Columns

In recent years talk of defunding the police has been popular in other states, but our Montana values run contrary to that line of thinking. We believe in supporting those who put their lives on the line to protect citizens every day. To that end I have recently introduced Senate Bill 294. SB 294 establishes the End of Watch Trust. The purpose of this End of Watch Trust is to make sure that we are taking care of police officers and their families if something awful should happen and an officer is killed or suffers a catastrophic injury in the line of duty. It is our responsibility that we are protecting those who protect us, and SB 294 is a very clear way to do that. The Trust will pr...

Over the past two years, Montanans watched the President’s attack on oil, coal and natural gas bring our nation to the brink of an all-out energy emergency. Gas prices rose to more than $5 a gallon and many Montanans are worried about how to heat their homes without breaking the bank. We aren&rsq...

My husband and I raised our kids in the land of hockey. This column is not about hockey.  I realize hockey isn’t a thing or perhaps not as popular in some (warmer) climates, but for many years, for us, hockey was a large part of life. If nothing else, it got us through the cold winters. Betw...

“The Democrats killed two of my brothers.” That was the reply my nine-year-old father received from his great - grandmother on her rural Iowa front porch when he asked her why she was such a strong Republican. Her comment reflected the bitter legacy of the Civil War. As it left the American South...

Like most endeavors the legislature is short staffed. So bills sometimes do not match the titles, communications are difficult, and the legislative web site is not up to date. Neither we, nor the public, know for sure what is accomplished or pending. Yet, I was surprised when summoned from one committee and ...

It’s no secret that as a society, we’re pretty fond of caffeine.  Caffeine is a vasodilator, which essentially means the more you drink the more your blood vessels expand to allow more blood to your brain and limbs, which is what causes you to feel more awake. With a country and culture a...

There is no singular cause for Montana’s housing crisis. Rising costs of land, materials, and labor combined with people moving into our communities, further straining our infrastructure, has made for an increasingly critical housing situation. On top of that, developers, builders, and local government...

2022 was the year of celebrating the 50th birthday of Montana’s Constitution – its visionary provisions and the unique bipartisan approach adopted by the citizen delegates who wrote it. Our perspective is from a combined total of over 30 years of legislative experience under both our current Cons...

A very smart woman once told me, “Pain is greedy.” And now I use that sentence more times a day than I can count. Pain IS greedy. It can consume us with not only physical sensations, but can build on our mental and emotional burden. Being in pain can even challenge our brain power to perform simp...

No doubt everyone grows old in their own way. But once you actually hit it — that three letter word, “old” — watch out: “An aged man is but a paltry thing,/A tattered coat upon a stick . . .” So wrote William Butler Yeats, back in the last century, conjuring a mystic...