News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 2663 - 2687 of 3208
It started out as a typical morning at coffee with the “boys.” I’ve been having coffee with the guys at City Shop around four years now. We show up any time after 6:00. The boss is there first and the coffee pot is full. “We” means the city employees (minus the clerks), a county commissioner, another councilperson and me. I’m there by invitation — honored to be accepted as “one of the boys.” Work starts at 8:00. I usually leave when the boss begins assigning the day’s tasks,...
I am a reasonably tolerant and lazy gardener. When an unsolicited seed shows up in my backyard, sprouts, shoots, flowers and flourishes, I’m open to letting it stick around. Unless the newcomer is a noxious weed. My work-free gardening philosophy has evolved over time. My Washington home sat perched on the crest of a hill, surrounded by two acres of dips and doodles, ups and downs, populated by trees, berries and shrubs galore. Natural landscaping was a breeze. I could spit a...
It is a dire and dirty job but somebody has to do it. Every night for the last week thunder rumbled while lightning forks split the sky and sundered the earth. Every night during the sky show, while rain pelted the town, I paced the floor, single-handedly keeping town and my part of the world safe from fires and mayhem. The responsibility weighs heavily on my sleepy shoulders. I decided to come out of the closet and confess to my prescient gift. I’m a weather witch. Really. S...
When I was younger, I spent countless hours hunched over a reloading vise, cranking out rifle and shotgun reloads for my days afield with gun in hand. Few experiences stirred my blood more than a trip to Herter’s in Waseca, Minn., where I’d spend my time admiring the unaffordable rifle actions and stocks that were poking out of barrels in a rear section of the store. My view of guns was closely associated with the romantic images found on the cover of Field and Stream magazine, and nobody in my small-town, Norman Roc...
Our class was small (graduating only twenty-three) but we were tight. Whatever we set our collective mind to do, we did it up right. Year after year we had the best float in the Home-Coming Parade, the best skit at the Carnival, the most innovative dance theme. Best of all, we were pals. Then we graduated and scattered to the winds. Back in ’05 while we were lined up for a class photo at the All-School Reunion, an every five-year event, Karen and Jesse suggested, “Why don...
Last week I found myself standing outside with hands on hips, shoulders and elbows spread wide, feet splayed shoulder-width apart, admiring the view down the coulee, and I asked myself a profound question: How long has it been since I last stood around in this Wonder Woman pose? It’s an important life question, but I’ll back up about 20 years or so to the beginning of the story. I had “dinged” my back slinging around some hefty hay bales. And by hefty I mean to say that th...
I walked into the empty gym at Harlem High. Not the same gym from which I graduated. Not the same school, but one rebuilt after a fire 25 years ago. The “Little Gym” and band room are the only remaining portions of the old structure. Bleachers flanked both sides of the gym floor. A balloon-lined pathway separated rows of chairs. At center back, a huge circular entrance arch, festooned for celebration. To the right, the band was practicing in the bleachers. Chairs on risers for...
If you are in need of a little inspiration, stop at next year’s Relay for Life at Havre High School. Cancer has torn apart many lives — lives of young people and old people. And both young and old were on hand Friday night to tell their stories of survival and offer encouragement to those who have recently discovered they have cancer. Their stories are inspirational. Dylan Hendrickson, 13, shrugged off the attention he was getting at Friday’s Relay for Life, but his parents, Scott and Jennifer, were proud of what he’d...
While I hate to pass along blonde jokes that disparage me and my fair-haired people, there’s an old blonde joke that goes: A blonde and a brunette were walking along outside one day, and the brunette said, “Aww, look at that poor dead bird.” And the blonde looked up, searching the sky frantically, and said, “Where?!” If you don’t get it: This is funny because the dead bird wouldn’t be in the sky where the blonde is looking. The live ones are up there. Of course, if I have to e...
I found a shirt online that I must have. It’s a simple black tee with the phrase “I Only Rap Caucasianally” printed on it in bold white letters. Yep, that’s me (no, not the bold, white part). I actually fancy myself quite the lyrical gangster. I can spit a rhyme like nobody’s business. OK, well … maybe not, but what I mean is, I like to sing along to old-school rap artists like Salt-n-Peppa and Snoop Dogg while I drive around in my car (which is not, as of yet, a tricked-out...
Henry David Thoreau would not have sought out my pond for inspiration for his “Walden” book and a philosophical life-experience where he could retreat from the world for two years, two months and two days. On the other hand, for a person with less lofty standards the frog pond foots the bill. Murky, mud-bottomed and sometimes algae-covered, it isn’t much of a pond, even in wet years, and in dry years it’s just a dusty depression. The frog pond is a remnant, no doubt, of a by...
A couple weeks ago I wrote about beating the system with Cheap-Flights-R-Us. Today I hang my head in defeat. I had bought a round-trip ticket on-line. Great Falls to Phoenix. My ultimate destination was Puerto Penasco in Mexico. Sky Harbor in Phoenix sprawls over miles of concourse. Imagine my surprise when my plane landed in this itty-bitty place, tossed me out onto the tarmac and I walked into Gateway Airport, smaller than Great Falls International, in Mesa, Arizona. I...
As year 12 is shaping up for the Havre Fourth of July Festival, the day promises to be full of sunshine, good music, good clean fun and good neighbors. I would like to personally invite the community down to Pepin Park on the Fourth of July to help celebrate our nation’s birthday. I have had a lot of fun organizing this event with my brother, Woody. I have made a lot of friends along the way, and a lot of memories along the way. I have probably stretched some of that friendship a little by putting them to work, but in the e...
“Oh, the places you’ll go!” Every child has a favorite book or storybook character. When they are little, they will listen to you read the same book to them over and over. As they get older, they may select an entire series of books to read with devotion. Reading opens the door to our imagination, exposing us to far-off places, interesting people and new ideas. That’s why the Office of Public Instruction and the governor’s office are working together to encourage Montana students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to...
The name George Custer is etched in the annals of U.S. and Montana history for the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Less well-known is that Custer may have been the man who won the Civil War. The incident, known mostly to Civil War buffs, occurred at the critical climax of that war’s decisive battle, at Gettysburg, on July 3 — 150 years ago Wednesday. Under the gifted leadership of General Robert E. Lee, the South had won a series of battles against attacking Union armies. The Confederates decided to become the att...
There’s nothing better than summer in Montana. Sweet Flathead cherries, fresh bread baked with Montana wheat, huckleberries and bison burgers on the grill. In Montana, we share our bounty. The main reason Montanans lock their doors in the summer? So their neighbors won’t drop off another bushel of zucchini or rhubarb. But for the one in seven Montanans who have trouble keeping food on the table, this summer bounty is a dream, not a reality. A staggering one-third of Montanans are at risk of food insecurity. In rural par...
Now that summer is upon us and everyone is outside enjoying their daily activities, the Havre Police Department has been receiving complaints concerning several city ordinance dog violations. I would like to remind everyone as to what the city of Havre ordinances state. The following ordinances can also be viewed online on Sterling Codifiers under the city of Havre, http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com. 6-2-5: Animal Running at Large An animal that is off the premise of the Owner or Keeper of said Animal and not under control of...
Let us consider, for just one moment, the problem of the common chore. The everyday task, the duty, the promise made, the tedious thing, the burden that which must be completed, if not by you then who. The chore. The thing needing doing of which we have many. What's up with chores? It occurred to my husband and I, as we stared one day at the disarray around us — undone chores allowing life to run amuck — that we were sadly mistaken about the purpose of life. We had tho...
There’s nothing better than summer in Montana. Sweet Flathead cherries, fresh bread baked with Montana wheat, huckleberries and bison burgers on the grill. In Montana, we share our bounty. The main reason Montanans lock their doors in the summer? So their neighbors won’t drop off another bushel of zucchini or rhubarb. But for the one in seven Montanans who have trouble keeping food on the table, this summer bounty is a dream, not a reality. A staggering one-third of Montanans are at risk of food insecurity. In rural par...
A recent decision by the Montana Supreme Court settled an objection brought by landowners and multiple-use groups against Montana Fish, Wioldlife and Parks' transfer last year of bison from a government facility to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The Court determined that the transfer was, in fact, legally done. More significantly though, the court's decision clarified a central question in the bison issue: when bison are captured and placed into a Quarantine Feasibility Study facility, they can no longer be considered wild...
If I had known the experience would be so perfectly enlightening, I would’ve driven my new-to-me riding lawn mower sooner, but you never really can tell when your spirit will be lifted to the light by a piece of machinery, now can you. Two months the mower sat in our shop, waiting for me, taking the occasional excursion with my husband, beating him up for being a left-handed man on a right-handed machine — compromise physically impossible for either of them. Then it came to...
I was both honored and encouraged earlier this year when Gov. Steve Bullock appointed me director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It was an honor knowing I'd be back at the helm of this remarkable agency. FWP plays an essential role in Montana's outdoor culture and recreation-based economy. And it's staffed by a dedicated and professional corps of biologists, game wardens, park managers and others. I know of no more committed, qualified and experienced group of conservation professionals than the men and women working...
My household has received some amazing calls in the last few weeks offering help with problems I am told have infiltrated my computer’s Microsoft Windows operating system. These salespeople, claiming to be Microsoft-certified technicians, have lied to me, insulted me and threatened me in an attempt to persuade me to let them access my computer remotely to remove problems. They are, of course, scammers. Imagine my surprise when the salesman 1) asked me if my last name was “Obama” because I said I can get help from the Micro...
You think you have problems? ——— Don’t stop me when you’ve heard this one before because, hey, who hasn’t done this: put something important somewhere safe, out of the place, where you’d remember (totally, absolutely, remember) because it was obviously the best, most memorable, hence perfect, place for it. Totally and absolutely. And then you lost it in that perfectly memorable place. Totally and absolutely. No matter what you put where for whatever reason and lost for howe...
I have a confession. This is not easy for me to put into words, but I feel the need to purge my soul. After living with my mother for a few months (after an all-too-brief transplant to San Antonio, which I will elaborate on another day), I seem to have picked up one of her bad habits. At one time or another, I suppose most women fear becoming their mother. For the most part, I had harbored no such fear, as my mom is a pretty swell gal. Or so I thought. Upon learning of this...
