Opinion

A few weeks ago, I submitted a list of universal truths that I think we can all recognize and maybe even agree with. In today’s culture of division, isn’t it a pleasant and nice truth to simply agree? I concur and couldn’t agree more. When writing that first list of truths, I found I had too much material for just one column. So here’s a second. Who knows, perhaps there will be more. I hope so, because I think finding things we can agree on, universally, is a positive - now perhaps more than ever before. Maybe that is universal truth number one: Finding common ground is a good thing. Truth number 75: Colors - as in hues of the rainbow and beyond. You don&rsq...

Editor, Once again, I am sorry to see our area senator, Greg Hertz, bashing the Democrats in the latest Valley Journal. Always negative Greg. How about something positive for a change? Your visions for the state’s citizens? Better health? Better education? Things that will last. Perhaps the Democrat...

Montanans have worked for decades to restore our state animal, the grizzly bear. We’ve come a long way in recovering grizzlies in their core habitats, the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems, and beyond. That’s happened because of hard work by landowners, conservationis...

On Sunday, June 25th I awoke to the smell of a smoldering campfire, a scent most people associate with our earliest, often happiest, experiences out in the natural world. Upon going outside, I found the entire city of Montreal was blanketed by a smoky haze and realized that the wildfires raging throughout th...

The 2023 Montana wildfire season was slow to start. Average snowpack combined with rain in much of the state, spared an early fire season. Recent hot days and dry fuels, however, have now put Montana into active fire season with over 40,000 acres burned by early August. Montana’s average annual tempera...

Montana Democrats are out in full force trying to convince Montanans that they want to reduce your taxes. This is far from the truth as their actions in the legislative session speak much louder than their words now.  When they had the opportunity to support giving Montana resident taxpayers $900 mil...

Editor, Wow. Listening to our TV news coverage trying to make sense of our political situation today is getting downright boring and repetitive. I have a suggestion: let’s all just relax, and let Donald Trump be the Republican candidate for president. We now live with the presidential election...

Nineteen years ago a group of six journalists and entrepreneurs sat on a deck brainstorming ideas for a new, homegrown newspaper. I was one of those six people. So was my husband, Boone. So were Linda Sappington, Chuck Lewis and Bernie Azure. And of course, so was Jim Blow. It was his deck. It was his idea.&...

Editor, The following is Mayo Clinic’s description of narcissism: “Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this diso...

As a proud defender and lover of public land, I have cast deciding votes for Montanans to hike, fish, and hunt some of the largest expansions of public land in decades—while keeping Montana farmers and ranchers on the landscape. I was recently made aware of a social media campaign soliciting money c...