dining room, instead we handed out grab and go meals. The team accomplished the goal of preparing a traditional Thanksgiving meal; we box...
Editor, I have listened to this question at least twice asked on a show I listen to from someone from the current American right: “Why are you Democrats so obsessed with Donald Trump?” The short answer is in a quote below from the founder of Buddhism: “If a viper lives in your room and you wish to have a peaceful sleep, you must first chase it out.” — Gautama Buddha (possibly 6th to 5th century BCE) Donald Trump was made by the media, and there seems to be a media obsession with him, clearly displayed in the years 2015 to the...
The president officially pardoned the turkey again this year, but really, a is that all about? Isn’t it weird to project a sense of humanity onto the animal we traditionally eat this holiday? Still, year after year, presidents have been issuing official pardons to turkeys that haven’t done a dang thing wrong. Shouldn’t it be called a stay of execution? Even saying they were saved from a lynching would be more accurate than being pardoned. Not only have those turkeys done no wr...
Editor, Let’s not beat around the bush. I am tired of ignoring the obvious. Donald Trump wants to run this country whether he has the votes or not. Donald Trump refused to recognize that he lost the election to Joe Biden. He tried to get the Georgia secretary of state to “find” enough votes for him to win Georgia. He tried to get Mike Pence to certify that he won even when the official vote tallies showed he did not win. He encouraged his supporters to go to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, and storm the capitol. It is am...
Back in July, I took a big step in my single life. I adopted Lola, a sweet dog, raised by friends who had rescued her mother, abandoned, heavy with pups, from homeless life on the streets of Oconahua, sleeping in doorways, eating garbage. I like animals. I like pets. Dogs. Cats. Pigs. Rats. Yes, rats. When my daughter was 3, I went to buy a guinea pig but the pet store owner talked me into a pair of Chinese hooded rats. Rats make excellent pets, are intelligent, affectionate...
My mother sent a photo of a huge female turkey sitting on her bird feeder. The giant, ungainly creature looked ridiculous, perched on the little wooden roof of a feeder intended for chickadees and nuthatches. “She has been hanging around for two days now,” my mother wrote. “Maybe our Thanksgiving dinner?” Even before my mother sent this, I was thinking Thanksgiving looked a little strange this year. I’ve heard the complaints, year after year, about how we’re rushing the...
Editor, For many years, my family has had farm land under the Glasgow Irrigation District. That is part of the larger Milk River Irrigation System that brings water all across the Hi-Line, over 700 miles from the Mountains to the irrigated acres in Blaine, Hill, Phillips and Valley Counties and to many cities and communities for their drinking water. A structure on that system at St. Mary failed some years back. The Bureau of Reclamation has been working to get it properly repaired. I, and I am sure many others, have signed...
I don’t acknowledge signs, those supposed metaphysical, philosophical and esoteric Signs from the Universe that require interpretation to guide me through life’s journey. Those signs are a hard no from me. Signs from the Universe are pointless for over-thinkers. Let’s say you’re working hard to make a dream come true. Your first break comes along and you garner some success from it, but not without some problems and painful sacrifices. You feel this momentous moment is a si...
For several decades the Milk River Project has been chronically underfunded and in need of essential repairs. Politicians of every stripe have failed to deliver the dollars needed to forge a long-term solution. Until now. Help has finally arrived in the form of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The legislation allocates $100 million for the Milk River Project. It will pour key resources into upgrades, new construction and pipeline replacement. After years of patchwork solutions, this legislation will breathe new life into...
