News you can use
News you can use
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Joe Balyeat "There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children." — Economist Milton Friedman Given the fact that Montana continuously ranks near dead last in the country in average wages and our "low-income neighborhoods" arguably encompass our whole state, it should not go unnoticed that Montana also ranks dead last nationally in educational choice reforms as well. The Center for Education Reform ranks Montana 51st (even b...
While sluggish job growth continues to cloud the post-recession recovery, Montana offers a bright spot. Approximately 22,000 of Montana's lowest-paid workers got a raise this January, as the state's minimum wage increased by 15 cents to $7.80. Thanks to a ballot initiative supported by labor and approved by more than 70 percent of Montana voters in 2006, the state's minimum wage automatically adjusts every year to keep pace with the rising cost of living — this key policy reform, known as "indexing," has already been a...
I was watching Mayor Michael Bloomberg on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" recently, and he and Kimmel talked about an app that New York City has launched under his watch: NYC 311. The way they described it on the show, anyone with the app can press a button to report graffiti or a pothole or a crime. You send along your position, and the city will send someone to try and solve the problem. Zach White I know some people in Havre would love to have such a direct line into City Hall, but I'm not sure how easy it is to send a...
Norman Bernstein Last month, after the fire and explosion in West, Texas, and shortly after one of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's business recruiting trips to California, to lure companies to relocate in "business friendly" Texas, a cartoon appeared in the Sacramento Bee, showing the governor making one of his pitches for businesses to come to Texas where there are "Low Taxes" and "Low Regulations" and where "Business is booming in Texas!" The next panel of the cartoon shows the blast at West Fertilizer, exclaiming a large "BOOM!"...
Little Chazlie Cripps, 4 1/2, and Tristan Riggle, 6, gave me a lot of hope Monday morning. They were standing on the sidewalk awaiting the start of the annual Memorial Day services at the Hill County Courthouse. John Kelleher Tristan was in his little car, and Chazlie was passing out poppies to the crowd, a fundraising event to help area veterans. Chazlie's grandma, Kim Cripps, and Tristan's grandpa, Keith Doll, were talking about how they can explain Memorial Day to kids that young. It's not easy to talk about death to...
All in all, the first three months of this winter weren't too bad, so even if the next three months of winter are harsh, we really have nothing to complain about. But I will anyway. It's not a secret; I'm no fan of winter. If I had my way, we'd have a month of it and a month of high-summer and the rest would be spring and fall. This time of year I imagine a Shangri-La exists, possibly somewhere in the mountains of New Mexico, where the weather is like this all year. Pam Burke...
As you read this, the United States has 11 million aspiring citizens who rent or own homes, raise families, work hard, start businesses, pay taxes and do their fair share in thousands of cities and towns across our country. That sounds great, until you realize they live here in second-class status. With the Senate Judiciary Committee opening debate last week on the immigration bill from the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight," we're finally moving toward solving this crisis. Immigrants founded this nation and have played a vital...
Everything is relative. That's what I always say. Sure it's no Albert Einstein's theory of relativity that my "Dictionary of Theories" explains as: "In non-inertial (accelerated) systems, certain fictitious forces make their appearance while also having a connection with the forces due to gravity, where the acceleration produced is independent of the mass." (I swear I didn't make that up.) Pam Burke But, really who all is smart enough to imagine something like that. I'm no...
The IRS tempest in a teapot should not be about how the IRS investigates political organizations that file for 501(c)4 tax-exempt status. Rather, it should be about why we have thousands, or, for that matter, any, tax-exempt political non-profits in the first place. This tax-exempt status, especially the 501(c)4 organizations, rather than the usual 501(c)3 nonprofits, is rightly subjected to more than the usual IRS scrutiny because these are the organizations most likely to misuse their status. They are not required to make...
Some members of Congress in Washington, D.C., have begun suggesting that coal companies are not paying the full amount of taxes they owe to the federal government; all in the name of helping shore up revenues for the struggling federal budget, of course. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and former Gov. Brian Schweitzer have disputed the accusations, and this appears to be more a part of the concerted campaign aimed at harming the coal industry than anything else. Congress has one simple solution if they are serious about increasing...
The focus of Havre Daily News is local news. We are a complete newspaper, but our emphasis — and our heart — is in Havre, the Hi-Line and north-central Montana. We love covering and being in the middle of the news developments, the sports stories, the interesting features and the commentary of our area. John Kelleher And we think that's what our readers are interested in. Our readers have a host of way of getting national and world news and ESPN and numerous other sources to keep track of the sports world. But, if we may be...
Volunteer — a person who is willing to undertake a service. This is a short definition for a word that profoundly affects an individual. I believe that volunteerism is actually a distinctive part of our being. Debbie Vandeberg Volunteering demonstrates who we are. Volunteering gives you an opportunity to change lives, including your own. If you'd like to support a cause but can't afford to donate money, you can donate your time instead. So how do you go about it? Find what's right for you. With volunteering you get to pick w...
Frequently, any legislative session is compared to a chess match. There are a huge number of moving parts. There are numerous players, with skill levels ranging from master to no skills at all. The challenge isn't so much whether one party or the other can secure checkmate against the other, but that the elusive goal of finishing our business within the allotted 90 days, balancing the budget and making sure that the services provided by government are done with value to the taxpayers who foot the bills. Sen. Greg Jergeson It...
We are now a few weeks into the Major League Baseball season, with the same, predictable steroid-laden lack of baseball, which is supposed to be a team sport, but has become a race for individual statistics, above all else. With so much money at stake, the game, itself, takes a back seat to the marketing of new records and new "superstars," and new products, designed to take more money out of your pockets and put it into the pockets of the billionaire owners and the millionaire players. The club owners were finally forced,...
This letter is in response to "The public has the right to know," in Norman Bernstein's column "Consider This," published in the Havre Daily News Wednesday, May 15, on page A4. What the public has a right to know is that the library is under very capable management. I respond in defense of the library and library board. I do not have any official position and no one has asked me to write this letter to the editor. Mr. Bernstein no longer lives in our community. Therefore he should not be judging decisions made in our communit...
Havre and Hill County are celebrating Historic Preservation Month, an especially meaningful commemoration because the Hi-Line is so rich in history. Havre and Hill County are relatively new on the scene. Most of the country was pretty well settled when Havre became a reality. But we have a rich and intriguing history. In the early days, it was a pretty wild town, and Havre Beneath the Streets tells the story of those crazy days. One of the nation's largest forts was located just south of town, and its remnants remain. Fort...
This week, the Office of Public Instruction released its annual Graduation and Dropout Report. For the fourth year in a row, graduation rates were up and dropout rates were down. The credit for this improvement belongs to the school leaders, teachers, students, community members and parents who have put in the work at the local level to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of students who may not have made it to graduation without their efforts. Denise Juneau While we can celebrate this success, we also know that 1,841...
People always say "I'd like to be a fly on that wall," when they're talking about being able to get the inside scoop on the real goings on among people. Reporters, they're always hunting the inside story, the dirt, the scoop, the skinny, the REAL story, but they can't be the secret fly on the wall. They have to declare themselves and their intentions to observe, record and interview. Pam Burke In my expanded capacity at the paper (the one where I'm asked to overcome all my...
Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old Internet activist facing $1 million in fines and 35 years in federal prison, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday. The legal woes that led to him preferring a noose around his neck began in a Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's office in July 2011, when he was charged with "wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer." The charges were later upgraded from four to 13 felony charges. Zach White He faced t...
Pam Burke My 4-year-old horse has super powers: He is naturally impervious to electrical shock. That's a bit of a problem when he lives on a place where electric fencing is used to keep horses out of danger. I know that seems like a bit of a contradiction: deliberate electrocution will keep him out of danger. But it's not like the jolt is powerful enough to stop his heart or anything — if it were I'd be dead several times over by now. It just, y'know, gets your attention a...
It's easy to become downcast in winter, even as mild a winter as this has been thus far, knock on wood, salt over shoulder, sign of the cross. I try to keep an upbeat attitude, but sometimes ... . One seemingly ordinary day last week, I had a fright. The day started as usual: snow fall in the morning filled in my footprints and cat tracks of the day previous, a shout of afternoon sunshine, a bit of breeze. A good day, a good mild winter's day, a day to bless and fill with murm...
One thing you have to learn when you live in the country with pets, livestock and all manner of wild critters doing their call-of-nature things, you have to harden your heart to handle this life's realities. My husband, John, grew up on a farm and ranch operation so he knows this well, yet somehow he's managed to preserve this big, soft-hearted, squishy, I-don't-wanna-be-mean center where his toughened-up heart is supposed to be. Pam Burke Of course, you know who has to be...
The Montana Legislature opens its session this week with lawmakers on all sides promising that this will be a productive session with people working across the aisle to find solutions to problems. We'll see. The Montana constitution mandates that lawmakers meet for 90 days every two years. As the session began Monday, the oft-heard joke was repeated: Montanans would be better off if the Legislature meet for two days every 90 years. John Kelleher It wouldn't be better for the news media that covers the session. Lawmakers this...
More than a decade ago, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously summarized a quandary we face in national security: there are things we know, things we know we don't know, and things we don't know we don't know. Rumsfeld took flak in the media for his wordplay, but the concept he tried to express is one that we face both in and out of the national security arena. In health insurance, for example, we know the cost of insurance and the cost of health care are out of control. Chalk that one up in the "things we know"...
While in politics, I allowed myself to be bullied by the NRA. No more. I cannot help but feel like there is something I could have done to prevent this calamity. But I will no longer allow myself to be intimidated by groups like the NRA. I don't need an assault weapon to go hunting with my son. Ed Tinsley I am a lifelong hunter, a veteran of the United States Army, and a former elected official here in my home of Yellowstone County. But above all I consider myself a parent, and so I will be forever haunted by the slaughter of...
