It seems St. Peter's Health has struggled in the PR department over the past couple of years, and I will be the first to admit I have had my own concerns at times as well. However, that said, I believe compliments are as, or maybe even more, important to express as are the concerns, and that…
Ah, Kendall Cotton. Predictable as a stopped clock without the advantage of being right twice a day. If he weren’t so busy hacking up the latest hairball of right-wing buzzwords and analyzed what he was saying, he’d realize his latest screed was actually an attack on representative democracy…
Unlike several of our current political leaders, I grew up in Montana. Guns were an important part of my adolescent life. But my upbringing never included killing for killing’s sake. Every kill included a certain amount of grief for ending the life of a fellow creature. Killing was always fo…
Thank you for reporting on the March for Life. We pro-life folk desire to offer help to women who fear an unplanned pregnancy. We pray for them and their babies. And we are anti-abortion!
March For Life ... What?
Sens. Tester and Daines,
Jan. 6 was the anniversary of a day that should live in infamy. Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the election, called his supporters to come to Washington and tried to disenfranchise the votes of the American people. People died. People were terrorized. And since that day, Repub…
Each year I find myself recreating in the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act landscape. This year it involved hikes cresting the Swan Range, last year it was camping and mountain biking north of Ovando. This winter I’ll again backcountry ski there. At each turn, I’m also wildlife-watching …
The Senate will be voting on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act very soon, in response to the over 400 laws set forth across our nation that make voting more difficult. Why change a system that is not broken? Instead, let's improve accessibility for v…
Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks has been one of the best-run wildlife management agencies in the United States for decades. Wildlife has been managed based upon scientific information. Both game and non-game wildlife have benefited from an approach that considers criteria such as habitat c…
Rather than being "very bizarre," the full-page ad urging straight talk on COVID vaccination was not about politicizing vaccinations but rather recognizing that they already are politicized, as shown by numerous polls. The most recent shows 90% of Democrats are vaccinated, 68% of independent…
In the Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, edition of the paper, the Helena IR published another column from Kendall Cotton, on Red Tape Relief. Mr. Cotton states that “the accumulation of thousands of regulations has been shown to stifle economic growth and substantially increase the cost of doing busine…
One year ago in American history we showed how many ways democracy can be viewed. Some saw democracy as a means to justify violence as their voice. A voice directed at not only an outcome in their country’s election but towards fellow Americans that lived four years with the previous outcome…
A very bizarre full-page ad ran in the IR’s front section on Sunday promising “straight talk” about COVID vaccines. The problem is, the ad had quotes from this nation’s former but not CURRENT president, Montana’s current but not FORMER Governor, and one current US Senator but not the other. …
Phantom snow plower strikes again. For the past two years someone plows my yard yet never comes to get paid. I got up a few days ago to find my yard all plowed again. I'm not sure who you are, but I have my suspicions. I just want to thank you for this service. I'm not working anymore so you…
Each week the IR, thankfully, publishes a world map titled "Earthweek: Diary of a Changing World." The Jan. 3 article on page A7 was titled 2021 Year in Review. I glanced at the map and almost flipped to the next page, but decided to take time to read it. What lay before my eyes were 10 sect…
A recent letter to the editor cited a Harvard study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology regarding Covid-19 vaccinations. The assertion in the letter was that Covid-19 actually surges among the most vaccinated communities. The study’s author, Sandara Venkata Subramian, says, how…
Re-imagining (defunding) the police has resulted in fewer police on the streets to deter crime and increased response times. The murder rate increased in 16 major cities in 2021. We need more police, not fewer.
The state of Montana has spent at least $119,000 in legal costs because our State Constitution prohibits bills passed by the Legislature last year. As a Montana state taxpayer, I find this waste unacceptable. This year when I pay my tax bill I will wonder – how will the legislators waste my …
Today (Jan. 6) is the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Capitol of the United States, a failed attempt by Trump supporters whose success would have destroyed America’s greatest achievement, democracy.
State Rep. Brad Tschida and a few citizens counted mail-ballot envelopes hoping to demonstrate voter fraud in Missoula. Their results were interesting but did not show voter fraud. The count was evidence of a known sociological theory that each recount will be less accurate than the prior count.
As we approach the first anniversary of the insurrection, it seems to me the key question is not whether Trump committed an indictable offense but whether he exercised responsible leadership by rallying his supporters to storm the Capitol, by encouraging them that they were engaged in a righ…
I read with no small amount of humor the guest piece by Stephen Maly of Bozeman. I have to assume we have another educational issue in that the use of the term "Bolshevik" to describe what he or she assumes is the political right lacks any historical basis. Bolsheviks are well known for thei…
Between Austin Knudsen and Elsie Arntzen, Montana is in a real pickle. Maybe it is time voters stop voting for people because of the letter "D" or "R" after their name. Let's get back to voting for people based on their character, their knowledge, and experience.
This is a letter about the response to my letter arguing that individual choice should guide our willingness to get the COVID vaccine. Her letter stated “If everyone (or even most of us) rushed out to get vaccinated … we would probably be talking about the epidemic in the past tense.”
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