News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1360 - 1384 of 3210
Stand on the curb of any street in any town in Mexico and look up. No, not that high. Those are just the ubiquitous buzzards, turkey vultures, also fondly, tongue in cheek, called the Mexican Eagle. Yes, lower down, that’s what I want to show you, the leftover-spaghetti-mess of wires criss-crossing overhead, connecting each habitation to power, cable, satellite, internet and phone services. When I lived in an apartment on a busy street In Mazatlan, for entertainment, I w...
I’ve recently finished my first month as the new executive director for the Montana State University-Northern Foundation, and it’s an amazing time to be a part of all that is happening at MSU-Northern. While, technically, I am not an employee of the university — the foundation is a separate non-profit organization with the mission to support MSU-Northern students and the University’s strategic goals —my office is on the MSU-N campus and I, and our team, have direct daily interaction with faculty, staff and students....
My garbage can is overflowing with paper and cereal boxes and why can’t we recycle all this stuff anymore? Well, from my understanding, commodity prices are always fluctuating and with shipping costs in Montana prohibitive due to long distances — it just doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint. One large recycling facility in the Pacific Northwest reports that in the last few years, the price for a ton of paper has gone from $140 to $30. I get it. If something is costing you more than its value — why mess with it? That...
I realized that I might be a late bloomer — a little late, naturally. I love hearing about proteges: the 5-year-old drummer or the 16-year-old activist. I love hearing the 9-year-old who sings like an old soul and reading about the 14-year-old who just completed a master’s degree. I marvel at all these amazing accomplishments. I am impressed with the laser-like focus of these children and teenagers that enables them to change the world in awe-inspiring ways. I was never one...
The weekend’s success would not have been obtained without the continued support from the many volunteers and willingness of the many different entities of the community to come together on this third weekend in September to throw a community celebration for all to enjoy. Our many thanks go to the numerous volunteers, the businesses, community organizations, the vendors and our Festival Days sponsor partner Montana State University-Northern for helping the Chamber make the weekend a huge accomplishment. It takes a c...
Winter is coming. It’s all everybody can talk about. This weekend’s storm is going to descend from the frozen Arctic wasteland of Canada’s hinterlands, envelop the Rockies in snow, roll it down the Rocky Mountain Front and sucker punch us right in the middle of autumn. And just like that, winter is coming. Then it’s going to sit around all week, astraddle of our prone bodies, poking us in the chest like it’s trying to type a letter to grandma. Sure it’s cool when winter come...
Across Montana, thousands of students are headed back to school to begin a new year of learning and growth. Unfortunately, many students in rural Montana remain at risk of falling behind due to the lack of broadband access in their communities. Broadband internet has become indispensable both in the classroom and at home for students to become prepared to compete in the 21st Century economy and complete and submit their assignments. A top priority of the Montana Rural Education Association is to ensure our rural schools and...
After two weeks at a beach resort in Mazatlan, I wanna go home! Not that I don’t love it here. I do. I do. What is not to love? Fantastic balcony view. Comfortable room. Staff who treat me as though I am special. A city I know well. I sleep to the rhythmic sea-song of surf pounding the seawall. But … oh, that trickster little word … but. I must make a decision. Nothing momentous. This is a small thing. Nothing to do with the fate of nations. An unfortunate aspect of my psyche...
"The septic guy can't find the cover, call him," was the message. I've been getting a lot of messages like this since I decided to put my 100-plus- year-old farmhouse up for sale. I haven't lived in the farmhouse for years now - not since I moved out to go to graduate school and become a writer, met Peter, married Peter, and moved on with my life. The farmhouse was where I lived for many years with my first husband and then, for a while, after our divorce. The farmhouse is...
I’m not much into Them and They or Us and We, but the struggle between Them and Us and They and We has been growing in the last decade. I heard it in town last week, a conversation about Them. The conversation, which did not include me, by its volume did not exclude me either. It filled the room with talk of They and Them as opposed to Us and We, and about how a grown man, one of Us, might become one of Them by virtue of proximity to too many of Them. The problem with Them i...
What could be more important than how we care for our children? Pragmatists recognize that how we treat our children today in their dependency will shape how they treat us tomorrow in our old age. People of faith recognize all God’s children are just that — created in the Creator’s image. High-minded folks appreciate our most worthy charge as a society is to care well for all our children. Followers of Christ, observe, Jesus fed the hungry and taught us to do the same. While we may come at caring for children from different s...
One day last week Leo asked, “Had breakfast yet?” I grabbed my bag and we headed to the gordita place. I’m certain there are a hundred gordita places in Etzatlan. This one is on the man street; that’s what I call it. Block after block of repair shops, tire and tool stores, that kind of thing. Man stuff, man street. These aren’t stores like we are used to seeing. Might be five or six a block, open fronts, no signage. Might be more workers than tools. I sat in a plastic c...
Peter was up before anyone else - as he often is. My husband, Peter, gets up early in order to have enough time to brood before busybodies like me expect him to engage in cheerful conversation. But this morning we were staying at my parents' cabin and there was a glitch in the plans. The coffee jar was empty. Obviously, a person can't brood without coffee. Peter quietly opened one cupboard after another. No coffee. My parents are great planners so there was no chance they...
Rural Montana is facing some pressing challenges. We must provide quality medical care for an aging population, so our seniors can enjoy healthy, vibrant lives in the communities they've always called home. And we need to create more jobs for the next generation of rural Montanans, so they have the opportunity to live in our great state. These two objectives both require enhancements to our health care system, but we need to implement these enhancements in a way that will not...
The president has frequently repeated the NRA talking point that more extensive background checks on gun sales would not have prevented the recent rash of mass murders. Maybe so. It's hard to accurately see what lurks in a murderer's mind. The NRA, and therefore Trump, are skeptical about "red flag" laws, arguing that such laws are based on supposition and hearsay, and could result in the government wrongfully confiscating someone's property. Probably true. Both Trump and the...
Respecting the voice of the people is an essential electoral element to a functioning democracy. Since the Progressive Era at the turn of the 20th Century, primary elections have been a vehicle empowering everyday U.S. citizens in the selection of party nominees for office. People-oriented primary elections reduce the influence of the powerful, the vested interests and political insiders. It was no surprise to see that the powerful within the National Republican Party have...
The internet is full of farm animals that have gone wild in the past two weeks, and I’m not talking about Youtube videos of farm cats being all crazy cute and stuff. I am talking about the livestock participating in shenanigans that could get someone’s eye poked out. In no particular order, we have: 14 goats and sheep, all employees of a Virginia landscaping business who walked off the job sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The four-legged work crew was sup...
With small Montana communities, especially in the eastern part of the state, struggling to sustain themselves, we don’t need the state government to make their struggle harder. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks did in 2007 when it limited archery elk permits in hunting districts within the Missouri River Breaks. In February 2008, the FWP Commission voted to adopt this motion and set the archery draw quota to 65 percent of the “historical permits.” This action, by law, reduc...
I have turned into my father and I don’t like it. When I lived in Washington, I used to almost dread Dad’s phone calls because they too frequently meant that somebody we knew, in the family or in the neighborhood, had died. Every day I open the Havre Daily Homepage, ostensibly to see what is going on in my old neighborhood. But a not-so-teeny part of me can’t wait to scan down to the obituaries. I am always relieved when there are no names I recognize. Just this week, out o...
I told my husband, Peter, that our marriage was like stew — and that’s a good thing. This is a second marriage for both Peter and me. We were both married for a long time and then divorced for quite a while. We dated other people and realized how tricky the whole process of finding a new partner was, after habits had been set and preferences settled. When I met Peter, I was ready … I think. I had healed and spent time on my own and figured out who I was — single and over 50...
Once upon a time in Montana we all would’ve been swimming with the fishes, but times change. The ice ages melt. The inland sea recedes. The Missouri River settles into a drainage 60 miles south. And the Milk River is left to meander through a gumbo valley that cuts through a high plains gumbo desert. This is modern times and everyone lives happily ever after. The End. You can’t see it, but I’m wiping away tears of laughter right now. Don’t feel left out, they’re not happy tea...
Used to be, if I had a serious deadline, I would work all day, work all night, work until the project was finished, ready to deliver. Ah, well, that was then. “Used to be” is like paint, it covers a multitude of sins. Nowadays, in what the “boys” here call “my wonderful retired life,” and it is, mostly, I parse out my day in bits and pieces. Perhaps like today, hang laundry, rest, generally with a book in hand, make the bed, rest, sweep floor, rest, work on project, re...
August has been a slow month as far as politics goes. Some jockeying for who is going to run for what office, is interesting to watch. But it is a busy time for the agricultural folks. The crops have been better than expected, the cooler spring and summer may have been the reason. Many areas received hail and a number of fires have been reported in the harvest fields. Some farmers are finished but many are still cutting, so be on the lookout for equipment. I have not been involved in a great deal of harvest, only moving a tru...
They say that blessings come in disguise. If so, my blessings are poorly disguised. They show up wearing false noses and funny eyeglasses and are instantly recognizable unless I am being completely thick-headed — and it is astonishing how often I am. I had a really bad year a few years back when I lost my husband and my job and my home in rapid succession. All of this happened while I was living in Nigeria (which was not great to begin with). I realized immediately that this w...
We had that weird dry spring, so I scheduled a week off to get some work done outside — I even booked a rental tractor to help with the work — and then the skies opened up and it rained all that week. I canceled the tractor, but kept the vacation, which turned out to be a good move on my part. I slept all that week and kind of stared at the walls as if I’d had a chemical lobotomy. Apparently, I needed a little down time. But not this week. I am on vacation from the offic...
