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News you can use
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"This is my new horse Taz," says I. "What kind of a name is Taz?" says John. "I dunno," says I. "It's just the one he came with." "I don't like it," says John. "It's just a name," says I. "Sounds like Tasmanian Devil. Doesn't bode well for the future," says John. "Well, maybe he's a Tasmanian Angel," says I. "Ha, ha, haw!" says John, as he ends up getting the last laugh after all. The list of this horse's apparently uncontrollable quirks is long - from his joy of packing...
I perch on that edge, jump back and forth across the line, ignore it, bow to it. Some days I refuse to recognize possibility, let inertia carry me like a raft on the Pacific tides, beyond sight of land. Last night I could not sleep. Instead of counting sheep or getting out of bed for a glass of warm milk and a game of solitaire or even arguing with a Higher Power which I could not describe coherently if my life depended on it, and it does, I borrowed a long-time friend’s m...
Finland’s Reindeer Herder’s Association is trying something new this year to help save reindeer lives: glow in the dark reindeer. The story was originally reported Monday by Finnish national broadcaster YLE, but the title read “Poroille tarkoitetun heijastinsprayn tehtävänä estää liikenneonnettomuuksia,” so we hear straight from BBC.co.uk translators Tuesday that “Reflective reindeer antlers aim to stop accidents.” Apparently, as many as 4,000 reindeer are killed in traffi...
The Association of Montana Retired Public Employees is standing up to protect the legal rights and pension benefits of thousands of state and local government retirees The association is not a group of highly paid members with a big support staff. Just the opposite. The organization’s leaders are volunteers donating their time because they care about retirement issues affecting all Montana public employees. They care about government not reneging on its promise to those workers. And they have been very busy. The 2013 L...
Some day, generations down the road, people will be mining the area where the landfill east of Havre is now located, Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent believes. They will be looking for things of value — the cans, bottles, plastics — that we now bury at the landfill. So Vincent, who supervises the landfill for the Unified Disposal District, has an idea. Why don’t we mine those materials today? We should make sure they don’t end up at the landfill. Instead, we should recycle the plastics, glass and other materials that no...
I am tired of the gradual short-changing of America. Yes, yes, of course, we’ve heard it all before about how everybody wants a job, a job that pays a decent wage, and everybody who’s anybody knows that the only way that’s going to happen is for the wealthiest of the wealthy and those rotten over-paid CEOs to share the wealth, but I think that’s a little shortsighted. Yes, folks, get those jobs lined out, and the ultrahigh-minimum wage paychecks, too, but make those corporate...
Parvovirus is one of the top infectious killers of puppies and young dogs. It can be prevented with proper care and vaccination. The staff at Bear Paw Veterinary Service would like to help the public to understand and prevent this disease. Parvovirus is spread through contact with the feces and vomitus of infected animals. Parvovirus is very resilient and can live several months in the environment. About the only things that can kill this virus in the environment are sunshine and bleach. Dogs infected with parvovirus will...
Living several years in Montana, known as “Next Year Country” because of vagaries of climate and other erratic conditions, was good transitional training for relocating to Mexico, “Mañana Country”. Consider mail delivery. Anyone in a small town on the north-central Montana plains will tell you that a letter from either coast takes four days to arrive. Overnight or express delivery also takes four days. That’s just the way it is. One learns to shrug and compensate. Last week, I...
Several years ago, a colleague showed up to work limping. After I asked him about it, he revealed that he’d gotten kicked by a horse, each hind hoof connecting with a corresponding buttock, sending him flying headfirst into a snow drift. It’s worth taking a moment to picture that, a mental image that is equal parts horrifying, rich with sympathy pains and hilarious. OK, mostly hilarious. (That is the sort of thing that happens to Yosemite Sam and Wile E. Coyote all the tim...
Our sidewalks are not being cleared of snow to universal approval. Havre’s current ordinance calls for homeowners to clear the sidewalks on their property within 24 hours. Why are the property owners being asked to maintain a public walkway? Are they asked to clear the streets in front of their houses and businesses as well? The answer is, obviously, “No.” This expectation of the citizens to take responsibility for shoveling sidewalks is downright dangerous because it lessens our dependence on government services. Furth...
The one thing that the producer/directors of the new film "Winter in the Blood" capture in a remarkable way is the stunningly spectacular scenery of the mountains, plains and riverbottoms of north-central Montana. Alex and Andrew Smith, the movie-makers from Missoula who were inspired to make a movie of James Welch's first major novel, lay out the striking region of the Hi-Line in a way that has never been seen in film before. But not only is the natural scenery of the region captured very well in the film but also we get a...
Those familiar dangers we learn from childhood on are such a part of our consciousness that they carry instinctual wisdom and warnings that become second nature. Growing up in the Milk River Valley and the foothills and plains beyond, we know to stay away from the river in flood, stay out of the pasture with the mean bull and don’t pick up a baby rattlesnake, cute or not. Such wisdom even tells us if the rattlesnake has just had its head chopped off, leave it for a while. Refl...
“Winter in the Blood” is finally showing in Hi-Line theaters after gracing cinemas in Missoula, Minneapolis and London, as well as various film festivals. The film follows Virgil First Raise, played by Chaske Spencer, and his inner turmoil as he drowns in a dream-world of liquor caught in between two worlds, neither of which he feels he belongs in. First Raise struggles with finding a cultural identity after he is told he is a “half-breed,” and begins experiencing disconnect at both his family’s ranch and the towns he freque...
The recent ruling by the Montana Supreme Court upholding our state’s stream access law and the ability of everyone to get to streams from county roads is a victory of all Montanans and all who enjoy our public waters. It also illustrates the stark difference of views about who should get to enjoy public land and water. The case, Public Access v. Madison County, challenged a landowner’s ability to block off access to the Ruby River at three bridges used by the public for decades. James Cox Kennedy, a Ruby Valley landowner and...
All of us see the world through the prism of our own experience. As I look back through that prism, I can still see, hanging on my parents’ hallway wall, three pictures — Jesus Christ, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers Union. These men, these giants, informed my family’s political and life perspective, and mine as well. The values of those three giants led me to a life of political and community activity based upon a belief that the backbone of America is the people — the wor...
I hate to sound all hard-core, fundamentalist, evangelical religious, but it just may be true that music is the instrument of the devil. And if that’s the case, the music website Pandora.com is the devil’s stomping grounds, and the earworm — aka the song stuck in your head — is his irritating little minion. For someone like me who really enjoys music but is not an avid-enough lover of music to keep up on new artists and to actually spend money to buy music, Pandora is an amazi...
Spring lurks around the corner patiently waiting to burst forth into kaleidoscopic glory. Down here in Mexico, while daily temperatures peak in the perfection of the lower 80s and bougainvillea, weighty with color, drape over every upright structure, who can tell from spring! Not much to go by but a calendar. If one has a calendar. When the New Year approached I could not find a new calendar. I’m an old hand at making do. My much-scribbled 2013 calendar is filling the gap. F...
Indian Trail, N.C.: the final town council frontier. This was the last general meeting of council member David Waddell. His four year mission: to explore strange new conservative practices, to seek out new funding and new budgets. to boldly cut where no council member had cut budgets before. I’ve heard of LARPing — live action role playing where geeks dress as other-worldly fantasy/action game characters and act out their game moves. I’ve read about how avid fans of scien...
The Montana Supreme Court recent ruling on an important stream access case represents an alarming expansion of access law at the detriment of property rights. But despite headlines announcing a win for stream access, the court all but ignored the 1,000 pound gorilla in the case: whether Montana’s stream access law is constitutional. Ultimately, if the appellants are successful in appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case may yet prove to restore the property rights that were taken from Montana landowners 30 years ago. T...
Last weekend, members and friends of the Chippewa Cree Tribe gathered at Montana State University-Northern for a winter powwow celebration. Right in the center of the activities was Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont. He took part in the entrance dance when hundreds of Native American in Indian attire entered the gym. It’s not that unusual that politicians take part in powwow celebrations, but it is a might unusual to see Republicans take part. Of course, Daines’ appearance was labeled as a fact-finding effort and had nothing to do...
If any had asked me, I would have told them that I would likely live into my late 80s or early 90s. I have longevity on my mother’s side, after all: most of her brothers and sisters and mother lived into their 80s. My father’s side? Not as good, but his mom lived into her 80s. If anyone had asked me. No one did, but I thought about it now and then. When I heard of someone with cancer or attended a funeral of a friend or acquaintance, I wondered how I would end, and more importantly, how I would handle the inevitable, eit...
We can all rest easy, now. The latest reports from the those in the know, say that 2014 will most likely be a better year for the porn industry. Oh, yeah, NBCNews.com had a whole write up on it Tuesday in its business section, so it’s legit. Very legit, according to one source who said that porn is a $97 billion industry globally and $10 to $12 billion of that is generated in the U.S. alone. Who knew? It seems like a wildly outrageous number, but I’m inclined to believe it...
Chip away the ice, pull on a pair of shorts, T-shirt, flip flops, sun block, a hat and come with me on a mini-tour of my immediate neighborhood. I’m only a block from the beach, so you might like to go sunbathe after our walk. I thought you might enjoy a respite from Montana chill. A half block out my door and we are on Cameron Sabala, the main drag in the tourist sector of Mazatlan. Unlike getting a bus out of town, getting a bus in town is easy and costs pennies. There is a...
Thanksgiving is long over, but I’ve been trying to keep that spirit of giving thanks alive throughout the year — which is all heartwarmingly fine and furry until you get the flu and then your husband doubles down on that illness action, too. My challenge, since succumbing last weekend to fever and chills and coughing and a general malaise which has inspired up to 22 hours a day of sleeping, is to find 10 things about this bout of flu for which I am thankful. 1) It’s not intest...
In 2008 when I accepted a tenure-track teaching position at Montana State University-Northern, I felt extraordinarily fortunate to land a job that allows me to do the things I enjoy and work on things that interest me. And, as a native of Montana, I was thrilled to be working in Montana after several years of being away. One of my favorite courses to teach is applied business leadership, with topics around the importance of vision. Manning and Curtis (2013), in “The Art of Leadership” presented “10 qualities that mark a lea...
