News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 2873 - 2897 of 3212
Barb Fournier was at the fifth annual Festival of Trees Friday night, laughing and having a good time, greeting friends and passersby at Holiday Village Mall. It was quite a contrast to the time I saw her at the second Festival of Trees, then held at the Great Northern Fairgrounds. Barb was chair of the event, and she was uptight, nervous and sure that something would go terribly wrong and ruin the evening. John Kelleher Of course, nothing went wrong, everyone had a good time and the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line made a...
My friends, David and Vidya from Port Townsend, Wash., drove to Harlem to stay the week with me and attend the Montana Seed Show. We covered every event. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sondra Ashton "Sondra told us so much about the Seed Show. We just had to come see it." Our first event Thursday was the wool judging. Vidya knits, so she was particularly interested. "I was surprised to see so many varieties of wool on display, to get to talk to the judge about the wool. I...
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...
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"...
It's not fair to complain about problems, but then never acknowledge or admit when decent solutions are offered. So here I am, after months of writing about the stubborn inertia of industries who fear the mysteries of the future, to say, "good job, movie industry." Zach White There have been numerous steps taken by several movie studios that have caused me to take a step back from the front and say that's pretty cool. One of the biggest changes recently has been the release of several big movies online, through places like...
Bill Thackeray's recent view expressed in the Opinion Page of the Havre Daily News brought up some interesting points. The article inspired me to bring them to print. First of all I know every one of the farmers and ranchers who have closed their land to hunting over this issue. They are all good neighborly people who had views on this sale. They were not jealous of the price, and the ones I know just want to make a living doing what they love to do. They tried to exercise their rights as residents of this state in voicing...
Pam Burke We here at Pamville News — employees, interns, volunteers, hangers-on and laze-abouts — in no way condone, excuse or otherwise support violence in any form. That said, though, when you hear that a man in the UK was beat up by two guys dressed like Oompa Loompas — orange skin, green hair, hoop pants and all — ya just gotta laugh. It may be the law. It really could be. The UK's Daily Mail Online reports that the Norfolk police said two men dressed like the fiction...
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...
Winter's plunging temperatures do not make me yearn to frolic in the vast outdoors. In fact, last week I huddled impatiently in wait for the red line to climb. While brilliant sun danced atop the icy-flaked blanket of snow, I ventured to walk the mere five blocks to the post office to pick up a week's worth of mail. I dragged home a bag of letters, bills, newspapers and six books that I had ordered in a moment of pre-Christmas insanity. I couldn't help it. Santa made me do...
My daughter Dee Dee sent me pictures of my granddaughter Toni, now 7 years old, with her new horse, Jill. Toni's grandfather thinks Jill is still his horse. From the evidence of the photograph, a girl and her horse, cheek to cheek, eyes closed in blissful rapture, this horse belongs to Toni, no question. Back in October my daughter and her family moved "home" to Montana. Dee Dee had lived in Washington several years. Toni was born in Japan and the family ended up back in...
Pam Burke As strange at it may seem to read about me, I had an interesting conversation with a health professional about fitness a while back — of course, it wasn't like I was setting up an exercise regimen or something crazy like that, so no worries. We were actually talking about motivation, and the pro told me about adopting the inspiring motto of a competitor he'd met; she'd had it tattooed on her arm: "Never Weaken." "I've been doing more cardio," he said, "and when I'm ready to quit, but know I need to go a few more m...
Few things are more important to a community than well-run and locally controlled schools. Virtually all school districts, along with teachers, parents, and community leaders, strive to provide the education and training our children deserve with less money than in times past. While local communities band together, however, State Superintendent Denise Juneau and the Office of Public Instruction have proven themselves to be unreliable partners. Sandy Welch Building a new school is no small decision. Responsible and engaged com...
A century ago this year, the people of Montana stood up against some of the most influential corporations in history with a powerful message: People and their ideas — not corporations and their money — decide our elections. Sen. Jon Tester At the turn of the century, wealthy mining magnates literally bought elections, power and influence in Washington, D.C. So in 1912, Montana voters passed an initiative limiting corporate influence on our elections. That's because ensuring that citizens are in control of America's dem...
While at the parade during Festival Days (our local three-day holiday) a fellow watcher and I started making bets on which children, all hellbent on amassing the most candy, were most likely to get run over first and which most likely to fall into a deep diabetic coma before supper. In the middle of all this side-betting entertainment, the woman commented that this was the first day of candy season and, y'know, I'd never thought of it that way before, but with few gaps in candy service, it really is candy season from the...
Before I reveal the little known details, details concealed in newly discovered parchment scrolls long buried beneath Plymouth Rock, of the first Thanksgiving dinner, it is important that I establish my credentials lest you think I made this up. I have a hard-earned college degree in history and political science — hard-earned while raising a toddler. I learned to skillfully negotiate the twisted labyrinths of research. Potential starvation has been known to motivate c...
Today officially marks the beginning of the 2012 political season Candidates can begin filing for seats in the Nov. 6 election. In Montana, Election 2012 promises to be a political junkie's dream. There will be hotly contested races from president of the United States to Hill County commissioner. Every statewide political office is open, highlighted by what promises to be a doozy of a governor's race. And the race for U.S. Senate between Democrat Jon Tester and Dennis Rehberg is getting national attention. John Kelleher...
Last week, the Montana Supreme Court overturned an earlier victory for free speech rights won in Helena district court by American Tradition Partnership, Montana Shooting Sports Association and Champion Painting Inc. over government bureaucrats' right to bar individuals and companies from airing political opinions under a non-profit or for-profit corporate umbrella. The ban on speech that Montana's court temporarily restored was enacted before Prohibition, in response to this state's embarrassing history of political...
Remember when we were 6 going on 7. Remember when birthdays were a joy, a cause for celebration, awaited with keen anticipation. Remember the excitement of 12 going on 13, becoming a teenager. Or counting the days until we passed that major milestone and turned 21. Ah, the sweet expectations of youth. Then suddenly we were 29 and heading over the hill. Sondra Ashton A few weeks ago I enjoyed the Christmas feast with my cousin Shirley and her older son, Tim. While sewing gift p...
The U.S. Postal Service needs to work toward balancing its books while fulfilling its mission of delivering mail to homes, businesses, hospitals and schools throughout the United States, including in our rural areas. Recently, under the banner of fiscal responsibility, the USPS has targeted more than 650 post offices for closure, including 85 in Montana, all in small, rural communities in our state. Lesley Robinson No one suggests the Postal Service shouldn't tighten its belt. In fact, it should consider eliminating post offi...
It's Sunday, the first day of January. Today I received a love letter. It didn't arrive in the conventional manner, tucked in my box at the post office, enclosed in an envelope with my name in the center and a cancelled stamp in the upper right-hand corner. It fell out of a book I was reading, a used book, "Garbo Laughs," a novel by Elizabeth Hay, a writer from Ottawa, Canada. Who knows how long it had held a place between the pages. I turned the page and a small piece of...
