Editor, To all the Spanish-peaking citizens of Havre and to those visiting this hamlet: Speak only Spanish! It’s your right! Has your Border Patrol agent ever been out of the county? I suggest we all take Spanish lessons, it’s a beautiful...

Ian Hammond, which sounds like an actual name and not a user name, started as a joke an online petition to sell Montana to Canada for $1 trillion to help pay down the U.S. debt, arguing that: “We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Just tell...

For a decade or more, our Montana Legislature has grappled with the increasing need to renovate both Romney Hall on the Montana State University campus in Bozeman and the Montana Historical Society museum facility in Helena. A compelling case has...

I’ve been enjoying the recent patch of typical sub-zero Montana winter weather. The colder the snow, the easier it is to shovel. It was lucky that Rocky Creek was frozen over when 39 train cars derailed last week, dumping over 4000 pounds of coal...

This week was a wild one with a couple of committee meeting running over 3 ½ hours, needing to be cut short, and then finished at the next meeting. In my Energy Committee, bills that were closely related, often called companion bills, came to the co...

When I was in high school we lived in a house that had a metal-covered gambrel roof — aka barn roof — with a shallow slope from the peak to the first angle and a steeper slope to the eve which was actually an 8-foot deep porch roof that was at a...

Dear Editor, The Havre Area Chamber of Commerce had two events in January that were greatly supported by the community and that need thank-yous extended on our behalf. The 110th Annual Meeting and Luncheon was held at the Olympic Room of the Duck...

We finished up the month of January and the fourth week of the 66th legislative session. This week, one of the things we worked on in Tax Committee was extending the qualified endowment tax credit program. This tax credit has been in place for a...

While the whole country is debating the mary jane, ganja, dank, 420 issue of legalizing marijuana, I’m obsessing over weed of the noxious list kind. I know. I wrote about noxious weeds sometime in the last year or two. I swear I had every...

To the editor: Where’s the beef … from? No one wants to be misled, but it is happening every day at your meat counter. “Product of USA” is now gracing your beef and pork labels, even though your beef and pork are quite possibly not from an...

It is no secret that Montana has the highest rate of suicide in the country. Compounding this crisis, Montana has a critical shortage of mental health services that has been well documented for the past ten years. At least 68 new psychiatrists would...

These words come as no surprise to many of us. It is our lived experience that Native American women are more likely to go missing, more likely to be murdered, and less likely to have justice in our state. It is our lived experience that when we...

The 66th Legislature Senate Tax Committee saw 10 Senate bills coming forth this week and no House bills have crossed yet in any of my committees. We did review a controversial bill, SB 96, that would put vapes — e-cigarettes — in the category...

Editor, I always thought I was very lucky anytime I was around Roger Martens. I felt that he was amazingly cool and a wonderful presence. I never saw him when he wasn’t in a good mood. Also, I always thought Roger was the coolest looking guy I...

Yes, 40 years is a long time to hold a grudge, but I think it’s safe to say, now, that my whole brain can let the resentment go, thanks to some German researchers and a small herd of horses. In 1979 an art teacher named Betty Edwards wrote a book...

The organizers of the Native American Classic from Rocky Boy and Box Elder Schools would like to thank Jody Olson, executive director of the Havre Chamber of Commerce, Gary and Leo’s Fresh Foods, Taco John’s, Pepsi and especially the Tourism...

Dear Editor I want to sincerely thank everyone who was a part of the city judge selection process. I worked very hard to prepare for the City Council meeting that was held on the evening of Tuesday January 22nd. I appreciate the support from the comm...

Snow is starting to fall, cattle are being fed and the Legislature is back in Helena for the 66th Legislative Session. This session 58 Republicans and 42 Democrats have pulled up stakes and moved to Montana’s capitol for the next approximately...

As week two of the 66th Legislature progressed, the feeling I had was that bills seem to be moving slower than last session. My thought was that maybe I was not seeing the big picture, but visiting with other legislators, it seems we all feel the...

With the second week of the Montana Legislature in the books I would like to give you an update on some accomplishments that were made in the House. At this point, more bills are starting to pass out of committees to be discussed on the floor of the...

The other day I was presented this mind-bending analogy by someone attempting to put the government shutdown and border wall into perspective: “Trump is asking for $5.7 billion out of an annual budget of $4.407 trillion … In other words, Trump...