Our View: Hi-Line darts and laurels, February 14, 2014

Laurel — Havre Middle School student Vander Swensen won the annual Hill County Spelling Bee Wednesday. By spelling the difficult words he did, he proved that young people still take spelling seriously. And it showed that Havre Public Schools — and the other schools that took part in the competition — still teach spelling well.

Dart — Someone shot a golden eagle on the Crow Indian Reservation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to know who. They are willing to pay $1,000 for any information that will help them locate the perpetrator. Golden eagles are beautiful birds, and they are endangered. We hope the feds find the guilty party.

Laurel — Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is now chair of the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee. That will put the senator in charge of the panel that oversees money that comes to Montana’s eight reservations. Over the years, there have been problems because so many federal programs aimed at helping Native Americans are so short of funds. And there have been problems with the management of the programs at many reservations. Everyone but the poor seem to be sticking their hands into the pot. Hopefully Tester can solve both of the problems.

Laurel — Hill County Republicans are looking to, with the help of the state party, build a grassroots effort at increasing its presence in Hill County. A two-party system is vital in a democracy, and at the county level, Democrats have dominated for the better part of the last century. While the GOP has done better locally at electing state representatives, Hill County government is pretty closely tied to the Democratic Party.