The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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"Gerrymander," "blue states," and "red tape." These words populate headlines and newspaper articles regularly, with many writers taking their meaning for granted, but a look through history can reveal surprising changes in meaning over time. In a political landscape challenged by personal interpretation, etymology can be a reliable narrator. Tracing a word's emergence and exploring the circumstances behind any changes in meaning offers a window into the surrounding historical...
Marlis Willey passed away peacefully at home on a beautiful spring morning Saturday 4/13/2024. She will be joining her husband Mack at the Montana State Veterans Cemetery at Fort Harrison in Helena on Monday, May 6 at 10:30 a.m. Please join us for a short graveside service if you can. Marlis and her twin Mavis were born in North Dakota and were raised by loving parents during the Great Depression. They grew up with enough to eat but very little else. Gardening and homemade clo...
I recently announced that I'm in the process of appointing a new committee of the State Legislature. The Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform is a bipartisan committee that will be made up of state senators, representatives, and members of the public. It will be charged with addressing violations of the state's constitutional separation of powers by the Montana Supreme Court and certain district court judges. A series of troubling judicial rulings at the di...
More than 100 years ago, my grandparents made a life for our family on a homesteaded plot of land outside of Big Sandy that we still farm to this day. I've been blessed to call Montana home my entire life and to always have a place to rest my head after a hard day's work. Unfortunately, finding an affordable place to live has become a challenge for far too many Montanans. As I travel across Montana, I hear about how housing challenges are hurting working families. From...
This piece was penned several years ago for Big Sky's Lone Peak Lookout newspaper owing to the increase in bear and people encounters in the Madison and Gallatin ranges. What the article discusses is pertinent to any wild country in the state, so we bring it back as a reminder. Be it biking, horseback riding or hiking, as more and more folks head out to enjoy the trails of the wilderness and national park lands near Big Sky, bear and human meetings are bound to increase. The...
Lincoln Solid Waste Customers: Beginning May 1, aluminum recycling will be moved from the Lincoln Senior Center to the Lincoln Transfer site. When bringing your aluminum to the site, please be sure to remove it from any trash bags or boxes. Plastic bags in the aluminum recycling bin soils the load. Paper recycling has been discontinued at this time. The recycling bins located at the Senior Center will be removed from the parking lot. Please call 406-447-8313 with any questions....
Our region is at a critical time in its energy landscapes, navigating a complex network of resources, policies, and environmental concerns. This latest winter was a great case study for the reliability problem of intermittent green sources that are being pushed nationwide. In Montana, Northwestern Energy spokesperson Jo Dee Black commented in January, "Wind and solar generation could not produce much if any, power during the extreme cold." In Washington, Grant County PUD...
HELENA, Montana – Lewis and Clark Public Health officials, in collaboration with PureView Health Center, St. Peter's Health, United Way of the Lewis and Clark Area, Rocky Mountain Development Council, and the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, are overseeing a first-of-its-kind community health survey in a multi-county area that spans Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, Powell, Broadwater, and Meagher counties. Scheduled for late June, the Community Assessment for Public...
HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, along with 24 other attorneys general, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Biden Administration’s unlawful electric vehicle (EV) mandate that threatens the economy, puts jobs at risk, and undermines the reliability of the electric grid. This is the 42nd lawsuit Attorney General Knudsen has filed against the Biden administration. The new emissions rule, put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), forces unattainable standards on passenger cars, light-duty tru...
The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday adopted a long-awaited rule that aims to put conservation initiatives "on equal footing" with oil and gas leasing, grazing and other commercial uses of federal land. The rule "combines our ongoing work with a vision for conservation to help us manage lands into the 21st century," BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a video announcing the rule. "It ensures that the BLM can carry out its multiple-use and sustained-yield mission now...
Helena, MT - Lewis and Clark County Public Health (LCPH) is teaming up with St. Peter's Health and the Helena Police Department to enhance and expand behavioral health and crisis intervention services through the Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) Community Coalition. "When someone in our community experiences a behavioral health crisis, be it mental illness or substance misuse, we have a team of first responders that can partner with law enforcement and help take the lead on...
Five days a week, a short train rolls out of the rail yard in Whitefish with empty freight cars destined for the Flathead Valley's three surviving wood products mills in Columbia Falls and Evergreen. At one time, short trains like this could be found all over western Montana, serving mills in places like Libby, St. Regis, Darby and Pablo. But today, this is one of the few "local" freights left in the region. Since 1990, about three dozen mills have closed in western Montana,...
