News you can use
News you can use
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With the arrival of Independence Day, veterans like us often reflect on what patriotism means in terms of the responsibilities we American citizens have. One responsibility we all have is environmental stewardship. As we celebrate our nation’s independence, the U.S. military remains ready to serve and protect. In order to maintain a strong defense, our military needs safe, secure, reliable, and affordable energy. That’s why the military is taking steps to strengthen our defense by using cleaner energy, increasing the use of r...
I always knew I was a princess. Not any old run-of-the-mill princess, mind you, but a fairy tale princess. Not just any fairy tale princess, mind you, but a princess like the one from “The Princess and the Pea.” None of your Snow Whites or Rapunzels for me. Cinderella came close, but I could never do the glass slipper. How did I know my royal roots? When I was a child I could not sleep unless and until I had made the bed conditions exactly “right.” The sheets had to be smoo...
A friend in Glasgow tells us somebody he knows has a son “moved away.” He went to Williston, North Dakota. Not that far away actually. His daughter, though, “stayed at home.” She moved to Missoula. Farther away, but, most important, still in Montana. There is something that binds Montanans, from Culbertson to Butte, from Whitefish to Ekalaka. There is a sense of community. A feeling of rigid independence, friendship, willingness to help and more than a touch of eccentricity. They say Montana is one community with very lo...
Sometimes I wish I’d taken drugs in my youth — not that I’m advocating that behavior as a lifestyle, but it just seems like such a white-bread cliché to blame my chronic airheadedness on being a natural blonde. And I’ve met my parents, known them since birth (my birth). They seem to be reasonably intelligent people, so it’s highly unlikely that it’s a genetic problem. I didn’t have children so I can’t blame them somehow, like they can alter human genetics retroactively. M...
During the last two weeks, the story of an alleged sexual harassment at Montana State University-Northern was brought out in public. The general outline of what happened at Northern is not a surprise. Rumors of the incidents have been spreading in the community, especially at Northern, for some time. The allegations detailed in the testimony are perhaps not as torrid as had been rumored. Northern is not the first employer in Montana to be faced with these kinds of problems. Employees at workplaces throughout the state have fe...
The next time I get to whining about how my government is like my mother — always saying no, can’t don’t — I’m going to have to remind myself that at least I don’t live in Swaziland where they just passed laws regulating fictional behavior. Civil aviation authorities in Swaziland have decreed that witches flying broomsticks above 150 meters will be subject to arrest and a hefty fine of $47,000 — equivalent to 505,000 in Swazi lilangeni, the local currency. With all due respe...
While the flying cotton from the wealth of blooming cottonwood trees is amping up the sinus problems of area allergy sufferers, it also sparked debate in my household. For those who don’t know, cottonwood trees come in two types: chicks and guys. The more common ones, referred to as females, spread countless seeds — at least one with each fluff of cotton floating through the air — and the rare ones, called males, do not produce seeds at all. My husband and I have both types...
If, as the congressional tea party says, taking money via taxes from wealthy corporations and individuals is bad for the economy, then why is it not equally bad or even worse for our economy to be extracting unnecessary money from virtually all young adults who carry student loan debt? Today, students are caught in an economic vise. Total student loan debt exceeds $1.2 trillion — more than credit card debt. Between 2004 and 2012, average student loan balances increased by 70 percent. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2012 real m...
The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices is one of the most important offices in state government, though it has a tiny staff and a slim budget. It is the job of the office to monitor elections in the state, making sure that candidates know of and follow the regulations for financing campaigns. It was always a daunting task — trying to remain independent and fair in Helena, a city known for brass-knuckled politics. It has become more difficult in recent years with the advent of dark money and secretive groups that favo...
Part 2 of 2 We begin where we began last time: with naked Mike Rowe on the Internet. We move on to where we ended last time: with naked Sam Elliott on the Internet. We see, now, clearly there’s a pattern to my thinking, there’s also a purpose: Who is hotter, Mike Rowe star of “Dirty Jobs,” narrator of “Deadliest Catch” and advocate of blue collar employment, or Sam Elliott, actor, horseman and straight-shooter, literally. What is not clear is that the naked videos have no, or...
Richard Elijah (Chase) Grandbois, Wus-Da-Wan, "Bobtail Bear," passed on to the other side to join his Lord and savior and relations suddenly at 25 years old on May 30, 2014, in Tucson, Arizona. He was born on Aug. 26, 1988, to Cheryl Ann Cheryl (Gros Ventre/Mandan) and Raymond Grandbois (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) in Tucson, Arizona. Richard was an enrolled Mandan member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold, ND. He was intelligent, devoted to his Catholic religion, tenacious in his interests, had a wry wit and...
Part 1 of 2. I saw Mike Rowe naked. Not in person, of course, like with my eyes reaching out and touching his bare-naked skin — because he’s Mike Rowe, “Dirty Jobs,” “Deadliest Catch,” “I got me a resonant, opera-trained voice that I use to advocate for blue collar work” Mike Rowe, so the possibility that I would personally see him naked-as-the-day is just, that would, so far, it’s really, yeah, right. You know what I mean. Plus, he was holding a “Help Wanted” sign over h...
Lizards startle me. Back in the long-ago days when I rode horseback to check cows, now and then I'd see a flash of movement when a lizard sunning itself on a rock was equally startled by me. My mouth emitted a screech without my permission and my heart swung into overdrive. I couldn't help myself. Meanwhile the lizard disappeared behind, around or under the lichen encrusted rock, a perfect habitat for its lichen colored skin. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of lizards in easte...
I have outdone myself this week and turned from being simply old to being old-old. Birthdays come and go and we get older with more or less grace and certainly without any effort on our part because aging is just a byproduct of breathing. We have an endless supply of truisms about age, aging and being old: “Age is relative” — because a 5-year-old thinks a 20-year-old is old, the 20-year-old thinks 40 is old and the 40-year-old thinks 80 is old. “Aging is alright; it’s th...
Last year America produced 84 percent of the energy we consumed, the highest level since 1987. Our net energy imports — measured in terms of energy content — are at a 26-year low. The speed with which our energy imports have been diminishing is astonishing. According to the Energy Information Administration, our net imports of energy decreased 19 percent from 2012 to 2013. With that fast pace, America is truly on a trajectory to full energy self-sufficiency in the very near future. Part of the decline in energy imports has...
Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Obamacare. Montanans rejected Obamacare’s individual mandate at the ballot box by a 2-to-1 vote. It is not hard to understand why. Obamacare was crafted behind closed doors by special interest lobbyists — the pharmaceutical industry, the hospital industry and major health insurers. The public was cut out from the process entirely. The consequences were disastrous. Thousands of Montanans had their insurance policies canceled last year, and insurance premiums are skyrocketing. Last wee...
Reporters who have covered the death of a police officer on duty come to realize very quickly that the loss affects the whole community. I've covered three: • An undercover state police officer was killed by big-time drug dealers who feared they were about to be apprehended. After the officer's death, they were taken into custody, and the last I knew, they were still in prison. • A police officer was caught in the crossfire with two white supremacists who had just been released from prison and were holed up with weapons in...
The Internet is the biggest thing to happen to mankind since the wheel — and some of us use it just to watch funny videos on Youtube. I know, if I lived in those prehistoric times when the wheel was new, I would’ve thought it was cool just because I could run over people’s toes. But sometimes the Internet brings knowledge and philosophical advancement whether you planned on it or not. You think you’re just watching an odd little video about a bunny nonchalantly digging...
It's a big idea and it's rightfully reaping big debate nationwide. Can and should states assume control of federally held public lands within our borders? Many colleagues and experts throughout the west have studied the issue intensively, and we now believe there's no reason why we can't. The challenge is to get the facts on the table, put protections in place consistent with Montana values and prepare our state agencies for an orderly transition. Montana's study of public lan...
School board members were elected in communities throughout the Hi-Line last week. There is something very American about school elections. It’s a time when voters — though usually far too few — go to the polls to decide on policy for the two things they care about the most in the world — their children and their money. In the Havre district we had an interesting race in which five qualified candidates for three seats discussed the issues and stated their positions on the future of educational issues. It was reassur...
Several schools along the Hi-Line are taking part in a program to add solar panel laboratories at their buildings. Under a program funded by NorthWestern Energy, the schools will build solar system that will be used to lower the electric bills of the schools. So far in our area, C-J-I has a system installed and Chinook and Rocky Boy are scheduled for the projects, while Box Elder, Big Sandy and Harlem have applied for grants. While the savings on power bills will be beneficial, that pales compared to the real benefit of the...
In an era when untold amounts of tax dollars are spent on steering kids away from a life of crime — both before and after the criminal behavior has begun — through education programs and activities or young kids, teens and parents, Nebraska police recently dropped the ball during what Pamville editors believe could have been an educational experience for one of its youngest delinquents and his mother. Nebraska TV news website WOWT.com reported April 15 that a 3-year-old boy...
In the late ’70s — when disco was first showing signs of dying a merciful death and my puberty was still lying dormant beyond its expected arrival — author and avid pilot Richard Bach wrote this popular bit of wisdom: “If you love someone, set them free. If they come back to you, they're yours. If they don't, they never were.” I hated that sappy saying. And then someone gave me a poster. The quote was flourished over a fantastical scene of white doves flying off into a tu...
Several years ago when I made the monumental move from Poulsbo, Washington, to Harlem, Montana, with several truckloads of stuff, I unpacked and created a home that was also a library, an art gallery, a virtual grocery store, a tool shed, a fabric store and a workshop. My life was as complicated as that sentence. Jokingly, I swore that if ever I relocated again, I would take nothing with me. I would become a minimalist. My life would be defined by sparseness and simplicity. I...
It is, perhaps, true that the world is going collectively crazy. Or maybe it’s just something about North America. ——— Canadians, they always seem like the nicest, most level-headed people in the world, like the United State’s corny, eccentric, responsibly booze-loving, country-bumpkin cousins. Until now. Now they're just us. In May 2013, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted to spending his days drunk in public, smoking crack and being an all-around, um, low-down no-good-nik. This...
