News you can use
News you can use
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As a Montanan, veteran, and state senator, I am proud to sponsor Senate Bill 300 — a bill that protects property rights. The bill would create a grandfather clause for owners in HOAs to keep only their most basic property rights that were permitted when they bought their properties. This grandfather clause is similar to the grandfather clauses in code in 37 states and in Montana’s own zoning laws. Currently in our state, HOAs and condo associations are depriving individual Montanans and families of their constitutional pro...
This past week, the Montana House of Representatives passed both House Bill 652, the Long-Range Bonding bill, and House Bill 658, the Medicaid Expansion bill. The Bonding bill passed the floor with 68 yes votes and 30 no votes, and the Medicaid Expansion bill passed with 61 yes votes and 37 no votes. I opposed House Bill 658, the Medicaid expansion bill, largely because the non-severability clause in the bill was removed and replaced with a severability clause. This means that if a court finds that any portion of the law is...
I attended the Town Hall meetings at Plentywood to discuss hour reduction at the U.S. Port of Raymond-Regway Canadian Port of which is a 24-hour commercial port. The proposed hours of operation would be from 6 a.m. to midnight. Canada — Regway — remains 24-hour. U.S. Customs and Border Protection had proposed the hour reduction in 2015, we resisted, they reconsidered and it has remained a 24-hour commercial port. We can’t rail at CBP, they didn’t create the problem, so its up to “We the People” to work with Montana’s c...
I am a passionate defender of property rights. They are a foundational principle of our U.S. and Montana Constitutions. But as a resident and owner in a Montana community with a homeowners association, or HOA, I am both saddened and outraged that SB 300 is currently being rushed through our state’s Legislature. It is an affront to the principle of protecting property rights, contracts, and local democracy by its almost certain unintended consequences if signed into law. In fact, as even the lawmakers’ own Legislative Ser...
It’s spring, so the annual harassment has begun about my fat horses. It didn’t help that we went to see some friends over the weekend and all their horses looked trim and fit. Apparently the difference between our horses’ physiques was glaring, but I came to our defense. I was, like, “What are those faint ripples on their torsos between their shoulders and hips?” And everyone was, like, “Ribs.” So I was all, “Ribs? I’ve heard of them. Are you sure it’s not some trick of light...
Time flies and the older I get, the faster it fugits. As I contemplate yet another birthday, that mean ol’ tempus is fugiting at the speed of light. To add injury to insult, this weekend we will set the clocks ahead in Mexico. I know, you up north are already over the shock of change. In a few days I will struggle to remember what time it really is, whatever that means, since “time” is but an arbitrary measure. Before I wax too philosophical, let me change directions and n...
Mark Twain is credited with saying, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” And so it is with SB 331, which is winding its way through the legislature. This bill authorizes NorthWest-ern Energy to buy more interest in old coal plants and automatically pass the costs, plus profit margin, onto their customers without review by the Public Service Commission. It also puts ratepayers on the hook for more of the decommissioning and cleanup costs in the future. There have been a lot of articles and editorials war...
Editor’s note: This corrects the amount of the proposed opiod flat tax which was changed in Tempel’s letter due to an editing error. One of the things discussed this week in Energy Committee was net neutrality on internet providers. Basically, the bill states that internet providers may not block lawful content, applications or services, on any device. Providers may not throttle, impair, or degrade lawful internet traffic or engage in paid prioritization. Based on testimony in committee, this has not been an issue in Mon...
Last summer, I met a woman in Lewistown who told me she made too much money to qualify for Head Start but couldn’t afford to have her son in the kind of quality program that would give him a great start. I met parents in Wibaux who had to drive 30 miles away to take their kids to the closest childcare provider. It was because of the pilot preschool program Republicans and Democrats funded in the 2017 Montana Legislative Session that allowed that mom in Lewistown to stay in the workforce and the parents in Wibaux to have a pre...
For those people tired of elected officials fighting over trivial matters that have nothing to do with properly governing our country at federal, state and local levels, this saying offers some comfort: Everything must come to an end one day. I am here today to assure you that today is not that day. The New York Times reported Tuesday that on Jan. 14 New York City councilman from Brooklyn Robert Cornegy Jr. was recognized and officially certified by Guinness World Records as...
Editor’s note: This is the second part of an editorial discussing American Prairie Reserve’s stated goal of assembling private land in the Northern Great Plains north of the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge that can be managed with public land to provide wildlife conservation, including re-introduction of bison, and public access. The second action that makes American Prairie Reserve not popular among local communities is their current land acquisition and their future plans to amass 3.5 million acres in order to cre...
We told her. We told her. Never again is she allowed to pick the hotel. “The owner is really nice,” she said. “Yes, the owner is a nice man; his wife is nice, his three-year-old daughter is cute.” The hotel is sleazy. Not sleazy in the way of an immoral business conducted in a hotel on the outer edge of town posting hourly rates, but sleazy in the way of shabby, dirty, sordid, inadequate and unpleasant. In her defense, she didn’t know and none of us checked it out before we...
Passage of Senate Bill 338, the Montana Museums Act of 2020, is very important to all of Montana by providing a thoughtful and financially responsible way for us to preserve our history from the local to the state level. History is important. To understand our present, we must understand our past. And that understanding can shape our future. As Winston Churchill said: “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” We are all history. We all have a story to be told. How did our ancestors com...
Editor’s note: This is the first part of an editorial discussing American Prairie Reserve’s stated goal of assembling private land in the Northern Great Plains north of the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge that can be managed with public land to provide wildlife conservation, including re-introduction of bison, and public access. We have all seen the colorful banners posted on roadsides, near ranch entries, and even in the windows of town businesses. A cowboy sits on horseback in front of a sunset with the words “Sa...
This week, in Education Committee, we have had a number of bills that are pushing toward offering more career and technical education in schools. One of the bills has suggested CTE education start as low as fifth and sixth grades. The idea is noble, but in talking with a fifth-grade teacher, she felt the kids at that age are booked with their learning as it is. Then the cost, or fiscal note, is very costly. I can, and do, continue to support dual credit and work force training for juniors and seniors in high school. It is my...
The current Republican majority in the state Legislature has been proud in following its idea of no new or increased taxes. And they have expressed initial satisfaction in “cutting fat” from various department budgets while “retaining indispensable state services.” The Department of Public Health and Human Services is one agency especially targeted for the Republican budget treatment, as it is the largest agency in the state government. By defunding over 100 DPHHS positions, which have remained vacant for more than a year, t...
As we enter the third year of the Trump administration, we’re fortunate to have a president who understands the vital role women entrepreneurs play in our economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration supports the president’s business advocacy by nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit and making sure small business has a voice at the table in Washington, DC. During Women’s History Month, we salute women entrepreneurs who take a risk in pursuit of their passions and who see setbacks as steps towards something bigger and bette...
I feel like my whole education and employment history has come together today to bring you this column which celebrates liberal arts in the news. To start this list off, we’ll look at the headline I read titled “Punctuation Marks.” Grammar and punctuation are like candy to word nerds. Then I saw that the article was from Architectural Digest and I was all “Ooooooh, I do wish to see the myriad ways high-brow architects incorporated the comma into their buildings. Did they us...
At the Department of Public Health and Human Services, we are committed to providing direct services to Montanans that they rely on for their health and livelihoods. That’s why it’s disappointing to see Reps. Matt Regier and Carl Glimm imply in their March 19 editorial, “Republicans are working to trim fat from state agencies,” that vacant DPHHS FTEs must not be necessary. And it’s especially disappointing because the positions that have been left open for over a year are a direct result of managing complex budgetary pressure...
On April 2, Montanans will join hundreds of other alzheimer’s advocates from across the country in our nation’s capitol, meeting with Senator Daines, Senator Tester and Congressman Gianforte. The resounding message will again be loud and clear: alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America and must be a public health priority. Indeed, it is the epidemic of our generation. An estimated 5.8 million people are living with the disease, and nearly 14 million will have the disease by 2050. Families are struggling under...
Three weeks and counting. Two deep wells supply the municipality of Etzatlan with water. One of the city well pumps quit working. Died the good death after a life of service to his community. Down on the lower edge of town, we in my neighborhood experienced an extreme decrease in water pressure. We had no idea or thought of concern to what was occurring up on the hillsides. A week passed before we were aware of a problem. Until our own water ran out. I took immediate measures...
The Montana Legislature has gone all in on big government and socialism with House Joint Resolution 28. American Prairie Reserve has legally acquired federal grazing leases. The Montana Legislature is proposing to instruct the BLM to use “science to dictate” grazing practices on lands owned by the U.S. government and managed by Montana ranchers and the American Prairie Reserve. American Prairie Reserve and BLM have used science to study the grazing. The intent is to keep native bison off of native pasture in Montana. Rep...
Our daughter, Maci, was in Helena with her family to spend this past week with us. Last session, she was the only member of our family who was unable to visit me at the Capitol, so it was special to have her and two of her children here. Judy and I enjoyed playing tour guides by showing them around Helena and the state campus while getting in some visiting. On Tuesday, the CJI junior and senior classes came to Helena to observe session, learn, and tour the Capitol. I spent a couple minutes with them before our session began,...
In 1947, thousands of WW II veterans eligible for G.I. Bill higher education benefits were overwhelming the Montana University System. The feeling in Montana and the rest of the country was that nobody was entitled to a living, but that everybody should be entitled to a fair chance to earn one. Education makes opportunity possible. Those who benefit from it can take advantage of opportunities, and create them for others. Those without an education are often left behind. This, in today’s increasingly technical world, is e...
A federal appeals court in Michigan gave unanimous support Wednesday to your First Amendment rights to communicate clearly with your middle finger. The Associated Press reports that in 2017, Taylor, Michigan, police officer Matthew Minard pulled over Debra Cruise-Gulyas and gave her a ticket for a minor offense. After the stop was over Cruise-Gulyas flipped off Minard, who then stopped her again and gave her a ticket for a more serious speeding offense. Cruise-Gulyas sued,...
