For secretary of the Department of the Interior, our country needs a leader who possess integrity, competence, and demonstrated ability to work effectively with diverse constituencies and amid diverse responsibilities. From a military family, and as an enrolled member of the Pueblo Laguna, Congresswoman Debra Haaland has those credentials and more. As a Congresswoman from […]

Senate Bill Bill 169 is about adding new criteria to the existing Montana mail registration process for voting. The legislators in Helena seem to feel that changes and improvements need to be made. Have the legislators gathered real data to support their assumptions? Have they carefully interviewed experienced election staff in different counties who routinely […]

By CLINT NAGEL AND STEPHEN CAPRA Guest columnists Montana is currently undergoing its 67th Legislature. How invested are you as a resident of Montana in the decisions being made in your name? Unfortunately, what is coming out of the statehouse in Helena is a lot of legislation harmful to wildlife. Much of that is being […]

Our Legislature has moved very fast through with 2 areas of bills that are basically not logical and very emotionally charged. Guns, women’s health care seem to be slanted either for or against. Women’s rights are not just in the corporate world, they are all over the world. Women ranchers and farmers, teachers and doctors […]

I was raised in a conservative, Christian household and attended a conservative, Christian university. I’m also a gun owner. During my 4 years of college neither I nor any of my friends ever felt the need to carry a gun to class. Or anywhere else on campus. Is there that much crime at MSU? Or […]

By KATE ELLIS Guest Columnist Gov. Greg Gianforte got it right in his first proposed state budget: We need more district court judges in Montana. Montana’s judicial system is under strain. Last year, over 61,000 cases were filed in the state’s district courts. A troubling number of those, over 12,000, were family law matters and […]

Dear Sen. Tester and Sen. Daines, The US Senate must take a strong position against the use of FEMA funding/taxpayers’ dollars to pay outrageous, predatory utility bills to utility companies that are predicted as Texas recovers from last week’s electrical power and gas delivery failures. While FEMA’s funds for the care of people impacted, for […]

As a physician working in Bozeman’s local emergency department, I bear witness to the escalating mental health crisis in Montana daily. Year after year Montana is one of the leading states in the nation in terms of suicide rates, and the rate of individuals in mental health crisis is steadily rising under stressors like COVID […]

Rep. Larry Brewster, of Billings, certainly is not out of step with the 67th Montana legislature. The political atmosphere in Helena seems to be “Trump Light,” or maybe not so light. One can only wonder why a representative would put forward a bill so out of touch with the current science of global warming. It’s […]

By PHIL KNIGHT Guest columnist Yellowstone National Park, the original “Best American Idea”, turns 149 on March 1 this year. We tend to take for granted that we have lots of great national parks and that ones like Yellowstone are protected. But Yellowstone was the first national park and we almost lost that wonderland. In […]