By LOCAL STATE REPRESENTATIVES, SENATORS AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Guest columnists Opening up the Chronicle recently, we were greeted with a picture of a homemade sign thanking the hardworking people in our community who are taking care of us and protecting us during this ever changing COVID pandemic. We, members of our state legislative delegation and county […]

Character. For the sake of a letter to the editor may we start with the definition: “The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.” Traits that build out character are fairness, citizenship, caring, responsibility, trustworthiness and respect. By example, Abraham Lincoln embodied honesty, empathy and humility. It’s basically what we teach our children in […]

Not since 1918 have we seen a pandemic of the magnitude in that disrupts the very fabric of our society in a way that puts it on hold indefinitely. The 1918 pandemic lasted two years, infected over 500 million, and killed over 50 million worldwide. Yet the U.S. found itself totally unprepared for the COVID-19 […]

This grim time of COVID-19 is most definitely a stark test of our national resolve and public good will. The stories of good will are breathtaking. Our national resolve is not quite so shiny. One of today’s somber questions is whether we will listen more seriously to our scientists. We should have done better with COVID-19, since […]

By REP. TOM WOODS Guest columnist As a state legislator, I’ve been saying for years that NorthWestern Energy has been gaming the system and that the Public Service Commission has allowed that to happen. We now find ourselves in a situation where profits for NorthWestern Energy have been steadily increasing with 2019 setting a new […]

More than a year before Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt started preparing for the war he knew was coming. He knew that to be prepared, he would have to organize tremendous changes in the economy: order industry to make tanks instead of automobiles, sacrificing profits; persuading unions not to fight for higher wages; controlling prices; and […]

As we face an unprecedented economic and health crisis that threatens our way of life and our very survival, where is the “free market” in our time of need? The “free market” is panicking, with historic declines in stocks and devoid of any solutions. The corporations, who received large tax breaks and squandered it by further […]

If the renewed level of bipartisanship among our political leaders can carryover past this crisis, we can immediately begin building a much stronger and resilient economy by attacking the climate crisis. We have the know-how to put people back to work at higher production jobs. In Montana, these include: • Advancing energy conservation in all existing […]

Actions don’t match the words of Daines, Gianforte It’s that time of year again, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) came out with their annual environmental scorecard, a scorecard based upon the environmental voting record of Congress during the previous year. I’ve presented this data a few years back, highlighting how Montana’s delegation has viewed […]

Trump shaping us into country we don’t want Those of us escaping Nazi bombs, which began falling on Antwerp on my third birthday, somehow crossed Europe to Portugal, then fortunately got on a boat from which we settled in the United States and thereafter became true citizens. My father and I, in our long separated military […]