News you can use
News you can use
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Every two or three days I make a list of chores and things to do. My list keeps me focused, nags at me. My list includes jobs which, if I didn't stick on them, might fall out of sight. These are suggestions, not orders. I pride myself on my flexibility, one of my better qualities. Nothing is cast in concrete. My inner compass points me to go with the flow, as we used to say. CASondra AshtonPTION On a diamonds-in-the-sky Monday morning I checked my list. I decided to vacuum, th...
Essen The ability to comment on proposed state and federal government regulations is an important right for all Americans. Since we live in a republic, not a direct democracy, public comment helps our representatives make informed decisions on our behalf. No one expects public comment to be the equivalent of voting. But even so, public comment should not be ignored. After all, if our representatives just did what they pleased, they could hardly be considered representatives. This is especially true when government officials...
Few federal tax policies are as immediately revolting as the death tax. The idea that the government has the right to confiscate a set percentage of an individual's assets after his death strikes us as downright immoral. It punishes grieving family members, adds stressful burdens both before and after death, and lets government step between the dying person and their bequest to the designated inheritors. Moreover, it's double taxation because the deceased person already paid taxes on the income used to buy his assets. Henry...
The Montana Legislature is cruising along at a nice pace, however I'm not convinced that Montana's business is being conducted in a prudent and responsible manner. On Wednesday, March 19, the House of Representatives passed HB 2, the appropriations bill totaling $4,546,622,698, out of the general assembly on second reading by a unanimous vote. That is unheard of in Montana history and even more surprising, they only deliberated for about 70 minutes. At issue, from my perspective, is that there is no way for some legislators...
What does "home" mean to you? In your own words, think about: "To me, home is … ." We all have our own answers, but they can be summarized in a new national initiative, Home Matters. Home Matters is building public support for the essential role that home plays as the bedrock for thriving lives, families, and a stronger nation. Home is at the core of all of the aspirations that we have as individuals, neighborhoods, communities — and as a nation. Home is where we as individuals dream, study, plan, and recharge for the day...
Would you believe that the Senate Taxation Committee would get a letter from the ambassador from Lichtenstein claiming that Montana tax laws are an insult to his country? And would you believe that the largest association supposedly representing Montana businesses would suggest that letter is evidence that Montana has a hostile business climate? Never mind that the topic about which those claims are made is one small part of an obscure little Montana law that gives a big income tax break to large, international corporations...
Next year will be the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in Montana. As luck will have it, it will also be the 100th anniversary of the Havre Daily News. Most people consider the centennial of suffrage more important, so we are planning to celebrate that in our pages. Martha Kohl, the historical specialist for the Montana Historical Society, was in town for the Montana Association of Museums meeting. The group conducted its statewide convention in Havre this weekend. Montana beat out the United States as a whole by six yea...
The last week on the Hi-Line has shown once again of the growth of environmentalism in our daily lives while environmental causes along the Hi-Line. While environmental causes have been losing ground at the governmental level — things haven't been going all that well in Congress or the Montana Legislature, people in their personal lives are taking actions that will help preserve the environment and improve the general day-to-day livability of the planet and our particular part of it. There was a massive increase in the n...
I just celebrated my 100th birthday. I enjoyed Gary Wilson's article on East Hall. I attended college there, and each time I go by the site, a mental picture comes to me. I earned my elementary teacher certificate there. My teaching certificate was instrumental in important events in future years. I worked for my board and room to be able to attend college. I worked for the E.O. Smith family. They had two children, a girl, Doris, in second grade, and Earl "Buddy," who was 9 months old. They hired another lady for work when I...
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, has been used since the 1940s. The purpose is to fracture the shale, allowing the natural gas, or oil, to flow more freely up to the wellhead. The original vertical fracking was much less damaging than is today's method of horizontal fracking, where the well is first drilled vertically, then the drill bit is turned to drill horizontally into the rock formation. A solution of from 3 to 8 million gallons of water per well, 5,000 to 7,000 gallons of chemicals, and silica (sand) in...
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, has been used since the 1940s. The purpose is to fracture the shale, allowing the natural gas, or oil, to flow more freely up to the wellhead. The original vertical fracking was much less damaging than is today's method of horizontal fracking, where the well is first drilled vertically, then the drill bit is turned to drill horizontally into the rock formation. Norman Bernstein A solution of from 3 to 8 million gallons of water per well, 5,000 to 7,000 gallons of chemicals, and...
Acting on that truism is the essence of leadership. While it is equally true that you can only get stabbed in the back if you're out front, leaders have the guts to take that risk. Non-leaders do not. Leaders must also earn the trust of others. Trust is built on positive personal relationships. The combination of guts and trust makes an effective leader. So far, Gov. Steve Bullock strikes me as an effective leader. He was up front about his priorities in his State of the State speech, and he's been working hard to earn the tr...
Friday, April 5, the Senate found itself mired in an angry dispute between the two parties. The majority was seen to be railroading several pieces of legislation in a manner that disregarded proper rules of public notice and procedure. The minority reacted by attempting a little-used parliamentary motion called "Call of the Senate." The situation deteriorated. Greg Jergeson As dean of the Montana Senate, an institution that I revere beyond measure, disappointment is the only word that can describe my feelings about the...
My dog Cooper is about 50 percent highly opinionated, opportunistic brat. I wish I were more like him. That's possibly, probably, most likely wrong of me, but to my critics, I say: Whatever. To be honest, I've been called a lot of things, and more than just a few of those things weren't very nice, but of all the names, adjectives, adverbs and cuss words I've been stuck with, brat isn't one of them. Weird, right? Cooper makes a compelling argument for being a brat, though. If y...
Today I lost a chicken. I mean I misplaced a chicken. I don't mean a live chicken. I misplaced an ugly, misshapen, ceramic chicken. This unfortunate bird is no poultry beauty. No self-respecting ceramic rooster would give her a peck. She came into my life, my odd little chicken, from a display at one of the stops along the What the Hay route between Lewistown and Hilger a couple years ago. Her oddity is what drew me to her. She is so droopy of aspect, so overfed, so worthless...
The other day, as I approached the entrance to a store, I saw another person on their way in too. Since I got to the door first, I held the door open for them to enter without interruption. As they walked through they said "thanks," and I nodded my head in reply. Holding the door open for someone is a small and common courtesy that a lot of us extend to others. Often times we don't know who the other person is, but we still extend the courtesy all the same. One way to think about such a small courtesy is in terms of service....
No job is perfect, but mine, I've recently discovered, is ruining my life. No biggy, you're thinking. You've read my column and you think it wasn't much of a life to begin with. But I will have you know that, through careful consideration of my options at every juncture, I have deliberately built a life that bears as little resemblance as possible to one lived by an adult accepting of her responsibilities and any desire to get ahead financially, emotionally,...
A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for. — Robert Browning, 1855 About 2,400 years ago, Plato wrote, "Music and dance are more potent instruments than any other for education because the rhythm and harmony find their way in the inward places of the soul." Painting, sculpting, writing, dancing, music, acting, all of the arts, help us to express our thoughts and feelings. They provide us with tools for coping with — and changing — the social landscape. The arts are a connection between history and today...
There's an old adage, "What goes around, comes around." That old adage frequently manifests itself during any legislative session. And it has just done so again, in spades. When our new governor announced at the end of December his modifications to the budget prepared by his predecessor, the majority party leadership roundly criticized the governor for proposing an increase of 13 percent in the state budget. As that majority party leadership criticized the governor for his spending increases, they promised to hold any...
On May 8, the Bureau of Land Management will hold a public meeting in the Triangle Telephone Hospitality Room at 6 p.m. These meetings will also be held in Glasgow, Malta, Chester and Great Falls. The event is a part of the public involvement process required of the BLM in the final stages of the Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS). Currently in draft status, the document consists of two volumes which amount to a total of 1,291 pages making the document quite inaccessible for most people in...
Unknown to most Havre residents, every day tough problems are tackled, and our community is strengthened by AmeriCorps and VISTA members who give their time and skills in national service. Sometimes they tutor and mentor children in after-school programs at the Boys & Girls Club. Sometimes they gather people in roundtable discussions and focus groups so that, together, they can learn what the needs of the community are and, together, decide how to create a better future for us in north-central Montana. Tim Solomon Sometimes...
According to my recent reading, had I been born at any point before about 1940, I would've died or been killed, or at least irreparably maimed, before reaching my teens. It was a brutal world for which accident-prone wimps like me were ill-equipped to thrive, or even survive. Pam Burke As the result of a clever, underhanded plot by a friend who knows my weaknesses too well, I am the newest volunteer helping the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame to prepare the 2013 nominees' biograph...
Generally, we should be grateful that the current Montana legislative session has come to an end for two years — unless we have a special session on some specific issue, such as health care. In general, the lawmakers managed to do some things right. They managed to close their session early, a positive move, and they managed to balance the state budget, which they are obligated by law to do. Most positive is their fix of state retirement programs (if it works), long overdue from past legislative gatherings. What they f...
Writing headlines is an art form, one I don't practice myself, but for better or worse, every article, column and feature story has to have one. Whether written by the pros (yes, larger media sources hire people whose only job is to write headlines) or written by those of us who struggle, sometimes headlines just don't work out. Like: New drug offers novel approach to taming virus If you're like me, you saw that headline and expected to read about awesome nanobots armed with...
Moving on from last week's column on the Indian Health Service and Israel, the question becomes, why does the United States support the relatively sophisticated reservation in the Middle East known as Israel, as opposed to the relatively crude reservations we created, for our own purposes, for the Indian in America? To quote the late Sen. Jesse Helms, Israel is "America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East." Since its founding in 1948, the state of Israel has been economically and militarily dependent on the United States...
