The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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When running for the U.S. Senate in 2018 the number one issue I discussed was the massive and unsustainable national debt, which is now over $29 trillion, or $229,706 per tax payer. All the issues important to Americans, from education, to social security, to national defense and global warming, can only be addressed if we have resources to address them. If we go insolvent as a nation, which will lead to poverty, unrest, and civil strife, these issues go by the wayside as we...
We've all heard the quip, "how do you know when a politician is lying?" Answer: His lips are moving. But there's another obvious question that begs an obvious answer. WHY do politicians lie? Answer: Because they can. The American media – or what could once be legitimately called the media – draws our attention every day to the lies they have caught their least-favored politicians saying. Often they are incredibly blatant. The furrowed brows on the left (CNN, MSNBC and the majo...
It is very awkward for me to do this, but to lend credibility to what I have written below, I will state my background. I have a doctorate degree in immunology from The University of Notre Dame. I spent a career at the National Institutes of Health and in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry studying the regulation of the immune response. I have authored or co-authored over 70 scientific publications on the same. Enough said. In the past two years, I have spent hundreds...
If there's one thing Montanans are about, it's common sense. We work hard, play by the rules and don't like when Washington elites impose laws that go against what works for Montana. That's why I fought against President Biden and the Democrats' attempt to pass their partisan bill to enact a federal takeover of elections every step of the way-because what they were trying to do didn't make sense, and it's not what Montanans wanted. In Montana, thanks to the leadership of...
On January 1st of this year, the No Surprises Act (NSA) went into effect protecting individuals with private health insurance from surprise medical bills. In other words, if you are insured from a company that is not Medicare or Medicaid and receive emergency medical care or a scheduled procedure at an in-network facility, then, in most circumstances, you will not be billed at "out of network" rates. This law, signed by President Trump in 2020 and now being implemented under...
In August of 2020, we wrote an opinion opposing Modern Monetary Theory (or MMT, the "too good to be true" idea that the federal government can spend unlimited amounts of money, regardless of revenue, in order to benefit the country and the economy). We disagreed with MMT on the strongest terms. Since that time, the federal government has added $8.4 trillion dollars to our national debt, which now stands at $29.2 trillion. We appealed to the common sense that the government...
China has a plan. It wants to be the dominant technology country by 2035. If you look, it's clear to see how they're executing on that plan. They're massively investing in hardware and software development to catch up to, and eventually overtake, the United States. If they're successful, we'll experience serious ramifications for our economy and national security. We've been the world technological leader for so long it's understandable that many Americans take it for...
Montana families across the state are feeling the pain in their pocketbooks from inflation and higher prices on everything from gas to groceries to heating their homes. What's causing this? President Biden and Congressional Democrats' wasteful spending problems, and their multitrillion dollar reckless tax and spending spree bill will only make matters worse. Last week, inflation hit a nearly 40 year high, backing estimates that families will spend an extra $4,600 more this...
From my very early days, I have questioned groupthink. I colored outside the lines and succeeded in some roles and not in others. Through it all, it has always been my desire to raise others up to help them realize their own goals. Throughout my life, public service has been an avenue to see this interest realized, giving me purpose and energy. From my high school days in Key Club, to the honor of being selected to attend Boys State, to serving as chairman of the Helena Citizens Council and various other service...
As a hunter and angler who's lived in the Upper Clark Fork River valley between Deer Lodge and Anaconda for more than 30 years, I can attest to the damaging legacy of mining on our waterways. In 1908, a massive flood carried toxic mine tailings from Butte down the Clark Fork River, contaminating the river and the floodplain. To this day, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to clean up these toxic mine tailings in Butte, Silver Bow Creek, and the river. For 30...
As a farmer, I know firsthand that good things take time. Every year, I plant my fields with crops like wheat, barley, peas, and saffron, and in July, August, and September, I harvest those crops and reap what I've sown. Writing laws is much the same – and this fall, after a long spring and summer of working with Republicans and Democrats, Montana is set to reap urgently-needed upgrades to our crumbling infrastructure and strong economic growth across our state, thanks to m...
I am a 68-year-old, retired farmer, fourth generation Montanan, and a lifelong avid hunter, angler, and conservationist with a degree in Wildlife Biology and research experience on large predators. I started farming in 1977. Now I own Circle S Ranch in eastern Montana and pay property taxes in five counties. I have always shared the bounty of the ranch with sportsmen and conservationists for free. No one has ever paid a dime for access. My wife and I have been engaged in conse...
I'm running to be the next member of Congress from Montana's eastern district because I've devoted my life to this state's people, land and wildlife. It pains me to see our lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Matt Rosendale, ignore the needs of the people he was elected to represent. He voted against badly needed pandemic relief across Montana and the rest of America, declines to challenge the price-gouging of corporate meatpackers who are driving family...
On Oct. 13, a number of the area’s elected officials received an invitation from the Lewis and Clark County Elections Supervisor providing a number of opportunities to observe and learn about the voting process in the County. I want to thank the staff for sharing their training process for tracking and counting returned ballots. Included in the Oct. 15 training was the office’s process to verify signatures on the return envelopes, the reconciliation steps, and the paper cha...
Every day I open my E-mail account and see attempts to defraud and steal. I know I have to be very careful what I open or risk identity fraud or losing everything I have to someone who will manipulate my information to take over my accounts and titles. Law enforcement can do very little to help because these criminals usually live in other parts of the world and are hard to trace. It is disturbing to realize that the computer we all now must use is more dangerous than the...
I was shocked to learn last week that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed the FBI and federal prosecutors to charge parents who speak up at school board meetings under domestic terrorism and civil rights laws. Acting U.S. Attorney for Montana Leif Johnson delivered this message to the Montana County Attorneys Association, and has provided a follow-up letter explaining the federal claim of urgency in this matter. As a local prosecutor enforcing Montana state...
October is here, leaves are falling, and perhaps Montanans should not be surprised that the Montana Democrats on the Districting and Apportionment Commission are carving up our state like a pumpkin. While they claim they want to create a "competitive" district, their maps go far beyond that. So far in fact, that they fail to meet the mandatory criteria in the Montana Constitution, that the districts be as equal in population as is practicable, be contiguous, and be compact....
Democrats, led by President Biden, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi, are rushing a reckless $3.5 trillion tax and spending spree bill through Congress that would reshape the very foundation of America and push the U.S. down the path of socialism. The Democrats’ massive bill is the largest spending bill in our nation’s history and will create all sorts of new entitlement programs. To pay for it, Democrats plan to hike taxes across the board, making this bill the...
There is an ongoing battle regarding the $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan proposed by the Biden Administration, which includes a provision that would require financial institutions, such as our credit unions, to report to the IRS transactional data for any account with at least $600 of inflows or outflows annually. This unlimited access to consumers' financial data should raise alarms for anyone with a bank or credit union account. First and foremost, this plan violates...
(Sept. 29) This month, U.S. Senators began the markup of Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget resolution package. This rubber-meets-road moment seems to have given pause to some in their party whose votes will be needed to get a bill through Congress and across the President's desk. Among them is Montana's Senator Jon Tester. The President and the progressive left members of Congress have proposed financing the Administration's marquee spending bill largely by raising the U.S....
As a prosecutor I once was assigned a case where-in the Highway patrol watched a man load up his truck with railroad ties from a pile next to the tracks. After he left the siding and was on a public road, they made a stop and arrested him for theft. Sounds like an open and shut case doesn't it? Problem was the railroad couldn't prove they owned the ties. They were not marked and are purchased in bulk then distributed where needed by a variety of workers, identities unknown....
Hidden away deep within the massive, $3.5 trillion Congressional budget package is a ticking time bomb for Montana's economy. The innocuous sounding Clean Energy Payment Program is actually the left's latest scheme to eliminate affordable, reliable fossil fuel energy. If they are successful, we'll all pay more and at the same time the reliability of our electricity grid will be diminished. Worse, energy-producing states like Montana will pay the price in terms of lost jobs...
As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, I've been thinking a lot about the 9/11 Commission, which I co-chaired with former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. Not just the work the commission did, but the work it didn't do-and the work that remains to be done. The commission was formally established in November of 2002, though it didn't start in earnest until the following spring. It consisted of five Republicans and five Democrats, all of whom had held high f...
The Montana Nurses Association has referred to the recent emergency rule from Montana DPHHS regarding not masking in school as "promotion of junk science." One might be wise to use caution as well as introspection in using such a bold statement. MNA expressed frustration that the department did not site peer reviewed studies in explaining its rule. For every peer reviewed study showing the effectiveness of masks, one could find at least as many showing they are not effective...
Maybe it's just a professional preoccupation, but I've always been intrigued by why voters cast their ballots as they do. I've never made a formal study of it but have talked with plenty of them over the years, and one thing sticks with me from those conversations: There's no one thing. People find a myriad of interesting-and sometimes idiosyncratic-reasons for voting this way or that. Some care mostly about a single issue-abortion, say, or climate change-and if a politician d...
