Commentary
Local government fed up with state leaders
It’s truly bizarre to see local governments revolting against and threatening to sue the state when Republicans hold every statewide office but one in Montana, a super-majority in the Legislature, and Greg Gianforte in the governor’s office. Why? Because local governments have had it with “government overreach” by the Legislature that limits local governments on […]
Taking the public out of human services
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has a strange way of working. It seems like every time the department is asked to do something to help, you know, public health or human services, it looks for a way to stop. Remember when the only thing the Gianforte administration had to do was […]
Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights
I fondly recall my senior year in high school when Mary Beth Tinker, John Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt wore black armbands to their high school to protest the Vietnam War. Their suspension from school was cast around the thought that wearing armbands would disrupt learning. In a landmark Supreme Court case – Tinker vs. Des […]
Another endangered Montana landscape
In the 1970s, you didn’t use to see many new pickups in Trout Creek, and when you did you knew who it belonged to. Now, you don’t see many old pickups and when you do you also know whose they are. So times have changed. The parking lots in front of two of the bars […]
Grease and glue cannot penetrate Montana’s justice
The opening paragraphs of a Sept. 1, article in The Atlantic magazine by Adriane Fugh-Berman, a doctor and professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center, caught my eye: The author goes on to describe gifts given to doctors by pharmaceutical reps that influence the prescribing physician’s choice of drugs. But, my interest […]
Modernized oil, gas rules protect taxpayers and public health
I live and ranch in Bainville within the Bakken oilfield. I respect the hard work of the drillers, roughnecks, and all who execute the difficult and specialized labor in the oil and gas industry. These people work extremely hard, often in dangerous situations, to provide for their families. My feelings about some of the oil […]
Don’t lump all Realtors into the same category when it comes to politics
Recently a column was submitted, signed by individuals who’ve had considerable influence on Missoula housing policy. That column continued a recent trend of maligning realtors – a trend I find incredibly concerning and problematic. I’m a realtor and I’m a Montanan who cares deeply my community and my clients, who are overwhelmingly Montanans as well. […]
Northern Rockies Climate Refuge needs protection
As a conservation scientist, I’m blessed with a three-decade career spanning many of the most important forests on Earth. I became interested in the Kootenai National Forest and the Northern Rockies in general during the early 1990s when the visionary Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) was born. Congress should pass this bold act to protect the […]
You can pay for child molesters. You just can’t ask about them.
Happy Democracy Day. What? You didn’t get me anything? Well, if it’s any consolation (and trust me, it’s not), I didn’t get you anything, either. But I tried. And if there’s any situation that shows the absolute absurdity of what democracy looks like in Montana in 2023, it’s Jonathan Perfetto. Don’t take my word for […]
Don’t blame judges or conservationists when the Forest Service breaks the law
A recent column by an Oregon timber industry mouthpiece assailed two of Montana’s federal court judges claiming: “Bad juju is drifting through the halls of the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Missoula.” Apparently he thinks it’s “bad juju” because they found the U.S. Forest Service’s planned logging projects in Northwest Montana violated federal law. Not only […]
Supporting the troops means ending the Pentagon’s defense boondoggles
It’s bad enough that we have to live with the ghost of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Too bad we have to pay so dearly for the privilege. Eisenhower, after guiding the nation at first in war as a general, and then to peace as civilian president, left office, warning of the dangers of a growing, cash-hungry […]
Courtrooms are critical habitat for grizzly bears
Grizzlies wouldn’t be roaming the greater Yellowstone ecosystem if it wasn’t for plentiful food, and the vast wildlands of the national park that offer protections from traps, bullets, chainsaws and bulldozers. But one of the most important places for grizzlies in recent decades has been the federal courthouse. I recently reviewed every lawsuit filed on […]