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  • Fort Belknap Indian Community supports DEQ's enforcement of the bad actor law

    Updated Sep 13, 2018

    For the Fort Belknap Indian Community, the state of Montana’s “bad actor” mining law is a matter of accountability, justice and common sense. We support the state enforcing that law against Hecla Mining CEO Phillips Baker. Baker was the top financial official at Pegasus Gold when the company filed for bankruptcy. Baker moved on to his next venture, but those of us living downstream from Pegasus Gold’s abandoned Zortman-Landusky mines did not have that luxury. After obliterating areas of the Little Rocky Mountains that ar...

  • Invest in Montana's future with 6 mill levy

    Updated Sep 12, 2018

    Montanans have a 70-year tradition of investing in state higher education. Nov. 6, voters across the state will again have the opportunity to renew that economic and societal investment by voting for the 6 mill levy. Public colleges and universities are a key conduit for the state’s workforce. Generations of graduates of the Montana university system’s 11 campuses have benefited from the 6 mill levy. Voters have a chance to renew that support for future generations. The return on this investment manifests itself in the 69 per...

  • Thanks for participating summer reading program

    Updated Sep 12, 2018

    With school back in session and fall just around the corner, we at the Havre-Hill County Library would like to congratulate our student patrons on starting a new school year and extend our thanks to the community for their participation in this year’s Summer Reading Program. We had 217 participating readers, who read a total of 69,670 minutes. This is equal to 1,160.2 hours, 4,180,200 seconds, 48.4 days or 6.9 weeks. To break up all that reading, participants were able to attend a Tuesday Movie Matinee, Wednesday Story T...

  • A letter to Gianforte about wilderness study areas

    Updated Sep 7, 2018

    Dear Congressman Gianforte, At the roundtable meeting you conducted in Lewistown on Aug. 15, you announced that you would be accepting comments regarding your two wilderness study area bills — H.R. 5148 and 5149 — at this email address. On behalf of Montana Wilderness Association, I would like to share with you the myriad ways in which thousands of Montanans have already made it known that they oppose your legislation stripping protection from 29 wilderness study areas comprising more than 800,000 acres. We feel that it’s ext...

  • Whoever you like in the race, register and vote

    Updated Sep 7, 2018

    Never in a million years did I think I would be asking so many people in this area if they were registered to vote. And never did I imagine finding people not interested in doing so. Truth be told, when I started ringing doorbells, I thought the only people I may find needing to register would be those new to the area or people just turning 18. Especially here. Montanans take pride in what is happening in their communities, their state and the nation. We are a passionate group, many of us with generations in our families who...

  • View from the North 40: Life is like a box of higher-math equations

    Pam Burke|Updated Sep 7, 2018

    Sometimes life hands you a series of complications and issues, but if you keep working through the mess, in the end they all come together to create a simple answer — kind of how one of those complex mathematical formulas with a mess of numbers, letters and symbols turns out to equal “y.” First of all, last summer the drain to our kitchen sink plugged up. It’s a dying, old trailer house scheduled for demolition, not the new house we’re still working on. These things happen. I...

  • Time to Stop the Gravy Train at the Public Service Commission

    Updated Sep 7, 2018

    Would it surprise you to find out that each of the five members of the Montana Public Service Commission makes more than the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State and the State Auditor? These are the current salaries of Montana elected officials. Governor — $111,570 Lieutenant Governor — $86,362 Attorney General — $123,499 Secretary of State — $95,695 Superintendent of Public Instruction — $107,000 State Auditor — $92,236 PSC Chair — $101,772 PSC Member — $100,819 Elected officials salaries are set by surveying the s...

  • Trump and Rosendale are right for Montana

    Updated Sep 6, 2018

    Today, President Donald J. Trump will make his third visit to Montana to advocate for conservative leadership and the successes that come with it — namely, more jobs and higher wages. President Trump understands that we need a leader who will represent Montanan values: integrity, hard work, and the pursuit of the American Dream. We’re currently benefiting from a booming economy that has impacted all of our businesses and a Republican-led Congress that is proud to protect the freedoms and values that Jon Tester has for...

  • Looking out my Back Door: Little things mean a lot

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Sep 6, 2018

    When one has pared one’s life down to the bare essentials, little things take on incredible importance. I arrived in Mexico City with 40 minutes to make my connection. Airports are designed in such a way that domestic flights and international flights are situated at opposite ends of the real estate. I think it is a universal law. Having had previous experience with said law, I always request wheel-chair service. Rogerio ran, and I do mean ran, with me from deplane to r...

  • Why Border Patrol supports Tester

    Updated Sep 5, 2018

    As the president of the National Border Patrol Council, I have the privilege of representing 15,000 of the best men and women you’ll ever meet — the Border Patrol Agents who work 24 hours a day to secure our borders. But I know that when it comes to border security, having dedicated men and women is only half the battle. We cannot do our job unless we have the tools we need to keep this great country of ours safe. That is why the National Border Patrol Council is proud to endorse Sen. Jon Tester. We are endorsing Sen. Tes...

  • View from the North 40: Not all weeks and columns are created equally

    Pam Burke|Updated Aug 31, 2018

    I don’t like writing about the craft of writing, the process of writing, for a variety of reasons — top among them being that I don’t want to make myself look stupid as I pretend to know what I’m doing here. We’ve all been around those people who read the Reader’s Digest condensed version of an article on nuclear physics and then they hit the lecture circuit of all the dinner parties and casual gatherings of friends and family, expounding on the virtue of nuclear-wha...

  • Help ensure our seniors, veterans continue to have health care – vote yes on I-185

    Updated Aug 30, 2018

    This fall, we have the opportunity to ensure that nearly 100,000 Montanans including our seniors, veterans and their families continue to have health care. If we do not pass the Healthy Montana Initiative or I-185 hardworking Montanans could be harmed. Kudos to all the health care associations that were proactive in designing I-185, with funding provided through an increase in the tobacco tax. It prevents cuts to Medicaid including services to veterans, children, seniors and people with disabilities. I-185 would also: • H...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Girl on bike, woman in red car

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Aug 30, 2018

    It’s a mystery. I hear Jack Webb’s voice (Sgt. Joe Friday) in my ear. “Just the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.” July 25, a sweltering sunny afternoon, my granddaughter Antoinette, rode her bike down Kendrick, a side street in Glendive, Montana. At 3:30 her Mother sat in her office, recording client notes into a file, waiting for her 4 o’clock appointment, when her phone rang. “Mom, come get me. I wrecked my bike. I don’t know where I am.” She was on a street she rode every da...

  • Hughes Creek Road illustrates need for road fine bill

    Updated Aug 30, 2018

    For decades, hunters in Ravalli County have been blocked off from reaching our public lands in the Bitterroot National Forest by an illegal gate on Hughes Creek Road. This route has an extensive history that well establishes its status as a county road, going back to records as far as 1898. Yet a handful of people who live along the road put up a gate and blocked off public access to public lands. The same people who gated the road actually filed in the 1980s to have it officially abandoned by the county — their own a...

  • Meeting on Tiber station, campsites a success

    Updated Aug 28, 2018

    As I mentioned in my last update, we scheduled a meeting at the Tiber Marina to address the possible relocation of the boat decontamination station and some campsites. I was very pleased with the turnout. The meeting was attended by Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Bureau of Reclamation, county representatives, members of the general public, Marina concessionaires and myself. Getting all parties together and having a conversation on how to move forward is a great start. As we discussed the issues, it was evident that the station...

  • View from the North 40: Life's a matter of perspective, even the news

    Pam Burke|Updated Aug 24, 2018

    While news sources are waging a battle of perspectives in articles about humans — an easy example being: Is Trump crazy like bat guano or crazy like a fox — recent articles about animals have another side, as well. A Association Press article about a Belleville, Illinois, man who was trying to rescue his parrot but had to be pulled out of the quicksand-like mud himself, had these informative sentences: “Firefighters had to rescue a southwestern Illinois man from deep mud after...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: Where lines converge

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Aug 23, 2018

    When passing by a mirror this morning, I thought, “Lord, oh dear, I’m composting.” Well, aren’t we all but that’s no consolation. Which thought led me to a memory that shook me to my bones. My Aunt Mary, at 90, who had composted a lot by that time, said to me, “I’ve outlived all my friends. There is nobody with whom I can talk about how it used to be. “And many can’t hear me when I talk about how it is now,” she continued. Which memory led me to several threads, lines convergi...

  • Thanks to Trekkers for work at Havre schools

    Updated Aug 22, 2018

    Editor, I want to personally thank VMWare, Team4Tech and CoSN for selecting Havre as a Good Gigs Trek destination. As a precursor to the arrival of the Good Gigs Trek team, in early August, Havre Public Schools received a technology hardware package from VMware/Dell valued at $95,432.73 donated to the Havre Public Schools Education Foundation. In no way do I want to minimize this gift as the impact it will have from both a fiscal and technology perspective is beyond appreciated. This number does not come close to the final fi...

  • U.S.-Canadian partnership vital in addressing illegal fentanyl crisis

    Updated Aug 21, 2018

    Lost amidst the flurry of tariff-related disputes between the United States and Canada is an under-addressed and far weightier issue than steel. It is a lethal, but largely preventable threat: the trade and illegal importation of counterfeit drugs, most notably those containing fentanyl. Trade between the U.S. and Canada exceeds $650 billion each year, but beyond this legal trade looms the danger of illicitly traded goods. Criminals take advantage of our soft border, which strong trade has created. Some illicit goods like...

  • View from the North 40: News that will have you seeing yellow

    Pam Burke|Updated Aug 17, 2018

    Paris is known as a city of beauty and history. It is the icon of sophistication. It is now sullying its reputation, literally, with its new urinals. Ah, Paris, you are going in the toilet, or as the city officials prefer “le urinoir.” “Paris residents peeved at very public eco-friendly urinals” reads the Aug. 13 headline to a Reuters article by Jack Hunter. Picture this: Beneath the headline is a photo of a stylish twenty-something man facing, and standing quite close t...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: And the cat came back

    Updated Aug 16, 2018

    I consider myself a pretty practical person. Yet I find myself incredibly sad, from time to time, mourning the death of Cat Ballou. I had an opportunity several weeks ago to adopt a new kitten from Ballou’s mother’s latest litter. “No. I leave in two months to see my family. It wouldn’t be right for me to take a new kitten and then abandon her for several weeks.” See, practical. Yesterday morning Nancie phoned. “Can you come over to visit?” My cousin was leaving the next day, back to Washington. We had already made plans fo...

  • View from the North 40: When summer fun means killer waves and Santa Claus

    Pam Burke|Updated Aug 10, 2018

    Scientists have finally solved the great mystery of the Bermuda Triangle that has haunted mankind for a century, but no one can figure out why Christmas season is now emerging like a mirage through the shimmer of a summer heatwave. Several news media outlets are reporting about a BBC-aired documentary in which Dr. Simon Boxall, an ocean and earth scientist at the University of Southampton, says that the hundred years of hype about the Bermuda Triangle being an unnatural...

  • Looking out my Backdoor: The wrath of Ralph

    Sondra Ashton|Updated Aug 9, 2018

    Rule No. 1: Never write when sick. Rule No. 2: Do whadevah ya gotta do. It’s a virus, I’m sure. Caught it from a hug from Josue, who thought he’d eaten bad mangoes. Four days ago. Mangoes good. Virus bad. Hugs good. I’m not going to live under a blister-pak. I twist myself into knots in order to avoid paying obeisance to the toilet god, Ralph. Fortunately, neither my stomach nor my mind felt hunger that afternoon. I felt listless. I should have seen the clues. Next day, yo...

  • Judge Kavanaugh: One impressive nominee

    Updated Aug 7, 2018

    Sen. Jon Tester has a difficult decision ahead of him. Should he vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and risk alienating his fundraising base, or should he vote no on Judge Kavanaugh and risk alienating many Montanans? As every good inquiry should begin, let’s take an objective look at Judge Kavanaugh’s credentials. The Judge graduated from Yale College cum laude (with distinction) in 1987 and Yale Law School in 1990. His work history is as follows: law clerk for the Third Circuit, law clerk for the Nin...

  • Why I want to serve as your state senator

    Updated Aug 3, 2018

    Now that the dog days of summer are upon us, campaign season is kicking into high gear. While it seems like November is a long way off, it will be here in the blink of an eye. Montana’s federal races will garner an understandable and significant amount of attention. However, as has always been the case, the decisions made at the state level through the Montana Legislature are at least as important, and perhaps more so, than those being made in Washington, D.C. It’s why I want to serve as your next state senator. The imp...

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