News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 2680 - 2704 of 3210
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...
Since adoption of Montana’s 1972 constitution our Governors have vetoed 293 bills in 21 legislative sessions. More than half the vetoes, however, 149, have been cast in just the last two sessions. What’s going on? Well, Democrats say the tea party takeover of the Republicans has resulted in passage of a tidal wave of extremist legislation that mainstream governors Schweitzer and Bullock have had to veto to protect the public interest. Republicans will tell you the vetoes have more to do with grandstanding and crass pol...
We’ve seen a lot of hand-wringing over coal trains lately. But frankly, railroads are an essential part of Montana’s growth, more now than probably since the first tracks were laid in the state more than 100 years ago. Whether coal trains, grain trains, lumber trains or oil trains — it’s all good for Montana. It’s a sign that more people are working, more wealth is being created, our economy is strengthening and our tax base is expanding. The fact is, the increase in rail traffic our state is experiencing is related t...
Here at the Pamville Wild, Feral, Semi-Tame and Pet Animal Preserve, we are dedicated to the protection of life forms no matter species, genus, phylum, kingdom or domain — except where we reserve the right not to in order to maintain the well-being of the majority. For instance: Cottontail bunnies. They are cute. They dig their holes under large objects where no one, especially a horse, can step in them and break an ankle. And they provide endless hours of amusement as my d...
I don’t understand the concept of boredom. As a child my family made sure that if I even looked bored, I got handed a do-list. I distinctly remember a time, when I was single-not-by-choice and raising my kids, when I prayed daily, please, let me experience boring. While I wasn’t exactly operating on the crisis of the moment, every day was hand-to-mouth and I certainly had tapped into the fast moving physics of cause/effect. My requests for boring were denied. I got “di...
Stupid country music — making me weepy again! I didn’t used to be such a bawl-baby. But a couple kids, a divorce and the realization that I’m officially a thirty-something have all combined to make this girl a little more fragile than she used to be. So, what do I do about it? I find myself once again over-sharing my two-cents with perfect strangers in a column resurrected from the dusty files of the Havre Daily News. For some reason, I guess I find this place, and this colum...
For some time, urban tribal members have sat in silence, listening to and reading news media reports about complaints, whistle blowing and investigations that include Ken Blatt's high profile public statements of indictments as well as challenging the council action to terminate him for cause. I have known Ken for some time. He is a product of Moccasin Hats in Helena. He is an enrolled member of the tribe. We haven't dug into who enrolled him the the tribe. He is an established auto mechanic. Known to have a forceful...
In four terms in the Montana legislature few decisions have been as difficult as whether or not to uphold Gov. Steve Bullock’s veto on House Bill 12. It passed with bipartisan majorities in both chambers. It appears to be a bill every Democrat, including the governor, would want to support. It increases funding to health care providers who serve the most vulnerable, many on Medicaid. Funding for increases to these providers was cut in 2010 as we struggled with the economic devastation of the Great Recession. Many programs t...
The Montana Historical Society is planning a yearlong celebration of women's contributions to Montana next year, the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the state. The H. Earl Clack Museum plans to join the celebration and got off to an early start Saturday. As part of Living History, the museum held tea parties honoring Margaret Turner Clack, H. Earl Clark’s wife. Judi Dritshulas, the museum board’s chair, portrayed Margaret Turner Clack. She passed around pictures of the Clacks. In each one, Mrs. Clack wore beads, so i...
Researchers have discovered that humans aren’t humans so much as we are walking petri dishes of single-cell organism called microbes. Yes, that means we are covered with fungus, bacteria and mold. And, no, we are most definitely not in charge. Rob Knight, who is like a rock star of microbial researchers (complete with a website at Knightlab.colorado.edu), says that if we could separate microbes from human cells then the blob of microbes would be about equivalent to the size o...
Some cities are wondrous things. Organisms at once propagating and receding, a single entity with parts living and others dying. We don’t often experience whole cities where success and despair are partners, growth and decay lie side by side, and history’s tumult remains visible. I grew up in such a place — Butte, Mont. Last month I visited another — Detroit, Mich. I had never been there, but my friend Brian, who grew up south of Detroit, invited me to visit. I had earlier...
As governor, my top priority is job creation. To create jobs, we need a strong economy. Running a tight fiscal ship and balancing the state budget are critical for our economic strength. But a balanced budget is not just a good idea, it’s the law. The Montana Constitution requires our elected Legislature to do only one thing: pass a balanced budget. I understand there has been some frustration that I vetoed a bill that would have provided additional money for infrastructure i...
When did the sage grouse become a national priority surpassing energy independence, and does this fowl really require millions of acres of energy-rich land to survive? Those are the obvious questions that arise when reading the Bureau of Land Management’s recent 812-page Resource Management Plan for the Hi-Line. The document, released this spring and currently out for public comment, is a good example of the unfortunate trend toward declaring Montana off-limits to d...
One windy day last October, I tripped over a leaf-covered obstruction in the sidewalk and broke my wrist. Looking back, my painful wrist was the first catalyst I can identify that began to steer my thinking in the direction of a major life change. Since my accident, I can no longer do a lot of things I used to be able to carry off with panache. Just yesterday the man I hired to do some yard work I can’t handle any more — stuff involving a wheel barrow and pitch fork — asked...
It comes as no surprise that much of the budget surplus that Montana has enjoyed for the last eight years has come from energy and natural resource development. Oil and gas efforts across Montana, especially our eastern-most counties, has provided opportunity across the state and revenue flows to help fund our government services on the state and local level. It comes with surprise and dismay that Gov. Bullock chose to veto a strong bipartisan bill, House Bill 218, which provides much-needed assistance to our eastern...
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!” in red letters and...
