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  • View from the North 40: Clever is as clever does

    Pam Burke|Updated Mar 30, 2022

    It’s not the type of headlines you expect to have blowing up the internet: “Controversy over the advertising of sex toys at curling Olympic qualifier cancels televised coverage in U.S.” I would like to think that you have at least heard of the sport of curling, but in case you’re in the dark, curling is that team sport played on ice with a 42-pound polished granite stone. One person, with a push maneuver, kind of launches the stone down a 150-foot lane. The teammates frantical...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: On the merry-go-round

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Jan 13, 2022

    Here we go again, ’round and ’round the merry-go-round, twirling so fast we dare not jump off. Leo was just here with the daily death report from town. Last night the governor of Jalisco spoke to the people. He basically locked us down again. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t congregate in bunches. Wear masks. No travel unless absolutely necessary. Now that the holidays have passed, tourists and Mexican-Americans here to visit family have gone back home, the latest COVID variant is on...

  • Letter to the Editor - Consider hiring someone who stutters

    Updated Jan 12, 2022

    Dear editor, As businesses and organizations continue to struggle with staffing shortages, the Stuttering Foundation unveiled some good news for employers — according to speech experts, people who stutter tend to show significantly better than average care and perseverance in completing their workplace responsibilities. Stuttering is often misunderstood. As a result, employers may mistakenly pass over qualified candidates who stutter. Now is a good time to hire more people who stutter in the workplace. One percent of the p...

  • The Postscript: Fancy dress

    Carrie Classon|Updated Jan 12, 2022

    I was excited to wear my new dress. It was slimming, I thought: all black and covered with flounces from the neckline to the hemline. I wore it with high heels — which I rarely wear — and red drop earrings. I was feeling much more sophisticated than I usually do when I went over to my sister’s house for dinner. “Nice dress!” my mother said. I gave my new dress a little twirl and set the ruffles flying in all directions. “You look like a car wash,” my sister said. This is...

  • Happy New Year from your state senator

    Updated Jan 11, 2022

    Judy and I want to wish you a Happy New Year, good heath, and our best for 2022! I pray you had a great Christmas with family and friends. Over the holidays, we spent time with three of our four kids and eight of the grands. We played games, laughed, giggled, and some stayed up most of Christmas Eve waiting for Santa. I also had an opportunity to spend time with both of my brothers, whom I had not seen in around three years. There was a lot of catching up to be done. From grandkids to brothers, it seems we are all getting...

  • Oh, Ohio, how can you be so Wright and so wrong?

    Pam Burke|Updated Jan 7, 2022

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, intended to help the state’s popularity soar with a new state license plate, but it quickly hit turbulence and had to make an immediate course correction, which was a bit difficult with all that egg on their face. The Associated Press reported back in October that Ohio debuted its new license plate. It’s a beautiful illustration with an art deco flair depicting the essential elements of Ohio’s self-identity — a glorius sun emanati...

  • Looking out my backdoor: To dream the Impossumable Dream

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Jan 6, 2022

    To jump start a new year and top off my week, we had a puzzling close encounter of the impossible kind. Lola The Dog chased down an adult opossum. It might have dropped out of the avocado tree. Lola was beside herself with dog joy. Lola has a good measure of hunter in her parentage. She’s brought me birds and lizards of various shades. But this is a biggie. She proudly deposited her gift at my feet, tail wagging like ‘copter blades. Good dog. There it lay, dead. I’d never...

  • The Postscript: New Year inventory

    Carrie Classon|Updated Jan 5, 2022

    The New Year is when we take stock. In some cases, like my husband Peter’s, this is literal. He keeps an inventory of our canned goods and chastises me if I mess up his inventory. “Did you mark off the black beans?” “Um, no.” “You have to mark it off on the list or I won’t know how many I have.” “Oh. Sorry.” I am less concerned about our supply of canned goods in the New Year and more concerned about stockpiles closer to home — on my hips, for example. I had gotten out of the...

  • View from the North 40: It's time to show that you mean it: Skin to win

    Pam Burke|Updated Dec 30, 2021

    Not since the Renaissance has Italy led the world so clearly in the culture wars, but this time we’re not talking about arts, and certainly not sciences, we’re talking about the great COVID vaccine resistance of 2021. Those Italians put some skin in the game. Even with a pretty high 73% full-vaccination rate in the country, on Dec. 6 Italy started requiring a health pass to prove vaccination for some professions and for entrance into many venues. The Thursday before the law...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: End of Year Farm, Weather, Factory and Livestock Reports

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Dec 30, 2021

    Farm Report: Tomatoes are up and everything else is down. More or less. I’m not sure what it is about tomatoes here but they insist on growing under extreme conditions, such as winter. Well, our winter, not your winter. Still, they astonish me. Remember, my farm is in five-gallon buckets, baby baths, and other assorted strange containers. I’m really tired of eating tomatoes. My neighbors are glad to relieve me of the excess. Herbs are year round. Flowers are forever. But the...

  • The Postscript: Bad jokes

    Carrie Classon|Updated Dec 29, 2021

    My Uncle Andy recently turned 90, and it was hard to imagine what a guy would like for his 90th birthday. At 90, getting a lot of new stuff doesn’t sound very appealing. Andy is in the process of getting rid of stuff, a job made more challenging by the fact that neither he nor his wife, Bea, have any children to fob the stuff off on. Andy and Bea live in the farmhouse where my mom was raised, and we were stumped when the subject of a 90th birthday present came up. “What does A...

  • Letter to the Editor - Are we begging for money or asking for assistance?

    Updated Dec 28, 2021

    The lodge in Beaver Creek Park is in need of updating and it will take funding beyond what is available in normal financial operation of the Park. There are ongoing efforts to find and secure grants for the needed updates. Grants are not the only way to raise the necessary funds. Anyone with a mailing address or phone number is regularly solicited for money for any number of purposes. However, many of these are not invested in our local area. I can’t help but believe there are 10’s of thousands of dollars flowing out of thi...

  • Letter to the Editor - We thank you!

    Updated Dec 27, 2021

    Sometimes people will ask me “What does the Foundation do?” To get right to it, the Montana State University-Northern Foundation (aka Northern Alumni Foundation) is the recognized philanthropic not-for-profit organization for Montana State University-Northern. However, that doesn’t really describe what we do. In a nut shell, we encourage donations, process gifts, and manage funds. We host events and we fundraise for both small campus initiatives and large capital campaigns. We sit in countless meeting with the University and...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: My Christmas greeting card to you

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Dec 22, 2021

    I thought to write a Christmas newsletter but then common sense prevailed. What would I say? For all of us, 2021 has been a year of isolation, of illness and deaths in our friends, families, neighbors and acquaintances; a year of worry and fret. To balance what I said above, the solitude, for me, has been a most precious gift. I don’t have any words to explain, just that it has allowed a deepening and sharpening of senses and sensibilities. That doesn’t make sense. You’d have...

  • The Postscript: Stringing lights

    Carrie Classon|Updated Dec 22, 2021

    I walk around my neighborhood later in the evening these days, mostly so I can see the lights. There are some impressive houses just a mile or so away, and I walk down the sidewalks and see what has appeared on the lawns and in the windows now, right before Christmas. Some of the houses clearly had outside assistance. There are lights hung in places that only a cherry picker could reach. One house had four such enormous trees in a row, all in uniform white lights, until the...

  • Rosendale fails Montana hunters on CWD

    Updated Dec 21, 2021

    As I write this, the quarters of a white-tailed buck deer I harvested over the Thanksgiving weekend hang in my garage. It’s not that I couldn’t find time in the last 10 days to get the cutting, grinding and packaging done. I won’t butcher it until I get back the testing results for Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD. CWD is an always-fatal neurological condition that’s spreading rapidly in our country’s deer herds. It also affects elk and moose. Much of its workings are still a mystery to researchers. CWD is not caused by...

  • A hope for democracy

    Updated Dec 21, 2021

    I am rounding out my first term in the Montana Legislature and have spent the past year thinking about hope: where we find hope, how we create it, what is both feeding and eroding it, and the future of hope within our democratic institutions. I am writing to share one of the conversations on hope I’ve been having with myself. I recently returned from a legislative leadership academy with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers from across the West. We gathered to learn about the history of state legislatures, how to n...

  • Thanks for Christmas events

    Updated Dec 20, 2021

    Editor: A heartfelt “Thank You” to all the businesses that donated to the Super Certificate Giveaway held Dec. 4: 40 Below, 406 Custom Auto, And Company, Aquatana, Bear Paw Credit Union, Bear Paw Meats, Bearly Square, Ben Franklin, Bergren Transmission, Best Western Plus Great Northern Inn, Big Equipment, Bing’n Bob’s, Bosch Kurr Dugdale & Brown, Brandon‘s Drapery, Cavaliers, Clausen and Sons, Duchscher Kapperud Insurance, Duck Inn, Edward Jones, Emporium, Erickson Insurance, Ezzies Wholesale, Flynn Realty, Foster Home and...

  • Thanks to all on help with Denton fire

    Updated Dec 20, 2021

    November 30, 2021; 11:26PM DENTON FIRE RESPOND ON HWY 80 FOR A REPORT OF GRASS FIRES IN WEST SIDE OF DITCH TO ASSIST STANFORD FIRE When the page came in, we were only 34 minutes away from the 1st of December and Denton’s volunteer firemen were thinking the wildland fire season should be over. Unfortunately, Denton Fire was about to face their greatest challenge yet of this difficult fire season. It’s painful and difficult to recall all the events spawned out of the night of November 30th nor is that the intent of this let...

  • View from the North 40: The question is: What can we learn from this?

    Pam Burke|Updated Dec 17, 2021

    When your life is rich with irony and sarcasm, it’s easy to become jaded and hardened with the world, like having a nasty case of calcium buildup or plaque over the soul, so I was kind of surprised this week to find out that I could still be surprised. It is, of course, ridiculous — after more than half a century living in Montana — to be surprised by winter, so perhaps it’s an intelligence issue. I don’t know. Yes, logically, I know it’s coming. spring, summer, fall, winte...

  • Renew coach Gatch's contract

    Updated Dec 17, 2021

    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...

  • Senate has historic opportunity to break cycle of poverty

    Updated Dec 17, 2021

    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...

  • Looking out my backdoor: Doing my small part for our planet

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Dec 16, 2021

    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...

  • The Postscript: Worth waiting for

    Carrie Classon|Updated Dec 15, 2021

    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...

  • In the interest of our Beaver Creek Park

    Updated Dec 14, 2021

    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...

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