The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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As a U.S. Senator for Idaho, a state enormously impacted by wildfires decimating communities and landscapes each year, I, Senator Crapo, am a long-time advocate for active forest management that restores forest health to help reduce the number and intensity of fires and protects our communities. And as a former wildland firefighter, I, Madi Clark, know all too well the disastrous consequences of poor federal land management. What the two of us have in common is an experienced point of view about the current mismanagement of...
This November, Montana voters will decide whether to adopt two separate constitutional amendments: CI-126 to require a non-partisan Top 4 multi-party primary system to determine which candidates advance to the general election; and CI-127 to require 50% support to win an election. Montana is currently an "open" primary state, meaning voters are able to choose either a Republican or Democrat ballot during a primary without needing to belong to one of these private political gro...
By Stewards of the Swan Valley Two years ago, a Utah ski corporation and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced a plan to highly develop the rustic Holland Lake Lodge on public land in Condon in the rural Swan Valley. The ski corporation, POWDR, and USFS touched off a blistering public debate about the future not only of the small town and relatively wild valley, but a discussion about the future of Montana and the high-dollar outside influences changing the Big Sky State's...
When you receive your absentee ballot or go to the polls on November 5, you might ask yourself why there are so many proposed constitutional amendments on our ballot this year. Certainly, one reason is the enormous amount of out-of-state money pouring into our state this election with the overall goal of changing Montana to be more like California or Illinois. Why is Illinois Governor Pritzger giving $500,000, California residents Gwendolyn Sontheim giving $1.1 million, and...
If you've followed media coverage of Congress over the past few years, it's been hard to escape two impressions: Not much gets done there, and members spend a lot of their time tearing into one another. We can argue about the first-certainly, recent Congresses have been less productive than their predecessors-but now there's hard evidence that the second impression is just plain wrong. The vast majority of members, it turns out, focus on substance and policy, not on personal...
As health care providers, hospital leaders, nurses, and support staff who serve or have served rural Montana communities, we condemn the recent television ads and full-page advertisements by Jon Tester's campaign and the absolute lies being told to our fellow neighbors. The ads, some of which use the names and photos of local hospitals, falsely accuse Tim Sheehy of threatening rural hospitals, misleading the patients we serve. Some of us have gotten to know Tim through his...
We're less than 100 days away from a presidential election that many Americans consider the most consequential of their lifetimes. So, it's hardly surprising that most of the attention in the runup to November is focused there. But I'm here today to make a plea: Pay attention to congressional and legislative contests, too. I say this not out of some civic do-gooder belief that all public offices matter, but because what happens in this year's congressional and legislative race...
Do you own a home and wonder what it's worth? You can easily look up your address on Zillow and see the estimated value is rapidly rising, translating to more property taxes. Too many Montana families cannot keep up with an annual $249-million property tax increase imposed by Republican Governor Gianforte and his party in the Legislature. Yet, after months of analysis by the Governor's property tax task force, they recommended a complicated process that will raise our taxes...
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a scary reality facing 13 million Americans, acutely affecting veterans who risked their lives to serve our country and resilient survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. Helping these individuals find relief where they can is imperative, and one federal agency is considering action that could do just that. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to vote on the approval of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) to treat PTSD in the next...
ready for electric vehicles. Sen. Usher is correct that Montana's electricity system has fallen behind, leaving us unprepared for modern technologies. Sen. Usher noted that Montana's power grid is strained. I suppose one solution would be to never add any new electricity uses so we can preserve our precarious status quo. But other states are taking a different approach: they're improving their grids to get ready for the new ways we Americans are using energy. Compared to...
Though the pace won't really pick up until the fall, federal election campaigns are well under way. And we're hearing a lot about a welter of key issues like abortion, immigration, the ethics of the Supreme Court, wars in Europe and the Middle East, and the like. But at a time when candidates should be engaging the electorate on the country's biggest challenges, here's something they're not talking about: the national debt. We've been in uncharted territory on this front for...
Last month, the Biden Administration published their finalized tailpipe emissions rule, an electric vehicle mandate which will upend the daily lives of Montanans. The EPA's new emissions rule calls for EVs to account for 56 percent of all cars by 2032, with two-thirds of all cars being electric or hybrid. However, with the state of Montana's electric vehicle usage and electric grid, this mandate spells disaster for our state's energy economy, electric grid, public safety, and...
Having proudly served as former Secretaries of State in Montana, we understand how important democracy is to the people of our state. It's not a matter of what side of the aisle you stand on – it's a matter of what you value. Recently our state's Supreme Court reaffirmed that Montanan's right to cast a ballot is not a mere privilege – it is a right guaranteed by our Constitution. A coalition of lawmakers in Congress, including Montana's Senator Tester, are working to uph...
Back in mid-May, the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University released the latest of their studies looking at bipartisanship in the US House and Senate. They summed up the bottom line in their first sentence: "The results show a slight improvement in bipartisanship in 2023 but remained near record lows." In the scheme of news stories coming out of Washington, the "Bipartisanship Index" rarely gets much ink, except for a one-day piece in...
Until recently, it seemed like you couldn't turn around without finding a headline lambasting the current Congress as the least productive ever. There was good reason for that, which we'll get into shortly, but it's worth noting that they've suddenly disappeared. Clearly, that's because of April's passage of the foreign aid package that includes significant aid for Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and Taiwan, and a measure that attempts to force a sale of TikTok. There was a great...
A recent University of Montana survey confirms what legislators have been hearing from our constituents: Montanans are seriously concerned about several issues that they say are negatively impacting quality of life. Among the findings, 90 percent think that urban sprawl eating up open lands is a problem, 84 percent are worried about Montana's changing character, and 78 percent think outdoor recreation is becoming overcrowded. The 2023 Legislature passed legislation to take...
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...
Dear Montanans, This is a hopeful time for so many of our students. The future is bright as graduation nears and families beam with pride, anticipating their child walking across that stage. As a legislator, a former classroom teacher and the mom of a high school student, though, I must admit I worry. Are we doing enough to make sure all our students have the opportunities they deserve? That is why I'm running to be your next State Superintendent of Schools. We've essentially...
The Upper Blackfoot Valley, specifically the community of Lincoln, is not just where I live, it is also where I serve. As a native Montanan, I moved to Lincoln 20 years ago and found my place. I was surrounded by country where I could fish, hunt, and enjoy the backcountry whether on a snowmobile or a mule. I first served as a volunteer firefighter, and now serve as the Lincoln Fire Chief and as a member of the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council. Almost ten years ago, I...
Let me first introduce myself. My name is Todd Devlin and I am 4th generation farmer/rancher in eastern Montana. I have been a Prairie County Commissioner since 1995. I was President of the Montana Association of Counties (MACo) in 2016 - 2017. I have been very involved in public land and natural resource issues both at the state and national level for over 30 years and currently am the Chair of the National Association of Counties Public Lands Steering Committee. And,...
Disagree Better. That's the name of an interesting initiative at the National Governors Association this year, spearheaded by the organization's current chair, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox. The idea, in a nutshell, is to "reduce partisan animosity and foster healthy debate by modeling a more positive and optimistic way of working through policy problems," as the NGA puts it. It would be easy to scoff, of course. In this era of bitter political hostility, as we head into a...
On July 13, 2012, President Obama was giving a speech in Roanoke, Virginia, and said this: "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that." Those three sentences sparked a brushfire in that year's presidential election that he spent the next few weeks trying to walk back. "Of course, Americans build their own businesses," he said on...
A majority of the Montana Senate has delivered letters to the Montana Supreme Court, Governor, and Secretary of State outlining our concern that a recent court order is unconstitutional. It's easy to get lost in the weeds of the issue, but the heart of the matter is pretty simple. It's about the separation of powers among our three branches of government. The Legislature is the branch closest to the people. We cannot abide a situation where the people's voice in Helena is...
"This is unconstitutional" has become a frequently used phrase intended to subvert the logic and rational understanding of the Montana Constitution. When improperly applied, it perverts the intended checks and balances of our three-branch state government system. If a person, group, or political party doesn't like the political content of an issue, they cry "unconstitutional". This takes our process of state government that was intended be a matter of adjudication and...
