Opinion

Emotions are powerful forces within each of us. They can impact our day, our year - perhaps even our life. How we feel about something influences our reactions to it. How we feel dictates our response to the world, the environment. And by and large all of this is beyond our control, correct? Maybe so, maybe not. What if our feelings were within our control? What a superpower that would be. What a superpower it is! I spent most of my life not realizing this. I drifted in and out of positivity and negativity without understanding why. I still don’t completely understand, but I’ve contemplated it quite a bit and want to share with you. Having said that, I believe you...

Now that wildfire season is here, the elk rut is only two months away and the Big Beautiful Bill has been signed into law by President Trump without any public land sales. What needs to happen with our federal public lands in Montana is active management.  Unmanaged, dying, and fire-prone forests cre...

Editor, Several years ago, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washinton DC. Upon exiting the museum there was a poem on the wall that brought me to tears. I want to share that poem with you. But first let me tell you about the man who wrote that poem. Martin Niemoller, the author of the poem was a Luthe...

President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is a tremendous win for Montana. It will spur economic growth, strengthen border security as well as expand Montana’s energy sector and provide much-needed funding for our military. And thanks to the diligent work of the entire Montana congressional delegation...

I write to inform Montanans about the real impact of House Bill 231, the property tax bill that recently became law. While marketed as “property tax relief,” this legislation creates a massive tax shift that will significantly increase the burden on our agricultural community. During legislati...

Gaza is being starved – deliberately, with cruel intention and shocking inhumanity. The photos of skeletal children haunt me. At night when I close my eyes. At dawn when I rise. They should haunt us all – along with the unfathomable suffering the families of Gaza have endured over nearly two y...

WASHINGTON — With unprecedented record-breaking heat waves hitting earlier and earlier for Montana residents, many folks have debilitating heat, wildfires, drought, and soaring energy costs on their minds. For Kalispell residents Jaden Woeppel and Mady Rigg (Miss Montana USA 2023) there’s an o...

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) passed by Congress and signed by President Trump is a game changer that will benefit middle-income, working-class Montanans. Yet Montana Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers (Montana’s top Democrat) said “I just think it is a betrayal of working Monta...

Editor, If you are a customer of Mission Valley Power (MVP) you have no doubt noticed a huge increase in your electric bills the last two years, and another increase is coming in 2026. You have also noticed there is a 3-tier rate system, where the more you use the higher the per KWH rate is. My fami...

I grew up poor, that is, American poor. I fantasized about food at night–mashed potatoes, buttery dinner rolls, raspberry cheesecake. I would wake up and imagine a breakfast–strawberry waffles with whipped cream, cold orange juice–then, talk myself toward accepting what I knew was there&nda...