News you can use
News you can use
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COVID-19 continues to be at the forefront of our current health battles and plans. We have one documented case of COVID-19 in Havre, but almost assuredly there are more. We still do not have the testing capabilities to test everyone with symptoms. Our Flu Clinic continues to provide services for people with acute illnesses and provide appropriate screening for COVID-19. This allows semi-normal operations for our ambulatory clinics. We continue to manage and see those who are in need of an in-person visit, but are also...
Now that I gained your attention, I confess, I have not a clue. Neither to survival nor to sanity. I’m fishing for answers. I figured if I cast out a line, I might hook you and you could tell me! Self-quarantine and social distance. You’d think they would be my old normal since that is pretty much my life during the summer months when my snow-bird neighbors return to the north-country. Yet I went through the same patterns of ups and downs as my friends reported. We found the...
Joe’s red truck is parked behind his house. It hasn’t moved in days. Joe gets in his red truck every morning and drives around. He’s a member of every fraternal organization, a regular at the brewpub and has friends in every corner of town. Joe picks up a coffee and spends most mornings greeting people out the window of his red pickup. But Joe hasn’t been feeling well and his truck has been parked behind his house. He’s been sick and there’s nowhere to go. Normally, I would be...
We are in a new day, legislating and politics as we knew it has become learn-as-we-go. The face-to-face meetings are no more, web-based conference is the new meeting protocol. Webex, Zoom, Skype, Conference Call and Facetime are my new norm. It seems everyone has a difference preference as to what is the best. Oh, did I mention Snap Chat and Messenger, all have a learning curve and I am being tested. The good news is, most work can and is being done in this fashion. The law does allow school boards the latitude to do what...
It’s been said often in the last few weeks that we’re in a battle with the coronavirus disease known as COVID-19. And while it took a little while longer, the battlefront has arrived in Montana, and even here in Hill County. And, with Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s directive Thursday, ordering Montanan’s to stay at home as much as humanly possible, likely for at least the next couple of weeks, if not longer, it appears we too have begun to fight the COVID-19 battle. I’ve also heard, since the pandemic arrived in the United St...
The second winter after my husband, John, and I were married, we took in a stray cat that showed up on our place. She was a beautiful blue-eyed, sealpoint, Siamese-cross with lots of white markings, and at her heaviest she weighed 7 pounds, but she was all sinew, claws and attitude. Mostly attitude. Except that first month or so. We were in the middle of a subzero January cold spell when this emaciated thing came hobbling by me trying very unsuccessfully to catch an...
How quickly we progressed from refusing hugs and handshakes, to isolating in voluntary quarantine. In the mornings when Leo came to work our gardens, he calls out, “Sondrita, are you alive.” “Just a minute, let me check. Breathing? Yes, Heart beating? Yes. I’m alive.” Our governor of Jalisco has asked everybody to stay home for five days, to help “flatten the curve.” How quickly we learn the new language. Will everybody stay home? Of course not. For those of us who are “of a...
In the face of a public health crisis more serious than any of us have seen in our lifetime, we all feel vulnerable. In our best attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19, we listen to public health experts and close schools, cancel gatherings and events, and practice social distancing, staying home — and away from other people — except for the most essential needs. It’s vital advice coming from public health experts to flatten the curve, ensure that our health care systems can function, and save as many lives as possi...
An enormous box arrives at our house. It is filled with food and cleaning supplies and, yes, toilet paper. I feel guilty. But the truth is, these supplies were ordered months ago. My husband, Peter, was a hoarder long before hoarding was in fashion. “Here you go!” Peter says, as he unpacks the latest shipment. “Eight more pounds of oatmeal!” My oatmeal consumption over the past few weeks while writing would certainly set some sort of record had I been keeping track. Peter p...
Montanans are no strangers to challenging and unprecedented times. In 2017, we tackled the most expensive fire season on record and the largest since the big burn of 1910. Through economic downturns, we have made sacrifices in order to help neighbors in need and rebuilt again. Even dating back to the Granite Mountain mine disaster over a century ago, we made sure we came out of it a stronger community. With coronavirus now reaching our state, we again face challenging and unprecedented times. This pandemic not only gives way...
The Lands Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Spokane, Washington. We are dedicated to the preservation and protection of forests, water and wildlife in the Inland Northwest. Since 1984, The Lands Council has been a community leader, promoting responsible recreation in wild places inherently valuable to the region. We are inspired to preserve nature’s legacy for future generations. As part of our restoration ecology program we actively relocate nuisance beavers. To date, The Lands Council has relocated o...
Montanans are no strangers to challenging and unprecedented times. In 2017, we tackled the most expensive fire season on record and the largest since the big burn of 1910. Through economic downturns, we have made sacrifices in order to help neighbors in need and rebuilt again. Even dating back to the Granite Mountain mine disaster over a century ago, we made sure we came out of it a stronger community. With coronavirus now reaching our state, we again face challenging and unprecedented times. This pandemic not only gives way...
My hours spent actually in the office were moved around so I now come to work late at night or early in the morning, like, late-late or early-early when no one is there so that I can do my part to help us practice social distancing. I really don’t need much practice in social distancing — like practice-practice because I’m not good at it. No. It’s my natural state. I was born for this. I am joined by all the other socially awkward kids and adults in finally feeling a little...
Montana’s small businesses are the fabric of our economy and their success is dependent on the ability to freely market products and services to communities across the state. As Americans face the new reality of “social distancing” measures, our local small businesses are bearing the brunt of that impact and are addressing serious concerns regarding declining customer traffic. In order to assist businesses adversely impacted by the coronavirus and COVID-19, and at the request of Gov. Steve Bullock, the U.S. Small Busin...
It’s probably been centuries since our world has been so united in purpose. We are concerned — concerned for our own health, our families, our neighbors, concerned for those around the other side of the globe. A few weeks ago I bought tickets for a quick trip to Glendive. Let me modify that — there is no quick trip into Montana from Central Mexico. I bought tickets for the long trip, short stay. I felt I had little choice since on my birthday, my Montana Driver’s License...
There are myths of COVID-19 that need to be addressed. This is not another flu. Some data suggests that the mortality rate of COVID-19 is 10- to 30-times higher than seasonal influenza (flu). There are no drug treatments. There are no current vaccines and a vaccine is not expected for another 12-18 months at best. Yes, most people will have a mild illness with COVID-19, roughly 80 percent, but the most vulnerable in our population will pay the price if nothing is done. Persons aged 60 and above and those with preexisting...
It’s a very gray day. Today is exactly the sort of day I am most grateful for dogs. Walking in my neighborhood, everyone feels the need to share the latest dire news. Meeting in the street, we almost feel irresponsible if we don’t express our concern and our dismay and our confusion. The people with dogs, however, have it easy. Because dogs don’t care. Nearly every day, I encounter dogs. There is Graham, the black Lab, who is supposedly being trained as a service dog. Graha...
I want to remind adult Montanans with disabilities that we have the right to vote. With a very narrow exception for people with guardians who have explicitly had their right to vote suspended as part of guardianship proceedings, we have the right to vote along with all other vote-eligible Montanans. Our right can’t be impeded by polling locations or ballots that are difficult or even impossible for us to cast independently. A slew of laws had to be passed to remove these barriers. Starting with the Voting Rights Act of ’65, V...
Montanans, along with all Americans, will soon be asked to do something we haven’t done in a decade — fill out our Census form. Every ten years since 1790, citizens throughout the United States help determine how federal funds are distributed, and how we are represented in the halls of Congress. Beginning this month, all Montanans will be asked to respond to the 2020 Census by answering nine simple survey questions. For the first time ever, households can respond online at https://2020census.gov . It’s an easy way to make...
If you want to know who to blame about this toilet paper hoarding craze in the midst of a pandemic that does not affect your gastrointestinal tract, blame a gang of knife-wielding men in Hong Kong. The Agence France-Presse reported the theft Feb. 17. Hong Kong, at the time, was experiencing shortages of many household staples, including hand sanitizers and some foods, due to panic-buying in Hong Kong early in February. I don’t know what fueled the theft of 600 rolls of t...
My friends, who shall remain anonymous, sent me money to donate for them to a good cause of my choice here in Etzatlan. These good folks have visited me several times. They like my little chosen town. Several years ago a Franciscan friar, a wealthy man, sold all he had and built a lovely hacienda among the trees to house those who need special care, the aged who can no longer live with family as well as the disabled in body, the infirm in mind, both men and women. One hears...
I think Pollyanna might have gotten a bum rap. More than once in my life I’ve been accused of having a “Pollyanna attitude.” I didn’t actually know what this meant, except that it was not a good thing. Being “a Pollyanna” implied having an unrealistically sunny view of whatever was happening. Since Pollyanna and I had been linked so often, I thought I should finally read the book. For children’s literature, “Pollyanna” is one dark book. Spoiler alert for those of you who...
Two of the current Hill County Park Board members’ terms will expire soon. The 2020 posting of these positions could be any time now in the Hill County Courthouse. The Hill County Park Board has nine positions. Six members of the park board have staggered three year terms appointed by the county commissioners. The other three members of the park board are the elected county commissioners. Other than a public comment period at commissioners’ business meetings, the public has no official opportunity to participate in who is...
I have been working to better understand politics and — with Super Tuesday behind us and the Montana primary election still so far in the distance that we can’t see our relevance beyond our in-state races — I’ve stumbled across a New York Times article delving into voting processes in the animal kingdom. The article, “Sneezing dogs, dancing bees: How animals vote” by Elizabeth Preston, was cute, a lot cuter than you would expect out of the Times, which is known to publish nov...
Day three with an unwanted, invasive, intimate companion — the flu. So weak, I feel like a newborn kitten without a mama. While alternative health methods have a long and checkered history of purposefully and purposely cleaning out one’s digestive tract as a measure for optimum good health, if you ask me, such drastic measures are total nonsense. The first 36 hours I spent every 20 to 40 minutes, literally, on the commode, plastic lined garbage can on my lap, inv...
