The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
Sorted by date Results 276 - 300 of 393
As parents send their children into the new school year and teachers welcome them into the classroom, safety is on everyone's mind. When it comes to student safety, the Office of Public Instruction and Montana schools take a comprehensive approach. Student safety is not just school security, it is also promoting mental health, multi-tiered systems of student support, and building infrastructure. Student safety is a top priority at the OPI. That is why we have taken the lead...
In Montana, community health centers such as PureView Health Center specialize in whole-person care. Beginning with well-child visits, CHCs provide healthcare across the lifespan for many Montanans. Our model of healthcare begins with access. In addition to an open-door policy, CHCs are innovators: 100 percent of Montana CHCs use an electronic health record and 57 percent use telehealth, allowing us to reach as many patients as possible – 110,241 Montanans in 2018. Access t...
As United States Senators representing the Big Sky state and Hawkeye country, older Montanans and Iowans keep a watchful eye on spending. Like millions of Americans across the country, they are mindful that they need to stretch their savings in order to pay the bills and uphold their quality of life in retirement. Whenever we hear from folks in Iowa or Montana, we hear widespread concern about the rising costs of prescription drugs. It’s particularly upsetting to find out some patients ration or skip doses of daily m...
Dear Editor: I have been trapping Coyotes off and on for more than 50 years. I can put out a nummy bait. A coyote wit think about it a long time and may pass on a free meal. However, that little critter with the stripes down his back will never pass up a free meal. Now, which one is Democrat? Mike Dey Missoula...
Meatless Mondays for your school lunch program? Meat grown in a petri dish from a foreign lab? These are questions we need to ask Governor Bullock. By his executive order, Montana is now obligated to advance the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. In order to meet the Paris objectives everything having a carbon footprint is on the table, including our beef industry. At present, U.S. meat consumption is about 222 pounds per person per year. Nationally the goal is to reduce...
They told us if we got educated then we would see success in our lifetime. Yet, more than 44 million Americans have student debts that combine to total $1.5 TRILLION. Having to borrow money for school is stressful enough; abusive debt collection practices don't help. And now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking to increase harassment of graduates over their debts. The CFPB wants to allow debt collectors to email and text consumers without consent, while also...
"For the times they are a-changin'" sang Bob Dylan. And the digital age has changed the way information is eaten, swallowed, and digested. We can't stop progress, but we must maintain the saliency of our local newspapers. Why? Local newspapers serve significant roles in local societies. "When local newspapers shut their doors, communities lose out. People and their stories can't find coverage. Politicos take liberties when it's nobody's job to hold them accountable. What the...
We must keep working to lower prescription drugs prices in Montana. After conducting a nearly two-year investigation into drug costs, including taking several major players to court in order to access information, my team and I brought forward a bill that we projected would save Montanans about $8 million on medications in the first year alone. Our approach to reforming one part of the massive pharmaceutical system has now been copied by the U.S. Senate and states like Maine,...
Like many areas across rural America, whether it is a student struggling to gain access to online educational resources or a business struggling to make their products or services available online, Montana faces the very real problem of reliable broadband coverage. It's unacceptable. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), more than 19 million rural Americans lack a broadband connection, including 40 percent of rural Montanans. While there is sufficient evidence that number overstates broadband...
There are a lot of reasons why Congress finds itself hamstrung in Washington and discounted by the people it serves at home. These include long-term trends over which it has little control: the political polarization of the country; the oceans of money that get dumped into the political process; the push by successive presidents to amass as much executive power as possible. But in the end, the demons Congress has to fight are its own. If it is to return to relevance, effective...
When I was a student at West Point in the 1990's, the military component of my education focused on high-intensity conflict and Cold War-era strategies and tactics. Those were the wars of recent memory, so that's what we trained for. After my graduation and the events of Sept. 11, however, my generation of military officers faced a new set of challenges. Rather than engaging in armored conflict focused on seizing and holding terrain, we found ourselves in a multi-dimensional,...
Editor: I'm a woman living in Montana. I've lived in five states and have had many careers. I've had a great full life. I've always worked and made my life better. I've never taken any welfare. I've always paid my own health insurance. I love to hunt and eating the meat. I love God, family, friends, the flag, people to animals, my freedom and my country. I can't believe what is going on in the United States of America. We've had crooks and evil in politics forever, Democrats...
Pockets of our country are experiencing a significant uptick in the number of measles cases. Measles is not a harmless childhood illness. It is actually a highly contagious, dangerous disease that can even be deadly. But measles is also easily preventable with a vaccine. There's a lot of misinformation swirling around, so let me provide the facts: vaccines save lives. Vaccines protect our children from debilitating and deadly disease, and they promote the overall health of...
The recent announcement by Greg Gianforte that he is seriously considering another run for Governor is problematic. He barely won against a gun grabbing liberal entirely out of touch with Montana values. Now Greg wants to run for Governor? Tim Fox is an excellent candidate for Governor, and Rep. Gianforte should be thinking about maintaining his seat in the House of Representatives. Gianforte should stay in the House of Representatives instead of crowding the Republican field...
Speaker of the House Greg Hertz (R-HD 12, The 66th legislative session has come to an end. As Speaker of the House, it was my goal to uphold the integrity of the House. As a leader in my caucus it was my goal to foster unity not conformity. We can be united behind the primary ideals of our party without losing individuality. It has been an honor to be selected by my peers to fill this roll. In looking at our accomplishments this session, several positive actions stand out....
Dear Community Residents, It has come to my attention that a certain individual in town has been at it yet again, spreading rumors and badmouthing area businesses and charity events/organizations within our community. Now, while I normally just ignore things like this, keep my mouth shut, and move on, the verbal attack is feeling a little more personal and I feel it needs to be addressed. This particular attack is towards an organization and a community my dad felt very strong...
As former and current Montana Public Service Commissioners, we represented Montanans across this great state in balancing the needs of utilities with the needs of consumers. We took our oath of office seriously and worked tirelessly to faithfully perform the job to which our constituents entrusted us. We often disagreed as Commissioners, and still rarely agree on many issues. Yet we are writing this letter because we share grave concerns about Senate Bill 331. While we may differ in our views of various energy resources, we a...
We would like to extend a huge thanks to all the people who supported the Lincoln Fireman's Ball this year. Thanks to the businesses that helped with food, condiments and of course donations; the wonderful artists who donated their work to the auctions; the folks who came in and spent their hard earned money buying items in the auctions, raffle tickets, 50/50, or just donated cash. We had about 100 fewer people than last year, yet we made about the same money. And it appeared...
Dear Parents and Community members, We would like to take the opportunity to review Lincoln School’s Montana Comprehensive Literacy Grant and update the community about progress we’ve made during this first year. Due to this grant our school will receive $750,000 over the next three years! This money is being used to fund textbooks, technology, a preschool and many other benefits to the students. This grant requires proof of educational growth in our children. Growth is being measured using various metrics. The first tool to...
Your Republican led legislature is in the process of compiling the budget for the next two years. We are not just talking about efficient state government, we are implementing it. We are doing this by focusing on reducing waste in bureaucracy, while at the same time retaining indispensable state services. The Republican caucus is united behind the idea of no new or increased taxes while rejecting what the Governor calls "revenue enhancers" (new taxes). Last session we began to...
Politicians in Helena need to understand that good intentions and well wishes don’t count for much when their decisions cause harm to Montanans. Montanans are aware of the damage the opioid epidemic has caused to families, friends, and our communities. The state has taken many commendable steps to combat opioid addiction. However, the need to fight opioid abuse does not excuse bad policy making. Helena politicians are working on proposal to impose a new tax on prescription medication in order to address the opioid epidemic. T...
As Speaker of the House, it is a goal of mine to have unity within the Republican Caucus and a positive working relationship with the minority party. At the halfway point of the 66th legislative session we are hitting those marks. Another goal of this session, was to put the K-12 funding bill on the Governor's desk very early in the process. In other sessions this bill was often used as a political football late in the session, sometimes as late as May. We passed it out of the...
The students I teach at the University of Montana often show up with a powerful assumption: If there is some piece of information out there, Google can find it. It’s an understandable belief for 19-year-olds who have grown up in a world where ubiquitous connection to the Internet and easy access to vast reams of webpages is expected. But for all those Wikipedia pages and Wayback Machines, there are countless documents that you, as a Montanan, have a constitutional right to see and you won’t find them no matter how many pag...
As a conservative, I am used to Liberal Democrats accusing me, or the people I vote for as: sexist, bigoted, misogynist, racist, xenophobe, homophobe, climate denier, hater and dumb. I admit, I don’t know what some of those big words mean, but I never thought, until now, that they were right about me being dumb. Liberal Democrat’s just introduced “The new green deal” its brilliance caused me to doubt my intellectual capacity. I never knew eliminating cow gas could help stop climate change. I have thought if you eliminate peop...
“Men Wanted for Dangerous Expedition: Low Wages for Long Hours of Arduous Labor under Brutal Conditions; Months of Continual Darkness and Extreme Cold; Great Risk to Life and Limb from Disease, Accidents and Other Hazards; Small Chance of Fame in Case of Success.” - Ernest Shackleton The above quote was from an advertisement that Shackleton placed in the newspaper to recruit men of quality to his trans-antarctic expedition in 1914. It might just as well be a description issued just before one enters life. During my life I h...
