News you can use
News you can use
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I have a sticker that says “My Happy Place,” and I kept it for a while, wondering where to put it. In the end, I stuck it near my desk so I could see it while I write. I am usually happy when I’m writing. On Monday, however, I was not happy. I had a major technology breakdown, and I had no idea what I had done wrong. As it turned out, I had done nothing wrong (which is rare, when it comes to technology). Microsoft had a failure that lasted for almost two hours. During the t...
Americans have always commonly agreed that taxes are the price of a civilized society. Only relatively recently has the idea that “taxation is theft” been seriously suggested in the public discourse. People who claim not to believe in government use that belief as justification to not pay taxes to support it. While tax protesters make up a small minority, few taxpayers probably see supporting government services as a patriotic duty. Part of the reason for this is that many don’t believe they are getting their money’s worth....
I love living where we have four seasons, even if only two of the four are really likable — and with all due respect to fall, spring is my favorite time of year. If I continue with the ranking system, summer is third, admittedly a distant third, but not just an also-ran. It’s, like, “Thank you for participating in our event. You gave it your all and were a true inspiration to everyone here. Wear this white ribbon with pride.” Summer has some good days, but mostly it’s ju...
Thank you, Ram Dass. I confess, I’ve not read his book of above title. But I understand the concept, some. I do be, and I be where I am planted, and I be where I am right at this moment, glorying in the beauty (even when mixed with pain) I am given, every day. I often say, I am the luckiest woman. However … An unusual thought-want-desire-plan sprang nearly whole into my mind the other night while my eyeballs ran over the first paragraph in a new book I’d just sat down to read....
I like taking photos when I’m out of the country. Photographing things in Mexico is effortless. I’ll never understand the nuances of every festival or ritual, but I can enjoy the pageantry and the color and the incredible effort and artistry that goes in to creating so much beauty. Then I come back up north and look at the mud. It’s a big change. The skies were overcast for the first five days after my return from Mexico. The temperatures were unseasonably low. There was s...
It is hard to describe our last two days of the 68th Legislative session before we closed session last Tuesday. It was a whirlwind with many bills going to conference committees with last-minute alterations. In the end, HB 2 and a couple other bills that set up a balanced budget were passed. A motion was made by the Senate to close the session, which passed with a vote of 26-24. With that in mind, a number of bills ended up dying on the vine, so to speak. Some of the bills are what are called study resolutions, 34 of which...
The 68th Session of the Montana Legislature is one that every Montanan can be proud of. Voters sent a Republican supermajority to Helena and the first thing we did was return overpaid tax dollars to you as well as providing the largest tax cut in Montana state history. As Republicans, our primary constitutional duty is to pass a balanced state budget. We crafted a conservative budget by keeping state spending below record inflation and population growth while responsibly funding government operations that had been neglected...
As truisms go, it’s not very catchy, and it’s pretty unsavory, but after last week, I can vouch for its truthfulness: The night isn’t really dark until your horse starts vomiting. Since I’ve already given away the gripping plot twist, I might as well tell you — in case you’re too tenderhearted for the suspense — that everyone survived the equine medical emergency. Myself included. Now with the ending out of the way, we can roll back to beginning when I found one of my horses...
I served 26 years in the Montana House of Representatives, initially as a Republican, then as a Democrat, including two terms as majority leader and one term as speaker before I was “termed out” in 2000. My father, the Rev. George Harper, was an Independent Delegate to the 1972 Constitutional Convention, where “power-sharing” by majority Democrats helped unite the delegates in the mission of crafting a modern state Constitution that unshackled Montana from 83 years under the “Copper Collar.” I always advocated for my beliefs,...
Our gardener, Leo, was gone for a week, off to the beaches of Cabo San Lucas with a group of friends. "No worries, Leo. I can water my own plants. I'll do a section every day. Go have fun. All will be well." Easy to say, yes? Harder to live the reality. I figured three sections: front of house, back and sides of house, back yard. One, two, three. Easy, peasy. Plants, however, are not logical. If a plant is gasping, pleading, "Feed me, feed me," what is a woman to do. I...
The TSA agent looked stern — as they usually do. “I’d like to look inside this bag, ma’am,” he said. “No problem!” I always sound a little too eager when being questioned by an authority figure. I’m trying so hard to prove I have nothing to hide that I sound like I must have something to hide. The agent proceeded to open my carry-on bag. “It’s a bowl!” I told him, with a little too much enthusiasm. My husband, Peter, was supposed to have put the bowl in his checked luggage,...
June 12, Montana will be in the national spotlight as the first ever constitutional climate trial — Held v. the State of Montana — takes place in Helena. National attention to our state is increasing, as 16 youth, representing different rural and urban communities in Montana, assert that the government is violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment and their opportunity to seek safety, health, happiness, and equal protection of the law. The case builds on years of legal work culminating in a fed...
When Americans think of Montana, they picture snow-capped peaks, rolling prairies, and rainbow trout darting through the crystal-clear rivers that run through it. Or they simply think of America’s first national park, Yellowstone — or its popular TV namesake. There are also some truths about Montanans: We’re independent-minded, and community-centric. In snowy weather, you’ll never see one car off the road; you’ll always see two, because we stop to help to dig one another out of a ditch. And, in Montana, freedom runs gene...
We Human Beans are strange creatures, are we not? Oh, maybe not you, but me, my hand is raised. My mind works in strange ways. Take yesterday. Yesterday, I seemed determined to feel sorry for myself. Temperatures were flirting with 100 degrees, a mere kiss away, lips smooched into a pucker. It is our hot season. Not unusual for here. April, May, mid-June. Then the blessed, glorious rains and cool perfection at 85. Big deal, right? In July and August in North-central Montana,...
At the point my friend, Kerri, asked me last weekend what I was doing, I was at the tipping point into the realm of too tired to make words happen, so I let my cellphone camera do the talking, snapped a photo and hit send. I’m so modern and tech-savvy. Kerri messaged back: “What am I looking at?” What? Duh. She wanted my tired brain to type words using my overworked and blocky peasant fingers on this cellphone’s teeny tiny screen-typewriter? Sure, my photo wasn’t a professio...
A bill to prohibit critical health care for transgender Montana youth sits on Gov. Gianforte’s desk. His signature will come despite the objections of Montana’s health experts, child advocates, parents and the people who will be directly impacted. The Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization representing pediatric care providers in Montana, has sought to give clear and consistent information on the harmful health impacts of this bill, SB99, on a small but vulnerable group of Montana youth. For...
Earth Day 2023 was April 22 – that date marked 53 years since the first Earth Day in 1970. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event. This led to passage of landmark environmental laws in the United States,...
When we first came to the 68th session in January, the goal was all about removing red tape and clutter from our laws. Having gotten to the final stretch, I can only hope we have removed more clutter than we added. There have been 1,644 bills introduced as of this past week, which is 331 more bills than last session, and short of the record set in the 1973 session (2,211 bills). As some of you may remember, 1972 was when the Montana Constitution was last updated. It was followed by a big rewriting of many outdated laws. At...
I start noticing the planes overhead when it’s nearing the time to go. Planes don’t fly low over this small Mexican city. San Miguel de Allende doesn’t have its own airport, so the few planes flying overhead are high in the sky, headed off to somewhere else. I rarely notice them at all — until it’s time to leave. Now I’m watching them leave a trail in the sky and wondering about the people inside. Are they happy to be going wherever they’re going? Are they sad to be leaving wherever they were? After almost three months...
The Leadership Montana Flagship class will be in Havre this week. This is a class of 40 leaders from across Montana representing business, healthcare, labor, education, non-profits and government coming together to form a strong partnership for the betterment of our state. While here this week, they will learn about Havre and also have an opportunity to explore our community and Rocky Boy through tours and engagement with local leaders. At the center of Leadership Montana’s work is the flagship program, an eight-month e...
1. “The vent pipe is not regarded as lost until you realize it’s lost” — Mehmet Murat Ildan. The vent ducting had to be installed on the range hood before any other major progress could be made on the house project. Of course, this was both simple and problematic. Welcome to my world. We — mostly my husband, John — had gotten to the point that everything was there, in place, ready to go — except one 10-inch piece of vent pipe. So close, but it was gone. Lost? Mistakenly us...
This is the way we wash our clothes, early Monday morning. Mid-cycle, my washing machine quit working. I mean quit. Dead in the water. I mean, dead, full of water and soggy clothes. The machine gave up, quit, somewhere in rinse cycle. So I had to swish and wring the entire soggy mess out by hand and pin everything on the line, slightly drippy. I knew the clothing would dry quickly, afternoons hang out in the high 80s or lower 90s these days. The day the machine quit, my...
It was a couple of weeks ago that the main state budget bill — House Bill 2 — passed the House of Representatives. I voted against it, and I want to be clear about why. HB 2, as it stands now, falls far short of meeting the scale of crises facing northern Montana and most Montanans, for that matter. We came into this session with a $2 billion surplus. We have the funds to pass a budget that will have a meaningful and noticeable difference in the lives of the people in our state. Budgets are about priorities, and, unfortunatel...
I would not have believed there would ever be a drag show on the Capitol Steps of the Montana State Building. Not only that, but most of the participants were also in the gallery of the Senate when we started our floor session. They were more of a peace-loving group than the LGBTQ+ folks who were here last week. I guess I never expected to experience such a display; you had to have been there. It looks like Montana will be the first State to outlaw TikTok. I don’t know much about TikTok, but the word is that the Chinese t...
More than 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day. That’s more than 3.6 million new people learning to navigate Medicare each year. If you were born in 1958, you are joining the over 250,000 individuals in Montana eligible for the government’s health insurance program this year. Here are the key things I recommend you understand before enrolling in Medicare to get the health insurance coverage that best fits your lifestyle. 1. Know your Initial Enrollment Period. If you’re already getting Social Security, you’ll likely automat...
