Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Online the other day, someone commented on how stressful it can be to travel with children when they can't have their electronics along. I remember the first time we transported a grandchild for a distance. Being “old generation,” we refused the parents’ offer of taking their DVD for entertainment. It is surprising what you can entertain a youngster with. The first thing that comes to my mind is my sisters and I singing “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” I am sure this absolutely drove my mom and dad nuts, but they did endure it for quite a w...
In 2014, I bought my first “adult” car. It was a beautiful four-door Ford pickup, which, to me, signaled that I had finally made it from adolescence to the age and independent man. Not only was I proud of my freshly acquired vehicle but I also thought it would be funny to make the license plate read, “GBUSH” after one of my political heroes and the president of my youth. Sadly, I recently traded in my pickup for a new vehicle and not to be outdone by my previous purchase, along with a healthy admiration of politics, I opted for another politic...
As I jog around Glasgow, one of the songs that rotates through my iPod is Katy Perry's "Firework." This is hard for a 50-year-old raised on classic rock like Led Zeppelin and Van Halen to admit, but the opening riffs of that fluffy pop song never fail to inspire hopeful emotions in me. I love that silly, dramatic song with lyrics that almost, but don't quite, rhyme. "Boom, boom, boom! Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon..." A song sure to appeal to middle school girls, but not so much to middle-aged joggers. When our family moved to...
The discussions around health care and cuts to Medicaid have been reduced to faceless statistics. For community mental health, and the people who rely upon our services, it’s a double whammy. The state of Montana also has announced that cuts are very probable due to reduced revenue estimates. This is on the heels of the Legislature reducing sentences with the promise that mental health and addictions treatment would solve our problems. Who are these nameless, faceless statistics? They are portrayed by some as slackers who should get a job a...
My parents have always loved to camp, so naturally, we did a lot of camping when my siblings and I were younger. At first I was the biggest weenie. I had a fear of wind, lightening, the dark, out houses, pretty much everything that makes the camping experience authentic. To be honest, I didn’t exactly relish those early family trips. As I got older though, those things became less scary and repulsive until one summer I realized that I actually couldn’t wait for my parents to haul out our mammoth blue tent and whisk us off somewhere nat...
Lately, I’ve been watching documentaries on wildlife from around the world. One documentary was about wildlife in the Rocky Mountains, which peaked my curiosity. Is there one about eastern Montana? About prairie dogs, gophers (the Richardson squirrel), antelope, deer, geese, ducks, game birds, aquatic species in Fort Peck Lake and the rivers that feed into it, etc? These documentaries brought to mind the stories I heard when I first moved here. About how thick the gophers were and the measures homesteaders had to take in order to protect t...
The only thing that comes to my mind today is [that it’s] hot and dry and we are all depressed enough about that, so I am trying to think of other things. I recently made a trip to the Western part of our state, getting to see some family and friends. I am a flat land driver and do not like curves well at all, however making the drive did make me think of days gone by. I can remember making a journey or two during my younger days when living at home. The cars of the 50s: no air conditioning, but big and comfortable. Then my mind went to what t...
Last fall, during the tail end of my cross country season, I started feeling an aching soreness in my left hip. Instead of just being sore from lifting, like I had originally thought, it turned out to be an avulsion fracture. I was absolutely devastated. Just two days before, I had ran my personal best 8K time at our regional cross country meet and now I was being told that I had six weeks of crutches in my future. I had to keep reminding myself that it could have been much worse and to be thankful that it wouldn’t require surgery. However, f...
On July 5, Children’s Hospital in Minnesota and an insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, decided to terminate their relationship. By terminating this relationship, numerous families have to decide where else to obtain the quality care they need or incur a financial burden, as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota will be out-of-network when using Children’s Hospital as a provider. After reading news-article-after-news-article about this termination, one thing that is never mentioned in the press releases from these com...
Governor Steve Bullock signed four bills on July 10 aimed to better protect victims of sexual assault. Senate Bills 22 and 26, sponsored by Senator Sue Malek and SBs 29 and 30, sponsored by Senator Diane Sands, provide a process for terminating rights of parents who committed rape, as well as making revisions to the requirements of registeration for sexual and violent offenses. Also accomplished was the elimination of the requirement that sexual assault involve force for it to legally be defined as rape, and an increased statute of limitations...
Recently, I’ve seen an article on social media quite a few times that is very disturbing, to say the least, not to mention downright disgusting. Apparently, New Hampshire State Rep. Josh Moore once stated [in a Facebook post archived by the online magazine Slate] that if he sees a woman breastfeeding in public he has the right to grab her breasts. Where does he supposedly get this right? I seriously doubt his parents told him this. From his photo it appears he is in his late 30s or, more likely, in his 40s. I wonder if he is married and if so,...
July 4th is the 241st birthday of our great country. This is a celebration worth embracing. For 241 years the United States has been a beacon of freedom, liberty, and the “American Dream.” The United States has grown from an upstart pest to the greatest country the world has ever known. However, we cannot rest on our laurels. We have issues that need addressing. Issues headed up by a burgeoning debt, which is now nearly 20 trillion dollars, or $61,364 for every person in the United States, and $165,928 for every tax payer in the United Sta...
Austin Knudsen painted Sen. Jon Tester on this opinion page last week as a dark money hoarder, as the one man in D.C. to utilize the seedy under belly of wealthy financiers to gain political capital. I was not impressed. First off, while attacking a sitting Senator from Montana, for something Republicans support as hypocritical, he came off as, well, hypocritical. It would be like condemning him for supporting the second amendment. Second, he provides nothing to back it up, but just layers on the buzz-words and the hypocrisy. In the present...
There are days when I find myself wondering why I even watch the news channels. The other day I tuned on TV, taking a break while I ate some lunch, only to happen upon the title of a talk show, “Breast feeding is not natural.” Now this might not be a good “remember” item, but just where would your mind go if you were to read that title? Never in the days of my generation would that have ever been a discussion. Of course, past generations were much closer to the land and reality of things. Basically, I decided the whole issue was the use of...
Too often, policy debates in Washington, D.C., devolve into partisan fist-fights. Each side becomes so focused on landing a punch that they forget why they climbed into the ring in the first place. Just a few years ago, one in five Montanans did not have access to health insurance, and people couldn’t afford to get sick. When we passed health care reform, we took a big step forward, and today, more Montanans have access to health care than ever before. But the current health care system is not perfect, and there are still folks in Montana who a...
I was raised to regard tofu as a joke rather than an actual nutrition source, much less one that could actually taste good. In my mind, it was this mysterious lump of matter that those crazy vegans forced themselves to eat to prove their unwavering vegan-ness. This past fall then, I was shocked when my very omnivorous friend whipped a carton of tofu out of the fridge as casually as a head of lettuce. But impressionable, little amateur foodie that I am, I was also inspired. Then, when I found out how inexpensive and packed with protein tofu...
Not long ago with a conversation with a gentleman, the topic came up about how if you happen to stop in to visit with someone, they will insist you join them for lunch or supper. I made the comment that that is just the way it is where we live. Years ago, there was a man who lived in Wolf Point and made his living traveling around a large area selling Fuller Brush products. One day when he stopped by our farm, it was close to time for lunch. It so happened I had a ham and sweet potatoes in the oven. I told him we’d have lunch and then I’d pla...
I know that there are still a lot of us around that remember the old cream separator. Many people started with the crank separator and later progressed on to the luxury of an electric one. In my mind the process of separating the cream from the milk, whether by hand, crank or electricity, was the minor part. Anyone who has the experience of separating cream no doubt can also remember the joy of washing this wonderful piece of equipment. Many of you have seen the old separator bowls that are mostly used as flower planters, and that was the easy...
She is 17 years old. And she has an attitude. She also thinks she is entitled to have some of everything we eat, whether it is part of our meal or our snacks. She is a cat and her name is Rosie. Because of health issues, her owner had to move to an assisted living facility and could not take Rosie with her. Her owner’s sister wanted to take her, but that wasn’t feasible as she is allergic to cats. So unless a forever home was found for Rosie, she was going to be euthanized. My son saw a picture of Rosie and he showed it to me as he related her...
Editor's note: U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced at press time that farmers and ranchers in six Montana counties will have access to drought assistance through U.S. Department of Agriculture disaster relief programs. The following is an open letter Tester sent to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue last week. Today I write to urge you to work with agricultural producers in Montana who are facing severe drought disaster conditions. The U.S. Drought Monitor, in recent days, designated six Montana counties at the second-highest drought...
Senate Republicans have crafted a plan that will unhinge our nation’s health care system and leave Montana families and the people who care for them scrambling to pick up the pieces. To make matters worse, they’ll vote on the bill next week without public input. This commitment to secrecy is more than concerning. It has clouded what should have been a transparent and collaborative process of strengthening America’s health. And it has set an unnerving tone for future Congressional action. GOP leaders rejected the House plan to allow insur...
In April, Senator Jon Tester joined an unsuccessful partisan effort to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. To justify his actions, Tester said at the time, “With Judge Gorsuch on the bench, I am deeply concerned that dark money will continue to drown out the voices and votes of citizens.” It seems Tester has changed his tune on “dark money” just a few months later. While the liberal “dark money” group, Majority Forward, has been pummeling Montana’s voters with television ads on Tester’s behalf – Senator Tester has...
O.K. readers, I lied a little bit. I have been fortunate enough to not have a second elbow surgery immediately, so will try to come up with a few memories. I have heard on the radio that our weather conditions are being recorded as the driest since the 30s. I thought the early 80s were bad, but like a lot of things, we find there are always worse situations. Those of us that make a living from the soil remember those years more than others. I know that we have areas locally that are drier than others, but I think that good crops, whether...
The Courier brought home six awards from the annual Montana Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest in Lewistown this weekend, including three firsts: Sports Editor Georgie Kulczyk won first place for Best Headline Writing and second place for Best Sports Feature Writing. Sean R. Heavey won another first place this year for Best Lifestyles Photo (see image above) and third place for Best News Photo. Courier regular Carlos Valle placed second and third in the Best Feature Photo category. Congratulations to our winners! And thanks for...
We all know how fickle Mother Nature can be. I don’t think there’s one month I haven’t seen weather that is unusual. Take this month -- June -- for example. Normally we have a pretty decent growing season. But one year, the growing season was only 69 days. We had a foot of snow in mid-June. I’ve seen snow fall in every month except July and August. One year, it was so cold in July, I remember wearing my winter coat as I watched the free show at the fair. I think that was the same year as when it snowed in June. We’ve not had much rain so f...
