News you can use
News you can use
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As a lifelong sportsman and gun owner, I’m committed to protecting law-abiding Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. And like many Montanans, I know that protecting the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting — it’s about freedom. President Barack Obama started off the new year by unilaterally creating new barriers to purchasing a firearm. His actions are an affront to our Second Amendment rights and a gross abuse of executive power. And like so many times before, Obama has pursued a “go-it-alone” approach on his gun contr...
I have a long and successful track record of failing at productive introspection. My natural philosophy generator has two settings: ultra-pragmatic and ohmigawd(!). It creates two types of responses the “whatever” and “life's too short for (insert curse word of your choice)” kind and the “life is over” and “what ___?!” (as in “what did I do?!” “what just happened?!” “what'd you do?!” and “what the (insert curse word of your choice)?!”) kind of thing. I read something a while...
I thought it wouldn’t matter. Under Arturo’s guidance I had been doing physical therapy twice weekly, for almost six months. I was walking strong and sure. When walking along the street I used my handsome walking stick, which I had purchased many years ago from a S’Klallam gentleman in Port Gamble, for balance. Now comes the really stupid part of my confession. I paid lip service to Arturo in August when he told me I would need to continue my exercises, especially the ones for...
Just like a stopped clock that gets the time correct twice a day, PSC Commissioner Roger Koopman’s critique of my earlier column on the Montana response to the EPA Clean Power Rules had one thing right, I do like hamburgers, preferably made with Montana beef. Otherwise, the representations he makes in his column indicate he didn’t even read my column, much less examine the data available at the Public Service Commission upon which I based my column. Readers can be excused for being confused when a current member and a for...
I'm sure you've all heard the terrible news by now: I did not win the big Powerball jackpot. I know, you wanted it for me as much as I did. Thank you for that, but I'll be OK. Really. I didn't cry myself to sleep that night at all — mostly because I didn't stay up to see the results of the draw. I just wanted one last night of imagining what I'd do with a big jackpot. By the time I went to sleep I had bought a ranch, populated it with rare and expensive horses and hired a ranc...
Laurel: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Havre Public Schools have launched a great program “Hooked On Fishing — Not On Drugs.” Kids from Lincoln-McKinley Primary School were taken ice fishing Tuesday, offering them an introduction to a wholesome sport many may not have had the opportunity to partake in. It opened the door to an important part of Montana culture and, hopefully, it offered them an alternative to drugs. Dart: There is a healthy dose of arrogance going around these days, but Tim Blixseth, the one-time billio...
I can imagine life without my right arm. I experienced that for a few months. I can imagine life without a leg or even two. My experiential months altogether add up to a couple years. I coped. The age of the dreaded cataracts has come upon me. With terror I imagine life without the sight of my eyeballs. Yesterday, after a sleepless night, I met my highly recommended surgeon. He put me at ease. That is good. He said I am not ready yet. Mucho bueno. Maybe six months, maybe a...
When it comes to militia members taking over Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Range, many people are confused by what’s perceived as a random act, or they pass it off as the actions of some renegade kooks. It’s dangerous to minimize events through these lenses. The Oregon Occupiers represent the latest incarnation of county supremacy, a well-established doctrine of right-wing movements. Sometimes county supremacists claim county commissions can exert control over all the land within their boundaries and ignore envir...
Those who view the Environmental Protection Agency as a planet-saving benevolent dictator will apparently go to any lengths to “prove” their point. An astounding article by former Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Greg Jergeson recently asserted that the EPA’s massive new regulations on power plant CO2 emissions won’t increase energy costs to Montana consumers. It makes you wonder what kind of mushrooms he’s been eating on his hamburgers lately. While I appreciate Mr. Jergeson’s past service, his analysis of the Clea...
Oh, woe is me in these dark days. A darkness, black and cold as the long nights of winter has settled into my heart, stolen my life, my livelihood, my reason for Internetting. As if the prospect of waiting nearly five months for my next paid holiday hasn't been weighing heavily enough on my heart, my desire to go on, I now suffer the lack of my dear friend, co-worker and creative companion, Computer. Oh, Computer, my beautiful workhorse, your keys are stilled, your speakers...
While I have great respect for the past, I am not one to yearn for olden days. Not for me the re-enactments of historical events. I’ve no desire to escape today’s trials through romanticizing the past. I’ll happily trade your retro calico bonnets, buffalo robes, corncob pipes and bushy mustaches for my flush toilets, electric lights and a full set of teeth. As the New Year approached, my group of women with whom I graduated high school sent one another wishes. We ignor...
New Year resolutions don’t work. Don’t go there if you are faint of heart or weak of will. I remind myself of that every year and normally don’t flirt with this danger, but this year … yeah, call me crazy, call me bold, call me a fool’s fool, but I’m doing it. I’m not going with anything too weird, like “get organized,” or physically unattainable, like vowing to climb the Matterhorn or anything equally unattainable like running a 1K marathon. The list contains all the basic, b...
Three weeks ago I left the sunny climes of Mexico for the frigid badlands of the Yellowstone River around Glendive, one of the strangest trips I’ve traveled. As the holiday season which ends the Old and precedes the New Year rolls around, I tend to be introspective. Plunked down in the country where my ex-husband lived out the last years of his life, here for his memorial service, made me even more so. Memories surfaced like snippets of film. When a couple have children t...
Yes; I voted for the 2,000-page spending bill which funds the government next year, known as the Omnibus. Yes; my staff and I read it. And yes; it was a difficult vote. I assure you, the easy thing to do in these situations is vote no. It’s easy to vote no. But before judgment is delivered, you deserve to hear the reasoning behind my decision. Several Montana provisions that I’ve fought for in Congress over the past 12 months were included in the bill: LWCF, PILT, lifting the ban on crude oil exports, tax relief, etc. But the...
I received a call late Sunday morning from my daughter Amanda, and the fact she wanted to talk to me before her mother seemed odd. Amanda told me our friend, Larry, had taken his life and after exchanging small talk about how much we would miss him, we talked about our concerns for his family, the son he left behind and how she had lost touch with him in recent months. She finished our conversation with comments about how suicide seems to happen far too often around the holidays. I handed the phone to my wife to discuss...
The day before I left Mexico I bought a poinsettia, my Christmas bush. I expected to celebrate Christmas in Mexico. I certainly never expected to spend this Christmas in Glendive, Montana. I certainly never expected to sleep so many nights at a motel that I began to call it home. But when my daughter called for help, I took the next plane out of Mazatlan. I certainly never expected to shiver and quake with cold several times a day while waiting for my car heater to warm me enough for me to quit huddling into myself. Ah, Monta...
Last week I promised readers a tale of a Christmas miracle to warm the heart and make us all appreciate the joyous possibilities of the season. And, too, I promised the story of an attempted murder, so if we’re going to get from point Ax murder to point Xmas miracle, we better get started. To recap: Older brother and I were not so much good at getting along, a condition which started at my birth and is, let’s say, an ongoing status into the foreseeable future, and beyond, and...
Hang on, this is going to be a two-parter because in order to understand my Christmas, you have to know the background, the dark side of the story. Think about it. If you didn’t know Ebenezer Scrooge’s cold-hearted, skin-flinty past, present and future, you wouldn’t be awed by the miracle of his Christmas generosity. You would think, “Why did that ridiculous old fart wait until Christmas morning to buy his turkey? Procrastinators like that are a pain in the baster.” Then you would go on with your day, never awed, never hav...
California just made history by passing legislation to increase the amount of renewable resources powering that state to 50 percent by 2030. So why is NorthWestern Energy’s CEO Bob Rowe lamenting that America’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan is a “steep cliff?” It requires Montana to reduce CO2 levels from fossil fuel power generation 47 percent by 2030. NorthWestern already produces “nearly 60 percent” of its power from “carbon free” wind and hydroelectric generators. Therefore, it shouldn’t be difficult to reduce the remaining 40...
My daughter made arrangements to fly me to Montana so I could attend a family funeral last week. The previous week Dee Dee had undergone total knee replacement (it seems to run in the family). So blame the medications. Four airplanes? Count them. Mazatlan to Mexico City. Mexico City to Houston. Houston to Denver. Denver to Billings. Under the best of circumstances modern air travel is no fun. A straitjacket might be more comfortable than the crowded airplane seats which effectively immobilize one, but I’ve yet to try one. N...
To know me is to know that I have a contrariness to my nature. For better or worse. From birth till in death do I part. Some piece of me will yin to another’s yang, will yes because there was a no, will advocate the devil’s side. Yes, it will even prompt me to speak nice of my old nemesis, winter. I know that sounds like crazy talk from me, the person who once said that winter is a boil on the backside of existence. But I can assure you that, yes, I said nice things, genuinely...
This morning I sat waiting in the pulmonia outside the Mercado in Historico Old Town Mazatlan. The streets swarmed with carts, buses, autos, pedestrians and bicycles. I squinched my eyes and reduced the sights to kaleidoscopic colors, brilliant in the sun. I could smell meats on the grills across the street, guavas and oranges from the cart behind me. Shouts of vendors, of laughter, voices conversing in several languages filled my ears. Tears for no reason ran down my cheeks....
Gov. Steve Bullock says he will look favorably on Middle Eastern refugees settling in Montana unless there are concerns about them posing a threat to our safety. Other governors have also made their opinions known regarding Middle Eastern refugees in their states. The reality, though, is that state governors have little actual authority in terms of foreign refugees. This would be true even if the governors were attempting to enforce laws on immigration enacted by their legislatures. We are one nation in terms of foreign...
I would first like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season from the Chamber Board of Directors and the Chamber staff. During this time of year, many people give unselfishly of their time to make the holidays a little more special for all of us. And we are very grateful to their efforts and time. Sometimes thank you just doesn’t seem to be a strong enough expression of one’s gratefulness. As I proceed you will soon see what I mean. It takes many people willing to give unselfishly of their time to make something hap...
This morning a rainbow arched over Bird Island and plunged into the rocks at the southern edge, the most intense rainbow I’ve seen in years. I sat at the window wall in our 21st floor suite at the resort and watched for half an hour; just watched the rainbow. Eventually, the rainbow extended a perfect reflection onto the Pacific mirror, creating a three-quarter circle. Sandra, the current hurricane of our prolific Pacific series, huffed and puffed off the coast earlier this week. We in Mazatlan yawned with complacency. E...
