News you can use
News you can use
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Two core values that Montanans share make our state great: a deep respect for private property rights as well as a dedication to public land. Defending both of these values is essential to our way of life. Montana is blessed with 28 million acres of public land that supports hunting, hiking, camping, and countless other outdoor pursuits. However, the majority of Montana’s land is in private ownership. Unlike some Western states that are a majority public land, and Eastern states that are all private, Montana enjoys a mix. T...
On July 13, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, a political prisoner in China and a champion of democracy, died of liver cancer in a Chinese hospital. The world mourned, but in China his death was barely noted. The Chinese government is responsible for Liu Xiaobo’s death. It imprisoned him unjustly, then withheld proper medical treatment until his cancer was too advanced to treat. At the end it spurned international appeals to allow him to emigrate abroad with his wife so he could die a free man in a free country. This f...
Today I would like to take a departure from my usual frivolous subject matter to touch on the serious topic of people’s worth, specifically, the value of my own life. How much is my life worth? Is it worth, for example, $750? When I was a small child, I was worthless for earning any wages or being productive in any helpful way. I was, as most babies are, a burden. I was not special in this way. Perhaps if I had been a pretty child or one who made people feet compelled to s...
“Like the first morning.” Scrub oaks, verdant from recent rains, reached out branches and clutched passing clouds onto high mountaintops, puffy sombreros heavy with moisture. Mountains held onto the clouds tightly until near noon when clouds, with a mind of their own, lifted off and away. Clouds will return, dark with a new load of water in the late afternoon, tonight’s fresh downpour. Since the season began, about six weeks ago, we’ve averaged half an inch each night....
In February, Governor Steve Bullock appointed me to the Montana Transportation Commission, representing Commission District 3. The three corners of the district are Blaine County in the northeast, Glacier County in the northwest, and Lewis & Clark County in the south. Since my appointment, I have been poring over data related to highway transportation throughout my district, the revenue availability to various kinds of highway projects, and the mounting needs for reconstruction, repair, and maintenance that exceed the...
Any ideas I might have had for this week’s column were immediately erased in the moment I realized my home was not going to burst into flames, burn to the ground and start a wildland fire that obliterated the Hi-Line. I’m sure you can imagine the degree of my elation. This feeling was topped by a jumbled free-for-all kind of emotional brawl as events played out Tuesday. I had some clothes drying in the dryer that morning and I needed to get them swapped out for the last loa...
Have you ever had a day when you feel unutterably sad for no earthly reason except that you are human? On my patio, on this day when my thermometer registers a mid-afternoon temperature in the low 70s, rain still dripping from tree leaves, a lizard lays splayed out, soaking up every iota of warm comfort from the patch of sun-drenched concrete. I know how he feels. My habit, when I get this way, is to work through the mood. But in the last few years I’ve learned to slow d...
With wildfires, earthquakes, drought, grizzly bears invading the prairie and our descent into the heart of bug season, Pamville News brings its readership news and commentary on what’s happening in the man vs. nature struggle across the country. • KHQ News in King County, Washington, reported Tuesday that a GMC Envoy died in a fire after a 14-year-old took his parents’ SUV and a few friends on a joy ride to buy fireworks earlier that morning. Officers reported that the boys...
“I love my night life.” “You don’t have a night life,” my cousin Nancie, in Mexico for a three-week vacation in her house across the road from mine, countered. “You’re in bed when the sun goes down. What do you mean, night life?” “My dreams. I dream marvelous stories. I usually wake up feeling happy and full of energy. Most of the time I don’t remember my dreams once I’m out of bed. Most of my dreams are like playing solitaire with a pinochle deck, but, lately, I feel that i...
Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Zinke offered welcome news to Montanans and all Americans when he announced he would recommend to keep the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument intact as is, an iconic landscape critical to fish and game and cherished by hunters, anglers and others. The importance of America’s public lands, including our national monuments, to our fish and wildlife populations, economic health and hunting and fishing traditions cannot be overstated. The secretary’s willingness to listen to a majo...
Rodeos, barbeques, fireworks, parades — these are what often come to mind when we celebrate the Fourth of July in Montana. In fact, these activities have always come to mind when we think about Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. From the very beginning, people understood the significance of what they had just done. John Adams, our would-be second president, wrote to his wife about his vision for future celebrations of this historic occasion: “I am...
Too often, policy debates in Washington, D.C., devolve into partisan fistfights. Each side becomes so focused on landing a punch that they forget why they climbed into the ring in the first place. Just a few years ago, one in five Montanans did not have access to health insurance, and people couldn’t afford to get sick. When we passed health care reform, we took a big step forward, and today, more Montanans have access to health care than ever before. But the current health care system is not perfect, and there are still folk...
Although the most significant contribution to what has kept my husband and I together for the past 200 years (rounded up) is lack of imagination about what else to with ourselves, we have a few other gimmicky tricks, too. One of the biggies is this: Sometimes you have to rise up to the occasion, leave your happy place and do something beyond the normal for your spouse. May all the saints and dragon-slayers help us, but this weekend I have to be the trophy wife. John’s class r...
Obamacare has been burdensome for small business. This week, the Senate has a chance to do something about it. Year after year, when the National Federation of Independent Business surveys its members, they say their No. 1 priority is healthcare, but the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, has made things more difficult for them. Its onerous taxes and mandates have increased costs and reduced choices. Repealing Obamacare shouldn’t be a partisan issue. The law has failed in its central promise, which is to make h...
After more than a year of effort, comments from people in nearly every county in Montana and careful evaluation of Montana’s transportation needs and priorities, we are ready to publish our draft long-range transportation plan update, TranPlanMT. The update process for this 20-year policy plan provides MDT the opportunity to assess Montana’s transportation system and effectively plan for our transportation future. We’ve identified goals and strategies to address trends, issues, needs, priorities and funding sources and outli...
For the past three weeks it has, indeed, been greener on the far side of the hills surrounding our parched valley. Rains come in June, the local people tell me. And the rains surrounded us, in Ahualulco, San Marcos, Magdalena, Ameca. We in Etzatlan sat high and dry. Our last rain fell in October. Every day I scoop sand dunes off my floors. I worry. Is this a drought? June is nearly done and gone. What will we do for water? I grew up worrying about weather. I learned from my...
On Wednesday, June 28, I will host my 17th Telephone Townhall to get your input on the health care draft proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare. The draft bill was released on Thursday, June 22, and I immediately posted the text on my website for all Montanans to read. I am digging into this legislation myself and look forward to hearing the thoughts of Montanans as we consider this important issue together. While there is an effort to move legislation out of the Senate next week, I’ve been urging my colleagues to get t...
Senate Republicans have crafted a plan that will unhinge our nation’s health care system and leave Montana families and the people who care for them scrambling to pick up the pieces. To make matters worse, they’ll vote on the bill next week without public input. This commitment to secrecy is more than concerning. It has clouded what should have been a transparent and collaborative process of strengthening America’s health. And it has set an unnerving tone for future congressional action. GOP leaders rejected the House plan...
Which city, not which town, in Montana can afford to lose its health insurance coverage? In an editorial in March of this year, I encouraged Montanans to act your conscience and contact your legislators. I urged action after consideration of how many of our fellow Montanans would lose health insurance if the Affordable Care Act were repealed without certain considerations. We are talking numbers that parallel whole cities, not towns. So, as things stand, would the loss be as large as Helena, or Missoula, or as large as...
In the last few months there have been several emotional editorials concerning the Montana State Lighted Airway Beacon System. Unfortunately, the reality of the facts seems to have gotten lost in the emotional clutter. I am sure that almost everyone will agree that the very first responsibility of government is public safety. Whether it’s the federal government, the state government or the municipal government, public safety and protection is their first priority. In 2017, there has been considerable controversy over w...
A modern expression warns that “a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.” I like that and the format applies to many of our specialty splurges. A monster truck is a hole in the mud you throw money into. See what I did there? A craft room full of fabric is a hole in a quilt you sew money into. There I added a new twist. But truth is truth and found even in my own hobby. A horse is a hole in a corral you throw money into. But this is not the whole truth. Not for...
Well, why not? Back in the day, I devoured self-help books. Back in the early 1980s when my life was shattered like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces, in an attempt to put myself back together, I read a raft of self-help, pop-psychology, pull-yourself-up-by-bootstraps, think-your-way-to-success type fluff-and-stuff. I’d finish one, find another, thinking each would have the solution for me. I soon had accumulated an entire bookcase filled with sugar pills, innocuous c...
Recently, the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act. This bill would give billions to big drug and insurance companies while dramatically increasing costs for Montanans over age 50 and those with pre-existing conditions. Under the AHCA, insurance companies can charge older adults five times what other consumers pay for the same health insurance policy. The bill also lets Montana lawmakers get a waiver that would give insurance companies the power to charge older adults even more. The legislation would...
As the Board of the Montana Library Association, it is our responsibility to open a dialogue about the 2017 executive and legislative cuts to state agencies including the Montana State Library. We must also speak out about House Bill 261 reductions to the state’s public libraries, and the real impact to the people in our state and, more specifically, the library patrons in Montana. Libraries are an essential service, an anchor institution in each city with a public library, no matter the size of the town and regardless of t...
In our work with the Montana Food Bank Network, we have the privilege of working with nearly 150 food pantries and other partner agencies throughout the state. We see firsthand the important role that donated food plays in keeping tens of thousands of Montanans from going hungry. We are constantly reminded how important a can of soup, a carton of milk, or a box of cereal can be to those who have fallen on hard times. We are humbled by the important work done every day by our network of partners. However, we also understand...
