News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1551 - 1575 of 3212
January 2019, yes, it is! I want to wish each and every one of you the best of the New Year. By the time you read this, Judy and I will already be in Helena and the 2019 Legislature will already be in session. I am excitedly anticipating session this year. Having already been through one, I am familiar with the processes and procedures. I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things quickly and to see and talk with other lawmakers in Helena. My plan is to get a short article in the newspapers most weeks, as I d...
A couple in Wyoming has received confirmation from Guinness World Records that they are the fastest two-man tent assemblers on record in the entire world. Yes, that’s a thing, and Elizabeth and Daniel Minton did it in just over a minute. No, actually they did it in under a minute, but the Guinness rules said they couldn’t just assemble the tent, they had to put the rain fly on, as well, and they had to crawl into the tent, zip the flap shut and say “done.” This Guinnes...
The episode began innocently enough. I had walked over to see Carol about something so mundane I don’t even remember. She came out of her door with a stunning pink scarf wrapped around her neck. I commented on the beauty. Scarf and woman — they enhanced one another. “Do you know to whom this belongs?” Carol asked. (She really said, “Whose is it?” But I’m writing an adventure mystery based on a true story so I’ll tell it my way.) “I found the scarf after the birthday gatherin...
Beaver populations have been managed on Beaver Creek Park for decades using legal harvest methods, mainly trapping. I accompanied my dad when he trapped the park in the 1950s, harvesting as many as 88 beaver in one season. Beaver have continued to maintain a robust population with this type of wildlife management. Beaver do help the environment in many ways, but when populations become more than the existing habitat can sustain problems become an issue. Tree loss and flooding are two of the main problem that arise. We have a...
If there’s one thing Montanans can unite behind, it’s that we’re sick and tired of self-serving politicians who are all talk, no walk. As the House minority leader for the 2019 Legislative session, I couldn’t agree more. Montana families deserve a Legislature that sets aside the partisan, political blustering. And they deserve lawmakers that lead with solutions. That’s why House Democrats have our sleeves rolled up and are eager to get to work. As citizen legislators, our number one job is to represent and provide a voice f...
One of us is a Democrat; the other is a Republican. We each served more than a quarter of a century in the Montana Legislature, mostly at the same time. We also held positions of top leadership in both the Senate and House of Representatives. We have been serious rivals, but always friends; now we are serious old friends. For the first time, we are standing together to pass on a perspective few others can share. Over 30 years ago, the Legislature was at times overwhelmed with bills introduced for almost every imaginable purpo...
Last fall during the political season, everyone running for the Montana Legislature touted their credentials as being for public access. But what does that really mean? For Montana’s hunters, anglers, hikers, and other outdoors enthusiasts, it means the ability to get to our public lands to enjoy them. The access to the outdoors that makes Montana such a great place to live also makes it tempting for some people to try to close off public roads. By putting up gates on public roads that lead to public land, they can turn v...
I know, the Christmas presents have been opened, half of them are already broken or the batteries drained. The tree and all the decorations have come down. The Christmas songs have been cut off, cold turkey, at midnight Dec. 25. It’s over. Christmas 2018 is finished. But before you throw it in the trashcan with the rest of the non-recyclables and move on, I have to bring up one Christmas-related news item that I just cannot believe I missed. An Omaha, Nebraska, school p...
Christmas has been celebrated. The first day of the New Year lurks around the corner. We arbitrarily close out one year, stamp it “over and done” and with trepidation open the flaps of the box labeled, “next.” The one thing, the only thing, I can say with certainty, is this: Nothing, absolutely nothing, will come about, unfold, or happen the way I think it will. Just by consistently getting up each morning I have lived long and I have learned that I don’t know much. Jim recen...
As this happens every year, by now I should be expecting it — or just keep my mood happy in anticipation. Once again, I let the spirit of the season escape me. I was at work Friday, using another person’s workspace because my computer’s hard drive crashed the Friday before. I lost everything on the computer and had to invade George Ferguson’s spot to get my work done, something I hate both because I don’t like invading someone else’s space and because folders and applications and everything else are set up differently than I...
The people of the Nakoda and Aaniiih Nations in north-central Montana have a saying about our home. We often say this land is as close to heaven as you are going to get. For many years we have invited visitors to experience Fort Belknap. We have opened our reservation for others to learn our history and explore our water and mountains. We do this because we are proud of where we live and of our culture. Increasing tourism is one solution to bring more sustainable economic opportunities to our communities and build a better...
The law of diminishing returns says that if all the factors in a process remain the same, except one, and that one is steadily increased, eventually a tipping point will be reached and everything will start failing, lose its luster, fall to wreck and ruin. You get what I’m saying. As an example, let’s say your favorite full meal includes ice cream for dessert. One day you have your favorite meal with ice cream, but you just keep eating more and more ice cream. Eventually, you...
I believe in a Santa, and no, not in that holly jolly Kris Kringle is slipping down my chimney at night kind of way, but in an embodiment of Christmas kind of way. “Oh, Christmas isn’t just a day. It’s a frame of mind,” said Kris Kringle in “A Miracle on 34th Street.” I watched the original black and white version of that movie when I was a small boy. I thought it was an unusual film for children due to the entire premise of the film being the world trying to prove Santa Claus wasn’t real — cue the sound of glass shatterin...
Angels and snakes, metaphorical. Every garden has each. While moving my water sprinkler, I stepped in a nest of fire ants. Stepped out quickly, swiping ants off my legs, onto my arms, off my arms, moving at lightning speed to patio and can of Raid where I drenched my legs, shoes, socks and soaked the ground around me. Back to the garden, barefoot, with a stronger spray and obliterated the newly sprung ant nest. Stings like fire. Since Jalisco winter is like Montana spring, I...
I met President George H. W. Bush, our 41st President, when he was a former President campaigning in Great Falls in 2000 for his son, then Presidential candidate George W. Bush. I introduced myself to the former President at the event at the Heritage Inn. While we posed for a photograph I told him I knew his son, Neil, from Bush’s 1988 campaign. Bush asked about my family. We chatted about Glacier Park and our service in the Navy. I’ve met and conversed with several Presidents over the course of my life. From my brief but...
It’s already December. Yes, Christmas and the legislative session are coming. In gearing up for Christmas (all holidays, really), Judy does the heavy lifting. This year, the legislative session is my undertaking. Since being elected, many of you have approached me with questions regarding our state and concerns about what will be addressed during the next four months of session. It’s also heartwarming to field questions about what I will be up to while in Helena. Do you have a place to live? Is Judy going with you this sessio...
Havre Public Schools Education Foundation’s 14th Annual Holiday Hoops Blue Pony alumni basketball game will be held Friday, Dec. 28, at Havre High School gymnasium at 7 p.m. Admission to the game is a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Havre Food Bank to help replenish their shelves after the holidays. In past years we have donated around 100 pounds of food each year, thank you to the community for your help. All Havre High alumni are invited to participate, whether you played during your school years or not. To s...
In case you are wondering, sympathy is defined as feeling compassion, sorrow for another person, and empathy is being able to sense other people’s emotions combined with the ability to put yourself in that person’s place. I like to think of it as that we feel sympathy in the heart and empathy in the gut. While I have a normal human capacity for sympathy, it’s my overactive empathy disorder that I always have to keep in check. For instance, despite the fact that I once sold...
For me, it was a fortuitous choice. I don’t sing in public. We were gathered on the festively decorated patio out by the pool. Yes, there is a pool on the Rancho. I don’t talk about it because I don’t get in water lower than my body temperature. We owners, gringos, workers, everybody who had anything to do with the Rancho, sat around the long string of table, practicing the tune with lyrics in Spanish, to celebrate the Posada. Bonnie might have heard me mutter to Carol, next...
Christmas is just 14 jolly days away. I’m sure some of you have or are still gathering presents for family and friends. Others are probably planning and preparing for family and friends to visit. For me, it reminds me of traditions my family had. This time of year always conjures the wonderful smell of tamales. Along with Christmas ham, both my mother and father’s sides of the family would make tamales. Conveniently for us, both my parents’ families live in the same city: Santa Maria. This city name should ring a bell for t...
The other day, I had an unusual conversation with a gentleman, and the nature of that conversation stuck with me. I was driving on U.S. Highway 2 when I stopped for a man who asked for a ride to Rod’s Drive In. Once he had gotten into my vehicle, I asked him if he would need to be picked up after he was finished eating. He simply replied, “No, I’ll walk.” I then asked, “Are you sure, sir? It’s cold out; it’s really no trouble.” “I like to walk,” the gentleman said. “Gives time to think, lets the mind wander. Meditating.” I lo...
When life gives you hard news, read here for the soft and fluffy stuff. Things get crazy in the capitol In the nation’s capitol at the end of November Gavin Clarkson, a New Mexico resident, and his fiancee had their request for a marriage license declined by a clerk in the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau. The Associated Press reports that after Clarkson requested the license and showed the clerk his up-to-date New Mexico driver’s license, the clerk informed Cla...
We narrowly averted a minor crisis on Rancho Esperanza this week. A waterline broke, flooding the entrance road into our gringo enclave, which we fondly call Colonia Americano. This is a dirt road I am talking about so running water can do a significant amount of damage in a short while. With residents’ vehicles plus delivery trucks, the city garbage truck and such, wading in and out, the ruts deepened, water ran faster, ruts deepened. Worse, what an incredible waste of water. The Rancho is private property. We are granted u...
In 1987, the Montana Legislature directed Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to establish a statewide wildlife habitat system to better conserve “our wildlife resources and pass them intact to future generations.” This program, called “Habitat Montana,” turned out to be one of the most successful conservation and public access programs in the West. A recent opinion by Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, however, places the power to approve all conservation easements funded by the program in the hands of the Land Bo...
I never planned on being “Old Man Jones,” but time never stops. I am currently the longest serving Republican in the Montana House, having served eight years as senator and six years as representative. I have served under the Senate simple majority rules, and the House super majority rules. I have served in the majority, minority and leadership. I support changing the Montana House procedural rules — not bonding or veto override — to the Senate’s simple majority format. Changing the House rules to simple majority is good for...
