By REP. MARY ANN DUNWELL Guest columnist There’s nowhere to go but up. Our 67th Montana Legislature hit the lowest bar ever. We need to join together, do damage control, and make sure such a reckless, overreaching, power-grabbing session never happens again in our beloved state. The 2021 session was unprecedented for its hybrid nature, […]

Decades ago, while listening to Flathead Radio “star” George Ostrom, I heard him say, “Well, the Montana Legislature is in session, and for the next 90 days no man’s life or property are safe.” The 2021 Republicans in the Legislature, in total control for the first time in 16 years, and with a Republican governor […]

As of May 7, COVID-19 has killed 3.3 million people worldwide. That’s terrible. Worse, 2.6 times as many died from air pollution in 2018. A new study from University College London estimates that air pollution from burning fossil fuels caused 8.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2018; almost one out of every five deaths that […]

The “Republican Civil War” appears now to have reached a turning point, as Kevin McCarthy and other Re-Trumplican leaders are demanding total allegiance — and that means that lawmakers like Liz Cheney must be removed from office, even if only for proclaiming the truth. Since when has telling the truth justified termination?? How much more […]

By JESSY STEVENSON Guest Columnist Imagine the rich agricultural lands of the Paradise Valley under hundreds of feet of water. Or the world-class trout fishing of the Big Hole River replaced with bass fishing. Imagine waterskiing on the west side of Glacier National Park instead of rafting down the North Fork of the Flathead River. […]

Regarding the article in the April 22 Chronicle about Gianforte ordering the FWP to dismiss the bison management plan, Gianforte acts on behalf of the United Property Owners of Montana only. What is missing is acknowledging the 1877 Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act. Here, Congress allowed for the break-up of reservation […]

On May 14, 2021, NorthWestern Energy will ask the Montana Public Service Commission to approve construction of a 175 megawatt gas fired power plant to cost $250 million. NWE intends to build three more such plants. The predicate for construction is NWE’s ongoing three year propaganda campaign to create public acceptance of an imminent Montana […]

When Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a backdoor anti-bison settlement deal that forbade any bison being on Montana public lands, he exemplified longstanding manifest destiny policy stemming from the 19th century. After the U.S. Army was defeated by Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne allies in Red Cloud’s war and the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in April […]

House Bill 188, the law to greatly increase registration fees on electric vehicles (EVs), isn’t fair to elderly people, like my wife and I, who drive just 5,500 miles/ year. We are planning to buy an EV-SUV to replace our current internal combustion IC-SUV, our only vehicle. Our current registration fee is $257/year and we […]

By AUBREY BERTRAM and JESSE PRENTICE-DUNN Guest Columnists For decades, oil and gas companies have taken advantage of a broken federal leasing system in an effort to stockpile our nation’s precious public lands. The industry’s exploitation of this system has prompted Montanans and other stakeholders across the West to call for reforms to the leasing […]