Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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When I looked at this week's Courier I thought, 'Oh, good, the autumn bazaar was a success.' However, there was nary a mask in sight! It's as though there is no covid pandemic and somehow we are immune to any threat in spite of the fact that Montana has been listed as a state with a low vaccination rate. The "anti-vaxxers" seem to reign and the words of trained scientists are ignored. No one should ever have to explain or apologize for wearing a mask! Then I turned to page A2. Uff da! I am tired... Full story
"Congress is gradually moving toward having only one bill per year," former congressman Justin Amash (L-MI) tweeted recently. And that bill will have "everything stuffed into it, negotiated by just a few congressional leaders, completely behind closed doors, with no floor amendments permitted." Amash presumably has the current "infrastructure" bill in mind. Weighing in at more than 2,700 pages and chock-full of stuff only tenuously (if at all) related to infrastructure, it's more of a leadership-negotiated door stop than an honestly debated... Full story
It’s no surprise that current and former members of the military make great entrepreneurs. The resilience, determination, and fortitude they acquired while in uniform was a great training ground for becoming a successful small business owner. Working in collaboration with our government and community partners, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) plays an important role in supporting service members as they exit the military and become entrepreneurs. During National Veterans Small Business Week, Nov. 1-5, the country celebrates those v... Full story
The Biden administration wants to improve America's international reputation. That's why it endorsed a proposal before the World Trade Organization to waive all intellectual property rights related to Covid-19. The president intends for this offer to be seen as a generous gesture that his "America First" predecessor would never have made. Yet this endorsement is toothless virtue-signaling at best -- and dangerous economic capitulation at worst. It caught our European allies by surprise. The EU nations, especially Germany, do not support the... Full story
"Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as he walked, [John] said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." John 1:35-36 Have you noticed how often we come across sheep and shepherds in the Bible? It is very often. Shepherding sheep must have been a common vocation and something people related to in their lives back then. Shepherds are in the Christmas narrative in Luke Two as they first hear the Gospel message from the angels of Christ's birth. Plus, they are the... Full story
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." A tale of two states. As I was perusing the website of a newspaper I used to work for in Western Washington, my eye was caught by a headline that made me grateful I no longer live there. It was, "Proof of vaccination required at these businesses and events." That means, for the unvaccinated, entrance is barred. Your money is no good. You are an outcast. I am pretty sure such policies are the definition of discriminatory practices. The... Full story
President Joe Biden wants the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all workers at companies with more than 100 employees. Local governments from sea to shining sea, including those of New York City and San Francisco, have conscripted business owners as "vaccination passport" inspectors, forbidding them to serve customers whose papers aren't in order. Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbott, on the other hand, are attempting to mandate that businesses may NOT condition employment... Full story
Recently my home county of Sanders twice made national news, first for having the highest increase in COVID cases in the United States and more recently for a group of citizens pressuring a member of the Sanders County Board of Health into resigning because he stood up for what he was trained in and with which the crowd disagreed, namely medical science. This is the kind of publicity that most communities would not want to have because it would serve as a deterrent to the economic growth of an area. Well, that would have been the case years... Full story
When it comes to insuring your home it is important to know there is a significant difference between “Replacement Cost” and “Actual Cash Value” coverage. We’ll get to that shortly. You can't watch TV without seeing an insurance commercial. Whether it's Progressive's Flo, Allstate's Mayhem, or Jake from State Farm, there is a heavy flow of advertisements for insurance companies. Insurance is one of the most competitive industries in the United States, with over one million agents writing 1.28 trillion dollars in premiums in 2020. In this hype... Full story
I am pleased to announce that more than a century of Valley County History is now available for public perusal at the Valley County Pioneer Museum. After the original Courier building was damaged beyond repair not too long ago, quick decisions had to be made about what to do with the many volumes of old newspapers which had meticulously documented Valley County since the early 20th Century. The collection also includes other publications in Valley County which no longer exist. It is quite the tr... Full story
IRS Seeks Approval to Snoop 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... Full story
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 largest tax... Full story
Montanans overwhelmingly reject Critical Race Theory in our classrooms. Since Brown v. Board of Education, we’ve worked to live up to our founding ideals and we hold true to the principle of equal treatment for every student. President Biden’s controversial nominee to head the Department of Education’s extremely powerful Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Catherine Lhamon, instead wants to make sure every school in America implements and adheres to Marxist ideologies disguised as so-called antiracism teachings. Ms. Lhamon’s nomination stalled... Full story
Speak your mind and be heard. But, do it politely - lest the feds label you as a "domestic terrorist." To whom am I speaking? Why any parent who attends a school board meeting in these United States and is against mandatory masking or COVID-19 vaccinations. To be clear, I am not referring to the local school boards in Valley County. I have attended several Glasgow School District board meetings, and they have welcomed public discourse about masking and other COVID-19 related concerns. Late in th... Full story
"I’m a small business owner," someone identified as "Andy" writes to syndicated advice columnists J.T. and Dale, "and I can’t believe how many people just don’t want to work anymore. ... my business is suffering, because I can’t get employees." My social media feeds are full of photographs — who knows if they're real or not? I haven't seen any in my town, but friends say they've seen them elsewhere — of signs at businesses apologizing for being "short-staffed," with "people just don't want to work" complaints appended. The country seems adrif... Full story
Whenever you hear about America's electricity system these days, it's usually some big problem that has captured the public's attention. There are examples of energy companies operating inefficiently, such as ratepayers having to foot the bill for massive cost overruns at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. Sometimes, as was the case in South Carolina, customers wind up paying higher rates to cover the costs of building generation resources that are never completed and generate no electricity. And we have seen outright corruption, such... Full story
"Everyday low prices" are coming to health care. Walmart recently launched its own analog insulin, a synthetic form of the hormone that's genetically modified to be released rapidly or slowly, depending on a person's needs. It will be manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk — but cost 75% less than brand-name analog insulin. The deal stands out as proof that markets can deliver outcomes that work for producers and consumers alike — if we let them. Generally speaking, the "market" for medicines is dysfunctional. It bears little res... Full story
Pregnancies and human life are older than recorded time, and so, it follows, are abortions. The procedures by which abortions have been conducted, however, have only very recently in human history been recognized in law and made safe by regulations. In 1973, the Roe v Wade decision declared abortion a constitutional right within certain health related restrictions, and all states have been bound to safely implement that decision for nearly half a century. In Montana, however, the legalization of abortion became an issue two years before the... Full story
St. Marie residents last week woke up to a movie scene straight out of "Red Dawn" as paratroopers descended from the skies during exercises at the old Glasgow Air Force Base facility. No, it wasn't red communists surreptitiously carrying out an invasion of heartland America. Instead, it was a troop of U.S. military personnel in town for exercises at the near abandoned base, currently managed by Montana Air Research Company (MARCO), an affiliate of Boeing. MARCO refused to comment on the ongoing... Full story
On Aug. 25, two days after the US Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 vaccine, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered "full vaccination of all members of the Armed Forces." Cue outrage and objection. Some officers have resigned their commissions; some enlisted personnel seem willing to risk court-martial and dishonorable discharge rather than get vaccinated. Some claim the mandate violates their rights or lacks a legal basis. In the quarter century since my honorable discharge from the US Marine Corps,... Full story
This summer, I heard from small business owners about how Montana’s lack of housing is holding back our economy. It’s a story I keep hearing, that Main Street wants to hire, and Montanans want to go where the jobs are, but they can’t find a home or apartment they can afford. The typical price of a home in Montana has risen more than 10 percent in the last year, showing us the housing struggles that were localized to just some of our communities have spread to hamstring communities throughout this state. It’s unacceptable that hard-wo... Full story
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. corporate tax rate. It is a moral imperative, they say, to make big business “pay it... Full story
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat could use a refresher on Freudo-Marxist psychiatrists. Douthat chides libertarians — or at least “the kind of libertarian who identifies forever with his 13-year-old self” — for taking a laissez-faire attitude to “a novel, obviously addictive technology that might well be associated with depression and self-harm” (“Instagram Is Adult Entertainment,” Sept. 30). Douthat refers to social media websites, but he should take a closer look at “the people who panicked over the moral effects of comic books” befo... Full story
Clever tweets tend to morph in content and meaning over time. I don't know where this one originated, and I've edited it to taste as people will do with such things, but I'm sure you'll get where it's going: "It's just 15 days to flatten the curve. It's just a mask. It's just six feet. It's just no large gatherings. It's just preventing 'misinformation.' It's just a shot. It's just a mandate. It's just showing your vaccine passport on demand ..." Naturally, anyone who objected at any waypoint on that trail, or predicted the next waypoint, was... Full story
The fourth Saturday in September marks a national day of recognition for two things Montanans already value every day: National Public Lands Day and National Hunting and Fishing Day. As Montanans, hunting, fishing and access to public lands is part of who we are. It is the lifeblood of our economy, and public lands are where many of us create the memories we cherish with our families. As your Congressman and Secretary of the Interior, I led the charge against the sale or transfer of public lands. I was often the lone Republican voice in the... Full story
