Texas’ new anti-abortion law is one of the most restrictive in the developed world. But no surprise that the brouhaha over women’s right to abortion services has nothing to do with honoring their personal autonomy and little to do with fetal mortality. Rather, the fight is grounded in partis… Read Article
Public health departments in Montana have been assessing how to balance the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance related to vaccinated individuals with Montana’s recent legislation prohibiting discrimination based on vaccination status. This summer, the CDC updated q… Read Article
For the past couple months, I have been cautiously optimistic that our county is moving toward a healthy trend related to COVID-19 illness. Case counts and hospitalizations have been down. Vaccination rates have consistently increased. Public health staff have focused time and energy on othe… Read Article
We’re being invaded! More than one million people from about 140 different countries have illegally entered the United State of America since January. The southern border is a disaster in every way. Read Article
July is America’s birthday month. We celebrate the 245th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year. On July 4, 1776, 56 representatives to the Second Continental Congress from all 13 colonies signed the document. The vision for America was declared: "all men are created equal"… Read Article
"In a democracy, we are free to do many things, but we are not free to ignore the truth." —Jonathan Schell Read Article
The right to vote is fundamental to the existence of democracy. Montana's Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, provides that "all political power is vested in and derived from the people ... and is founded on their will only." And Article II, Section 2, provides that it is "the people" wh… Read Article
As the month of July is nearly ending, the busy schedule of prepping Jefferson High School for the coming school year continues. The custodial crew has been working diligently with cleaning, waxing and painting. The girls' locker room floor has been stripped and removed of all paint, then … Read Article
The building that once housed the last drugstore in Walden, Colorado—a town of fewer than 600—is now a barbecue restaurant, where pit boss Larry Holtman dishes out smoked brisket and pulled pork across the same counter where pharmacists dispensed vital medications more than 30 years ago. Read Article
The race for Montana’s soon-to-be-established second seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is starting to take shape, with Democrat Laurie Bishop and Republican Al Olszewski officially announcing their candidacies this month. Read Article
K–12 education is a primary force that forges and changes our society generation after generation. We all are involved—through children, grandchildren, paying taxes or perhaps as teachers, administrators, staff, elected trustees or volunteer service providers. And much is happening in the ed… Read Article
An interesting phenomenon is occurring in many rural spaces: Even though the population has been steadily declining for the past 50 years, there has been an increase in the number of households. Kelly Asche, a research associate for the Center for Rural Policy and Development, wrote in an Ap… Read Article
The 2021 legislative session adjourned on April 29. Having had a few weeks to digest the work accomplished at the legislature, I’d like to share my final update. Read Article
One hundred thirty thousand dollars. That’s what it takes for a down payment to buy an average-priced home in Bozeman, Montana. Then an aspiring homeowner must fork out another $3,000 each month, which is more than two-thirds of their household’s paychecks if they make the median income for … Read Article
The Bryher Patch/Youth Garden, which closed this month, has been a place where kids dug in the dirt and ate their vegetables (and sometimes worms) that they grew. This project’s goal was to teach kids about real food. The Youth Garden has been a project of our 21st Century Community Learning… Read Article
Did you know the Jefferson County Sanitarian and County Health Board want to create a Clancy Special Management Area using the current Clancy Water & Sewer District (CWSD) boundary that runs between the Legal Tender Bistro on the north end to the Elkhorn Rehab Hospital on the south end a… Read Article
The end of the 2020-21 school year is arriving and a number of accomplishments have occurred. This past week, the JHS golf team brought home hardware with a second-place boys’ finish at the Class B Divisional golf meet in Bigfork. Preston Field finished third, Luke Eckmann tenth, and Marcus … Read Article
A few dozen of the 721 bills that passed the Montana Legislature this year grabbed the public’s rapt attention — hot-button social issue bills and big-dollar spending measures that prompted headlines and drew, in some cases, thousands of public comments as lawmakers wrangled over their fates. Read Article
Once again, the Rally for Public Lands at the State Capitol was proof that our public lands and outdoor way of life bind us. The numbers bear it out: 89% of Montanans visit public lands every year; 64% hunt or fish; 79% consider themselves conservationists; and 89% say public lands positivel… Read Article
Food banks and other distributors are coming up with creative answers to the problem of reaching the food-insecure in rural areas. Read Article
Rep. Mike Simpson is a conservative Republican from Idaho whose concept of wildness in the 1990s was going into the rough at a golf course. Read Article
To those of you who have been struggling with the uncertainty of this virus, know that the Health Department has been struggled with you. We have struggled with how best to protect our community. We have debated policy and procedures. We have followed the best practices laid out by our coun… Read Article
Eddie Mulick was the first person I met when I moved to Trout Creek, and that was largely because he owned what his matchbooks proclaimed was, “The Wayside Bar--finest bar in Trout Creek.” It was also the only bar. Read Article
I’ve lost three hunting spots on corporate timberlands in the last two years. I’ve always appreciated the privilege of hunting those lands but knew they could be sold. One sale blocked a road leading to thousands of acres of US Forest Service where I’ve hunted for over 30 years. The hunt for… Read Article
There’s one passage in William Kittredge’s The Next Rodeo that has sneaked into my brain and my way of thinking. It’s from the essay “Home”: “Looking backward is one of our main hobbies here in the American West, as we age. And we are aging, which could mean growing up. Or not. It’s a diffic… Read Article
Thirteen-year-olds can AirDrop Simpsons memes from across the room, and artificial intelligence made chess masters like Garry Kasparov obsolete. But for all our technological advances, at home, we’re still cavemen. Read Article
Whatever grudging respect I had for U.S. Senator Steve Daines has been obliterated by his stunt of joining 11 other Republican Senators to question the validity of the 2020 Presidential election. His motives mystify me, but his action chills me. Trump, I at least understand. He wants to be P… Read Article
By mid-September, there was no one left to call. The West, with its thousands of federal, state, and local fire engines and crews, had been tapped out. Read Article
December 15 marks a hidden holiday, as uncelebrated as it is unappreciated. It was 229 years ago on that day the United States ratified the Bill of Rights, ensuring unprecedented freedom for the people of an emerging nation. Read Article
Montana is not the only place with an economy that depends on its rich natural resources, though I would argue that it is the most spectacular. And I learned firsthand, making my living off the state’s timber, the importance of careful stewardship of the wealth that comes from our rivers and… Read Article
With the passage in Montana of I-190 we have joined California, Washington, Oregon, and a few other “Liberal” states in making the purchase and use of marijuana jail time free. It has been about 100 years since its use became a social stigma, then illegal in the United States. Marijuana use … Read Article
By Jonathan Thompson Read Article
Now that the election season is full upon us I, like you, have had my mailbox jammed full with large and glossy pieces of light cardboard informing me about the merits and flaws of the various candidates. While I am glad that the Post Office is making money off of politicians instead of havi… Read Article
As the summer comes to a close and the weather begins to cool off, our weekends usually are filled with trips to the stadium or the gymnasium. Fall sports in Montana are some of the most anticipated events of the year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are risks that need to be co… Read Article
Oregon voters have long cast their ballots by mail in many types of elections, including for local, state and federal offices. They started doing so in 1987 – and have voted exclusively by mail in all elections since 1998. Read Article
You don’t hear this from former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt or the usual suspects whose goal is to end many water diversions from the Colorado River, but it’s true. Rural landscapes and wildlife need ranching and irrigated agriculture to survive. Read Article
As a longtime teacher who has heard every complaint under the sun about how horrible school is, how boring, arbitrary, irrelevant and unfair, I find myself somewhat taken aback by the fierce pressure to return to regular classroom instruction. Read Article
I love the Post Office as much as I love the flag that flies over it. In every city or small town in Montana the American flag flies proudly over the buildings that house the oldest public service in America. It was founded in 1775 and Benjamin Franklin was its first postmaster. I do not und… Read Article
It’s cool this morning. There is a different feel to the air. The days are slowly getting shorter, my bird dogs are getting restless and I am listening for that first bugle of a bull elk down in the river bottom. It’s that time when I, and all hunters, anxiously prepare for the glorious da… Read Article
Last month, as the nation grappled with the George Floyd killing and an outpouring of protests, The Monitor invited readers to share their views on race, Black Lives Matter, and justice. What does this moment mean to you? How does it relate to your own experience of race? What can be done? H… Read Article
Reclining in my favorite chair recently in vanishingly small Inez, Wyoming, I found myself close to tears. My wife Maria sat beside me to ask what was troubling me. Read Article
By JIM ELLIOTT Read Article
As I look out my window, the smoke from the Bush fire is belching upward behind the fabled profile of the Superstition Mountains. The fire has closed Highway 87 that joins the Phoenix metro area to Payson, one of its exurbs. Some small communities are evacuating. Read Article
We are at a good place in history, and we are at that good place because we are facing adversity together. It is sad to think that many had to die to spur us to action, but good times don’t seem to move us forward as a people, bad times do. Read Article
By QUINNE SHULTZ and JADYN BELLANDER Read Article
I arrived in Boulder in November 2018 with a $50 Town Pump card in my wallet. Google had given me the impression that the gas station was the closest thing Boulder had to a coffee shop, a state of affairs I lamented to my former boss; she bought me the card as a going away gift. Happily I so… Read Article
The recent outbreak of the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, has been devastating to nearly everyone. It has become a global pandemic sending a massive wave of fear to nearly everyone across the planet. The times in which we live are scary and uncharted. Nobody knows what … Read Article
