News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 3071 - 3095 of 3214
I wish I were one of those people who is totally self-assured — you know, the kind who never starts a sentence with "I wish." They always think in absolutes and speak in declarative sentences that start with phrases like "I will" and "This is." They say "I am the answer to all the questions worth asking." Usually not out loud, of course, except maybe into the mirror in the morning. Pam Burke "Would you ... ?" "Could you ... ?" "Should you ... ?" do not enter into their c...
Last week, 24 U.S. senators, including Montana's Tester and Baucus, sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the members to take "the necessary actions to protect consumers and ensure that the widespread and frequent occurrence of undelivered calls to rural areas is addressed." Rural telecom networks, which consistently provide superior voice and data services to their customers, are getting blamed for the failure of telephone calls to reach their customers. In fact, the calls are blocked "upstream;"...
Few things are more important to a community than well-run and locally controlled schools. Virtually all school districts, along with teachers, parents, and community leaders, strive to provide the education and training our children deserve with less money than in times past. While local communities band together, however, State Superintendent Denise Juneau and the Office of Public Instruction have proven themselves to be unreliable partners. Sandy Welch Building a new school is no small decision. Responsible and engaged com...
Pam Burke As strange at it may seem to read about me, I had an interesting conversation with a health professional about fitness a while back — of course, it wasn't like I was setting up an exercise regimen or something crazy like that, so no worries. We were actually talking about motivation, and the pro told me about adopting the inspiring motto of a competitor he'd met; she'd had it tattooed on her arm: "Never Weaken." "I've been doing more cardio," he said, "and when I'm ready to quit, but know I need to go a few more m...
A century ago this year, the people of Montana stood up against some of the most influential corporations in history with a powerful message: People and their ideas — not corporations and their money — decide our elections. Sen. Jon Tester At the turn of the century, wealthy mining magnates literally bought elections, power and influence in Washington, D.C. So in 1912, Montana voters passed an initiative limiting corporate influence on our elections. That's because ensuring that citizens are in control of America's dem...
Childhood hunger is an invisible but very real problem not only in Montana, but in every state. More than 16 million children in the U.S., including more than 48,000 in Montana, can't count on the nutritious meals they need to lead healthy, active lives. When children go hungry, they often suffer from a series of health and educational setbacks. Studies show that kids who face hunger are sick more often, are more likely to be hospitalized and suffer from growth and developmental impairment. They also do more poorly in school...
My cousin Shirley and I motored to Havre for a nice meal and to take in the Montana Actors' Theatre's latest production. Shirley had a bit of shopping to do, so we left early, adding a splash of minutes for the unexpected. My theory is that when you allow for the unexpected, the unexpected is what you will get. In the best western tradition, we headed off into the sunset, which glared in our eyeballs all the way to Havre. Although we both were hungry, we decided to take care...
Montanans are not shy about saying what we mean and spelling out common-sense solutions to the challenges of the day. Angel McLean As an educator and volunteer regent of higher education, I enjoy hearing what people think the Montana University System should deliver to Montana citizens and our 48,000 students. We value the public input we receive as it is wise, candid, and refreshing. As a state, our wants for higher education are quite consistent and logical. We want access to affordable education for ourselves and our...
Two weeks ago I received that call that everyone who is me dreads — "Hi, honey, your dad and I will be there to visit over the holiday weekend" — the call to emergency action of the dusting, vacuuming and sterilizing kind. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my parents and have been wanting them to visit for quite a while, but honestly, how foolish can they be to come stay with me before spring-cleaning season? Pam Burke I thought I raised my parents to make healthier cho...
After living 25 years in Washington, after moving back home to Montana, I found myself unpacking boxes of socks. I stuffed, crammed and shoved socks into four large dresser drawers. Dress socks, floral socks, striped socks, plain socks. Cotton socks, woolen socks, rayon socks, flocked socks. Theme socks, purple socks, white socks, colored socks. Boot socks, sports socks, fuzzy socks, fussy socks. Thick socks, thin socks, long socks, short socks. I realized I might have a...
A recent rant submitted by Gary Marbut of Montana Shooting Sports Association is so void of fact that it requires rebuttal. If left unchallenged, stories can be accepted as the truth, so I provide some facts to balance his attack on common sense. His claim of Fish, Wildlife and Parks' "shocking tolerance and support for large predators," stems from a federal reintroduction of gray wolves and federal courts treating wildlife management as abstract legal theory rather than science. Fact is there was nothing FWP could do to chan...
The U.S. Congress is reconvening after a long holiday recess. Its approval rating has hit an all-time low of just 11 percent. Our representatives could not even agree on a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension prior to the holidays, so they kicked the can down the road with a very short term extension that got them home for the Holidays and delayed facing the music into the new session. Both political parties are sticking to their ideological philosophies like sand dabber crabs stuck...
We hear about transparency frequently. It's become a buzz word used by politicians, and especially by their critics, so frequently that it seems too often to have lost its meaning. Everyone wants transparency, but we've learned that achieving it is rare. I am among the fortunate few to be employed by the government to promote open government. The New York Committee on Open Government was created in 1974 (when I was loaned, temporarily, to get this new office off the ground) as part of the state's Freedom of Information Law,...
One year ago, on May 6, 2011, Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed House Bill 106 into law. That law authorized a new program — the 24/7 Sobriety Program — and heralded a new attitude toward repeat drunk drivers in Montana. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Steve Lavin, R-Kalispell, a Highway Patrol sergeant who had recently lost two colleagues to drunken drivers. Under the 24/7 Sobriety Program, anyone arrested for a second or subsequent DUI is required to submit to a breath test, twice a day, every day — paid for by the offen...
Every day more than 20,000 older Montanans face the risk of hunger. They're our friends, our neighbors and our family, and they don't want to be a burden, so they suffer in silence. That's why AARP Montana has teamed up with the National Association of Letter Carriers to fight hunger in local communities throughout the state. What can you do in a single day to help us fight hunger in Montana? On Saturday, there's an easy answer: Donate nonperishable food products to Stamp Out Hunger, the nation's largest one-day food drive....
Editor: Mother Nature really didn't cooperate with our first Havre Pride cleanup on April 28. And, she came back the next weekend with a not so nice day to clean up Havre. In spite of the weather, though, we had folks out on both weekends, and to them a big thank-you. The many partnerships that have been developed recently to make the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce's Havre Pride community cleanup an even bigger event have been great. Thank you to all the partners: - Opportunity Link Inc. - Energy Corp. - Recycle Hi-Line -...
Most of us grew up with every adult in our lives telling us to "make smart choices" — sometimes that came out as "don't be stupid," but we knew what they meant. Last week, Montana's Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull did not make a smart choice when he passed along a now infamous, anti-Obama, pro-racism joke from his official email account to six of his friends. That incriminating email made its way to the newspapers, and now there's a great hue and cry from the p...
From a diatribe of mine a few weeks ago, some readers may have gotten the impression that I have disdain for media companies, copyrights and associated law. But that's not it. I respect those companies a lot. They create opportunities for creative people to share their vision. They are culture creators. Zach White It is because of these companies and their products that the entire world shares a base of knowledge that allows us to relate, reaching beyond ethnic or national boundaries, with iconic characters, images or stories...
I am planning a train trip to North Dakota and — as hard as it is for me to contemplate going to an exotic foreign country without my husband, my dog and that herd of four-legged free-loaders — it's the thought of traveling by public transportation that is really disturbing me. You've read the headlines. You know what happens when a bunch of strangers are crammed together in a vehicle of mass conveyance. Mental switches that are better left in their upright and locked pos...
The Keystone XL Pipeline project jumped through every hurdle that the government could throw at it. It went through extensive environmental assessments and grueling public hearings in every state through which it would pass, yet in the end it seems that no amount of effort would have been good enough. The Obama administration has taken a pass on Keystone XL, and Montana stands to be one of the big losers. A stunning disappointment One of the reasons that the White House rejected Keystone XL was because it was not considered...
Grandparents Paul and Belinda Berloni were arrested Sunday by Sarasota County Florida sheriff's deputies for driving their SUV down a public access road while drunk ... and towing their 7-year-old granddaughter in her toy plastic car. A good time was being had by all, reports NBCMiami.com, with drunken Paul driving the SUV, drunken Belinda in the SUV's cargo area shouting encouragement through the open hatch and the presumably sober little girl wheeling along in the toy car....
NEWS FLASH: Japanese researchers discover "diet-glasses!" Island nation sinks under piles of uneaten "raw squid, wrapped in beef entrails" sushi. Researchers, who graduated at the bottom of their class, are experimenting with food bloating spectacles that make rodent hairs in your corndog visible. The revolutionary glasses snap the food's picture and then replay an increased image. Food increases but bodily appendages, like warts, remain the same size tricking your brain into thinking you're either gorging yourself or are...
It really just drives me crazy that I am the only person in the whole world who is defective. All y'all out there in reader-land run around perfectly normal in your perfectly normal lives and you look at me and you judge me by my cover, wrongly assuming everything is perfectly hunky-normal for me, too. But you're wrong and if you weren't so perfectly, normally self-absorbed you'd see that I have issues. Real issues. Pam Burke And don't even think about pulling the "oh how can...
In response to Sen. Jon Tester's guest column on Jan. 26, I would like to offer an alternative thought on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Citizen United. I have heard several Democratic speakers voice their concern over the Citizen United Supreme Court decision and have yet heard or read a rebuttal, so I will attempt to offer up what I believe are credible arguments supporting the Citizen United decision. The statement that Sen. Tester began with, "A century ago ... the people of Montana stood up against some of the most...
As the Pamville News editor I stand four-square in favor of our First Amendment rights to free speech, but I worry that a recent court ruling will leave our country's visual learners at an horrific disadvantage. U. S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled Wednesday that government requirements for tobacco companies to label their products with graphic images — like rotting teeth and cancerous lungs which are intended to illustrate the dangers of smoking — violates free speech law...
