News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 997 - 1021 of 3210
The annual build-up of anticipation for New Year’s Day is, I think, the clearest proof of mankind’s eternal, stalwart and irrational optimistic nature. How many times have we said it or heard it: “Ugh, 2020 has been the worst. I can’t wait until it’s over.” As if, at the stroke of midnight heralding in Jan. 1, 2021, we will pass through a portal into a modern realm that’s as happy as a nuclear family in a 1950s sitcom, or maybe we’ll skip-jump into a brighter timeline in the...
A fellow I know was grousing about the past year. His birthday was coming up and he felt, once again, that this year failed to meet his expectations. He was unhappy with the year, unhappy with himself, unhappy with the fact that he’d even allowed himself to hope that 2020, of all years, was going to be better than the previous ones. “My caring isn’t going to make any difference in how things work out,” he told me. “When I step back to accept that reality, maybe I’ll stop...
The phone rings. I grab my mask with one hand and the phone with the other. “Merry Christmas.” My new habit. Masking has become automatic. Before I leave the house I grab a mask, even if I’m going to the clothesline, expecting to see not one other person. I go masked. Just in case. I’m locked and loaded. In the holsters on the belt around my waist, a spray bottle of disinfectant rides on one hip and extra masks, gloves and a tape measure for distance — OK, the tape measure i...
Holidays are complicated. Have you ever tried to make one up on your own? Sure it’s easy to say “That (fill in the blank) is so awesome, everybody should celebrate it as a holiday.” Or “Every day is a holiday if you have the right attitude (insert three exclamation points here).” That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a bonafide, paid day off, happy, happy, joyful day of celebration which every person on the planet can participate in wholeheartedly...
Whatever you think about Christmas, I think you would have to agree we need one this year. Everyone I know seems determined to do as much Christmas as it is possible to do. My pastor announced at the beginning of Advent that we were going to have 26 consecutive Zoom Advent services. “We’re having 15 minutes of Advent reflections EVERY night!” she announced. “Surely she means every week,” most of the congregation thought. “EVERY night!” she repeated for clarification...
It was encouraging to hear that the Hill County Park Board is initiating a process to document a policy for trapping in our Beaver Creek Park. Hopefully this policy will address more than just lethal trapping of beavers and incorporate a whole park management perspective. It will be important to document a policy that is consistent with our vision for Beaver Creek Park while being workable and built on valid science, prudent natural resource management, specific infrastructure issues and sound business practices. Striking a...
I try to stay positive, but there’s just a whole lot of nope in the paper this week, and I hate to say that it’s affecting me, but here we are and I’m starting things off with chicken feathers as food. Nope. In fact, I would describe that as a “hard nope with a full stop.” I know what you’re thinking: I faked that news for dramatic affect, something punchy to open my column with. Sadly, I must inform you of another hard nope on that, too. A few sources, including Reuters, re...
I am a marked woman. Last week I announced to my little world that I am studying Spanish, obviously a language tagged as subversive. When next I arrive in Havre, I'm likely to be met on the train by armed Border Patrol, cuffed, and dragged into the slammer. Oh, woe is me. I followed the Havre news story (also in the international news, by the way) about the two young women apprehended for speaking Spanish in the convenience store. I know that Spanish-speaking women are...
“I’ve forgotten the funny name of the tree you helped us pick out,” my mother said. “Our tree this year is named Melinda.” The greenhouse where my parents get their Christmas tree every year has festive tags hanging from the trees with their names and prices. These are not inexpensive trees, so it’s fitting they are all individually christened. My mother likes to support this local business — and they do have nice trees. “Caleb. The tree I picked out with you was named Caleb...
In a position where my organization — the Montana State University-Northern Foundation — relies on the generosity of others, I have been wondering, is generosity an innate characteristic or is it learned? Is it part of our DNA to be a giving person or is it something we are taught? I recently googled these questions and discovered that many studies conclude that while it’s innate for humans to be reciprocal, it’s not in our DNA to be givers. Many of us are taught by our family, friends, or someone in a stewardship role, l...
Nearly nine months into a pandemic, COVID-19 has impacted Montanans in every corner of the state. Nearly 800 Montanans have lost their lives to the virus and many others have gotten sick and are experiencing long term impacts that we don’t yet understand. Others have experienced a job loss, a lack of pay while sick or in quarantine, or being forced out of the workforce to provide childcare. Businesses and schools are struggling to maintain staffing and continue providing services to their communities. It’s clear that eve...
The communities of Havre/Hill County are better than our current behavior reflect. I think an apt comparison to our current situation is to compare our response to the Bear Paw/Beaver Creek fires a couple of years ago. This was an emergency situation threatening our area. The response by the communities showed friends and neighbors doing whatever was necessary to save all from the inferno. Not all volunteers could drive a bulldozer or a firetruck, but everyone pitched in with food, drinks, equipment, water trucks, whatever....
In a time when American politics has been all about dueling realities, you’ll be happy — in a misery-loves-company kind of way — to know that it’s not just us. Nepal and China have been arguing since 2005 about the actual height of Mount Everest, which sits on the border between Nepal and Tibet, which is an autonomous region of China (basically, China’s Canada). Here’s the beef, the highest point of the of Mount Everest is the marker for the border between Nepal and Tibet,...
I’m a Sun Bunny. Sun worshipper. Sun seeker. For the past week if or when a tiny patch of sun parts the clouds, I rush out to sit, face raised toward the bounteous warmth, contented. Don’t for a minute think I’m “sun-bathing.” I’m basking in full winter gear, head and hands the only uncovered parts of me. This is winter, even here. It is cold. I live in a house with no heat source. I suspect it is difficult to grow up on a Montana farm and think baring one’s slathered bod...
It is a year of lower expectations. Every year, there is a chorus of folks urging us to lower our expectations for the holidays — buy less, consume less, worry less about having a picture-perfect holiday, and spend more time reflecting on what the holiday means to us. This year, it seems, we will finally get a chance to do that. I was recently asked what my childhood memories of the holidays were, and I had a couple of vivid ones. I saw myself sitting on the wooden stairway o...
I am sitting on a gold mine or, more specifically, I’m fixin’ to hatch me a gold mine. Those stinkin’ pigeons in my barn that I’ve been complaining about for years? They could be worth money, real money, like really real money, according to an article in Reuters. In November, a 2-year-old racing pigeon from Belgium sold at auction for — are you sitting down? You should be sitting down for this because the pigeon sold for $1.89 million. One point eight nine MILLION dollars. For...
Perception is all. I love the Big Sky Country. I like to picture it this way: I stand and slowly turn a whole circle. When I look downward, I see the earth. When I look outward and upward, the sky is a gigantic bowl, covering and visibly encompassing, caressing the earth. I love this new country of mine, the Big Earth Country. That's the wonderful thing about love. There is always room for more. Here I stand and turn a circle and all around me is the earthy world, the fields...
My friend Anita is felting up a storm. Philip is cooking something new and posting a photo of it every day. Megan is reading Shakespeare on video, Jason is doing woodwork projects, Tom and Mary and Katie are sewing thousands of masks, and Peggy is studying Spanish, German and Latin — all at once. Then there are the folks who are just trying to make it through the week, working jobs that demand more and more of them every day. There is no right way to do this. I decided to p...
The Montana Rural Teacher Project is determined to solve Montana’s teacher shortage by paying Montanans to pursue a master’s in teaching and helping them land a job educating Montana’s future leaders. Public schools are the nerve centers of neighborhoods across Montana. In every corner of our great state, our K-12 public schools make the future possible. But this remarkable system of public schools cannot function without remarkable public school teachers. Today, there is a growing teacher shortage in the United State...
Last week, Montana hunters and anglers got our first sense of the direction that Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte wants to take public land, access to critical hunting and sport fishing habitat, state parks and Montana’s $7.1 billion recreation economy. Gianforte offered an unbalanced slate of names of those who will be advising him on new leadership for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Hunters and anglers in Montana better be prepared to speak up and act to protect our s...
That famous movie clip from “Man from Snowy River” showing the epic scene, with the hero launching his horse off the top of a mountain and galloping headlong down the near-vertical mountainside, made its rounds on the internet again this week. I remember when the movie was released and horse people couldn’t get enough of that scene, some out of excitement, some horror, and everyone wanted to own or at least ride in an Aussie stock saddle. That’s all pretty much still true to...
Editor, I respectfully request that Congress pass the Recognizing Motorsports Act, H.R. 5434/S. 2602, in 2020. The bipartisan RPM Act protects the right to convert an automobile or motorcycle into a race car used exclusively at the track. Modifying a vehicle into a race car is an integral part of America’s automotive heritage. Many types of racing, including NASCAR, were founded on the premise that street vehicles, including motorcycles, can be converted into dedicated racing vehicles. Racing events are an economic driver f...
I have always loved Thanksgiving. I love that it is a holiday built around a full table and homemade treats. I love the recipes handed down on index cards that only get made once a year and traditions that bring back childhood memories and the chance to use linen napkins and the idea that sitting around a table — just sitting around a table — is reason enough to celebrate. I think it might be my favorite holiday. I like that expectations are reasonably low and yet the hol...
We the undersigned clergy, representing diverse faith communities across the state of Montana, pledge to do all in our power to keep our congregations and communities healthy and safe in the midst of this pandemic. While we have varying practices and theologies, all our traditions hold life as sacred and believe the imperative to protect and preserve life outweighs all other considerations. Our state and our country are facing a crisis and we must meet this challenge together. As people of faith, we trust in a higher power...
I don’t remember not loving words. I could read and write before I entered school. Granted, it was pretty rudimentary stuff – because, y’know, I’m clever, but I’m not that level brilliant – but still, once you have bat down pat cat, fat and sat aren’t much of a stretch. (See what I did there? Just a wee, little crack-me-up.) I don’t remember it, but I figure my parents must’ve read to me a lot when I was a kid. I do remember asking my dad to spell things for me or tell me wha...
