Opinion

ARPA dollars should support families and communities

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Montanans need healthy, fresh food to work hard, care for their loved ones, and enjoy their communities. Kids, seniors, working parents, individuals with disabilities, and those living in rural and tribal communities - all deserve healthy food. Even before the pandemic, many Montanans did not have adequate food access, with more than 110,000 Montanans, including nearly one in six children, living in homes that struggle with hunger. We know this past year made accessing that basic life necessity even more difficult for many. Visits to Montana food pantries increased by 36% in 2020, compared to 2019.

COVID package will reopen our economy

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One year into this pandemic, Montanans are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thankful for Senator’s support of the American Rescue Plan

Thank you, Senator Jon Tester, for standing up for Montanans by voting for the American Rescue Plan. We are so grateful for your steadfast leadership in Congress.

AltEn ethanol plant is a mess that keeps getting even messier

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On March 1, Nebraska’s attorney general threw the book at AltEn, alleging the 24-million-gallon-per year ethanol maker near Mead spent most of the last five years making an environmental mess of its biofuels plant and the surrounding rural community.

Death and taxes

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As the old saying goes, the only two guarantees in this life are death and taxes. Due to Covid and other happenings beyond our control they have gone (deaths) and are going (taxes) up. We had an opportunity in Eastern MT to possibly see our property taxes lowered by allowing the Keystone XL Pipeline to be built through 6 eastern counties, 5 of which are poor counties (very limited budgets). That possibility has now been dashed once again, for the time being.

Lessons learned from local pioneer women

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Sometimes out here on the prairies we tend to think of ourselves as a “backwater” in the great scheme of things. I was attracted to presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar’s slogan for her campaign in 2020: “This isn’t fly-over country. This is home.” She is from Minnesota and spoke often to the notion that too many people think Midwestern people don’t have a voice to be heard in the national discussion.

Taxpayers should not foot the bill for liberal agenda disguised as COVID relief

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Over the course of 2020, Congress passed five bipartisan COVID-19 relief packages. Republicans were in the majority in the Senate and President Trump was in office.

Figuring the odds on Prospective Plantings

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If you’re a corn and soybean farmer or an ag commodity futures trader, one of the biggest makeor-break days of the year looms: On March 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will issue its Prospective Plantings report.

Rule 22, Catch 22

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Recently, U. S. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, used his power to forego the traditional abbreviated process of introducing a bill in the Senate and substitute the long version; in this case to introduce President Biden’s COVID relief bill. Johnson’s motion required the Senate Clerks to read the 628 page bill aloud to the Senators, who rapidly vacated the premises for the next ten hours while the bill was being read. By having the text of the bill read aloud Johnson took up hours of presumably valuable Senate time to forestall the inevitable by visiting a misery on the Clerks who, unlike the Senators, couldn’t duck out for the duration. This was what might be called a filibuster by proxy.

Public shut out of wildlife decisions by Legislature and FWP

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Montana hunters are being shut out of major decisions on future access to elk. The new approach in Helena, led by Speaker Wylie Galt and Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Hank Worsech, is to spring legislation on us.

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