The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
Sorted by date Results 186 - 210 of 393
It's cool this morning. There is a different feel to the air. The days are slowly getting shorter, my bird dogs are getting restless and I am listening for that first bugle of a bull elk down in the river bottom. It's that time when I, and all hunters, anxiously prepare for the glorious days we spend pursuing our quarry in the forests and uplands of our Montana. But this year things are different, and as we take to the field we must acknowledge that difference and change our...
Randy Newberg doesn't carry a sidearm. Clocking some 100 days every year exploring the unbound-and often bear-laden-pockets of the American landscape, Newberg says when it comes to a bear attack, he'd leave his trust in an aerosol rather than a piece of lead. It's a personal decision, one that is the right of each individual who steps foot in the woods, but for Newberg, carrying bear spray is a no-brainer. Newberg is a hunter who calls Bozeman, Montana, his home. He is the...
In the recently released Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," Tristan Harris, President and Co-Founder of The Center for Humane Technology was quoted as saying, "If you aren't paying for the product, then you are the product." Sex trafficking, black market organ sales and slavery are all considered deplorable by our society, yet more than two billion people are being marketed and sold every day, consensually, and we barely notice. Roughly forty people are designing...
Earlier this year, I joined two Montana families at the United States Supreme Court. I went to hear the oral arguments for a landmark case very relevant to the State of Montana. The case was about equal protection under the Constitution, religious freedom, and protecting Montana families and children from being discriminated against because of the school they choose. I saw nine brilliant Supreme Court justices ask tough questions to both sides. Frankly, I saw the finest hour...
I must admit, I was very glad to see the Montana Department of Transportation conducting speed studies on Highway 200 on the east side of town where the Sculpture Park and Ranger Station are, and I'm glad they are addressing concerns surrounding those destinations specifically. One of the questions I have is whether or not is has ever been proposed, or a study conducted in order to put a stop sign in at the end of the Sculpture Park driveway as cars head onto Highway 200? I...
We serve voters by ensuring their qualifications are valid, their information is accurate, and that they have equitable, unobstructed access to voting. We protect the integrity of the election by ensuring that every valid ballot that is timely received and legally cast is counted, and that the results are accounted for and validated through the canvass process. We are on guard against fraud, undue influence, and corruption from external forces that seek to politicize the...
We support Lewis and Clark Public Health, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and all the health providers working so hard during this pandemic. They need our support and they need your support. As elected officials, we come from different backgrounds. We have different political beliefs and don’t always agree. But, in this difficult time, in the middle of this pandemic, we do agree we must unite. This is not political. Public Health is what we do collectively to assure the conditions in which people c...
The drive from Big Sandy to Great Falls is awfully familiar to our family. Jon drives those 70-some miles twice a week as he travels between our farm and the Senate. Often we drive together—for farm parts, haircuts, you name it. The drive is second nature. But lately, it has taken on a new meaning. Because in early spring of this year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found the cancer as many women do, with a lump. But I had a bit of a head start: breast cancer runs in my family – both my grandmothers had breast can...
Newspapers face another big election. It's about them. While the United States is riveted by a most unusual presidential election, the newspaper industry is running to win the hearts, minds and souls of "voters." These voters are readers, residents, subscribers, students, advertisers, marketers, sponsors and newspaper employees. This National Newspaper Week (Oct 4-11), vote for newspapers. Vote by subscribing to support your local newspaper. (If you already do, a big thanks.)...
A year and a half ago, the push for Youth Dynamics to bring services to our community began. You may recall an article that was written in the BVD detailing what exactly Youth Dynamics is and what they can do for our community. At that time it was a commonly held belief that Lincoln needed these extra mental health resources. That need has become even more evident with the rise of COVID-19. COVID has caused anxiety and depression in many, and our children are being affected...
Should folks who traditionally think of themselves as Democrats consider whether the party still holds to their basic values? I have. At age 77, I remember growing up how Democrats supported moral and family values, blue-collar jobs, the freedoms of religion and speech, our Constitution. I recall Democratic presidential hopeful Adlai Stevenson putting religious and ethical values into civic issues and his messages. These values still matter to me. Yet, today, much of the Democratic Party seems to have morphed into a secular...
I just wanted to reach out and say thank you. I had several of you in the community reach out via phone, text, and email to thank me for my original response to Liz Cain's letter to the editor in the Blackfoot Valley Dispatch. I appreciate your feedback on my response and want you to know that it means a lot to me that it resonated with so many of you. I additionally want to say thank you to Liz for her response last week. She was kind enough to send me an email with her...
Thanks to the BVD for supporting its community and businesses. Our small town newspaper is one of the foundations of our community and I am thankful to have it. There are so many things I would never know about the what's happening around town even though we live and work right in town now. This is especially true of things going on in the state and in our county that pertain to Lincoln but wouldn't be brought to our attention without our local paper. I, personally, would...
Here in Montana we are granted the right to vote on ballot initiatives once they clear a number of hurdles, including having the related petition garner enough qualifying signatures. Not achieved, however, is the ability to hold public hearings on the proposed issue – such as is accomplished during legislative debate, fiscal review and the amendment process. On November 3rd, we will be voting on CI-118 which would legalize marijuana here in Montana. Aside from what the p...
The article written by K. F. Plumlee would have been great had it been written in the 1950’s. Today’s Democratic Party is not the same philosophically as in those earlier years. Today’s agenda is to turn the United States into the Socialistic States of America. Harry Truman and John Kennedy would have been extremely conservative Republicans today. You mention the Constitution – why are the Democrats trampling it? Their ultimate goal on the 2nd Amendment is to abolish it. On the corporations hit, where would the working...
Dear readers of the BVD, Please allow me to straighten things out, if I can. First of all, I appreciated Tammy Jordan’s response to my letter of shock over the VOTE WISELY ad. Actually, I mostly agreed with her, and I learned (again) how careful one must be with words. But may I say that some readers might have been a bit more careful about what they read into my words. In my letter of September 10, I pointed out where I was in full accord with some of the Republican opinions in their ad and that, after all, I had voted Repub...
I have learned a lot over the past few months. If you watch Fox news; Democrat run cities are experiencing riots by supposed protesters for racial justice. ABC, NBC, and CNN portray this as “largely peaceful” patriots protesting racism while racist police and white supremist provoke them into burning down buildings, stealing flat screen TVs and designer Tennis shoes. Based on Democrat politicians claims that this country is overwhelmingly and systemically racist; I fully expected hundreds of thousands of racists to des...
Montana is built on hard work. The working women and men of this state - the linemen, miners, laborers, boilermakers, law enforcement officers, and teachers - are the ones who keep Montana running. Without workers, and the labor unions that fight for them, Montana as we know it today would not exist. But now more than ever those workers are under threat. With us in office, they will have a pair of fighters willing to stand up and defend them as governor and attorney general. W...
After reading last week's guest opinion in BVD Viewpoints I felt compelled to share some of my own viewpoints along with a few facts...the first opinion being that its title should have read THREE kinds of persons under the Constitution. Karen Frank-Plumlee failed to mention the Labor Unions. The Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United (which is said to have fueled the rise of super PACS) also allowed equal footing for Labor Unions. Last I checked, Labor Unions are unable to v...
The work of the 2019 legislative session has come full circle on two bills vetted in the Senate State Administration Veterans' Affairs Committee which I chaired. One was SB275 (Senator Olzewski-R) and HB524 (Representative Weatherwax-D) that brought attention to needs for recognition of two different subjects. SB275 gave five years to raise $165,000 to commemorate our first woman governor, Judy Martz. HB524 requested a tribal monument with a flag circle on capitol grounds and...
The preamble to our US Constitution reads: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." It has become clear since the US Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United that there are two kinds of...
I want to address Liz Cain's letter with a dose of reality. Just because you don’t agree with the ad in question, and just because you personally find it offensive, does not make it wrong and you right. It was an advertisement. They are printed all the time. Generally people who don’t agree with them see them and just move on. I believe a lot of people in our community have done just that when they saw the ad from the Frank-Plumlees. What I will agree with you on is the fact that there is a huge divisiveness in our wor...
Dear Editor, I am writing in support of Greg Gianforte for Governor. I believe Greg understands the dire economic position our state is in, and has a game plan for recovery. Before the plandemic (not a typo), Montana ranked 49th in the nation in household income, as reported by Prospera. We barely had an economy going into 2020. Our current governor had no business shutting down our businesses. I believe Greg would never hobble our ability to prosper. Greg believes in school choice. Greg also appreciates religious and...
The Lewis and Clark County elections is hearing from people who are concerned about the security of the upcoming election. It can be hard to get accurate information about how elections work; conversations happen at the national level, but elections are administered locally with different laws in each state. Adding to this confusion, we know from our election security training that foreign entities are deliberately spreading disinformation about our elections through social...
When I read the ad VOTE WISELY in the August 27th BVD, and in another one since, I was shocked. Then I was angry, and then I was sad. How can decent, educated, reasonable people of faith and good character tell such lies about their fellow citizens in a small town newspaper or even believe such falsehoods, as if they can't think for themselves, about Democrats in Montana and across the nation? Sure, there are extreme individuals and groups far left of center who might have...
