Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Sorted by date Results 1253 - 1277 of 2305
It’s time to clear the air. Protocol was broken; there are rules for suplexing journalists. It must be done within the bounds of self-defense and even then it must be done using strict caution and measured judgement. Last week, on the eve of the election, our congressman-elect assaulted a reporter from The Guardian, a British daily paper. Allegedly it was unprovoked and no matter how good a man Greg Gianforte is, this type of action is never excusable, legal or stately. He knows this. Contrary to leftist thought, the Republican Party is not t...
I first heard the song Hometown Girl, by Josh Turner, on hour 12.5 of my 14 hour drive back to college after spring break. I was inching my way through the boondocks of southern Minnesota in a freak spring snowstorm, trying not to die, and desperately attempting not to think about how badly I had to pee. With no aux cord in my car, I had to resort to a more retro way of distracting myself from the emotional, and increasingly, physical pain of my situation. I turned on the radio. The station I got the best signal on happened to be a country...
It’s been one week and one day. My initial shock hearing that Chris Cornell died quickly moved to terror the next day when I heard it, he had committed suicide. Suicide? My stomach reeled. Chris Cornell’s band, Soundgarden, had been a favorite of mine in the grunge scene that came out of Seattle. I was heartbroken!! Reading the news stories, I learned that he had long battled depression. Much like another musical influence of mine, Kurt Cobain, Chris had looked to substances to mask his pain, only to find a different demon there. Twe...
The night before the special election, as the news broke of Gianforte losing his temper, a friend posted a report on social media by rawstory.com, titled ‘Reporter decked by Montana candidate Greg Gianforte was just hauled off in an ambulance.’ The very first comment was “pretty sure this is a fake article!,” immediately followed by “I believe they will say anything at this point.” The first commenter did eventually allow that this report was ‘partly true.’ Other comments included “too bad he didn’t break more than his glasses,” “more med...
From Valley Dems: On the heels of Gianforte's act of violence, the vandalizing of a Rob Quist sign in a private yard seems unremarkable. The sign was pulled and destroyed and left. Left as a threat? Felt like it to the homeowner. Small acts excused and normalized lead to the acceptance and normalization of larger acts. We need to return to the recognition that democracy is based on a two-or-more party system. Each side has a right to voice their opinion without fear and in recognition that no one party gets it all right all the time. Our...
It saddens me that this week we will memorialize a father, a husband and a Broadwater County Sheriff Deputy whose life was taken at far too young of an age. This being May, it is also the month of memorializing those who served and gave their lives in battle for this country. Not to make this about myself, but I served three tours over seas with the Marine Corps, and after returning to Montana, I tried my hand in law enforcement for a few months before taking the National Guard Recruiting job here in Glasgow. I will say that the two jobs -...
On Saturday (May 20) I attended the political rally for Rob Quist with special guest Bernie Sanders in Butte, Mont. It began with two locals sharing their healthcare stories. A woman who had battled cancer three different times, is now facing loss of healthcare due to pre-existing conditions. While “high risk pools” are the Republicans’ answer to this problem, those pools will drive up the cost of healthcare for people in need that many will have to simply choose against enrollment. When this woman dealt with high risk pools before the ACA,...
Do you remember picking up the telephone and getting an operator? I only vaguely remember those days. If you have more accurate memories, please forgive me and feel free to give me a call. As I recall, once you picked up your phone receiver, the operator answered by saying “number please” at which time you gave her the number you wished to be connected to. If you lived in a small community, which had a local telephone office, you might not even have to give the number you needed. All you might need to do was ask to be connected to the loc...
The headlines read: "Well-Known Educator Killed in Car Accident." But there was much more to that. Russell Grandel, geologist, his wife, Mary Ellen, R.N., along with their nearly 2-year-old son, Frazier, were hit by this man who came at them from the opposite lane. The Grandels were just moving into their newly-purchased home in the valley of Palmer, Alaska, and had decided to take a break by driving to nearby Wasilla. Russell, my son-in-law, saw the vehicle coming at them, but couldn’t completely avoid it. The impact was terrific. All the G...
There are two upcoming events in Valley County in June and September that are a testimony to determination, hard work, communities pulling together, but most of all to hope and faith. In late June, the Bethel Grain Church north of Nashua will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Late September will see the parish of Queen of Angels Catholic Church, in Nashua, celebrating its 100th anniversary. Several years ago, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Nashua had its 100th anniversay. To me, these celebrations hold stories of groups of people who had a...
To the COMMUNITY: I entered your town on Thursday with a heavy heart from the loss of a friend named Tim (Timmy) Young. I, like you, had all the questions and emotions running through my mind from the moment I received the shocking news on Sunday. I was fortunate to know Tim for a few years and unfortunate (very) not to have known him longer. He joined our family as Tim Young and became Timmy to those of us at Food Services of America. Throughout the course of my life, I have made several trips “north to the Hi-Line” and this one was to be one... Full story
I am still so amazed at the town of Glasgow, Montana for all the love and support that was shown to the Tim Young family this week after his untimely death. I have never seen a town come together as this one has. I am a 2nd or 3rd cousin? and I wished I had known the Tim Young you all had the privilege of knowing. I believe he loved everyone from young to old and I don’t think he ever had an enemy. The services they had for Tim told it all!! The center was packed with people and I’m thinking maybe 600 - 700 people but was told later that the... Full story
It was especially interesting to watch the way Trump mouthpieces like Spicer, Conway and that new woman, I forgot already, contemptuously handle the questions being asked by the press. It has been so especially irritating that even Anderson Cooper, regarded as more reserved and professional, rolled his eyes at Conway’s dodging and bickering over the questions being posed about our President's actions. It was ridiculous. It was as if the White House was asking ‘who are you to ask these questions? Who are you to question the President of the Uni...
On Tuesday, the 9th of May, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, was dismissed without warning by President Trump. The coined phrase, “you’re fired” is back. Forty-three years ago on an October night, the then under investigation President Nixon ordered the firing of the special prosecutor of the Watergate scandal but it was denied by the attorney general, who immediately resigned; and then denied by the deputy attorney general, who also immediately resigned. This short cycle of concurrent events was dubbed the S...
The House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act on May 4, and began the process of implementing the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Republicans had tried to get a similar bill passed earlier this year, but the language of the bill split the party in half, with hyper-conservatives (Freedom Caucus) and moderate conservatives at odds. That bill didn’t get a vote. An amendment addressing pre-existing conditions ultimately helped pass the bill. Everyone, even our President, can admit that healthcare is a complicated beast. One major change has b...
The direction of our country will be decided in the coming months and I’m committed to making sure Montana’s voice is heard in Washington. I’m running to be Montana’s next Congressman because Montanans deserve a champion who will stand strong for our values and our way of life. I’m thankful to have built a life, started a small business, and raised a family in Montana. I fell in love with Montana more than 40 years ago on a class trip backpacking in the Beartooth Mountains. 24 years ago, my wife, Susan, and I chose Montana to raise our four...
It’s a bits and pieces week again. I hope all the mothers in our area had a really nice Mother’s Day. I was fotunate to have three of my children with me, five of my grandchildren, and to receive a phone call from my fourth child. Besides my children, we also had some special guests, including one of my daughter-in-law's mother, join us for dinner. Besides celebrating Mother’s Day, the day also included an early birthday celebration for my husband. So it was a grand day indeed. For quite a while now, the Great Falls television stations have...
Fake news would love for you to, poetically and with a decent helping of moral superiority, believe that you can forget the party lines separating Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist in this upcoming special election. Supposing a Democrat that endorsed Bernie Sanders and a Republican in support of Trump wouldn’t have any major differences, the idea of bleeding hearts coming together in unity sounds novel. The media has attempted to cast Greg Gianforte’s opponent as center-right in an attempt to win the previously Republican seat in Congress. To aid...
And so it was I found myself hating the Billionaire Tech Mogul who wants to hoard the world for his own benefit, and laughing at the thought of voting for the Cowboy Troubadour Poet going to fight consequential battles in Washington D.C. with a guitar and love first attitude. Neither candidate was appealing to me in anyway. I was beginning to despair that I would have to vote for the Montana Donald Trump or the aloof artist who can’t stand by his own views and commitments, but I digress. It wasn’t until I was reminded of the Libertarian can...
If you’ve watched television lately you might have seen the attack ads against Rob Quist, the Cut Bank man who is running for Congress in the upcoming special election. I remember when I was little, campaign ads like that would come on TV and both of my parents would mutter in disgust – not at the content, but at their existence. The red screen and dark voice missed the mark. Out here we learned respect from childhood. Some men still take their cowboy hats off when they shake a lady’s hand. You don’t know when you’ll have to call someone t...
Life can change in the blink of an eye. I sure found that out at 12:50 a.m. on April 29. I had gotten up to find the lotion I use on my hands because they were itching so badly. I reached out to pull the light cord on the ceiling fan and lost my balance. Down I went. A trip to the ER and X-rays revealed I had fractured both the radius and ulna in my right arm. And yes, I am right handed. When you read this I will have had a cast put on my arm. Now on to my column. Everywhere I look I see the bright green of new grass peppered with the bright...
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Sierra Holt’s paper, “Reinterpreting the 1882 Bison Population Collapse.” The full text was presented at the 2017 Winter Grazing Seminar in Glasgow. Many sources indicate large bison numbers. Lewis and Clark are popular (Moulton, 1987); others include J. Bradbury in 1810, Edwin James in 1820, Jacob Fowler in 1822 (Hart, 2001), James A. Fisk in 1862, Captai Grant Marsh, Captain William T. Twining in 1874, and Lt. G. C. Doane (Koucky, 1983). For example: [Clark, Aug. 29, 1806] “I must have Seen...
The nation is watching Montana as one of the first weathervanes in a post Trump-coming-to-power world. A special runoff election for the sole congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is the 25th of this month with a kickoff of mail-out ballots hitting your mailbox this week. Competing to replace the respected Ryan Zinke, now our Secretary of the Interior and first Montanan in a cabinet position, will the Democrats be able to generate a pushback to the Trump-style Americana that has taken over the nation or will the Republicans...
Today I visited Pass Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse north of Bozeman with eight kids. We talked about Montana artists and did an art project together. Most of them drew pictures of horses, or of moving cows, or their 4-H pigs. They were smart and polite and well-spoken. For work, I visit all kinds of schools. I’ve visited a middle school with 500 kids in Bozeman and a schoolhouse with six kids in Yaak. I’ve been to Hutterite colonies and St. Labre Indian Catholic School. My favorite, though, are the one-room country schools. The kids are...
I am writing this on May Day. Do you remember making May Day baskets out of construction paper and working on the project for a couple of days before May 1? I think that we might have gotten to make some of these baskets as our art project in school, and of course Mom was always a good resource. I think that they were supposed to be filled with flowers and given to someone, but if my memory serves me correctly, some baskets may have been filled with treats to be hung on the door knob, or left on the door step of a person you loved. Some place...
