Sorted by date Results 628 - 652 of 1183
SEELEY LAKE - That’s what our sergeant always said announcing break time in Army basic training. It’s not 2017 but there is still some concern about smoke in our area. I live about a mile downwind of the air quality monitor. The photo above shows how my HEPA filter looked after about a month of breathing air while sleeping before Christmas. Half the filter was vacuumed to show the difference in the filter before and after cleaning. Our PM 2.5 air still routinely registers in the “Moderate,” regularly in the “Unhealthy for sensitive group” an...
SEELEY LAKE - One of the best things about skiing in Seeley and being involved with the Nordic Club and the kids’ program is the people I get to meet. Those who are skiing have fun, are grateful for the Club keeping the trails in good shape and the parents and kids are appreciative of the time we spend helping their kids develop good skiing skills. Unfortunately, we occasionally run in to people who think they are “special.” A couple weeks ago, I encountered four showshoers who had three dogs with them at the trailhead. I told them in a diploma...
The article on the Loesch family was very inspiring. I cannot imagine working and baking like Jean Loesch did with six little kids running around and then having to have a breakfast, lunch and dinner for nine people everyday plus doing the baking she did. All I can say is Jean you are a super woman! Thanks to everyone else who donated his or her time and money to help The Watson Children’s Shelter. Cory’s Valley Market helps many other organizations, so please shop locally. It helps many. How great all the little Loesch children emptied the...
I had the honor of serving as Lee Bridges’ campaign manager and the great pleasure of meeting many of you in House District 92 this summer and fall. A scurrilous ad paid for by Mike Davis, slandering Ms. Bridges, was published in The Pathfinder on Nov. 1, 2018 - less than one week before the election which gave us no time to respond and refute. Mr. Davis is a disgruntled vendor who damaged Ms. Bridges’ equipment five years ago and had to be sued before he would pay for the damages he caused. Through public social media posts in the weeks leadin...
If there’s one thing Montanans can unite behind, it’s that we’re sick and tired of self-serving politicians who are all talk, no walk. As the House Minority Leader for the 2019 Legislative Session, I couldn’t agree more. Montana families deserve a Legislature that sets aside the partisan, political blustering. And they deserve lawmakers that lead with solutions. That’s why House Democrats have our sleeves rolled up and are eager to get to work. As citizen legislators, our number one job is to represent and provide a voice for the people wh...
Thank God a group of Republican legislators have taken the initiative to rid Montana House of Representatives of a 30-year supermajority experiment that has contributed to hyper-partisanship disdained by most of Montana's citizens. The Montana constitution defines only a few cases when a legislative supermajority vote is needed, for example: before spending trust funds, amending the constitution or overriding a governor's veto. Nowhere does the constitution suggest the legislature should adopt supermajority rules that limit debate and centraliz...
SEELEY LAKE – My name is Pat Goodover. I was elected as president of the Seeley Lake Sewer Board. I want to introduce myself to you and reach out to you. There is a lot of confusion and some anger about the sewer plans. There are also some outright false statements being raised and these need to be addressed. My goal is to make things as transparent as possible. That’s where I need your help. Please send me your thoughts, questions, concerns or comments. My dedicated email address for you to use is pat.goodover@gmail.com. If you have que...
Too often we see the results of gridlock and partisan shenanigans in Washington DC. Efforts are focused solely on beating the other side, and not on representing the people in passing budgets and good policy. Power is centralized with party bosses and lobbyists, and not with the people. This results in "Continuing Resolutions", "Government Shutdowns" and chaos. Unfortunately, there are those that believe that this is how things should be run in Montana politics. The Montana Constitution, as...
Thank you Greenough/Potomac QRU and all Emergency Responders: Our Greenough/Potomac Volunteer Fire Department (GPVFD) and Quick Response Unit (QRU) volunteers are always available for their community. They deserve high five, thumbs up, pat on the back recognition. Thank you to all emergency responders and to the GPVFD and QRU for everything that you do, big and small. Thank you for being on call year round, day and night. Thank you for helping others in all kinds of weather. Thank you for driving carefully and for being someone our children...
Several weeks ago I saw a little geek standing on a street corner with a sign that said “NRA, NRA how many children have you killed today?” CNN evidently picked up on this and had him on TV. I go back to the year 1935 – I quote Adolph Hitler, “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future.” Between the years of 1935 to 1945 Adolph Hitler slaughtered nine million defenseless and unarmed m...
This letter of thanks goes out to the five men and three women, along with two Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputies for rendering me aid on Highway 200 Dec. 11, 2018 after my vehicle broke down from overheating and stopped running. The first man who stopped was a retired law enforcement officer from Oregon on his way to visit people in Ovando. Except for the two Sheriff’s Office officers, I knew none of the other eight people who assisted me in calling the towing company. All stopped on their own goodwill to help a stranded motorist. Not hav...
SEELEY LAKE - As a resident of the Sewer District (Dogtown) I try to stay informed and considered applying to fill the vacant board seat. I didn’t, due to other long standing commitments on the same night as the board meetings. I then heard that Troy Spence was planning on stepping down due to the hostile atmosphere of the board and its unwillingness to work towards a common goal as directed by the community through its last sewer board election. Since my commitments have been met, I was ready to seek that position. To my astonishment, the b...
SEELEY LAKE - The community voted two-to-one to replace three of five Sewer Board members. Two of the new members quit out of frustration, leaving the other neutralized. The will of the community wanted an attitude change. That will has been overturned by the old guard. I encouraged consensus. I even volunteered for the board. I contacted all players for input. I have been increasingly shunned and ignored, many phone calls not returned and my candidacy bypassed without discussion or vote. I wish the Larson suit hadn’t been filed and that r...
Thank you to the people of House District 92 for giving me the opportunity to continue serving you in the State Legislature. I really love working for the people of this district and I look forward to going to back to Helena in January and building on the work that we accomplished last session. I sincerely appreciate all the people who knocked on doors, hosted our campaign signs, made phone calls and donated to our campaign. I also want to thank Lee Bridges. Lee and her team ran a great race and I think it’s a large part of the reason why we h...
US Bank sells “Simple Loans” with 70-88 percent interest in Montana. People take these loans to buy snow tires, cover a mortgage payment, or pay medical bills. Montana law caps predatory payday loans at 36 percent interest. But federally-insured banks are exempt from state laws, and can charge whatever they want to. These are the kind of bad loans that people never get out of, being offered by one of the biggest national banks. High interest rates leave customers reeling for another loan, trapping them into a cycle of debt. I’m sorry, but i...
SEELEY LAKE - I am so glad that the main street businesses in Seeley Lake are booming. Profits are so high that business owners can afford to alienate huge percentages of their customers by endorsing one political candidate over another and supporting controversial ballot initiatives with signs at the entrances, parking lots and even at the cash register. Why, business is so good, that petitions calling for the removal of specific public employees, for acts of God unrelated to their work, is totally acceptable. My management degree was only a m...
If the United States of America was being attacked by air or by sea, we and our military would immediately respond to protect our sovereign nation. Our military needs to also respond to the invasion of the caravans coming by land to our border. We know they are not coming to embrace our constitution, our rule of law or to honor our flag. They are coming, burning our flag and bringing their flag to plant on American soil as conquerors. They are trying to deceive us by bringing some women and children, appealing to our generosity and our compassi...
Back on Oct. 11 my daughter, her friend and her friend’s mother were involved in a car accident in Missoula. Their injuries were severe and the recovery will be long. We personally want to thank everyone who expressed their concern. We are truly grateful for all the love, support and prayers our families have received during this time. Thank you from the Harman/Garland and Mocko Families Seeley Lake, Mont....
Missoula County is facing challenges within the sheriff’s office, issues that reflect on accountability to the public and ethical failures of leadership. These are systemic failures that impact public safety and our pocketbooks. Leadership weakness reminds how important are the qualities of character and independence from political influence. Travis Wafstet is the candidate for sheriff who has the management experience and integrity to lead the department back to its public service roots. In the past four years the sheriff’s office has suffered...
I am not generally that politically active but this year I feel compelled to react to House District 92’s race between Lee Bridges and Mike Hopkins. Some political views between the two are similar. Woman’s rights and reproductive rights, job training and the preservation of our environment are top priorities for both candidates. But there are some huge differences like gun rights. Hopkins is a strict believer in the Constitution, he will protect your rights, all your rights. He has an A rating with the NRA. Bridges says she has guns and may...
In addition to helping write and pass a responsible, balanced budget, fighting against the $300 million in tax increases that will be proposed next session and passing property tax relief for Montana Seniors, there are a number of other topics we need to tackle in the next Legislative Session. We need to reach an agreement that would allow us as a state to get resources on fires as soon as they start without having to wait for someone in Washington or Helena to sign all the correct paperwork. While I am pleased that Democrats, this campaign...
Anger and fear have come to dominate American politics since 2016. Sadly, American politicians are capitalizing on anger and fear in order to manipulate voters and garner support. I touched on this in my admonishment to House District 92 Republican Representative Mike Hopkins a few weeks ago in this newspaper. I had a great deal of respect for Mike until he wrote a letter wherein he took advantage of a bad situation in Missoula to try and churn it into avoidance of votes for Democrats and promote actual votes for Republicans, as though...
The corporations that are Big Tobacco and those corporations’ surrogates know a higher tax on tobacco means fewer people using the product. That means less profit for them. This is the reason for their opposing I-185, the initiative to continue Medicaid Expansion in Montana. But Big Tobacco doesn’t say that in their ads. In their millions of dollars campaign of lies and distortion they claim to be concerned about the state budget, veterans or constitutionality. These are not the concerns of tobacco corporations. I-185 will diminish their pro...
My church, First Congregational, has been banking with US Bank for decades. We have also been at the forefront of protecting Montanans from predatory loan products, like payday and car-title loans. In Montana, we won, through a citizen vote, an interest rate cap at 36 percent for payday loans in 2010. Since then, Montanans save an estimated $37 million annually. It has come to my attention that US Bank has started offering small dollar bank loans that look awfully similar to payday loans. People are often strapped enough for cash that they need...
I’d like to submit my endorsement for Lee Bridges for House District 92. Lee has worked construction for many years. When the shop she worked for closed down she bought the equipment she needed to continue in her chosen trade and opened her own custom sheet metal shop. Lee has experience as a volunteer fire fighter and a long standing community council member. She knows the issues us regular people face day to day. She cares about people and has knocked thousands of doors and held meetings in the community’s in House District 92 to talk to and...
