News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1682 - 1706 of 3191
So great is the loss of Steve Browning to our state and its communities, the flags should be lowered to half-staff and a moment of silence observed across Montana. Steve died May 15, 2018, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. The legacy he created for Montana, however, will never die. While Steve will be remembered for many things — a brilliant law career, his work in Washington, D.C., and, of course, his love of golf — I will remember him most fondly for his passion and work in philanthropy. A common focus of Ste...
Paradise. Yes, I live in a garden of Paradise. I suppose there is a snake in every garden. My snake is gray. Pure deep gray with diamond shaped markings like fish scales. I’m told he is harmless. Every woman since Eve has heard those words whispered in her ears. I can live with my gray snake. What can I do? He slithers whither he wills. My hope is that he eats rats. Week before last, a rat infested my bodega. Until the evidence appears, One doesn’t know a rodent has set up hou...
Don’t tell me the people lack power. “We the people” is the powerful phrase opening the U.S. Constitution. We the people have been a powerful force throughout U.S. history — and Montana’s history. The Fraternal Order of Eagles at its 1921 national convention voted to make old-age pensions a national priority. At least 10 Eagles from Montana aeries (chapters) attended that meeting. They helped organize a state campaign for old-age pensions. Lester H. Loble of Helena sponsored the bill in the Montana House of Represent...
About a year ago, I published an update in local papers about the plans by the Montana Department of Transportation to reconstruct the remaining 10 miles of U.S. Highway 2 between Chinook and Havre. This project, known as Lohman East and West, is still on schedule, with a bid letting date in the fall of 2019, and construction expected to begin in calendar year 2020. It remains the most expensive project in Transportation Commission District 3 in a five year period, and will have to be funded in two separate fiscal years....
For all you people who feel like bad things keep happening to you when you’re stressed and overwhelmed by life already, a group of researchers at the University of Liverpool in England offers one more set of data to help prove that it’s not just a feeling, it is a fact and they say you should prepare to get bit. By a dog. To clarify, the study did not say that sad sack, down on your luck, depressed, oppressed or otherwise bluer than blue people were getting bit while they wer...
We didn’t exactly buy it sight unseen. Well, I suppose I did. My half. Unseen. Last winter, Jim, a neighbor here on the rancho, and I began hankering (that word generally precedes a pig in a poke) after a hot tub for pain therapy. We agreed that if we found what we wanted, we’d share the cost, share the use. We made two dread trips into Guadalajara only to find them outrageously expensive. Searches on such sites as craigslist: Mexico, for a second-hand tub yielded no res...
The believers, conspiracy theorists, wanna-bes and want-it-to-be’ers are waiting, as the saying goes, on tenterhooks as a researcher pits modern genome science against the myth of the Loch Ness monster. New Zealand’s University of Otago professor Neil Gemmell told The Associated Press that in June he and a team of researchers will be traveling to Scotland to collect hundreds of water samples from the famed Loch Ness. These samples will come from multiple sites and depths to...
Water rights are the cornerstone of our agricultural economy. Without certainty, protection for existing water right holders, and a plan to define the federally reserved water rights of the tribes, Montana’s water users would be forced to foot the bill for decades of costly litigation and risk losing their existing water rights. That’s why we support the CSKT Water Compact and why we believe it is critical that our Congressional delegation act now to ratify the agreement that was passed by the Montana State Legislature in...
Have you ever woken up with a sense of impending doom — for no apparent reason? That’s my story today. Could be I’m asking for trouble. Could be the shadows I sense hovering around the edges of my life are tricks of light. Could be I’m just an old woman with old woman worries. I cannot put my finger on a thing that is wrong. So why this niggling anxiety? My awareness seems heightened. I strongly sense the incredible beauty which surrounds me. I am in awe of the idyllic...
I was a range management specialist for the Malta Bureau of Land Management field office for over thirty years. After retiring in 2007, I was hired by the American Prairie Reserve. As such, I’ve had considerable professional experience managing range land health and closely observing the impacts of bison on range health in Montana. APR has been and will continue to be held to the same required BLM standards and guidelines as other permittees regardless of their type of livestock, season of use, or grazing system. All of t...
It was recently announced by the leadership at Amtrak that they will be eliminating ticket agent positions in Montana at both Havre and Shelby, citing budget problems and the proliferation of online ticket sales. This move is short-sighted, will further erode customer satisfaction with our nation’s passenger rail service and disproportionately impact senior citizens, the disabled and those in rural areas without access to reliable, high-speed internet. Amtrak’s long-distance routes, including Montana’s Empire Builder, provi...
For the past 70 years, Montanans have supported our state’s public colleges and universities by voting “yes” to renew the 6-Mill Levy that appears on the voting ballot every ten years. This small portion of our state property tax bill currently keeps higher education affordable for all Montana residents and supports a stable Montana workforce and economy. For a Montana family owning a $200,000 home, the 6-Mill Levy costs about $24/year. The 6-Mill Levy will be up for renewal again this fall, and it’s important for voters...
The recent decision to close Shelby and Havre’s Amtrak ticket counter will have huge impacts not only on the passengers that board in Havre, but the Havre and Hi-Line economy. Many people come from all over the region to board Amtrak in Havre. They spend their money in our restaurants, stay in our hotels, and visit our unique attractions and shops. Many of these folks purchase tickets with cash at the ticket counter — often to receive the best deal — or call the agent in the office. The Amtrak spokesperson claims that “90 p...
Unlike most government agencies, which are funded by tax dollars, the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is funded almost entirely by a combination of hunter and angler license sales and federal excise tax dollars on guns, ammunition, fishing tackle and related gear. While complicated, this system, which is over 80 years old, has been responsible for the recovery and management of our state’s unmatched wildlife resources. The federal funds that support wildlife management programs within Fish, Wildlife and Parks are a...
Vegetation management for me is almost like the old adage “it’s a blessing and a curse,” but more like both a curse and a curse. If I apply the full weight of my efforts, I cannot get the good grasses and plants to grow, and I can’t get the bad ones to die either. This is both a shame and a frustration, especially on my 60 acres of gravel and gumbo, with little to no topsoil and a tendency toward saline seep, 60 acres that have been used and abused over the last 100-plu...
The delightful musical comedy by the above name is about people in love. It’s not quite the same thing, but my perfect love is my garden. Not a month ago, I said to Leo, my garden helper, “I’ve now done everything I want to do with my garden. It is perfect.” It is. Truly. Leo rolled his eyes and grinned. Last week I met a couple from Seattle at the nearby campground. They wanted to know which house is mine. When I described my location, she said, “Oh, you are the garden....
This November, I will be voting to reauthorize the six-mill levy. The six-mill levy makes higher education more affordable for Montana citizens throughout the state. Students are footing nearly two- thirds of the cost of Montana’s institutions of higher education through tuition, compared to my grandparents only having to cover a third of the cost. When my colleagues voted to slash the budget, higher education took a major hit. For the first time in a decade, institutions had to raise tuition. Many institutions were reluctant...
Do you ever read or hear some news on an obscure topic about which you know a thing or two because, hey, life can take you in strange directions, but you hear the thing and you know some stuff and you wonder how did those people come out of that intact? Three well-meaning people from San Antonio, Texas, sustained bite injuries from kittens they rescued from an alley, an Associated Press article from Wednesday says, and the kittens turned out to be bobcat cubs. The trio, who...
I’m angry. It’s selfish of me, but I worked myself up into a right little snit when I heard Amtrak is cutting service in Havre. Please, no, not an unmanned station. Selfish, I admit. In my personal phone and address book, yes, I have one of those old-fashioned black books, under “A” for Amtrak is the number for ticketing at the Havre station. I can phone that number from anywhere, talk to a real person, one with a welcoming voice, make my travel arrangements and know that I...
In an article about the closing of the Amtrak ticket offices in Havre and Shelby in the May 7 Great Falls Tribune, Havre city councilwoman Sarah McKinney is quoted as saying that if Amtrak can justify the savings, it is “probably OK,” and added, “but I could be wrong.” Let me erase any doubt Ms. McKinney has. She is wrong. Here is what Havre will lose when the Amtrak ticket office is shuttered: 1. A wage and benefit loss of over $200,000 annually to the Havre community. 2. Loss of checked baggage service. This will result...
Of all the special interests I have pursued over the years, I think it’s a fair and honest assessment to say that food is by far my favorite and longest-lasting hobby. Not only do I love food, I love all kinds of foods from cheap, highly processed, empty-calorie foods to healthy, home-cooked-with-fresh-ingredient dishes. And from a simple roast beef and potato staple to a spicy, hot Thai dish. I’ll try almost anything. Imagine my joy, then, to see a food trend in this week’s news. First off, you should know that if you ever...
Broken bones. Missing parts. Titanium joints. Scraped eyeballs. A gimp, a limp and a cane. Moving more slowly every day. “Pain is a brute dictator,” said Dr. Backman, the quiropractico I saw this week in Mazatlan. “The more we hurt, the less we move.” He didn’t say — and — the less we move, the more we hurt. But I got it. And, yes, that is his real name. Dr. Backman, the man who works with backs. To my shame, I put myself in the shape I’m in today. After hip replacement, th...
Did you ever hear the joke about the Army Ranger, the Recon Marine, a Navy SEAL, and a Delta Force member sitting around the campfire? If not, we’ll have to save that one for another day. Instead, let’s say it’s an Army Ranger, a Navy SEAL and the United States’ Secretary of Interior sitting around a campfire in the Flathead National Forest. That’s actually not that hard to imagine, since our current Secretary of Interior is Whitefish’s own Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL. And I’m a former Army Ranger living in the Flathead...
We can’t have a competitive workforce without a healthy workforce. And a healthy workforce depends on the individual health of each of its citizens. Until recently, too many of our fellow Montanans lived each day knowing that access to health care was beyond their reach. They avoided regular checkups and screenings, and instead, were forced to the emergency room to access expensive, difficult to treat care. When you’re not healthy, it’s difficult to stay on the job and be a productive member of the workforce. Thank...
Some moments, those profound life moments, come at you like a truck wreck in the making, in slow motion, from a few miles out. You always knew that the road would be slick ahead, but you thought it wouldn’t happen for many miles. You thought maybe, when you got there, you’d spin out a bit or take out a reflector or dent a guardrail or some equivalent mishap. But you assumed you would drive away from the crisis relatively unscathed, maybe have to fill out an accident rep...
