News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 3132 - 3156 of 3210
I recently saw a catalog advertising rope-style horse halters made from glow-in-the-dark rope. No kidding. According to the ad, the rope is white in the daylight, then glows bright fluorescent green in the dark. Having owned more than my fair share of dark brown horses, I can see the appeal. Horses can't contain themselves in the daylight — they have to run away from you just to hear you cuss, or run to you to frisk you for treats (or possible treats, or the essence of the s...
The administration of Barack Obama has received a considerable amount of attention over health care mandates, EPA rules and other policies which will cost some people their jobs and many more people higher medical and electric bills. Another harmful administration policy — the destruction of Universal Service funding and Intercarrier Compensation, which helps pay for telephone, Internet and wireless service in rural America — has not received the attention it deserves. Thi...
As I walked into city hall for a Monday night council meeting, Richard, our public works director, said to me, "Did you know you are tied with Reece for first place in the football pool this week? Who wins depends on the final score of the Green Bay game tonight." This news excited me. Week after week, I had come close, tied for second place with two or three other people. Tied for second is meaningless. As Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."...
If you are enjoying your life as normal today, don't look up — maybe skip going outside altogether and just hole up in a basement — because Chicken Little was right about the sky. OK, technically the sky itself isn't falling, but I'm sure you'll find no comfort in knowing that it's a dead NASA satellite the size of a school bus that's tumbling down from space. Being dead and all, the satellite is sinking from orbit into Earth's atmosphere where it is expected to break int...
My appointment was for 1 o'clock. As I walked over to Marcia's for a haircut, I knew I would be a few minutes early. But I also knew if I stayed home I would dig into another phase of my current project, forget the time, and be late. It suited me to while away a few moments in somebody else's space. I let myself in Marcia's shop door and wandered to the window to admire the new patio her husband had recently built. I sat down and picked up the top magazine from the stack on...
In November's elections, the national media gave extensive coverage to a proposed "personhood amendment" to Mississippi's state constitution. This extremist, anti-choice ballot initiative declared that a person's life begins not at birth, but at the very instant that a sperm meets the egg. Jim Hightower However, extending full personhood to two-cell zygotes was too far out even for many of Mississippi's anti-choice voters, so the proposition was voted down. Meanwhile, the national media paid no attention to another...
I am a single woman. I live alone. Ordinarily, I don't give my situation much thought. I am reasonably happy in my solitude. Oh, there are times I would love to turn from the doorway where I am admiring a particularly spectacular sunset and say to my partner, "Oh, come look." I miss sharing the simple pleasures of the day. Sondra Ashton At other times I wonder about my single state. I am an intelligent, gentle and good person. I am neither cross-eyed nor pigeon-toed. From time to time I do notice a glint of interest in a...
Montanans should all be gravely concerned by the most recent actions of Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg to undermine worker rights, job training and higher education in America. It is a well-known fact that America's working people have never been more under siege. Unemployment rates continue to be at historic highs. Wages and benefits have stagnated to a point that America's middle class is evaporating. Relative to their peers in the 1950s to the 1970s, today's middle class is almost unrecognizable. Relative wage earnings...
Modern, sleek, stylish, cordless telephones and cellphones are a huge disappointment. Not that I want to go back to the old wooden box mounted on the wall that you "dialed" by ringing up the operator who connected you to the party to whom you were calling. That wasn't very handy, besides those were all party lines and that's all I need is everybody in the neighborhood listening in on my juicy conversations, confirming their every suspicion that I am both dorky and vapid. Pam...
Last week, I cast a vote in the Senate that was praised by some and criticized by others. I voted against the American Jobs Act after considerable discussion, research and listening to many folks. I stand by my vote, and I want to share my reasons directly with you. First, we can't forget our own history. A few generations ago this nation made an incredible investment in infrastructure, and the jobs it created helped lead us out of the Great Depression. President Roosevelt's vision was to create a stronger and more productive...
Here on the northern border of the heartland, it's hard to imagine having a U.S. congressman embroiled in a Weiner-esque social media scandal. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who just announced his resignation, started the month claiming that he can't say "with certitude" whether or not a lewd below-the-belt photograph, viewed now by millions on the Internet, depicted his underwear-clad erector set. He did know for certain that he didn't tweet the picture to a 21-year-old female...
In an old vaudeville country rube routine the straight man says, "Think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?" The top banana replies, "Not if it's in cans!" Now, doesn't that make you want to slap your knees and hoot and howl. On the east side of my garden cabin, between the raspberries and the neighbor's caragana shrubs, my dad planted rhubarb. Those who grow rhubarb know that for the average family, one plant will provide all the rhubarb one healthy family can be forced to...
The average adult takes 15 to 20 breaths a minute — more than 20,000 per day, according to the American Lung Association. Healthy lungs are important to deliver clean air to our bodies' organs and tissues, which convert oxygen into fuel to support vital body functions. When a smoker lights up, it affects not only the health of the lungs, but also the body structures that depend on the lungs for oxygen. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death, claiming the lives of more than 440,000 adults in America e...
As a warden for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, my dad had to live trap at least one nuisance bear every summer. Due to the nature of the issue, the traps had to be set where humans congregate, and this revealed another problem: Humans can be just as big a nuisance as the animals. FWP's bear live-trap was mounted on a trailer for easy hauling and made from an 8-foot length of 4-foot culvert with heavy-gauge grates covering each end. One grate was a trap door that was slid...
"It is most logical," I said out loud to myself while snipping the recipe for Kentucky jam cake from the Havre Daily News. You have to understand that I never clip recipes from newspapers or magazines. I have a few treasured cookbooks; some of which I seldom open, some with pages so spattered with batter or stained with vanilla that one can hardly read the directions. No matter, I hardly ever follow the directions anyway. I regard a recipe as a guide. The genius of the dish is...
Hugo Tureck In order to protect us from ourselves, some politicians have mastered the use of fear tactics. For example, several weeks ago, Rep. Denny Rehberg released the following statement: "Until Congress acts, Montanans will continue to be at risk of unilateral designations for new National Monuments without any public input or feedback." While his comment is probably intended to incite his base of support, it is not honest. Rehberg knows that we Montanans were told by the Secretary of the Interior more than six months...
Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day. Since 1988 this date has been observed nationally and internationally to promote awareness of the issues and rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, or commonly LGBT. Before scoffing or harrumphing, ask yourself if you really do understand what it means to be gay. What if your child or grandchild is the next to come out as gay? Will you be part of the solution or ... ? You know how that adage ends. Do you remember these names: Asher Brown, Texas; Billy Lucas, Indiana;...
Is it just me or do people in the "Occupy" movement seem mostly interested in occupying their time? They'd be better off trying to occupy that vast empty space between their ears; but why bother when someone will give you a slogan and armband for free. The whole thing is starting to look like an amateurish knockoff of European austerity protests. Now those people know how to riot. Carl Graham In the beginning it included Ron Paul conservatives with "End the Fed" signs and a lot of ordinary people with legitimate gripes about...
Veterans Day is this week, a time when we reflect on the greatness of our nation and the freedoms we all enjoy. As active and retired federal employees, we thank those in the military for the sacrifices they've made. We, too, are proud of our nation and of our service to it. Each day in communities across Montana and the nation, federal employees go to work serving the public, making sure mail is delivered, food is safe to eat and planes travel safely through our skies. We also work to stop the spread of deadly diseases,...
Ockham's razor, also called the principle of parsimony, is a theory that basically says: All things being equal, go with the simplest answer. Even though both names are a bit of a mouthful, sometimes it's easier said than actually done. I'm loaning my horse trailer to some friends for the weekend, and I wanted to let them know the size of trailer towing ball that my fifth-wheel hitch requires. No problem, right. The size is stamped into every towing ball ever made in the...
Back in high school, many a year ago, I took an aptitude test. I scored off the chart in mechanical ability. That made no sense to me. I could change a tire if I had to, but I wouldn't have known how to change a spark plug or identify a distributor. Four years later, when I lived on a ranch south of Dodson, we had electricity but none of the other niceties. No running water. No bathroom. No bathtub. I did have a precious electric wringer-washing machine. It sat in a corner of...
The latest developments in the Solyndra scandal are troubling. The government asked the company to delay its layoff announcement until Nov. 3, 2010 — one day after the 2010 elections. A Department of Energy political appointee was closely involved in promoting approval of Solyndra's government loans, and happened to be married to an attorney whose firm represented Solyndra. And these stories of corruption are headlines only because the Department of Energy approved changes to the government loan agreement that left taxpayers...
When you're young and really old people, like your parents, tell you "It's the simple things in life that bring you the most joy," you are positive they're full of something you'd get your mouth washed out for saying. Because everything is complicated when you're a kid. Even tying your shoes. Then one day you begin to suspect that the simple thing they're talking about is you, and it makes you a little resentful even though you're too young to spell the word, but still, you sw...
Here are two universal truths about horses: 1) horses locked in a pen want out, and 2) horses are born with a sixth sense about open gates. The only active thought, aside from "where's my food," that horses locked in a pen will obsess over is: "How do I get outta this joint." Pam Burke They push on rails, stretch wires and chew through boards to create some kind of gap in the fencing that will allow escape. They are, also, not beyond simply jumping out, using brute destruction of the facility, attempting to push past a gate...
As the first decade of the 21st century closes, our great nation is challenged in many ways. We are experiencing a huge national debt, state governments across the land are on the brink, high unemployment is rampant, our roads and bridges are crumbling, our overall infrastructure is degrading; and we have an education system that is in decline. The political morass in Washington and across the country is incapable of offering solutions. What's worse is that there is a widespread feeling of hopelessness and lack of direction i...
