Columns

There’s something about a new year that often has me reflecting on time. I guess that’s fairly natural. For many of us, January is a time of assessing priorities, setting goals, wrapping up the old year and planning for what’s to come. This year, those thoughts were punctuated by a note I received in the mail from my friend, Alice, in Ohio, who is a regular reader of this column. Alice originally reached out to provide kind words of support after the loss of my husband and we became friends. She was 96 years old at the time. Alice has since had a birthday and is currently 97. I hope she doesn’t mind my divulging her age; it should be a source of pride. Not many...

One of the great motion pictures of all time was the 1939 Academy Award blockbuster directed by the legendary Frank Capra called Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  The movie was based on an unpublished manuscript by Lewis R. Foster with the title, “The Gentleman from Montana.”  Columbia pic...

We are really looking forward to 2022 here at the library with the return of some favorite programs and some big changes on the horizon for our building. Story Time returns on Thursday mornings at 9:15 a.m. starting Jan. 13. This program is geared toward kids ages 3-5 and their parents or caregivers. Each...

When I was a little girl, my most prized possession was my Fisher Price hospital. I took it with me everywhere I went and I would play for hours with the little round blue people with their surgical masks and blonde ponytails. Even though the figure dressed like a doctor was clearly a man and the ponytailed ...

Are you thinking about changing your habits in the next year to achieve better health? Are you thinking about trying to eat healthier or perhaps becoming more active? If the answer is yes, then you have joined thousands of others who are setting goals to adopt a healthier lifestyle, whether it be to protect ...

Recently a friend of mine told me about a principle she’d learned from a Buddhist: everything is transient. I may not be Buddhist myself, but the concept intrigued me. It touches on something we all know but do a wonderful job of keeping out of our day-to-day thoughts.  The impermanence in life...

Attorney General Austin Knudsen recently spoke to a meeting of health care workers and community members in Sidney, where some employees of the Sidney Health Center were protesting the hospital’s intention to comply with a federal vaccine mandate for health care providers that receive Medicaid and Medi...

Turning the calendar over to a new year is often a time of reflection, not only to look backward but also to look ahead. What can happen to make the future bigger and brighter?  The past year has been overflowing with lessons for my life. It’s been a year of change and challenges, struggles and...

1.   The signing of my bipartisan infrastructure package into law. My top highlight is the bipartisan infrastructure package, which delivers urgently-needed investments to Montana that will support our small businesses, lower costs for working families, and grow our economy—all without raising ...

With the unrelenting talk about election fraud, I’ve decided now to clear my conscience and disclose that I voted twice for President in 1996. No, it wasn’t an act of voter fraud. As a delegate to the Republican convention that year, I voted to nominate Bob Dole as the Republican candidate. I vot...