Opinion
Editor, Shirley Azzopardi is running for Montana House District 13. Shirley graduated from the University of Montana and was a special education teacher for 30 years with 28 of those in St. Ignatius. Currently, she is the Mental Health Coordinator for Early Childhood Services with the Confederate Salish Kootenai Tribes. When Shirley ran in 2022 for Montana Representative in House District 93, she knocked on more than 1,000 doors. She had conversations with people who told her this was the first time they had been contacted by a candidate for their district. She listens and learns what people are thinking. Already this season, Shirley has been knocking doors. Maybe you’ve s...
Editor, It is difficult to write a letter in support of Shirley Azzopardi for House District 13 without comparing her to her opponent, the incumbent Linda Reksten. While Shirley advocates for the state legislature to adjust tax rates to lower our property taxes, the Republican Supermajority and Linda Reks...
How can it be? Summer has flown by and here we are getting ready to celebrate the end of our Summer Reading Program with a big block party on Thursday, Aug. 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. We’ll have live music, food and drinks available for purchase, another Paper Pie book sale, our prize drawings and of course, ...
Editor, Thunder boomed as a deluge of rain fell outside, setting the stage for a powerful presentation by Ryan Busse at a gathering of Montanans. Running for governor, he painted a positive picture of the future with articulate skill, humor and warmth. If elected, this future includes Ryan’s hono...
We all started out in the same way. As babies. But what would it be like to go back? Imagine being a baby. I’ve thought about this a few times, while watching my grands navigate their way through this world. I imagine myself in their tiny tottering shoes - or bodies, so to speak. And I realize...
We are the Area IV Governing Board and Advisory Council, which oversees older adult services in Broadwater, Gallatin, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Meagher, and Park Counties. We write to implore Governor Gianforte’s administration to prioritize improved resources to deliver Older Americans Act services ...
We are all broken. Some have just a dent in the fender; others need a whole new transmission. We are dinged, bent, damaged, hurt, cracked, confused, crushed and cut to the quick. Because life will sometimes do that to you - to me - to all of us. It changes us. It challenges us. It tosses...
When my kids were little, they often came to me with “what ifs.” What if the school bus starts to fly? What if we ate dessert first? What if God never invented rabbits? Or ice cream? Or trees? Or bikes? Or the rain? What if my hair turned into spaghetti noodles? What if all the gra...
Editor, Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s been rather hot of late. True, not record-breaking heat as in California and Nevada, but still, unusual for its tenacity. This is pretty much what scientists have been telling us to expect as we continue to emit carbon-trapping gasses into t...
Editor, Paper maps are passe. Or are they? The Heritage Foundation, under head Kevin Roberts, produced a 920-page road map outlining a radical agenda for Christian nationalism. Far from “conservative,” it calls for the dismantling of our institutions by the mass firing of civil servants, repla...
