Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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WHEREAS, mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and well being; and WHEREAS, all Americans experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives; and WHEREAS, prevention is an effective way to reduce the burden of mental health conditions; and WHEREAS, there is strong research that animal companionship, humor, spirituality, religion, recreation, social connections, and work-life balance can help all Americans protect their health and well being; and WHEREAS, mental health conditions are real and prevalent in our nation; a...
Dear Editor, On April 2, 2019, Montana Senators Jon Tester (D) and Steve Daines (R) announced their bipartisan support of the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support (CARES) Act to fund research, training, and services and supports that improve the lives of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental and intellectual disabilities. This includes diagnostic services, training for healthcare providers and family members, and community training...
Dear Editor, Montanans know how precious water is. It's essential for fish and wildlife, boating and angling, irrigating, drinking and creating much of our electricity. When something threatens our water - such as aquatic invasive species - we are on high alert. Preventing the introduction and spread of AIS is work that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks takes very seriously as we understand the devastation it can cause to habitat, recreation and our economy. After the discovery of invasive mussel l...
Dear Editor, I was at the Easter Egg hunt last Saturday to watch all the excited kids picking up the candy-filled eggs. It was such a joy to watch them run and have fun. What was not a joy was to be walking around the park and seeing all the piles of dog poop our kids are coming into contact with while playing in the park. There should be no animals allowed in that park at anytime because their owners are not responsible enough to clean up after them and our children/grandchildren deserve to...
Do you remember the former Deaconess Hospital? The Courier has featured several pictures lately. Some of the things that come to my mind are the men’s and women’s wards. These rooms housed a group of patients. I am sure there were specifications on just what type of patient was housed in these rooms, but I do know that new moms got to have company as they were placed in the ward. And those were the days they spent three to 10 days in the hospital recovering. I also remember visiting men friends in the men’s ward. Yes, your privacy was less,...
Dear Editor, Polls consistently show that Montanans support public lands and access to them. And yet, the 2019 Montana Legislature consistently opposed bills that improve access and supported bills that reduce it. Of the four bills that would have improved access, three died. Meanwhile, the anti-access bills, HB 550 and HB 265, garnered more support. Luckily, HB 550 died on the Senate floor after massive action was taken by Montana’s hunters and anglers. But sportsmen and sportswomen are d...
Dear Editor, As former and current Montana Public Service Commissioners, we represented Montanans across this great state in balancing the needs of utilities with the needs of consumers. We took our oath of office seriously and worked tirelessly to faithfully perform the job to which our constituents entrusted us. We often disagreed as Commissioners, and still rarely agree on many issues. Yet we are writing this letter because we share grave concerns about Senate Bill 331. While we may differ in...
Do you remember the days of childhood games? I was thinking of some of the expressions we used “back then” and wonder just where they derived from. Did ‘Oly-oly-oxen-free’ make perfect sense, and what did it mean, or for that matter when did we even use that phrase? What about having to choose between items or persons to play on your team? I know that many of you used the ‘eeny-meeny-miney-moe’ method. Then along came the early teen days and Double Dog Dare. I need to be a mouse in the corner and listen to terminology used by the young (real...
The focus in Helena is turning away from committee hearings on new bills to amending, fine tuning and passing what legislation remains in volley. Farm Bureau didn’t testify on any new pieces of legislation this week; rather we focused on monitoring bills still at play and doing what we can to get them the rest of the way through the process. Legislation doesn’t automatically become law just because it passes through both chambers. Once through the House and Senate, it faces one final hurdle and lands on Governor Bullock’s desk. The Gover...
Dear Editor, This past week, the Montana House of Representatives passed both House Bill 652, the Long-Range Bonding bill, and House Bill 658, the Medicaid Expansion bill. The Bonding bill passed the floor with 68 yes votes and 30 no votes, and the Medicaid Expansion bill passed with 61 yes votes and 37 no votes. I opposed House Bill 658, the Medicaid Expansion bill, largely because the non-severability clause in the bill was removed and replaced with a severability clause. This means that if a...
Dear Editor, Two weeks ago, the House voted to spend $191 million dollars on infrastructure needs across the state. These projects included water, sewer, bridges and roads. Last week in Helena, Republicans and Democrats came together to protect Montana children. On the floor of the House we heard a bill intended to improve our system and bring justice to abused children. HB 640 was a cooperative effort by both sides of the aisle to address laws regarding the prosecution of child sexual abusers....
Dear Editor, Customs & Border Protection has proposed a reduction of hours due to a decline in traffic over the past four years. I attended the Town Hall meetings at Plentywood to discuss hour reduction at the Port of Raymond / Regway of which is a 24 hour commercial port, the proposed hours of operation would be from 6 a.m. to midnight. Canada (Regway) remains 24 hours. CBP had proposed the hour reduction in 2015, we resisted, they reconsidered and it has remained a 24 hour commercial port. We...
So far, this year has presented a lot of challenges. It really is true you never know what to expect. Some of the bumps in my journey have been fair-sized, others have been on the small side. I am still waging my battle with cancer by remaining on chemotherapy. Before too long I’ll know if I’ll continue using the current medicine or change to a different one. Presently I am sporting hair! I can see it’s white and there are even some curls. Hopefully, if it becomes necessary to change to a different medicine, I won’t lose my newly gained...
In a recent phone conversation with my mom, Helen DePuydt, we managed to end up talking about mice. It is funny how conversations will meander into different topics ending on one that becomes lasting memory. My mom told me about a recent infestation of mice in her house, which isn’t surprising as the house she currently lives in was built in 1965 and is surrounded by crop fields. My mom said, “That reminds me. In the first 12 years we lived in our old house, there wasn’t one mouse. Then one summer, however, mice started to take up residence in...
Dear People of the Great State of Montana, Hello! I am a fourth grade student in North Carolina. In fourth grade, we research a state for our State Fair, and I have chosen your state! I am very excited to learn more about the great state of Montana as I work on my report. Most of the information I get will be from books and websites. However, the best information comes from the people who live in and love their state! This is why I am writing to you. I was hoping that you would be willing to...
Dear Editor, This was a busy week in the legislature. Both the House and Senate acted on large pieces of legislation. As we move toward the end of the 66th legislature, the budget is moving along. I sit on the Senate Finance and Claims Committee where we met one day for eight hours to review House Bill 2 – the largest part of the budget. There were great hearings on different sections of the bill. As I have always done, I am working hard with my colleagues to keep the Governor's tax increase w...
Dear Editor, Last summer, I met a woman in Lewistown who told me she made too much money to qualify for Head Start but couldn't afford to have her son in the kind of quality program that would give him a great start. I met parents in Wibaux who had to drive 30 miles away to take their kids to the closest childcare provider. It was because of the pilot preschool program Republicans and Democrats funded in the 2017 Montana Legislative Session that allowed that mom in Lewistown to stay in the...
Dear Editor, One of the most important issues that we will tackle this session is protecting the health care coverage of more than 96,000 Montanans. Last week, the House Human Services Committee voted to advance HB 658 to continue Montana's successful Medicaid expansion program. Over the course of the session, House Democrats have highlighted the critical need for Medicaid expansion-for enrollees, rural hospitals, and the over 18,000 businesses that employ workers who receive coverage....
Mary Ellen, our number nine child, who had just arrived home from school, strolled through our farm house with an anxious look on her pretty face. She blurted out, “Mom WHEN are you and Dad EVER going to get married?” I went into a state of shock....right there in our living room! “Honey....Dad and I have been married for 30 years!” I was very puzzled....It turned out that Mary Ellen thought that a couple were married only if the bride wore a lovely white gown. Louie and I had an informal wedding, very common in that era. My expensive pink su...
The Montana legislature has at hand the future of Medicaid expansion. The current program, which was approved by the legislature in 2015, will sunset by the end of 2019. An attempt was made in 2018 to fund the state's share of expanded Medicaid funding through an increase in the tobacco tax by way of a ballot initiative. That initiative was narrowly defeated. The legislature has before it for consideration HB 658, sponsored by Republican representative Ed Buttery, which would lift the sunset...
Dear Editor, The 2015 Montana legislature passed the Medicaid Expansion program in Montana, providing healthcare coverage to low income and disabled individuals. Importantly this act included work/training programs, premiums, as well as a four- year expiration "sunset" date to allow the legislature to review the data and consider whether to leave the program unchanged, make reforms or discontinue it. Initially the Federal government paid for 100 percent of the program, tapering down to 90...
Dear Editor, Traditional Medicaid was created to lend a hand to our most vulnerable populations. Unfortunately, the Governor, Democrat legislators, and more than a few Republican legislators are trying to prop up an entitlement program for the able-bodied, Medicaid Expansion. Expansion is the brain-child of the Obama Administration and the gateway to a socialist and broken single-payer healthcare system like Canada's. Socialism is a repeatedly failed ideology (Venezuela), and destroys the...
Dear Editor, An Amendment attached to House Bill 2 (the State's budget bill) provides the Legislature the opportunity to reduce local government revenues and divert them to the Office of Public Defender (OPD). OPD is a state agency that has nearly doubled in size since the Legislature assumed the program from Montana counties. The Legislative Fiscal Division (LFD) reports that the public defender system appropriations in 2007 were $18.6 million. The budget request, including supplemental...
Dear Editor, This spring marks the 10-year anniversary of Healthy Montana Kids. Until 2009, tens of thousands of Montana children had no health coverage; no way for their families to pay for a doctor visit or a hospital stay. Thousands of Montana families, working to make ends meet, were one childhood medical emergency away from bankruptcy--praying every day that their son or daughter would not get sick. I met hundreds of these families face to face and saw first-hand their stress, their...
Dear Editor, Infrastructure is a conversation that is happening on the national, state and local level. When we talk about our state's infrastructure in the Montana Legislature, it usually means big money and big problems. During the last three legislative sessions, the Montana Legislature has failed to pass a comprehensive infrastructure bill that includes funding for critical projects in every corner of our state. It's not because projects being proposed are not important, or that the...
