News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1872 - 1896 of 3229
With a looming budget crisis, state leaders are proposing deep budget cuts, which could result in a significant loss of funding for senior services. Not only are programs like hospice and home care services in jeopardy, but Big Sky Rx is on the chopping block as well. In a time of skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, now is not the time to eliminate Big Sky Rx. We need Montanans from across the state to send a message to Gov. Bullock and their legislators that this is not a good idea. Prices for brand name drugs are...
I would like to give an update on what has been happening in my life. As you know, I was appointed to the Senate last December and spent the next four months in Helena at session. A retirement trip for January that I planned had to be put on hold. After my commissioner retirement, my plan was to go south to visit my brothers in Nevada and Oklahoma. So, Judy and I skipped the going south idea and decided instead to plan a trip to visit friends and family in south Germany in September. In the past, my German family and a...
As Montanans, American Indians, and members of the Montana Legislature, we share the frustration of people all across Montana. As the potentially devastating effects of these cuts have become clear over the past few weeks, Montana’s elected leaders must continue working to ensure that critical government services remain available and effective, eliminate unnecessary spending, and discuss ways to increase revenue. We stand ready to join our colleagues from both parties to do our job. However, some of our colleagues in the R...
Sugar is evil, the article said. Give up the nectar of Satan, the research told me. Feel like you have an alert, newly minted brain, the health food zealots said. What fresh level of hell is this, my body is asking. I’m old enough to be born in the day when no advertising bragged that a product contained all-natural sugar because everything had sugar, or you added sugar. Sugar advertisements targeted children, moms wanted to have those toothsome, smiling, singing children f...
Many years ago, I took oil painting classes with Julanne Campbell in Suquamish, Washington. I like everything about painting. Oil painting, water colors, painting the walls of my house. I like the smells of paints and turpentine. I like the feel of the brush stroke against a blank surface. I’m a tactile painter; my fingers often ignore the brush and create a smooth stroke here or a smudge there. I don’t spend enough time drawing to be good. But in any endeavor, there are the...
Dear Montana Head Start Programs: I am pleased to recognize October 2017 as “Head Start Awareness Month” in the state of Montana. I believe it takes a village to raise a child and we should recognize Head Start’s critically important work for nearly 5,000 Montana children and their families not just this month but every month. Head Start not only provides preschool for 3-5 year old children, they also prepare families for newborns and help those just beginning their journey as parents to access the resources needed to assis...
I didn’t expect to become obsessed with glass-making videos, yet here I am spending several hours a week watching Youtube videos of the folks at the Corning Museum of Glass make the most beautiful glassworks. Just this morning I watched one of their glass artists, called gaffers, and his team of three or four students make one and a half elaborate blue-glass goblets in one hour and 14 minutes — like it was nothing. They took metal rods, stuck them in a vat of molten gla...
It is dangerous to invite a stranger into one’s home, one’s sanctuary. Can the guest be trusted to display simple rudimentary manners? What if we’re not compatible? What if our schedules don’t mesh? Will there be food issues? What if we end up eye-balling one another with death wishes? A thousand considerations must be addressed. Yet, on impulse, I invited Cat Ballou into my home a mere month ago. Fortunately, she is bi-lingual. Unfortunately, within a couple days I found m...
As communities across the nation work to recover from recent natural disasters, many are discovering that while they have plenty of rebuilding to do, they lack the manpower to do it. This circumstance comes as no surprise to the Montana Contractors’ Association, which has been considering the nationwide shortage of skilled trade workers with trepidation. A survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America revealed that 70 percent of contractors have a hard time finding qualified workers. In Montana, the s...
Three decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court probably settled the current controversy involving protests within the National Football League about freedom of speech. The recent public shakeup with some players “taking a knee” or “linking arms” may be somewhat different than protest directly involving the American flag but many judicial experts would bet that “taking a knee” is protected speech under the First Amendment and is now settled law. Like it or not, the U. S. Constitution protects the right of Americans to protest the...
Last Monday, the Havre Daily News published an article reporting a driver killed by a collision with a deer. As unfortunate as this death was, the article was a grim reminder of what is not published — the unreported causes of death in the Havre community. The Havre Daily News does not appear to hesitate to report deaths related to traffic accidents, but in my daily reading and in a search of the online archives there is very little mention of the other top causes of death in our younger population. Inspection of the r...
The universe is getting a jump start on Halloween this year, and it’s doing a pretty good job of setting up a good creepy vibe. Let’s just jump right in with the spiders, the biting spiders. Huntsville, Alabama’s Fire and Rescue Station 17 firefighters had to abandon their post last week after two firefighters were bit by spiders, brown recluse spiders, the spiders who have the flesh-eating bacteria equivalent of spider bites, the bite like the bad apple in the bunch that...
When I was in my 20s I never thought about getting old. When you are young you will never be old. It’s not that I thought my edgy, action-packed, high-risk life would lead to early death. Although I had some close calls in my youth, I knew I couldn’t be killed. When you are young you will never die. These days, my life may be a few things, but risky is not one of them. The most perilous thing I can do is trip on the cracked sidewalks of Havre when I run, or choke on one of Dottie’s maple bacon donuts. I have learned a few t...
Every day should be my best day! There I go, thinking I “should” be grateful and, truly, I am. However, “should” can take a hike into the out beyond and stay there. But my reality is that I feel shaky, in pain, and morbidly fixated on possibilities: broken bones, concussion, blood spatters. None of which happened. My day started with pleasure. I woke to the musical prayers of the procession of thousands from Etzatlan marching with the Statue of the Virgin from here to San Jau...
Technology is the great equalizer. There’s no reason Missoula can’t compete with Silicon Valley and that’s the message we heard at the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit. On Monday, close to 700 Montanans came out to the University of Montana to talk about the growth of high tech jobs in our state. Technology has removed geography as a constraint to doing business and the opportunities are endless. Our big sky and Montana way of life are our greatest recruiting tools as Montana takes hold of the future – a future we know lies in t...
After nine months of debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, it’s time to start a new chapter in the history of access to high quality and affordable health care. The ACA certainly isn’t perfect. A bipartisan Senate effort to address some of its imperfections was underway until Republican leaders pulled the plug to devote more attention to the latest – and hopefully final – attempt to repeal and replace the 2010 law. It’s time to reignite that bipartisan discussion and affect some immediate changes. Most...
A total of 44 hours without power starts out all fun and games, but after a while things get real, and nothing spoils the mood like real. The great winter storm of early autumn 2017 kicked into gear Monday, overwhelming our electricity with its hard-driven slushiness, just after sundown. On the first day of my week off. No big deal. I had just finished supper. The temperature was still above freezing. My husband, John, and I just hunkered down with some warm blankets and did...
October brings on the melancholia of autumn. Even here. I recently read an extensive political and economic history of Mexico. Early Spanish invaders called this area in which I live, the land of perpetual spring. I’ve lived here close to two years. I have to agree. The description is apt. I hesitate to even talk about what it is like here when my Havre friends are digging out from under unprecedented snowfall. Though seasonal changes in this area are subtle, hardly n...
Straight up front I have to say that I do not believe in the use of torture. Torture is inhumane. Torture is an ineffective tool in bringing about true change. And I believe that the pain inflicted with torture actually scars the spirit of the torturer. On the other hand I do believe in justice and the righteousness of an eye for an eye — so I bought a hand-held, battery operated bug zapper to wreak vengeance on every fly, wasp, gnat, spider or box elder bug that invades my h...
Are you safe? Are you in the earthquake zone? Did you feel the quakes? Is there flooding in your area? What about the hurricanes? Do they reach you? The volcano? What has reached me are the concerns of many friends. Yes, I am safe. I didn’t feel the earth move. We’ve plenty rain but the elaborate system of canals, I am told, diverts run-off water quickly into the lakes and lagoons with which this area abounds. No active volcanoes live in this valley. Hurricanes? No, we are...
Do you ever have times when you wonder who you are? I mean, you might be sitting under the cottonwood tree, perfectly content one moment; the next moment you feel like the essence of you is outside your skin, looking at your body askance, as if to say, "Now who are you?" You might follow that observation with the notion that who you are is not who you ever meant to be. Well, that's my story. Given some of the wrong turns and dead ends in my life, I guess I'm lucky. I never...
Like Montanans across the state, each month my husband and I sit down at our kitchen table and balance our checkbook. We pay our bills, we look at our bank account, we readjust our budget, and we do our best to put aside money for the months and years ahead. Recently, the state of Montana received some disturbing news: The amount of money coming into our state is not enough to pay our bills. So in order to keep the lights on, the governor has been forced to instruct his cabinet to find 10 percent in possible spending cuts to...
As cooler temperatures and precipitation finally bring a hint of relief to smoke-weary Montanans, the unusual nature of summer 2017 is coming into focus and the influence of climate change is impossible to ignore. Extreme weather has no doubt been the dominant story throughout the country this summer as hurricanes and tropical storms have ravaged the southeastern United States and wildfires have wreaked havoc in the West. A simple Google search will yield hundreds of stories about the impacts of these events, but very few...
Break out the second layer of clothes, dust off the galoshes, turn up the thermostat and take out the parka, we finally got rain, a cold first-of-the-fall dribbling soaker. I couldn’t be happier unless it was snow. I thought I’d go a lifetime without ever longing for early winter snow. And honestly, if I go the rest of my life without having cause to be hopeful about the possibility of snow again, or even quite this happy about a cold fall rain, I’ll be grateful. National Weat...
“Can you name the seven deadly sins?” she asked. I lay on Bonnie’s table, my body full of acupuncture needles. “I hope there is no wrong answer,” I countered, considering my vulnerable position. “At one time, in my youth, I could have rattled them off easily. Why do you ask?” She shrugged. I know Bonnie to be a thoughtful, introspective person, so I don’t accept a shrug but put her motivation on hold as none of my business unless she chose to share. “Pride?” I aske...
