Our View: Hi-Line darts and laurels, July 25, 2014

Laurel — Havre Police acted quickly and professionally in responding to an armed robbery at Western Pharmacy earlier this week and in promptly apprehending a suspect. Robberies are infrequent in this community, fortunately, and it was important to arrest the perpetrator as soon as possible to calm fears.

Dart — Goofballs who criticized the police for not capturing the suspect at the site of the robbery since it was only two blocks away. First, we’re sure the suspect’s main goal in all of this was to get away from the pharmacy as soon as possible. Second, officers were, as they should be, patrolling various parts of the city, at the time, not hanging around the police station. We think officers did a good job.

Laurel — The state auditor’s office will continue plugging away at providing people with insurance under the Affordable Care Act, despite a federal appeals court ruling this week that a key aspect of the law is unconstitutional. The court would limit subsidies to people living in states that use the federal exchange, and provide assistance only to those states that have set up their own exchanges. Another court, on the same day, ruled that the law was being applied constitutionally by the Obama administration. Montana Auditor Monica Lindeen said the state will wait for a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dart — The Montana Legislature put partisan politics ahead of common sense when it refused to set up a state exchange under the Affordable Care Act. The rejection was meant to be a snub to the Obama administration, but setting up a Montana exchange with Montana values would have made it easier for state residents to sign up for the benefits and it would have ensured that residents will continue the benefits regardless of the Supreme Court ruling.

Laurel — The New York Times proved that old-fashioned shoe leather journalism is still alive. Earlier this week, the newspaper did a five-page special report on how New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had used a commission studying corruption in state government to cover up some skulduggery in his own campaign. Later in the day, the newspaper posted a story showing that Montana Democratic Sen. John Walsh had plagiarized large portions of a master’s degree thesis. This is certainly information that voters in both states should know about. But what is this we keep hearing about? The massive biased, left-wing media?

Dart — Rarely do we use this column to dispute comments made by columnists on this page, but former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul made some pretty outrageous claims this week: The media is covering up the fact that the Ukrainian government, not Russian separatists, shot down a malaysian airliner. There is precious little evidence that Paul is right. In the final line of his column, Paul admitted that perhaps he was wrong and that perhaps there was not a massive cover-up campaign. You don’t think.