Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Sorted by date Results 1055 - 1079 of 2305
It is easy to dismiss the budget cuts being considered by the Department of Public Health and Human Services as an easy way to save money. However, the latest round of proposed cuts to home support services and therapeutic foster care create a potentially serious situation when coupled with the drastic rate reduction for case management services. If the proposed cuts are finalized, it is questionable whether any organization will be able to provide these essential services. These cuts will negatively impact the health of our citizens for years...
We’ve all heard the old saying about if the cup is half empty or half full. I’ve also read a bit of a different version and that is it doesn’t matter if your cup is half empty or half full. The point is that your cup is always refillable. I doubt that whoever wrote about the cup was thinking of fame or wealth. Perhaps, instead, the author was speaking of things like forgiveness, joy, compassion, concern for others, kindness, helpfulness. Or was it anger, greed, bitterness, revenge? Not long ago I read a short thought-provoking paragraph about...
And so it seemed that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan forgot the platform that an entire Caucus of Republicans ran on platforms of fiscal responsibility, and as such with the passage of tax cuts and a federal spending deal that will cost $300 billion. It flies almost directly in the face of every member of the Tea Party, Freedom Caucus, and, as he put on full display during his late-night filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul’s entire purpose for being in office. It is easy to explain away the ideals Republicans are currently touting against the ones t...
I applied for a permit to have my NE MT Pet Rescue at my residence in the City of Glasgow. I was already active and decided that since I helped out with the ordinance for this, I should abide. The open City Council meeting was Jan. 2, 2018. (Meeting minutes are public if you would like to read them.) My voice failed my rescue. I couldn’t utter the words that I had in my heart. I just sat there and listened, barely comprehending what I was hearing statements like, “Your heart is in the right place, but you do not belong in town, not in our neigh...
I cannot for the life of me figure out why everyone is freaking out over Ram’s use of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech in their Super Bowl Ad. For one the Ad had a good message. Two it followed a long line of nostalgia driven ads by Ram aimed at firing people up today using nostalgic motivation. And lastly the message was a good thing, and whether your selling a brand, or garnering support for a cause the message still matters. The ad uses a sermon given by Dr. King exactly 50 years to the day earlier. So, on February 4th, 1968, those same wor...
There are many issues in the country to be addressed. Whether your issue is healthcare, climate change, education, or any others, chances are the root problem is the disproportional influence of money in our political system. This stems from the Supreme Court decisions of Buckley v Valeo and Citizen's United v FEC. These two rulings by the court have opened up the floodgates for corporate money to buy our politicians. And this is not a partisan issue. An overwhelming majority of the country reject the current system and have expressed the need...
Do you remember when you were 20? Of course, what a stupid question as most of us like to remember those “good old days.” I know that we all have a tendency to exaggerate our hardships, like walking to school x number of miles and probably in the snow, packing a lunch while you were at it. Actually, today my thoughts on remembering are not on the inconveniences we had, [but] rather the lack of some of the irritating and annoying things that we endure today. Those little things like turning on the radio or TV, remember very little TV back the...
We hear a lot right now about our collective societal need to find common ground. This place sounds so mystical and alludes us as our citizenry grows further apart. The state of our society today is divided, to be sure. Some say we are more divided than ever as a nation and research attempts to confirm that sentiment. A Pew Research Center study from the end of 2017 shows that since the mid-1990s, political divides have more than doubled, from 15 percent to 36 percent based on ten key measures. I must believe that in our American history, divid...
After visiting with a friend awhile ago, I was thinking about our conversation. We had talked about many topics, one of them being ripples. I was reminded of high school age students in a Sunday School class I’d taught some years ago. At the time, the students I was working with asked if they could write a church service. Since it happened to be the season of Lent, I felt it would be a great learning opportunity. So I set down some basic rules for them. The night of the service, they brought out a large old galvanized wash tub. One by one t...
To Gwen Cornwell. Love your article on skating! I grew up in Nashua where the rink was across the road and behind the CONOCO gas station. They gave us old tires to burn and we kept warm all winter by the heat of those tires AND none of us died! Thanks for the memories!...
I have known Russ Fagg for over 25 years. When you know someone a long time, you see what they are made of. Russ served as a Montana district judge for 20 years in Yellowstone County. Judges have the title "Honorable" in front of their names. This is not just a title for Judge Fagg, it is a description of his character. Russ is a man of honor and integrity. He does what he says, he is transparent and there is nothing false about him. I don't know about others, but that is a key character trait I am looking for in someone I vote for. Is he/she...
My family was sorry to hear that Cindy was denied her permit to continue operating her pet rescue. Clover has really completed our family. She's polite to the other animals, both wild and domestic. She's equally happy to spend all day either running and working cows with horsebackers or lounging around being Jason's writing buddy. She was Zora's first 4-H project and an enthusiastic participant in the fair. She courageously saved the life of my mom's beloved old dog when a cow attacked her....
Do you remember outside skating rinks? Being a long-time resident of Valley County, I remember when almost every community had an outdoor skating rink. If you lived in a larger community like Glasgow, you had the luxury of several different skating sites. On the other hand, if you were from one of the surrounding smaller communities, there was one skating pond where the skaters gathered. No age limits either. I assume time of day had a lot to do with the age of the people skating. It does make me sad to think of the fun the young miss out on...
The election cycle is picking up steam and campaigning is well underway. While it is important to pay attention to what each candidate has said, it is also important to look at what each candidate has done. This proves more true for an incumbent candidate like Jon Tester. As one of our state's senators, he has a large presence on the national scale for Montana. Has he truly fought for what is in the best interest of Montana and its citizens? What are his plans moving forward for our state and our nation? And most importantly, is he really the...
Last week, I wrote about a gentleman who lived next door to us -- Grandpa Hjort. I learned a great deal from him. As I thought about him later on, it came to mind that Grandpa Hjort was like so many older people I visited with when I was growing up. People, such as a lady who lived a few houses west of us. Her husband was killed in an accident while working on railroad tracks. She told me of how six men came to her house with her husband’s body on an old door and of how she cleaned him, put clean clothes on him, then called the sheriff and u...
Over the past month it was made public that the Interior Department, the one run by Ryan Zinke, proposed the“disposition of federal real property,” in an effort to pay for infrastructure projects. Zinke of course denied it, and has recently told Field and Stream, Outdoor Life and Sportsmen’s groups that there was no such plan to sell off public lands. The leaked proposal contradicting the promises of the administration is not new, but it is still concerning. Once again, Zinke has played second fiddle to Trump’s tormentors, I mean adviser...
Montana’s disastrous flash drought of 2017 and the million-acre fire season have left many asking: What will the new year bring? And what about all this snow? Weather may be getting harder to predict, not easier. Last year, Montana’s weather proved that a big spring snowpack does not mean moisture down the road. “By May 1, we thought that things were in really good shape,” Michael Downey, water planner with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, told lawmakers Jan. 8. “Last winter was a really good winter.” Northeast M...
Montana has become the first state to establish net neutrality requirements for telecommunications providers who wish to maintain state contracts. Governor Steve Bullock signed the executive order Jan. 22, and with the stroke of a pen protected Montanans’ access to a free and open internet. Internet service providers will not be able to block or prioritize content or charge any customer in the state of Montana more for speediness if they wish to maintain or renew contracts with the state government. As the Governor said on Monday, “the sta...
Every once in a great while we meet a special person. That one person whom we want to know more about, someone who makes us shake our head at their stories, and who, as time goes on, comes to mind in times we are having difficulties in our own lives. So it’s been with me from time to time. One of the most interesting people l’ve known is a gentleman who lived next door to me and my family when I was growing up. He insisted my brother and I call him and his wife Grandpa and Grandma, which we did. I can’t call his first name to mind, but his l...
In case you were unaware, the U.S. Government shut down over the weekend, and almost nothing came of it. In what was more or less political theater in which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was able to use words like “negotiating with Jell-O” to describe talks with President Trump, and everyone tried to brand a hashtag that more or less went #(insert name of responsible party)shutdown it was blandly uneventful and anti-climactic. In brief, Democrats caved under political fear, and Republicans promised to tackle DACA next month. The poi...
Do you remember saving all of the plastic sacks that your bread came in? Many of my parents’ generation, as well as mine always recycled those sacks. Waste not, want not. That expression must have come from depression days. Anyway your plastic sack was not thrown away when empty, but washed, dried and put away for reuse. I remember these sacks being rolled on an empty wax paper tube for storage. I must admit I still have some in my cupboard. If you were not a crust eater, this part of the bread was put in the oven or someplace to dry, saving f...
I want to respond to the article in the paper about the pet rescue (Glasgow City Council Denies Pet Rescue, Jan. 10, 2018). I live north of Glasgow on the Opheim highway in the summer, and a year ago someone, on a very hot day, dumped a big dog on the road. No water or food. The dog finally came into my yard. I fed and watered it for a month or so until I had to move to Billings for the winter. I couldn’t take the dog so I asked Cindy Ramsbacher if she could find a home for him. She took the dog and I don’t know what she did with him, but I’m...
President Trump affirmed to applause, "Farmers always lead the way," at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 99th annual convention meeting this last week in Nashville, Tenn. The American dream is soaring back to life, he continued. It is a dream that we all hope for, the dream that with enough hard work we can obtain a free and financially rewarding life. However, in many rural communities, poverty and abandonment of generational farms is growing. The United States Department of Agriculture conducted a census in 2012 that over 150,000 f...
Government may seem like a dirty word around here. And with so much turmoil in today's politics, it can seem like it is too much to keep up with. Even if you have given up on our national government, don't forget about your state and local elections. These elections aren't as exciting as the national ones, but in many ways, they are more important. These offices have a direct impact on our lives and are vital to the smooth operation of our cities and counties. Jan. 11 was the first day to file for a nomination and the first round of paperwork f...
It’s soon going to be eight years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I went through major surgery and six months of chemotherapy. Not quite five years later, I was told my cancer had returned and mestastasized to my bones. I then began a regimen of hormone therapy medications - four or five different ones. Each one would work for a few months and then become ineffective. So just about a year ago, the oncologist decided my treatment was going to have to change to chemotherapy infusion. That meant having surgery to insert a port in my chest t...