News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 2058 - 2082 of 3210
It was close to being a “Chamber of Commerce” day weather wise, for the Chamber’s Annual Meeting, after such a long cold and snowy period leading up to the day. As I noted, “to be in business is courageous and we thank you for your investment in Havre.” Thank you also, for sharing your time and expertise and giving throughout the year to support and sponsor the many Chamber projects. Thank you, Debbie Callahan and Andy Carlson, for your years of dedicated service to the Chamber. It has been rewarding to work with each of y...
I am going to do something I probably shouldn’t do while doing something I should do, mix my jobs while thanking north-central Montana for its giving, volunteer nature both in specific and in general. It has been my privilege to coach on Havre High School’s speech and debate team for the last 16 years and we have held many tournaments, from small meets to two-state tournaments, in that time, and the community always has been legendary in its stepping up to help. That happened again this weekend when Havre hosted the high sch...
In these confusing times of fake news, real news reported in fake ways and real news falsely accused of being fake, I give you really real news, correctly attributed to real sources, which prove that the truth can be just as strange, but less malicious, than fictitious news. Japan has gone to the loo If you think the new-fangled, low-flow toilets with one flusher for fluids and another flusher for solid wastes are confusing, do not go to Japan. Seriously, toilets in Japan have eight steps to proper usage. The Japan News...
First, I want to let you know this is Dee Dee, Sondra Ashton’s daughter. Mom had cataract surgery Friday the 13th, the lucky woman. Mom decided to do both eyes at once. Her life of fun and games interrupted, she found out she’s not allowed to read, or write, or garden, or go outside because of the dust in the air from the corn and sugar cane harvest, or really do anything for several weeks. I’m glad I’m not there. She’d be a beast to live with. Not really, but maybe. Mom seems to have trouble with the “not do anything” p...
Thus observed Great Falls Tribune reporter and columnist Frank Adams in 1980, a year after a plaque was installed in an obscure capitol hallway, the only monument in recognition of Whiteside, who was perhaps Montana’s most courageous statesman. Barely 20, Fred Whiteside left home in Illinois in 1878 to make the dangerous trek to Montana Territory. Using profits from buffalo hunting, Whiteside became a building contractor, constructing several early structures in Miles City. Whiteside soon became one of Montana’s most not...
After the most disruptive and disreputable presidential campaign and transition in memory, I seriously relate to the words of “My Fair Lady” lyricist Alan J. Lerner from the song “Show Me,” which begins: “Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words! I get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?” That song gets at the point that actions can count as much as words. Meaning can be found in the actions the speaker takes both before and after political words are proclaimed. But as much...
By Mark Fix Secretaries of the interior are called to be public stewards. On behalf of all Americans, they oversee our great national heritage of forests, grasslands, fisheries, national parks, wildlife, waterways and mineral wealth. Congressman Ryan Zinke, if approved for his nomination to that post, will have the opportunity to prove himself in the long line of great stewards that have preceded him. I wish him well, but there is cause for concern. Taxpayers at Risk During his last term in Congress, Rep. Zinke introduced leg...
Early in the session, not a lot of major business takes place on the floor of the House of Representatives. The committees are getting into full swing hearing the bills that have been introduced, and that workload will increase as legislators introduce more bills every day. Following are some of the activities in my three committee assignments. • State Administration and Veterans’ Affairs SAVA has mostly seen “clean up” bills from the Secretary of State’s Office. On Wednesday, we looked at a bill which sought to improve t...
I’ve lived most of my life in a warm place, a place so warm, a place that can get so sweltering hot, that its nickname includes the word “hot.” Hotlanta. In Hotlanta, a snow dusting, however slight, sends everyone home from the office. A few flakes turn wide highways into crawling parking lots. Those white winter flecks on southern ground clear out the bread and milk aisles and reduce grocery stores and gas stations to looking like riot scenes. And for the million or so children in the metro area, the mere whisper, the rumor...
Shortly before Christmas, men and women across Montana were notified that the road construction projects they were depending on to put presents under the tree this year would be canceled. The jobs they were depending on to provide for their families in 2017 would be lost. The construction of critical state highway projects would be delayed or defunded altogether. Our highway fund is facing an unprecedented budget shortfall, and unfortunately it’s just one small part of the budget crisis that Gov. Steve Bullock handed the 6...
My mother-in-law used to say, “It’s a great life, if you don’t weaken.” I think it’s an old Irish saying. It definitely sounds like something the Irish would come up with — a truism that’s somehow both positive and depressing at once. They nailed it. I wrote last week about my water issues, as in I don’t have any water flowing to my house. I could write volumes about how that affects your daily life, but I’ll just throw out a few words to prompt you to write it in your head f...
Montana’s Constitution requires state government to provide public legal defense to individuals who cannot afford their own legal counsel when they are charged with crimes involving imprisonment, facing involuntary commitment because of a mental disorder placing them or another at risk, or facing loss of parental rights. During the last four years, we served together on the Montana legislative subcommittee in charge of overseeing the budget for the Office of the State Public Defender. During this time, we became concerned r...
I call it negative inspiration. You know how you meet someone or read a story about someone amazing who has triumphed in life despite incredible tragedy. Yeah, this isn’t it. Negative inspiration is like your mom telling you to eat your broccoli because there’s starving children in Africa. Except negative inspiration is better because it’s real. I mean no disrespect to the children of Africa, starving or otherwise, but something happening to a friend or family member or neighb...
Routine. My life is routine. I don’t live on the beach, lounging beneath a palapa, tanning my skin into leather, holding a fruit-filled drink, serenaded by mariachi bands. Ha. So, I just returned from two weeks in Mazatlan where I stayed with friends in a high-rise resort hotel on the beach. I never made it to the beach palapa. I had one thoroughly enjoyable beach walk. Mostly, I visited old friends from when I lived in Mazatlan, had medical tests in preparation for cataract surgery later this month and wandered the market i...
Substance misuse and abuse is not only a national problem; it is a local problem. Substance misuse is the use of alcohol or drugs in a manner, situation, or frequency that could cause harm to the user or to those around them. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for the nation to address. Millions of Americans are affected by substance misuse. Thousands are affected in the state of Montana and hundreds are affected in Hill County. From July 2013 through June 2014, 318 people from Hill County...
It's probably too obvious to be worth mentioning, since I do write for part of my living, but I love words. The thing is that it's not just the words themselves — like how "unite" and "untie" have the same letters but the opposite meaning (what are the odds?). Or how one letter can have all the meaning in the world — compare public health to pubic health. Or the grammar of how your panda "eats shots and leaves" or it "eats, shoots, and leaves." It's also the visual pos...
In this busy time of year — while I wait for the the first wave of crowds to run out of money and the second wave to get their gifts exchanged post-Christmas — so I can do my holiday shopping, I’ve spent some time reading the news recreationally. For fun. I know, weird, right? But this is what I learned: Epa.gov says that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day people in the U.S. increase their household waste production by 25 percent, which is about 1 million tons extra ...
Before moving to Havre, I didn’t believe small towns existed, much less small town Christmases. It was a myth, all of it, fantasies invented and romanticized in Sherwood Anderson and Larry Watson books. Sure, I’d driven through quaint southern small towns and devoured the most delicious, succulent, fresh-smoked homemade Tennessee barbecue ever known to mankind. But the southern small towns I passed through weren’t real. For all I knew, they were part of a set, a real-life “Truman Show.” None of the people I exchanged...
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... Yes, that Mitch McConnell ... is backing a bipartisan investigation into allegations that the Russian government tampered with American elections and maybe, just maybe, helped Donald Trump win the presidency. So can we all agree that this is a thing now? Can we all agree that hacking by a foreign power hostile to American interests isn’t politics or sour grapes from Democrats, no matter what the President-elect claims in a series of fact-free tweets? That it’s actually a grave mat...
The Universe loves irony. As proof of my wisdom in this, I give you exhibit No. 1053, the 2016 Election of the President of these United States. As pretty much everybody on Earth and in the planet’s geosynchronous, elliptical and circular orbits and still subject to its gravitational pull, knows, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to become future 45th president of the U.S. Ironically, though Clinton won the popular vote, receiving the highest number of votes in h...
The Electoral College meets this Monday in what will be the final step in Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency. But it will also be the last chance for #NeverTrump dead-enders to keep Trump out of the White House. And now, the anti-Trump effort has been given new fuel by allegations of Russian attempts to interfere with the presidential election. Trump won 306 electoral votes. There are 306 electors, actual people, who are expected to vote for him next Monday in Electoral College meetings in state capitals across...
’Tis the season to be jolly! From now until New Year’s Day, the merriment typically continues unabated. Between the gift-giving and spiked eggnog, some folks set aside a few moments so the reason for the season can be considered. Chances are that Jesus Christ and, more generally, the Christian tradition enter the equation. Wandering minds should instead focus on the Prophet Zoroaster and his religion. It is, after all, the grandfather of Christendom. Zoroastrianism is perhaps the smallest major religion in America, but do...
Believe me, I understand if you’re ambivalent or even disdainful of the religious aspects of Christmas. I understand why you couldn’t care less which festive cups Starbucks uses, why you’d just as soon your grandchild be a dancing snowflake as an adoring shepherd, why “Season’s greetings” resonates just as well as “Merry Christmas” with you, why you’d rather hear “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” than Handel’s “Messiah.” Maybe pompous ivory tower professors have lectured you that “everyone knows” the New Testament was written hun...
Back in 1969, by a whopping vote of 339 – 70, Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives united to pass legislation to do away with the electoral college. A companion bill, co-sponsored by Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield and supported by President Nixon carried the Senate by a strong vote of 53 – 34. That, though, was short of the 2/3 majority necessary to pass the proposal on to the states for ratification as is required for amendments to the Constitution. What drew the two parties together was the ele...
Seventh grade. 1957. I don’t know why I went to our first junior high dance. I couldn’t dance, not even a two-step. Didn’t know how. We were all “expected” to go and most of us showed up. For me, the experience felt like I imagined showing up for the guillotine. I knew more about Marie Antoinette than I knew about the waltz. The dance was held in “the pit” at the old grade school. The pit had a gym floor, a raised walk around area, and perhaps once was used for little guys’ phys ed. At that time, the pit was most often used...
