News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 735 - 759 of 3218
Senators and representative, As we approach Christmas, we have one request to Montana’s federal delegation: please do everything in your power to stop the reckless taxing and spending proposal currently working its way through Congress. The biggest gift Montana could receive from Washington, D.C., this holiday season is a dose of common sense, not more federal taxes and debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said it’s his goal to pass President Biden’s $2 trillion tax and spend bill before Christmas. Meanwhile, inflat...
As tragedy, after strife, after contention, after attack rolls through the news cycle, the one news byte that really hit home is this: North Americans are facing a maple syrup shortage of such dire proportions that Canada has had to tap its national emergency strategic stockpile of maple syrup to get us through these desperate times. I am not joking about this. I have been craving pancakes with maple syrup for more than two weeks now, and the thought of not having maple syrup...
Easy to say. Difficult to pull off. Oh, oh. I see you are giving me the stink eye over my use of “Be lazy.” My friend and I grew up on neighboring farms. Our fairy godmothers waved magic wands at our births and gifted us with the gift of “Busy.” You know, as in “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop and idle hands his tools.” My grandma used to actually say that to me. Frequently. She raised my dad, of course, so I come by some things served up in a double-dip cone. Let me...
My husband, Peter, is a man of few colors: black and gray, to be exact. He has always been this way, as far as I know. Peter is not opposed to color, but I think it makes him a little nervous. He worries that one color might not go with another or that there might be too much color in one place — especially if that one place is on him. So he goes the other route and opts for no color at all — unless you call 50 shades of gray a color, which I don’t. We’ve been remodel...
Editor, I have listened to this question at least twice asked on a show I listen to from someone from the current American right: “Why are you Democrats so obsessed with Donald Trump?” The short answer is in a quote below from the founder of Buddhism: “If a viper lives in your room and you wish to have a peaceful sleep, you must first chase it out.” — Gautama Buddha (possibly 6th to 5th century BCE) Donald Trump was made by the media, and there seems to be a media obsession with him, clearly displayed in the years 2015 to the...
The president officially pardoned the turkey again this year, but really, a is that all about? Isn’t it weird to project a sense of humanity onto the animal we traditionally eat this holiday? Still, year after year, presidents have been issuing official pardons to turkeys that haven’t done a dang thing wrong. Shouldn’t it be called a stay of execution? Even saying they were saved from a lynching would be more accurate than being pardoned. Not only have those turkeys done no wr...
Back in July, I took a big step in my single life. I adopted Lola, a sweet dog, raised by friends who had rescued her mother, abandoned, heavy with pups, from homeless life on the streets of Oconahua, sleeping in doorways, eating garbage. I like animals. I like pets. Dogs. Cats. Pigs. Rats. Yes, rats. When my daughter was 3, I went to buy a guinea pig but the pet store owner talked me into a pair of Chinese hooded rats. Rats make excellent pets, are intelligent, affectionate...
My mother sent a photo of a huge female turkey sitting on her bird feeder. The giant, ungainly creature looked ridiculous, perched on the little wooden roof of a feeder intended for chickadees and nuthatches. “She has been hanging around for two days now,” my mother wrote. “Maybe our Thanksgiving dinner?” Even before my mother sent this, I was thinking Thanksgiving looked a little strange this year. I’ve heard the complaints, year after year, about how we’re rushing the...
Editor, For many years, my family has had farm land under the Glasgow Irrigation District. That is part of the larger Milk River Irrigation System that brings water all across the Hi-Line, over 700 miles from the Mountains to the irrigated acres in Blaine, Hill, Phillips and Valley Counties and to many cities and communities for their drinking water. A structure on that system at St. Mary failed some years back. The Bureau of Reclamation has been working to get it properly repaired. I, and I am sure many others, have signed...
I don’t acknowledge signs, those supposed metaphysical, philosophical and esoteric Signs from the Universe that require interpretation to guide me through life’s journey. Those signs are a hard no from me. Signs from the Universe are pointless for over-thinkers. Let’s say you’re working hard to make a dream come true. Your first break comes along and you garner some success from it, but not without some problems and painful sacrifices. You feel this momentous moment is a si... Full story
For several decades the Milk River Project has been chronically underfunded and in need of essential repairs. Politicians of every stripe have failed to deliver the dollars needed to forge a long-term solution. Until now. Help has finally arrived in the form of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The legislation allocates $100 million for the Milk River Project. It will pour key resources into upgrades, new construction and pipeline replacement. After years of patchwork solutions, this legislation will breathe new life into...
Nobody could have been more surprised than myself at my reaction when, seemingly overnight, 10 snowbird residents from northern climes descended upon us, wings flapping, eager for discourse. During the past two years, our small community, which had become a hermitage in all but name, suddenly reverted to the Rancho with residents in every casa. Me, I was saucer-eyed and hyperventilating, making comfort food (for myself) and hoping everybody would stay away until I had...
I used to have a friend who lived in Paris. Paris is expensive. Angel bought the largest apartment she could afford, and it was tiny. But, because it was in Paris, she had a lot of visitors. Friends and family came to see her and in order to get to her place and back they would take the subway. In the subway are photo booths; they have been there for many years. Angel loved the photo booths, and she would drag every person who visited into one to have their photo taken with...
For as long as I can remember, my brain has been wired to notice those moments in life when two things that are entirely not connected to one another occur at the same time, like when the furnace turns on at the same moment a train whistle blows. Why, with so many elements that govern when a furnace might turn on and when a train whistle might blow and none of the elements having any ties whatsoever, why in all the world would those two things occur at the exact same time?...
Growing up in tiny Harlem, Montana, local shopping — and there was no other kind — consisted of small individual stores for every need. A monthly trip to town and women could stock up on groceries and perhaps check out what’s new at the clothing store. For breakdowns and tractor parts, back in the day, we had a plumber, an electrician, a couple hardware-variety stores, three farm equipment places, two car dealers and an insurance agent. For all things cowboy, we had a saddle s...
I have been studying up on frightening holiday rumors and found some surprises. There is apparently no evidence that any child has ever been poisoned by a Halloween treat. This is according to The New York Times, which investigated it. There was one case of a dentist in California who handed out laxative pills as Halloween candy. That was certainly a terrible thing to do, but not life-threatening. There was a single case of a razor blade found in Halloween candy, but it was la...
Sometimes it feels good to know that in a variety of odd little ways people are doing the best they can with whatever resources they have available. A bus tour business in Hong Kong called ulu travel needed to ramp up income hit hard by lack of tourism. In response the company’s marketing and business development manager, Kenneth Kong capitalized on an idea from a social media post by a friend who said he was stressed out and couldn’t sleep at night, but he could always fal...
Changes happen whether we want them or not, don’t they? It’s just the way it is. This week we in Mexico fell back, time, the clock. Since I’m not tied to a schedule, my body works by the sun. Sunshine, wake up. Sundown, yawn. You’d think the clock change wouldn’t bother me a bit, but it always does, puts me on edge for a few days. I find myself thinking, whether spring or fall, the clock says “seven,” but, the “real” time is “eight.” I was blathering on to my son Ben about i...
November 15th is America Recycles Day; let’s do it properly, America! You think you recycle? Maybe not. Let’s look at a number one reason your recyclables aren’t being recycled. Contamination. Your recyclables must be rinsed out; can’t be dirty- no cigarette butts in your plastic bottles, don’t recycle your spit cans, no diapers and no pizza boxes please! Soiled recyclables are garbage! And…don’t mix your plastics 1 through 7 together unless your recycler has blanket collections. Here’s why you generally don’t mix plast...
I spent yesterday with old friends. It used to be that I would follow the use of “old friends” with the disclaimer that they were “not really old!” This no longer feels necessary. If they are old friends of mine, I now have to say, objectively, they are pretty old. The “occasion” (if you want to call it that) was finally driving my oldest friend, Andrew, to his colonoscopy — which certainly sounds like an old person’s activity. I had been badgering him for months. After h...
I am a 68-year-old retired farmer, fourth generation Montanan and a lifelong avid hunter, angler and conservationist with a degree in wildlife biology and research experience on large predators. I started farming in 1977. Now I own Circle S Ranch in eastern Montana and pay property taxes in five counties. I have always shared the bounty of the ranch with sportsmen and conservationists for free. No one has ever paid a dime for access. My wife and I have been engaged in conservation, habitat improvement, and fish and wildlife...
It is no secret that family farms and ranches face tremendous challenges right now. Corporate monopolies, a changing climate, rising health care costs and a lack of capital are just a few of the obstacles that today’s farmers and ranchers have to navigate to stay on the farm. While the organizations I am proud to be a member of are all focused on the challenges farmers face right now, we also have to keep our eye on emerging perils that could threaten the family farmers of tomorrow. One of these perils is a series of tax p...
The governor’s office called last week and asked if I was interested in visiting a couple of locations in my Senate district. It is hard to tell the governor of Montana “no.” Plus, it seemed like a great opportunity to show off our district. This past Wednesday, I met with the governor and his staff at the Liberty County Medical facility. COVID-19 protocol was in place, as a staff person had just been confirmed positive with the virus. The governor asked questions about staffing challenges. The response from the CEO was a nee...
Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm round of applause as we officially welcome into the human species, and perhaps an election near you, the 80-some hippopotamuses affectionately known as the “cocaine hippos,” and if you are confused, just wait until the end, where I make none of this clear. For those who haven’t heard or read in the news about these hippos and their legal case, the recap of the situation is that in the 1980s four hippos were illegally imported to Colom...
Years ago, when I was in the hospital in India getting a new knee, I walked the corridors as part of my therapy. At the end of the hallway I stood at the window and watched the construction activity across an empty lot. A new building was going up the old-fashioned way, with men’s muscles, not machinery. The empty lot was not really empty. The men’s families were camped in the lot. I’m making an assumption here. Perhaps they were homeless people, but as I watched, they seemed to be the families of the construction worke...
