News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1190 - 1214 of 3210
Without a doubt, we want to see our community thrive. Along with our friends and neighbors, we want to succeed and prosper. Now more than ever we need to consider all avenues to improve the economy, especially with our small businesses, bars and restaurants. While the world today has limitations, we must look ahead and be ready to maximize all avenues to encourage people to spend money, and more pointedly, spend it in our region. We need to make this area a destination. Montana’s top industry is tourism. Yet, I constantly m...
In times of emergency, misperceptions can prove deadly. That’s certainly the case today, amid widespread belief that COVID-19 mainly threatens older Americans. In reality, those of any age suffering from an underlying health condition are at significant risk of complications from COVID-19. And when these patients fail to take proper precautions, they put their own lives — and the health of millions of people — in jeopardy. By and large, younger Americans have been the slowest to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many in th...
Teacher Appreciation Week. It’s always one I try to remember. After all, I have a lot of teachers in the family, and, being a coach for the last 18 years, I not only know about every teacher in our district, but I pretty much feel like one too. And in my humble opinion, teachers don’t ever get enough credit for what they do. Simply put, they work their butts off every day for nine months, a year or more to ensure that our young people not only get the best education they possibly can, but to also help ensure that our fut...
At some point in my adult life I took a moment to contemplate my small circle of friends and realized that somehow, instinctively, I had assembled an awesome apocalypse team. It’s held true since then that the people I make a personal connection with are do-ers with a wide array of life-saving and survival skills, and together we would dominate any apocalypse, even one of a zombie nature. All that said, at another point not too long ago I came to the realization that I was t...
Though not the least bit dangerous, Argentine Ants win the grand prize for pesky, irritating, prolific and impossible to be squashed with any permanence. You in the North Country don’t have to worry about them. So far they have learned to inhabit only tropical and sub-tropical climes. I say ‘so far’. Adaptable little creatures they are. They neither bite with fire nor leave welts. They don’t strip entire trees overnight. They don’t chew the furniture. However, one this mome...
Every Mother’s Day, I have a terrible time finding a card that remotely reflects the relationship I have with my mother. My mom is in her 80s now, and we have always had a good relationship, free of drama and never short of love. My mother has always been a wonderful role model. But the cards available all have paragraphs of gooey prose that in no way communicate what I want to say to my mother. I want a card that says my mother has good habits. This sounds a little dull — and...
After being closed for over a month, the Havre-Hill County library is again ready to check out books to the public. For the time being, the process will be more involved than we’d like it to be, for you and for us, but we have figured out a way to make the printed collection available while adhering to safety guidelines. We are carefully sanitizing all items as they are returned to us, but the best protection that we can provide is time. With that in mind, all items are quarantined for two weeks after they have been returned...
Beyond restarting POW-MIA recovery operations, we must heal our country and adapt to our earth. Healing means building trust and ending graft, the unscrupulous use of public office for personal advantage. By disqualifying candidates who accept donations larger than the $1,740 filing fee, I hope to unburden officials from seeking financial benefactors. Healing requires building bridges of mutual respect with my fellow U.S. senators. As an Abraham Lincoln Republican, I look forward to serving with the Honorable Jon Tester as...
While Americans focus on the coronavirus pandemic and the mounting economic crisis, top Republicans in Washington are taking advantage of this situation to attack one of the constitutional pillars of American democracy: our free press. America’s founders knew freedom of the press was so important that they enshrined it in the very first amendment to the United States Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. Since then, our nation’s free press has defended and strengthened America’s constitution and our d...
In less than two weeks, ballots will be mailed to voters throughout Montana, and Republicans will have an important choice to make. After 16 years of single-party control of the governor’s office, we can win in November and put Montana back on the right track. I support Greg Gianforte for governor because he offers a positive, hopeful vision for what we can achieve and where he will lead our state. I’m disappointed, though, by some of the outrageous, false charges I’ve seen against Greg Gianforte — particularly by fellow...
Allow me to sound like broken record for a few minutes. But, I promise, it’s for a good cause. Last week, I wrote a column imploring residents of Havre and Hill County, and really, residents of humanity, to continue following the basic guidelines that help stop the spread of COVID-19, so that we can protect our health care workers. The timing of that column came as Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced his plan for beginning to re-open our great state of Montana. Now I’m asking for the same thing, but with an added mis...
Whether you are still trying to fill the void of things canceled or postponed because the the pandemic, you are still being strict about self-isolating, or you just long for those weird and wacky stay-at-home days of yore, I have a list of activities to fill the need. Are you a horse racing or betting nut suffering withdrawals over the loss of this spring’s Kentucky Horse Derby which should have been running this weekend? Well, dust off your big bonnet and whip up some mint j...
We have numerous ways of fooling ourselves; at least I have. Little things, like “A change is as good as a rest” for when I get bogged down on a project. Or, “If I take a walk, I will no longer want to piggy the rest of the liter of ice cream.” Good luck with that one. In the interest of changing up my daily routine, this morning I put on my green dress. This is not just any green dress. This is an elegant green dress. It flows in simple lines all the way to my feet. The fab...
The ravens are back. Last year, they had a nest right on my hiking trail but I didn’t notice them making it. I didn’t notice when they started guarding it or when the female laid eggs. I didn’t notice a thing. I never saw the nest—which is almost five feet across—and I’m not feeling too stupid about that because the nest is more than 100 feet in the air. I didn’t notice a thing until the chicks were hatched. Then I noticed. A baby raven is a lot closer to a baby pterodactyl th...
In the April 2, 2020, Community News (a Roosevelt County publication), Austin Knudsen, one of the two Republican candidates for Montana attorney general, gave some advice on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and boiled it down to one thing: “Basically, be a decent neighbor.” It’s a good perspective, but I wish he would take his own advice. You see, Austin Knudsen and his family, Knudsen Limited Family Partnership (KLFP), have not been decent neighbors when it comes to their own home town and a park that is owned by the Ameri...
Easter Sunday, 11 years ago, I was in a bad car accident on Highway 93 in the Swan Valley. True story: A pastor’s son was running late to his family’s Easter celebration. He was passing my truck on the left. Unfortunately, I was turning left at the time. I wasn’t injured, but I had to find help for the others. I ran four miles up the road to get to the nearest cell service. This isn’t an unusual story for Montanans. We live in rough terrain, and we’re used to taking care of each other. This year, I spent Easter packing F...
Over the past several weeks, Montanans have faced unprecedented challenges. Our way of life has changed rapidly. Like every corner of our country, our once thriving economy is ailing. We’ve lost family members and friends. As we have aggressively managed the virus over the past five weeks, we have bought time for our health care workers to prepare and respond, we have protected those most vulnerable to illness from this disease particularly in our nursing homes, and we have been able to increase our testing capacity and secur...
When the Great Recession happened in 2008-09, resulting in double-digit unemployment and the destruction of trillions of dollars of wealth, few economists, including Nobel Prize-winning laureates, had seen it coming. And, those who had, like the University of Chicago’s Raghuram Rajan, had been widely mocked by their fellow economists for being alarmist. Of course, just as a good doctor can’t always predict her or his patient’s deep illness and a good mechanic can’t always anticipate a spun rod bearing in a car engine,...
One of the many age-old questions is this: Is it better to do the right thing for the wrong reason, or the wrong thing for the right reason? But I’m here to ask this sidebar question: If you do the right thing with no thought behind it whatsoever, is it wrong to later claim you did it for all the right reasons? I’m asking for a friend — just kidding. I’m not going to give any of my friends credit for being thoughtless. I planted four trees on Earth Day. I thought it was just W...
So, we’re going to start to open back up. That’s the announcement by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock Wednesday, though, Bullock did ultimately leave all decisions on opening, or not opening, the services in his Phase I up to counties and cities and school districts. So now the question becomes, is Montana ready? That’s not for me to say, and that’s not what I’m debating. Instead, my question is, are we, as residents of Havre, ready to open back up, but still do our part to keep coronavirus under control in our neck of the woods...
As a Montana physician practicing in a rural community I feel it is timely to share my thoughts and feelings with all my neighbors as our state prepares to transition from shelter-in-place to the next phase of our battle against COVID-19. My strongest feeling is one of gratitude. I am grateful for all my fellow citizens who did their very best to follow the guidelines laid out by Gov. Steve Bullock. I am grateful for my fellow healthcare workers. Many have put themselves on the front line to identify and treat the illness...
Earth Day 2020 was April 22 — that date marked 50 years since the first Earth Day in 1970. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10 percent of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event. This led to passage of landmark environmental laws in the United Stat...
I am unhinged. This morning my daughter sent me a picture of a lap blanket she bought me. I am in tears. The blanket, purple and turquoise, with feathers and butterflies and such, is beautiful. Beautiful. You know who uses lap blankets? Old women, that’s who! Old women! A few days ago I had another birthday. The good news is that this morning I woke up still alive and grateful. The other side of that coin feels like a slap in the face. These last couple weeks have been hard. I...
It’s safe to say everyone is getting a bit tired of it. My parents, both in their 80s, were going a little stir-crazy in Florida. They missed their house in the woods and so they filled the RV with food and water and drove 2,000 miles north. I was worried about them, naturally, but they only left their RV to fill up with gas and they are now in their home up north and a lot happier. My mom explained how they were able to make it in record time. “Usually, your father would wan...
Last week Legislative Council met virtually to discuss COVID-19 and the fiscal situation for Montana. Administrative committee chairs from finance, audit and revenue were also invited for information purposes. Todd Everts, chief legal counsel for the Legislature, briefed members on the powers of the governor and the legislative body when there is an emergency. Throughout the years, the Legislature has delegated broad authority to the governor in dealing with emergencies such as fire, flooding, drought and energy issues....
