Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Sometimes I wonder if we realize how many times we receive a gift, yet don’t realize it as such. We are given a gift every single day when we wake up. Throughout each day we receive more gifts. A hug from a child, a smile from someone we pass on the street, a telephone call from a friend inviting us to lunch, a greeting card, a compliment on what we are wearing or something we’ve done or made. The list is endless. Do you ever think of a family dinner as a gift? It is. One of the best gifts there is. To be together with our parents, bro...
One of the most beautiful things about football is the presentation of the flag of the United States of America during the national anthem and Air Force I flying over the stadium. It takes my breath away and brings tears to my eyes. Now we are being denied this beauty by the media to protect the spoiled million-dollar football players who refuse to honor our country in a respectful manner. I’m under the impression that their football contract requires that players, coaches and all personnel must stand at attention with helmets in left hand a... Full story
Montanans, like many across our country, continue to face a severe and growing opioid, meth, and heroin epidemic. These drugs have ravaged Montana homes and families, leaving little of our state untouched by addiction. The time is now. We must work together to keep these drugs off the streets and out of the hands of our children, friends, and family. I joined Senators from across the country in demanding that the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services detail exactly how law enforcement agencies can help opioid...
Every morning we open our eyes is yet another opportunity to rise, face the world and make choices. When I’m not sharing parenting duties with my wife Meagen, and running our four kids to and from school and their various activities around Billings, I choose to work hard at standing up to bullies and corporations who have lied, cheated and stolen from my clients. I’m a consumer protection attorney, which means I stand up for working people who get shafted by powerful corporations—from the widow whose insurance company tries to trick her rathe...
Thanks to scientific innovation in agriculture, farmers and ranchers are using fewer resources to grow an abundant, sustainable food supply. But I wonder how far our new technology and techniques will take us if farmers are left without one of the most critical resources to keep our farms sustainable: a stable workforce. Agriculture’s labor shortage is at a crisis level, with farmers like Burr and Rosella Mosby losing crops and income because there aren’t enough workers for harvest. Every year we hear stories of fresh produce rotting in the...
Rural America embodies the best of our nation. Tough, rugged, resilient and hard working. To me, it’s something that is quintessentially American, like a Charlie Russell painting. Something that can’t always be measured, yet is always felt. Today, I worry about the serious threats facing our rural communities. These are communities that help one another, produce our food, extract energy and fuel our economy. I hear a lot of talk about the value of a Nation, State, County, or City. Normally, that is expressed in terms of gross product, or wha...
In the past I have often wondered what might have been in those jars with such a small opening. I now have an answer! I have found several brands of coffee came in glass jars, as well as Crisco (this one is hard for me to imagine). Then there jars of this size that had laundry starch. I am sure that there were many more items but my memories do not go back that far. It is funny how just one small item like a glass jar can take so much time out of my day. On that thought, remember how many grocery items came with a key on the lid (like the pop...
According to Dr. Angus McIntosh, 40 years ago there were 55,000 allotment-owning ranchers. Then, according to the Public Lands Council, today there are 22,000. If allotment-owning ranchers continue disappearing at the same rate, in 40 years there will be fewer than 9,000. The Endangered Species Act says, “The term “endangered species” means any species which is in danger of extinction…”In the April 2008 issue of National Geographic, I read a letter to the magazine concerning cowboys. The man, who wrote the letter, believes that cowboys s... Full story
I’ve meant to send you a fan letter for quite some time, but your column “The Brouhaha” finally spurred me to write. Thank you for such a well-researched and well-written piece on this issue. I’m a child of the 1960s when people burned the flag to protest the Vietnam war and it seems a fundamental right of free speech to me to sit for the anthem or not salute the flag. I think your column deserves a much larger audience and I would encourage you to submit it to the larger Montana papers and to the national news outlets. I would love to see it i... Full story
Each fall tens of thousands of Montana men and women spend anywhere from a few hours to a several weeks hunting. Most have a wonderful time; a few run afoul of the law. Here are 10 problem areas, courtesy of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game wardens, that hunters seem to stumble over year after year: 1. Trespassing. Hunters must have permission of the landowner before hunting on private land. In Montana, private land does not have to be posted for a hunter to be guilty of trespassing. Ask first. 2. State law makes it illegal for anyone to...
Last week I wrote about our 49th wedding anniversary. One thing I forgot to add was it’s important that both the husband and wife need to have a sense of humor. A prime example is a conversation that took place between my husband’s parents. We had asked one of our nieces, who lived in Helena, to be godmother to our son. She opted to stay with her grandparents. On a morning several days after she arrived, my father-in-law looked out one of the kitchen windows to see it had snowed during the night. The sidewalk leading to the garage had a lig...
Ol’ Norman has been gone a long time, but his stories linger on. The old gent nodded his head toward a man ascending the massive staircase in the county courthouse. “You know who that is, don’t you?” “Yes,” I replied, thinking that a rather unusual question. The distinguished figure with black overcoat and silvery hair was quite recognizable. I knew I was on to one of those tales that only Norm could spin. Norm considered himself a real died-in-the-wool Montanan. His parents of fond memories, homesteaded south of Malta, having arrived pen...
The Boy Scouts of America made what many seemed to think was a controversial announcement this past week. The National Scouting Office said that they would open the Cub Scout and Eagle Scout path to girls. This seemed to shock some and it lifted what has been a long-time barricade for girls in scouting. The announcement had been signaled for some time, and in my opinion is a great thing for scouting, boys and girls. To dampen the scandal scouting has had coed programs since the early seventies with Venturing and Sea Scouts, and in fact the...
Our U.S. Congress is out to give the oil and gas industry a pass –all on the taxpayer’s dime. Earlier this year, the U.S. House attached a pro-waste amendment onto a must-pass bill. Our congressmen are currently attempting to skirt the rules that would require the oil and gas industry take responsibility for what they owe the American people. The rule they are trying to cheat is called the BLM Methane and Waste Prevention rule. The Methane and Waste Prevention rule finalized last November required energy companies to capture methane from fla... Full story
This summer’s catastrophic wildfire season and hazardous, persistent smoke pollution has all Montanans talking. The fires took the lives of two young men, destroyed homes and Sperry Lodge, blew a hole in the state budget, discouraged tourism and other businesses and burned more than 1.2 million acres of Big Sky Country. Fire and smoke throughout our region forced large-scale evacuations and school closures, curtailed outdoor recreation, threatened health, robbed us of our glory days of summer, and was red-flag risky to the chilly end. As f...
Suicide has to be one of the saddest words in the English language. It’s a word you are never ready to hear. Dr. Scott Hahn, professor at Stevensville University spoke of an episode in his life. He was enroute to a speaking engagement when he decided to stop at a nearby house, at the home of a friend, Dave, who he hadn’t visited with for some time. Dave’s mother invited him in while gesturing up the stairs. She mentioned that Dave was in his room and would be delighted to see him. Dave’s parents were divorced. Indeed, Dave was very happy t...
My family has a love for old things, and I must admit we are almost running out of room for all of our treasures. Just the other day my husband and daughter retrieve some glass canning jars from one of his childhood homes. Many of these jars have a Ball emblem on them, so I assume they were definitely canning jars, but—the opening is smaller than our present day “regular mouth” jars. Of course this is not the first time I have seen them and have to admit that I even have lids somewhere that fit them, but the question is, what might have been pr...
This past week my husband and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary. Those 49 years have saw lots of ups and downs. We've been through losing our house twice to fire. I say house rather than home because I've always held that a house is a bulding but a home is where your heart is. When our first house burned down and I called my brother to tell him, he said, "You lost your home to fire?" My answer was "No. We lost our house, not our home. None of us were injured so we still have our home, we just don't have a house to put it in." Raising...
The ESA is broken. So what can we do to fix it? Ideally, privately owned lands should be removed from all applications of the Act. However, this would take an act of Congress. Good luck! The Constitution of the United States Amendment V stated, “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” The questions are what constitutes private property and what is a ‘taking’? Is preventing a landowner from performing a certain act (i.e. plowing, building a fence or road, etc.) on their private property a taking? The dra...
Over the past week, I’ve taken time to notice little things that have made me smile or make me feel blessed or thankful. such as my 6-year-old granddaughter telling me she has six loose teeth. When I commented that with that many loose teeth, the tooth fairy would run out of money. Her answer was, “Oh, no, Grandma. My teeth are just loose. They haven’t fell out yet.” While watching a nature documentary, one part of it showed a very small light blue bird that lives on an island off the coast of Mexico. The narrator said that the adult bird’s...
Editor’s note: We occasionally run letters of apology here at the Courier. These typically arise through our relationship with the courts as the newspaper of record for Valley County. In other words, these apologies are usually ordered by a judge. The letter below was neither solicited, nor mandated, and was submitted voluntarily. “My name is Cinnamon. I am an addict. My addiction began when I was 13 years old, long before I even knew what addiction was. Back then, using was a way of survival, a way of life, and I used off and on until 199...
What a hornet’s nest has been stirred by the column submitted by Mary Honrud ["The Brouhaha," Sept. 27]. Sorry Jim that you could not find anyone that was willing to pen a note representing the “other side of the question” as this has proven to be quite a read on social media. I will admit that I was rather taken aback when I read the article and promptly decided it was my duty to respond, although I am sure there are others much more qualified than I. I hate trying to do research on any given controversial subject. I have even resorted to Sn...
“Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community at a time.” That is the defining statement for Kiwanis International, and, at our local Glasgow Chapter, we strive to carry it through. Want to learn more? Join the Glasgow Kiwanis Club at our weekly meeting this Wednesday, October 4. We’ll be convening in the parking lot of the Glasgow Middle School at 5:15 p.m. before taking a group trip through their new fitness trail. With several members present, it’ll be your chance to learn a...
Most people agree. The Endangered Species Act (Act or ESA) is broken. The concerns and issues originally addressed by the Act were real and its goals were very popular. The intent of the Act was valid but problems have arisen with the implementation. Unfortunately, the Act did not differentiate between federal and state-owned and/or managed lands and vested private property. This omission has given state and federal agencies considerable power to regulate actions and land uses on private lands. They have used this power, goaded on by...
During the past week, I was blessed with several column submissions about our President’s words and the rights of NFL players to freely express themselves in their professional lives (See Mary Honrud on this page). None of the submissions were from local Conservatives. Now, I like an argument to have two sides, at least, so I tried reaching out to local Republicans. No takers. In point of fact, I came close to begging a few of the usual Conservative suspects to chime in. Still no takers. Why not? Doesn’t anyone want to defend the Commander in...
