The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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Education has been one of the most disrupted sectors by COVID-19. The ripple effects of school closures and remote learning have further put pressure on families and our economy. The Legislature responded by giving more flexibility to students, families, and educators to engage in individualized learning. We began the session by providing local school boards with stability as they were beginning their annual budgeting process. House Bill 15 which provides an inflationary...
Fairness is not a partisan issue. Fairness is the goal of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act currently being considered in the United States Congress. The bill has bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. H.R. 1735 / S.673 is critically important to protecting the future of high-quality, local journalism in Montana and across our nation. Support is growing for the legislation, yet much more needs to be done before it can become law....
It's so easy, in the course of our day-to-day lives, to get caught up in the political preoccupations of the moment. What's the Senate going to do about the filibuster? How should infrastructure money be spent? Is the country going to come out of this year as badly divided as it started? These and many other questions matter a lot-but sometimes, it's helpful to step back and take stock of what we've learned over the course of our history. I've been thinking about this because...
18, two children in Salem; having delusions, muscle spasms and vomiting, accused women of bewitching them. Hysterical hunts found witches. Trials were held and women imprisoned and hung. 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy, amid the Communist Hysteria of the time, accused many people of communism. Being a Communist was not illegal, but accusations were enough to ruin personal and professional lives which was his goal. Ironically, the accused were usually liberals. Amid racism...
In September, a thirty acre piece of ground along Highway 200 just west of the MDT equipment shop at about milepost 68.5 was sold to "Lost Moose Meadows" a business partnership that proposes to build an RV campground there. Plans, which we have seen, were filed with the Montana Department of Transportation. As the land owners immediately to the west of this property, we want to bring your attention to some of the problems it poses. We're sure that many of you will agree with...
I didn't study political science in college. I'm a soil scientist. So when people sling political terms around, I have to look them up in Webster's Dictionary. Webster writes that "socialism is when government takes over the means of production". Webster's says that "crony capitalism" occurs when business thrives not because of risk, but because of a cozy nexus between the business and the political class to make money for the corrupt. Communism, like Russia, is a perfect...
One year into this pandemic, Montanans are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our vaccines are safe and effective, COVID cases are falling thanks to the tireless efforts of our frontline health care workers, and Spring is on the horizon. But even with this good news, we still have work to do before we get through the worst public health and economic crisis in generations. Over the past year I've had hundreds of conversations with families, workers,...
Every election cycle, you can count on Republican candidates promising to reduce the size and cost of government, and in general, getting government out of our businesses and out of our daily lives. Yet as every session of the legislature demonstrates, that pledge – for the majority of Republican lawmakers – has a distinctly hollow ring. Not unlike their Democratic counterparts, the GOP’s commitment to controlling government and reducing welfare dependency is highly selective. For their friends, the free money game conti...
President Abraham Lincoln once said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." The question is are we destroying ourselves? To answer we need to ask, has our form of government changed? Some would say we're a democracy based on the majority vote. I say correctly we're supposed to be a Constitutional Republic based on the rule of law. But today, both are inaccurate. The truth is we are...
As the events of the past few months have unfolded, I have often found myself wondering what our Founders would have made of it all. Impossible to know, of course, but they had plenty of insight to offer. In particular, I keep returning to these lines from James Madison. He delivered them during the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution, arguing that the surest safeguard against legislators and a government bent on malfeasance is the people themselves. "I go on this...
In an attempt to block a punt, the defender jumps toward the kicker to block the ball. Untouched, the kicker falls as if struck by lightning. Why? Fool the referee; draw a penalty; defeat the other team. Dishonest, unethical, of course; but winning trumps honesty or integrity. TV announcers cannot call this a "football move": suggestion; call it a: "Democrat move". Anyone observing even five minutes of Democrats impeaching Trump or talking about their fears of fellow...
I wanted to take a moment to write a word of thanks to our local medical folks at the Purview Clinic here in Lincoln. After several months of getting the run-around from doctors in Helena and Missoula, I reached out to the team here in Lincoln, hoping they could help me in some way. They handled things, communicated and were able to get done inside of 24 hours more than any of the "specialists" had been able to help me within six months. I had an appointment there on...
The Montana Legislature is leveling one of the most aggressive attacks on public hunters we've ever seen under the guise of protecting gun rights. HJ 5, sponsored by Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Lolo, states that taxing firearms is unconstitutional, and unenforceable. Apparently, Rep. Tschida and supporters of this measure don't like Montana's abundant wildlife, the habitat that supports it and the world-class hunting we all enjoy. That's because we've had a tax on firearms for 84 yea...
Critical Thinking is the OBJECTIVE analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement. It is a core academic skill and arguably a core life skill as well. Unfortunately, critical thinking is too often replaced with emotional reasoning (cognitive distortion where a person concludes that their emotional reaction proves something is true, regardless of evidence proving otherwise). The current threat to our Supreme Court institution perfectly illustrates this kind of replacement thinking. Calls for ‘court p...
Dear readers: I wish to express my viewpoint in light of Don Niemeir's opinion and words to me in the January 28th BVD. I appreciated his candid approach to our current national crisis as it forced me to do more research. Here are some other facts to consider: Mr. Niemeir states at the beginning of his letter that "the over-all death rate from all causes has not risen." In my study of the CDC website, I found statistics showing that on a weekly basis starting from March 28th,...
I would like to give a big shout out and thank you to all the personnel from Helena and those in Lincoln who made the drive-thru COVID-19 clinic possible on the 5th of February. You all did your jobs in an exemplary manner in difficult weather conditions. Job well done one and all! Let's hope the weather and travel conditions are better for the follow up. Again, thank you. A grateful senior, Carole Fleming...
If the past year's challenges posed by the pandemic have taught us anything, it's that Montanans in all corners of the state need increased, more affordable access to health care, and my bill moving through the state legislature will do just that. I'm sponsoring Senate Bill 101 to authorize Direct Patient Care in state law and expand access to affordable health care for Montanans all across the state. Direct Patient Care is a system where patients pay their doctors directly...
Sportsmen Beware. SB-143 Montana voters passed I-161 in 2010 to limit guaranteed outfitter tags. The current legislature (sponsor Jason Ellsworth (R) SD 43) has introduced SB-143 which negates I-161 thus bypassing the will of Montana voters. This Bill proposes to double the number of guaranteed outfitter licenses thus reducing non-outfitted non-residents. States which provide unrestricted landowner tags like proposed in this bill have experienced significant loss of public...
Letter to the Editor: Dr. Neimeir made several good points in his letter in response to Liz's, but the one that I feel compelled to echo, endorse, and shout from the top of Dalton Mountain is "make no mistake . . . it's all about politics." My Poli-Sci 101 textbook described "politics" as the means by which power is distributed and redistributed in any society. Politics is the machinery that produces power over people and resources. At its core, politics is about who has...
Do you hunt with out of state family and friends? Do you hunt private lands without an outfitter or guide? Have you been applying for a Missouri River Breaks or Elkhorns bull tag for every single year? If so, you better pay attention. SB 143, sponsored by Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, would turn the vast majority of non-resident big game licenses offered in Montana to "outfitter sponsored" tags favoring hunters with money who use outfitters. It would also create landowner...
Dear Liz Cain, Your response to my Christmas letter has just been brought to my attention. My first reaction was, aren't you glad that we both live in a free society where we can both express divergent, but open and honest viewpoints? (although that perspective seems to be rapidly disappearing in the stampede to flatten the curve and save the planet. I also believe your letter deserves a response. You took me to task for not following medical guidelines of health care...
If the months since the November elections have shown us anything, it’s that the US is more deeply divided than we’ve experienced in a very long time. This has been building at least since the 1990s, starting in Congress and ultimately coming to be reflected in a polarized electorate, but it’s reached the point where, rather than take pleasure in the success of a politician elected to the presidency, you have to keep your fingers crossed on his behalf. For starters, we now h...
We know most folks that come in our little country store, the rest are strangers for only a short time. Wearing a disguise or a mask, alarm bells would have rung load and clear. A lawman and I exchanging hellos outside a local bank with masks, cuffed and stuffed comes to mind. What a difference a couple weeks can make on how we interact. Here we are now, corona virus time, with masks and all the other restrictions. Yes the virus is deadly serious to some as is influenza,...
As one of the most challenging years in Montana history comes to a close, we want to call Montanans' attention to the important role our state parks and fishing access sites have played during the COVID crisis. As social distancing became necessary and isolation common, Montana's parks and access sites offered a way for families to "be alone together" in the great outdoors. In the first half of the year alone, four out of five state parks experienced increases in visitation,...
Don Niemeir, what is wrong with you? Maybe you should stick to preaching the gospel, which I hear you're very good at, because you seem to know nothing about science. You could be a respected voice for following the guidelines of medical experts who are trying to save our lives! It's not as if they are asking us to fly to the moon (probably a safer choice these days), just THIS ONE CHRISTMAS, since Thanksgiving produced 1,500,000 more cases of COVID: avoid crowds, indoor...
