Columns

The 2023 Montana wildfire season was slow to start. Average snowpack combined with rain in much of the state, spared an early fire season. Recent hot days and dry fuels, however, have now put Montana into active fire season with over 40,000 acres burned by early August. Montana’s average annual temperatures have been getting hotter and are currently 2.7 degrees F warmer than at the start of the Industrial Revolution. This warming fuels wildfires, drought, snowpack loss, and extreme heat. In late July, Gov. Gianforte asked the federal government to declare a drought disaster for 11 Montana counties. Gianforte anticipated that conditions would “continue to worsen” and sta...

Montana Democrats are out in full force trying to convince Montanans that they want to reduce your taxes. This is far from the truth as their actions in the legislative session speak much louder than their words now.  When they had the opportunity to support giving Montana resident taxpayers $900 mil...

Nineteen years ago a group of six journalists and entrepreneurs sat on a deck brainstorming ideas for a new, homegrown newspaper. I was one of those six people. So was my husband, Boone. So were Linda Sappington, Chuck Lewis and Bernie Azure. And of course, so was Jim Blow. It was his deck. It was his idea.&...

As a proud defender and lover of public land, I have cast deciding votes for Montanans to hike, fish, and hunt some of the largest expansions of public land in decades—while keeping Montana farmers and ranchers on the landscape. I was recently made aware of a social media campaign soliciting money c...

Roses are often thought of as the epitome of floral perfection. The allure of their blooms is undeniable. They grow on long stems - perfect for vases and display. They are fragrant and come in a variety of colors. Roses can stand on their own, looking glorious as a single bloom in a bud vase. Their brilli...

In her bio for Our Children’s Trust, fifth-generation cattle rancher Rikki Held, the lead plaintiff in the constitutional climate change lawsuit Held v. Montana states, “I want to ensure that basic human rights outlined in the Montana Constitution, such as the right to a clean and healthful envir...

My friend has a beautiful flower growing in the garden in front of her house. It’s a red peony plant. I’ve always loved flowers and peonies are some of my favorites. I’ve had white ones, light pink and even dark pink, but never red. I admired my friend’s red peony. I told her so...

We would like to thank the Greater Polson Community Foundation for awarding our library an Impact Grant to purchase a TV and sound system for our renovated meeting room. We are so grateful to them for the support they have given us over the years. To tie into that grant, we are also excited to share that we ...

One of the most pressing issues facing healthcare today is skyrocketing prescription drug prices. Prescription drug expenditures already account for about one-fifth of all healthcare costs nationally, and that figure is projected to go up in the coming years. It’s a crisis coming to a head with one in ...

Nearly all working-age Montanans, more than half the state’s total population, are getting some welcome news this month: the state is sending them money.  Let’s be clear. The money being sent to over 530,000 Montanans is their own money. Montana collected more income taxes, the primary so...