Montana’s Legislature is considering a bill, House Bill 505, which would provide private landowners with ten non-resident, either-sex elk tags for commercial distribution, so long as they own 640 acres or more and happen to live in a unit at elk management objective. All resident Montana hunters should oppose this legislation that would unfairly carve […]

In the hearing to consider the nomination of Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary, Sen. Bernie Sanders characterized the US government’s treatment of Native Americans as, “Nothing less than shameful,” which is an apt description of Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ attitude toward Haaland. While several GOP senators displayed passive aggression, Daines displayed little restraint when […]

Mr. Van Dyke, thank you for so clearly exemplifying the hypocrisy of the GOP in your letter to the editor printed on March 7 in the BDC. You wrote, “People- please, think for yourselves and respect others’ rights to do the same.” Well, unless you are a woman who wants to access her right to […]

“January 6th, a very dark day for our country … I categorically condemn all violence…” Sheer nonsense, of course; we knew that all Republican Senators knew that Trump personally assembled those “domestic terrorists” breaking into our Capitol. All Republicans knew it days before voting. We and those Republicans saw many videos showing Trump telling them “Fight!” […]

It is early evening, March 2021. I have just walked the western boundary of my property adjacent to where Cross Harbor Capital/Lone Mountain Land is transforming 50 acres at the core of Gallatin Gateway into a high density slum of 354 “front doors.” My eyes are burning from the exhaust of diesel generators curing concrete for […]

When fractiousness and intolerance spread so far and wide as to typify the style of thought and communication among a great many people in a society, the society is suffering a moral crisis. On the other hand, a conception of a healthy mind is given by John Keats, who described it as “capable of being […]

By TOM WOODS Guest columnist Unlike many other bills being excreted by the Legislature these days, Senate Bill 110 is very subtle in the way it reveals the dysfunction in our legislative body. This bill directs the university system to stop payments to its employee health care plan for two month periods when the health […]

Last November, Montana citizens approved Initiative-190 and Constitutional Initiative-118 which legalizes recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21. These initiatives also create a new source of revenue that provides funds to protect underfunded state parks and trails, wildlife habitat, and recreational land. Now with the 2021 Legislature in session, the governor and legislators […]

The law in Montana now mandates that its citizens, including children, walk amongst carriers of concealed firearms. Here are a few anecdotes from the true West for those MAGA cowboys: In 1883 the editor of The Black Hills Journal lamented, “Concealed weapons are still carried in Deadwood in defiance of the city ordinance imposing a […]

Our governor has a well-known propensity for limiting or eliminating government interference in citizens’ daily affairs. Thus he has freed us from the tyranny of mask wearing despite medical and scientific hat these simple procedures save lives. On the other hand, it has been reported that he favors new legislation that will allow concealed carrying […]