News you can use
News you can use
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I am a person of generally good habits, which is why it is puzzling when I acquire a bad one. Habits are probably the most important thing when it comes to having a happy life. I eat things that make me feel good and are good for me. I take my long walk every day. I do daily push-ups (even though I hate them). I go to the doctor on a regular schedule, sleep a good amount every night. I haven’t smoked a cigarette since I was in my 20s, when it seemed like fun. I stopped drinkin...
Democrats, led by President Biden, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi, are rushing a reckless $3.5 trillion tax and spending spree bill through Congress that would reshape the very foundation of America and push the U.S. down the path of socialism. The Democrats’ massive bill is the largest spending bill in our nation’s history and will create all sorts of new entitlement programs. To pay for it, Democrats plan to hike taxes across the board, making this bill the largest tax increase in over 50 years. In fac...
Editor, In 1977, I watched admiringly as Orrin Hatch ran for U.S. Senate on a platform of voluntary term limits. He ran against three-term Utah Senator Frank Moss, saying, “What do you call a Senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.” Hatch’s point of view had solid backing in American constitutional history and tradition. James Polk ran for president in 1844 on a pledge to serve only one term, as did the candidate for the other party. The citizenry at that time were well aware that term limits were nece...
Editor: Too often in the world today there is truth in the statement, “These are wild animals, yes, but they are not free animals.” That is case with the American bison in Yellowstone National Park. The bison are wild animals but not free to roam beyond the park’s borders for just beyond those borders are hunters and quarantines waiting to determine their fates. Wild but not free is also descriptive of the big horn sheep in the Absaroka Mountains, mountain goats in the Beartooths, bobcats in the Bridgers, black bears in th...
This is back to normal? 510 Montanans hospitalized with COVID-19 is normal? If that’s the case, all I can say is, yikes. But, normal is exactly what Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said Montana was back to late last spring. And while I admit, at the time, things did start to seem that way, this summer, they took a drastic turn for the worse once again — and now, at least strictly from a data standpoint, Montana is experiencing its worst COVID surge yet. And it’s not even close...
For a very brief period in my youth, I wanted to be famous, which was a very stereotypical urge but strongly at odds with my natural inclination to stay home and not be noticed. If I were going to pull up a couch and have a session about this, I would say that my neurotic teen-self thought being the exact opposite of who I was would be a loftier goal. Fortunately, my practical little heart won that tug of war and I’m all the better for it. Though, if I harbor some desire for a...
Honest to Pete, sometimes I’m blind as a bat. Yes, I know; let the clichés roll on. These last six years that I’ve lived in my Etzatlan house, I thought my bodega roof drained frontward. My neighbor Janet asked if I knew what that large pipe was about on the other side of our shared wall. What pipe? We asked “the boys.” Yes, that pipe drains the gutter from my bodega roof onto the other property and makes a right mess. Joe and Yvonne used to own both houses. They were her...
There are few things as daunting as buying jeans. I don’t buy jeans frequently enough to buy the same kind twice. By the time I’m ready for a new pair of jeans, whatever I’ve been wearing is unavailable, out of style, or both. Of course there are sizes on jeans, but the sizes mean nothing. They are only intended to provide some sort of rough orientation. It would be like saying you know how to find your grandmother’s house in Texas because you know how to get to Texas....
With numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continuing to go up in this region and across Montana and the nation, people need to follow Gov. Greg Gianforte’s request and use personal responsibility to deal with this pandemic. And the numbers are going up faster than they did a year ago despite people being vaccinated and many people already having had the disease, which also increases resistance, although not as much as vaccination, health experts say. Hill County is reported to have 6,914 people fully vaccinated, 52 percent o...
Remember last week when I said that magnetic north and south could just up and swap ends and that birds’ ability to migrate properly could be disrupted by that or by the mad scientists in France who are planning on firing up a magnet that’s 280,000 times more powerful than Earth’s magnetic field? Fun times. I’ll bet that more people than just the two who said it to my face were thinking, “Oh, Pam. You and your brain hopped up on google-y things are willing to write all manne...
We stood side by side on the ditch bank, relaxed, Dad leaning on his irrigation shovel. The July afternoon was quiet, air hardly moving, hot, dry. I was in high school but I can’t remember which year. A wisp of cloud lifted above the horizon. We stood together, in silence, watched the cloud gather substance. The spring rains had abandoned us that year. Here it was, mid-summer, and the earth gasped for moisture. We tracked that cloud all the way from the cusp until nearly o...
“We are cleaning up our stuff,” Meschack, the tile layer who now more or less permanently resides in our home, informed me. “We are giving you more space.” “More space!” I said in mock amazement. “Why would I need more space? I see at least three square feet over there by the closet and another four feet behind the dining room table!” Meshack squinted his eyes and looked at me seriously, as he does. He was again accompanied by his assistant, Yusefu, a recent immigrant from Ken...
Magnets are all fun and sciency until the earth gets knocked off its access. I don’t have to tell you that magnetic north is different from geographic or true north. We all know Santa’s North Pole stays put right where the giant candy cane was anchored into the permafrost back when he and his merry band of elves started that gift-giving franchise. But magnetic north — to where the arrowy thing in your compass is wont to point — just takes up residence wherever it feels like. We’ve been able to google that informati...
Watching Arizona’s freshman Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema trying to figure out how to vote on President Biden’s budget plan reconciliation bill reminds me of a Montana situation almost 44 years ago with freshman Sen. Paul Hatfield. In both cases, there was an important upcoming vote in which every vote counted. Both Hatfield and Sinema had let themselves become essentially the final necessary vote, breaking a political rule to never let yourself be the final vote because of the disproportionate blame that could be laid at...
In the 1920s, Adolph Hitler published his book titled “Main Kampf.” He advocated for big lies as he advised leaders who needed to lie to the public to tell only big lies. He assured his readers that people would easily see through small lies and reject them. He also convincingly wrote that the public would be in awe of big lies, accept them and act accordingly. For example, utilizing his philosophy, Hitler convinced many Germans that they were a super race destined to conquer and rule other nations. The big lie phi...
Editor, At least four times this last legislative session, the Republican majority showed us that they do not trust Montanan voters to decide their own future. HB 176 eliminated same-day voter registration. Originally passed by a bipartisan Legislature in 2005, a majority of Montana’s voters affirmed their support of this voting right on the ballot in 2014, when 57% of us voted to keep same day voter registration. The 2021 Legislature took that right away. HB 273 took away our right to vote on approval of nuclear energy p...
Turned out to be a surprise party at my house, planned by Ana and Leo, unbeknownst to either myself or Michelle. I knew Ana and Michelle were coming over. I’d asked them if they would accept a lovely tooled leather stool that had no acceptable place to live in my home but I thought it would have several spots it would like to live at their place. Michelle said they had to be in town so would stop by to get the stool. I’d considered asking Michelle if she’d bring her espre...
We were supposed to get the tile backsplash installed in our kitchen yesterday, but my husband, Peter, said he needed to use the kitchen so he could bake ginger cookies. “Can you work in the bathroom today instead?” I asked Meshach, the talented tiler from Kenya, who has been here so long by now that he feels like part of the family. “Peter wants to bake ginger cookies.” Meshach has now been joined by a second Kenyan, who is assisting him, named Yusefu. Yusefu and Meshach...
There is no doubt north-central Montana is the best place to live. This past week was a true testament of what a giving and caring community we all live in and how we can band together in a disaster. When Amtrak derailed just west of Joplin there was an outpouring of help from every county within a hundred miles. Emergency responders came from Blaine, Hill, Chouteau, Cascade, Toole, Glacier, Pondera, and my home county of Liberty. These emergency responders have been trained for this, were ready, and did a great job of managi...
Havre Daily News offers its deepest condolences to the families of the people who died and to the people injured in the derailment Saturday near Joplin. And we offer our deepest thanks to the people who responded to help. The situation is tragic, with three people killed, several hospitalized and dozens or more injured of the 141 people traveling on or 16 working on the train. We cannot express how sorry the tragedy makes us feel. And thanks to the dozens, likely hundreds, of people who responded to help. Emergency...
Editor, The Friends of the Havre-Hill County Library set-up a silent auction in the library. The silent auction items are older slightly used Montana books, local authors and a few other classics; with fiction and non-fiction books by favorite authors such as Doig and J.R.R. Tolkien. Stop by the library, located at 402 Third St., to view the display and to place your bid. This silent auction is running Sep. 17 until Oct. 21 after The Friends of the Library’s annual meeting. The Friends of the Library meet at noon on the t...
The truth isn’t always stranger than fiction, but the truth could strangely inspire fiction. A big article we ran in the paper this week illuminated the trouble our local school system is having finding bus drivers to help transport students to events. I know, it seems mildly interesting at best, but apparently, it is a big deal because this bus driver shortage is occurring all over the country. However, for as far as my Google searches can see Brooke Charter School in B...
I have become adept at simply watching the sky, at comprehending or at thinking I comprehend, the grim and gritty shades of gray, unrelenting gray, and nothing sexy about it, and I confess I never read the above hinted at book but had it been around when I was a teen, I’m sure I would have thought myself quite sophisticated to hide the pages under my bed quilt and greedily turn pages in secret by flashlight. Today I’d rather read the sky, of which on second thought, I hav...
Editor, When I was in school, our director of nursing education, who had been in the military service, said that her recurring nightmare was having to do triage. This is the protocol described in the Sept. 20 article “Montana in dire straits as COVID rages,” where it becomes necessary to restrict medical services to those who have the best chance of survival. Come on people, get vaccinated. As a country we should be better than this. The vaccines have proven to be safe and effective but misinformation travels fast while the...
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...
