News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1973 - 1997 of 3229
By Jenny Eck and Jon Sesso Imagine you were told, as you headed onto the field, that your team would have nearly one-third fewer players than the opposing team … and that the other team would get to set the rules that you would have to play by. For Democrats in the 2017 Legislature, that has been our reality. As the minority and the loyal opposition, our mission is clear: to be a voice and a vote for what is right, and to fight every day for the people who sent us here, all the while knowing that the odds are not in our f...
I was born and raised in Cut Bank, where I learned that nothing gets done without hard work. Growing up on a ranch and wheat farm with five brothers and sisters, I can’t imagine a better place to spend my childhood than in the north country of Glacier County among salt of the earth people, learning the Montana values that we all hold dear ... community, responsibility, hard work and family. Living in rural Montana taught me how to be resourceful and what it means to thrive in sometimes challenging situations. I know the s...
The most significant infrastructure bill in over a quarter of a century was passed by the just adjourned 2017 legislatives session. It was the six-cent increase in motor fuel taxes which will make it possible for Montana to continue to match federal dollars for highway maintenance and construction at a ratio of seven federal dollars to one Montana dollar. The highway infrastructure bill was passed by an embattled coalition of Democrats and Republicans. Its passage was necessary to assure our roads and highways will be...
Montana currently has one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation, with historic low unemployment and new businesses being created at record speed. We have a stable business climate allowing businesses across the state to grow, expand and create more good paying jobs. And we are consistently recognized for our innovation, entrepreneurship, and Montana work ethic. Many states would welcome such economics. These trends are by design. In the last three legislative sessions, I worked with Republicans and Democrats to craft...
National Tourism Week 2017 is all about celebrating the many faces of travel. During this week of May 7-13, we will celebrate the power of tourism through the people who make the industry so remarkable. Tourism is America’s third largest retail sales industry. Tourism is Montana’s second largest industry. Locally, tourism is big business, too. While we may not be a destination for summer vacations, we still see a huge segment of the traveling public come to our community from June to October. The answer is simple. For a num...
As I write this, I am exhausted, sun burnt, sticky and salty with dry sweat, gritty and muddy, but I am here to say that one of the greatest marvels of modern civilization is indoor plumbing — water that runs from a well, through buried pipes to places like water troughs, sinks, toilets (for the love of sanitation, the toilet). Regular readers might remember that the universe’s Christmas Eve gift to me and my husband was a totally unusable water system to the house. For...
Big Sandy Rotary celebrates another successful banquet, with a salute to agriculture. We are so pleased with the continued support from the Big Sandy, Havre, Fort Benton and Great Falls communities. The Rotarians would like to send a big thank-you to everybody who helped in any way with the success of the 2017 banquet. For over 33 years, your generosity has been astonishing! This has enabled us to return over $575,000 to more than 60 youth/school activities, civic groups, programs and organizations. Without each and every...
I always like being back in Mazatlan, the town I visited year after year, the town where I lived nearly three years. Familiar places, familiar people, old friends. A sadness, a worry, clouds my holiday. You remember Carlos, my friend who drives a pulmonia? He would take me for groceries, for medical care, for important paperwork. He became my interpreter when I needed one. He and Selena helped me paint my apartment. We shared meals. Three days prior to my leaving Etzatlan,...
Another acrimonious session of the Montana Legislature has come to an end. Montana’s hunters, anglers and other outdoors enthusiasts had several successes in this session. We spoke up for wildlife and our outdoor heritage, we reached across political divides, and our elected officials heard us. In a tough political time, we made the legislative process work by working together. The biggest win for all Montanans is the full restoration of funding for our state’s premier habitat protection and public access program, Hab...
As the 2017 legislative session has come to an end, we want to make sure that Montanans have a clear view of what’s happened the past few months in Helena. The mission of the Senate and House Republicans from Day One has been to help create more opportunities for all Montanans by making our state a better place to work, live and do business. Government should work in service to the people, not the other way around. In large part this means fighting against policies that increase taxes, grow government and take from the c...
Nationally, 33,000 Americans died in 2015 from an opioid overdose — that’s close to the number of casualties caused by car accidents. Montana has seen a 475 percent increase in heroin found during arrests since 2013, and meth usage is rising again. Patients who struggle with substance abuse and mental illnesses rely heavily on mental health care, often to survive. In 2015, Montana had the third highest suicide rate in the nation. Based on Montana DPHHS information, 65 percent of suicides between January 2014 and March 2016 ha...
By Hugo Tureck, Susan Barrow, and Shane Doyle Last week, President Trump signed an executive order instructing Secretary Ryan Zinke to review dozens of national monuments with an eye towards either shrinking the monuments or eliminating them altogether. The order involves all monuments designated in the last 21 years that are larger than 100,000 acres or those that Sec. Zinke decides were designated without enough local input. Designated in 2001, the 377,000-acre Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument is subject to...
What separates Greg Gianforte from the rest of us? Geography, issues and wealth. Montana is large and diverse: 144,000 square miles, 56 counties, 537 unincorporated towns and communities, 130 incorporated cities and towns, and 118,405 businesses — 3078 large; 115,326 small. At the same time, Montana has only three members of Congress to represent our wide social, economic and geographic diversity. If Greg Gianforte is elected to Congress, for the first time in Montana’s 128-year history, two of our three Congress members wou...
The 65th Montana Legislation finished up work Friday. I was most fortunate and honored to have served all of you in District 14. It was a great educational experience and fulfilling to contribute to government at the state level. There are many I want to thank for the opportunity: First of all, thank you to those who called convincing me to put my name in for the open Senate seat. Then, much appreciation to the central committees for advancing me to the top three. Lastly, thanks to the commissioners from the four counties I...
After losing his bid to serve as the governor of the state of Montana, I hoped that Greg Gianforte would return to his roots. Not back to New Jersey, as Montana is his home, but to his original mission of creating jobs by starting new businesses and investing in Montana. RightNow Technologies was a great success. Mr. Gianforte has the proven talent, experience and capital to build new businesses in Montana. Imagine the impact if he were to start or fund new businesses in Colstrip? Imagine if he spent the many millions of...
James “Mac” McIntyre of Florida went to the South Pacific to find a pig, but got a dog, too — well, kind of. Huffington Post reports that McIntyre, a trained zoologist, has been many things in his life, a vet tech on a cattle ranch, a zookeeper, a high school biology teacher, a logger and a carpenter. But he hasn’t let any of that hold him back from pursuing his love of scientific researcher. McIntyre told Huff-Po that it was his relentless passion to know things that drove hi...
With appropriate apologies to Willie Nelson, I’ll soon be “making music with my friends.” We all know that I haven’t a musical molecule in my body, much as I love a wide variety of music. But this music to which I refer is metaphorical music. Tomorrow I’ll board the posh Primera Plus autobus from Zapopan to Mazatlan where I’ll meet Kathy, who will fly in from Victoria, B.C. Rock and roll! This is a special time for us. Over years of vacationing together, Kathy and I grew accus...
Study Resolutions were put into place this past week. Legislators are assigned to Study Resolutions between legislative sessions, taking on the responsibility of gathering information and studying research on assigned topics to bring to the body at the next session. One such study regarding landlord tenet laws was defeated. Another study, looking into decoupling of utilities did pass the Senate. There is a House Study Resolution to study agricultural land valuations that also passed the Senate. Another House Resolution that c...
It is no secret that Montana continues to rank near the top for the number of lost time accidents, far outpacing the national average, and costs businesses millions. Although significant improvements have been made to our workers’ compensation system, we need to tackle the heart of the problem; preventing injuries before they happen. At the Department of Labor & Industry, our goal is to make sure Montana’s workforce is going home safely each night to their loved ones. One successful method we are using to create safer wor...
I hope you’re good at math because I am going to employ my rudimentary mathematical skills to get this column done quickly so I don’t waste my valuable vacation time at a computer. I would love to be using my mathematical skills to be tallying things like margaritas and mai tais, or the number of years older I would look from too much sun on the beach, minus the years younger I would look after the derm-abrasion treatment from the sand, but, alas, my time off is a wor...
John and Carol walked over for Qi Gong on my patio. It’s how we start our day. “How are you this morning?” “Fine, all things considered.” My stock answer when I’m not feeling all that well. “We came to tell you the workmen have started bathroom tile. We need to be at the house this morning. No Qi Gong for us today.” “Actually, that’s fine with me. I had a miserable night with the smoke.” I wiped my cheeks. Tears have continually washed my eyeballs for the last three weeks...
Despite the fact that GPS navigation systems are notorious for misdirecting drivers into all manner of wrong locations — like the Swiss driver who had to have his van and himself airlifted by helicopter off a goat trail in the mountains (hand to heart; I swear it’s true) because his GPS said it was the correct route, until he was stuck, when it said, “Oops, turn around and go back” — yes, despite even this, I think those of us who live in the country should use GPS latitude...
We rely on innovation to change our lives but, we tend to think about what it means for phones or the Internet, not farmland. Just as we rely on innovation to help us meet our future needs, we should also look towards innovation to help our agricultural communities keep up with changing demands. Historically, we have prevented issues such as potato blight, increased the nutritional value of rice and other grains, and met consumers’ constantly evolving needs through the use of science and innovation. As we face new c...
My goal as a legislator is to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars while strategically striving to solve societal problems. The Republican-led House of Representatives voting to increase wages for direct care workers who serve developmentally disabled people is such an instance. Montana’s conservative leaders voted on this wage increase in order to solve a problem and save money in public assistance programs in the long run. It’s good policy. There are 3,000 direct care workers in Montana who provide services for 5,800 peo...
The Missouri River Reservoir System is the largest reservoir system in North America. Management of the system is complicated by multiple and diverse interest groups and applicable laws. Interest groups represent irrigation, flood risk, hydropower, recreation, water supply, navigation, fish and wildlife, cultural resources, and commercial sand and gravel dredging. One of the applicable laws is the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which provides for the conservation of threatened or endangered species and their habitats. The U....
