Sorted by date Results 463 - 487 of 1183
MISSOULA - Shannon O’Brien has our votes for Montana Senate District 46, not just because she is the most qualified candidate (which she is with 25 years of experience in public education and experience as a small business owner) but because of her experience in and dedication to building consensus across groups with multiple viewpoints in areas that concern all Montanans (i.e., climate, education, health and housing). We have known and worked with Shannon for almost 15 years and the trait we have seen her exhibit consistently and e...
To the Seeley Lake Elementary School Board Yesterday, I was informed that SLE will not resume as usual for the remaining school semester. Two of my grandchildren are currently receiving home schooling as required. One of my questions is how are you holding students accountable for handwriting and math assignments? Are these assignments graded and by what standard reflect your expectations? Another concern is how are the students being evaluated to determine they are ready to advance to the next grade? How are you ensuring students are passing...
Monica Tranel is a highly skilled lawyer who specializes in utility law and has practiced in front of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and in the courtroom defending consumers. She is full of energy. A two-time competitor in the Olympics, Tranel won a World Championship Gold for the U.S. Women’s Rowing Team. She will be the first Commissioner in years representing Montanans and not the giant corporations who shamelessly extort Montana’s utility customers with totally unwarranted rate hikes. Tranel will also be a powerful advocate for ren...
For the past several weeks, we Americans have been told we must stay at home. We have been told we cannot attend church. We have been told we cannot assemble in groups larger than ten. The state of Maryland has deployed drones to enforce social distances on people’s private property. In Wisconsin, a mother was cited for allowing her young daughter for playing outside in the front yard and notation was made in the police report of the incident the mother was being “uncooperative!” A Jewish family in New Jersey was told they could not condu...
Researchers say it takes 21 days to develop new habits. In that time, we’ve seen bewildering changes in our communities and around the world. What habits have we formed and which will endure? Despite the travel bans, quarantines, isolation and tragedy – and the roller coaster of emotions that follow, we’re seeing firsthand the exponential value of Nature in her simplest forms. In the last 21 days, we’ve seen many new faces connecting with the power of Nature and the emotional, mental and physical healing she provides. Listening to a creek,...
I support Kimberly Dudik for Attorney General because she is the most experienced candidate in the race. She is an accomplished state legislator who has a proven record of getting bipartisan bills passed. Those bills that she helped push through Republican dominated legislatures will help end human trafficking, expand access of chemical dependency and mental health resources, promote safety and inclusion in schools and communities and end the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women in Montana. That record proves she can work with and...
Mike Black has the abilities and personal qualities one hopes for in a Supreme Court justice. I and other lawyers had the pleasure of working with him for several years on a major complex case over the destruction of grocery employees’ pensions. Working with Mike, I learned that he is a highly intelligent analytical thinker who is hardworking and very committed to his clients. He has excellent judgment. Mike, a fourth generation Montanan, was raised at Havre in a railroad family and supported himself through school by working as a dishwasher, j...
Beyond restarting POW-MIA recovery operations, we must heal our country and adapt to our earth. Healing means building trust and ending graft, the unscrupulous use of public office for personal advantage. By disqualifying candidates who accept donations larger than the $1740 filing fee, I hope to unburden officials from seeking financial benefactors. Healing requires building bridges of mutual respect with my fellow U.S. Senators. As an Abraham Lincoln Republican I look forward to serving with the Honorable Jon Tester as Montana’s Junior S...
Shannon O’Brien is running for Montana Senate District 46 and is well suited for the job. She is smart, outgoing, curious and a good listener. Shannon seeks information and makes an effort to learn from experts and constituents. She asks people for their knowledge, ideas and opinions. She is articulate and authentic. Easy to talk with, she remembers the names of many of the people she has met while campaigning. Shannon is a good leader and is actively involved in many community events and programs. She follows through and does what she says s...
I strongly support Shannon O’Brien, who is running as a Democrat for the Montana State Senate, District 46, which stretches from Condon to Bonner, includes half of downtown Missoula and part of the University district. Shannon’s resume is highly impressive. She earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Montana and served as Dean of Missoula College. While there she prioritized the statewide apprenticeship program, increasing the number of rural healthcare workers by hundreds. Shannon served as policy advisor to Gov...
With the state/county plans for beginning to reopen Montana and Missoula’s economy now public, we know over the next few weeks we will start to see businesses reopening and commerce returning. It’s hard while we are still in the midst of our response to COVID-19 to see accurately whether the choices that have been made at the city, county, state and federal level have been the correct ones. But I think there are a couple things so far that we can say for sure. First, to the extent that we have kept folks in at risk populations and those who...
Offer additional support to local small businesses SEELEY LAKE - As we face the prospect of re-opening our economy due to the coronavirus, I have been very worried about the small businesses that have been deemed non-essential and their economic condition due to the unprecedented actions that have been taken. I am particularly worried about our local businesses that struggle even during good times. I know that the actions put in place by our governor have caused substantial economic hardship for many service providers, restaurants and other...
I feel a community Facebook page is the wrong place to CALL OUT local citizens who have put forth an effort to volunteer to sit on a local board. I was called out in a post on a local site post so here is my comment. I am running for the sewer board to work hard for the people in our community even though a couple loud apples will bash me. Yes, I am PRO sewer. I am a full time, year-round resident and business owner of Seeley Lake and believe strongly in supporting our local economy (a study says $1 spent in a community gets spent an average...
Well, the left liberal Democrats, fake news and the deep state swamp are doing it again. They are standing up for Communist China (who in my opinion sent the China Coronavirus to America on purpose) which has killed many Americans. Instead of giving all of the relief money to hurting, hungry American citizens, the Dems are giving money to the arts, the Kennedy Center and criminal illegal aliens, while our children go hungry and businesses fail. Is that Patriotism or love for America? No, it is not. And to add insult to injury the liberal Dems,...
I am proud to support Kimberly Dudik as Montana’s Attorney General. I am impressed by her leadership and her unwavering commitment to justice. Dudik’s background as a nurse, a lawyer and a legislator have made her keenly aware of the challenges facing many Montanans. As a legislator, she was a strong advocate for crime victims. She was successful in passing laws to help put an end to human trafficking, and to protect victims of child abuse. When I worked for the Office of Public Instruction, I saw Representative Dudik’s tenacity first...
I, like many of my peers, am worried as to what the post coronavirus world looks like. The only benefit I see to this is that we have the opportunity to vote for people who not only can lead us in a post coronavirus world but want to make Montana better. There is not a single candidate more qualified to lead Montana into this new future than Kim Dudik. Kim has been fighting and paving a way forward for Montana as a representative in the state legislature working on key issues like Medicaid expansion, MMIW, child abuse, woman's rights issues...
SEELEY LAKE - Though I am trying to appreciate Troy Spence and Don Larson’s efforts to tell the fine folks of Seeley Lake who they should vote for in the upcoming sewer district director election, I am a bit troubled by their need to tell people, who are more than capable of making their own decisions, who to vote for. Part of the reason I am running myself is the fog of opposition and their blizzard of opposing letters and information have created much confusion. I would like to be able to cut through that and inform myself and others of t...
SEELEY LAKE - It’s great to be able to call beautiful Seeley Lake my home. But I also see a community severely impacted by COVID-19 and I am afraid that it may be years before we are able to recover economically. Yet the Sewer Board continues to move forward with a very expensive plan to implement the sewer system. This proposal impacts only a small percentage of the Valley’s human population that are contributing nitrates to our ground water and does nothing to address the tons of nitrates contributed by environmental factors such as ani...
SEELEY LAKE - I would like to remind Sewer Board candidate Kyle Zumwalt, the Sewer Board and Missoula County, their actions overturning the 2016 public vote declining the project caused the lawsuit. The solution is obvious - restore the voters’ right to participate and let them vote on the $40,000,000 project....
Now our community, as well as the rest of the nation, is deeply affected by severe economic conditions brought on by a pandemic. Prior to this, many of us couldn’t afford the proposed sewer system that is being, for lack of a better term, “shoved down our throats.” This system has been touted as a way to cleanup Seeley Lake. Will it have a positive effect on the nitrate level of the lake? Quite possibly, but so small as to be all but immeasurable. Seeley Lake’s nitrate problems are, for the most part, a result of stripped watershed upstrea...
With Tim Fox term-limited, we will elect a new Attorney General this year. I support Fox’s Chief Deputy Attorney General, Jon Bennion. Serving as Fox’s chief of staff for most of his first term was the greatest privilege of my career. I worked closely with Jon. He has the knowledge, experience, work ethic, and judgment for the job. Navigating the Attorney General’s world and Montana’s complex Department of Justice is no small task. The law enforcement community has high regard for Jon. He works well with everyone, is an excellent listene...
Last week the Legislative Council met virtually to discuss COVID-19 and the fiscal situation for Montana. Administrative committee chairs from finance, audit and revenue were also invited for information purposes. Todd Everts, chief legal counsel for the legislature, briefed members on the powers of the governor and the legislative body when there is an emergency. Throughout the years, the legislature has delegated broad authority to the governor in dealing with emergencies such as fire, flooding, drought and energy issues. There’s never b...
The upcoming primary election is one of the most important for the State of Montana. There is a critical race for Montana Attorney General and I want to enthusiastically endorse Kimberly Dudik. Kimberly Dudik is a mother of four, a former prosecutor and Deputy Gallatin County Attorney, Assistant MT Attorney General and a Registered Nurse who specialized in neonatal intensive care. Kimberly Dudik is a four term legislator who has successfully worked across the aisle for everyday Montanans. As an advocate and leader for the protection of public...
Coronavirus is not going to disappear anytime soon. There is no vaccine or cure. The primary goal of the current public health and safety measures have been to slow the spread of the virus so our healthcare system would not collapse. In Montana, we have succeeded. Since the beginning of this crisis, a massive federal aid package was passed to ease the burden on as many Americans and businesses as possible – but it is a solution to the economic crisis we now face. In addition to our public health and economic crises we face, there is a third c...
The pandemic surrounding Covid-19 has left the country in a predicament that it wasn't prepared for. Non-essential businesses were forced to close, forcing millions of Americans to scramble and file for unemployment. Congress passed an economic stimulus package that at first glance, seemed like a big help. This package is the lacking basic consumer relief that many people need. With a stimulus package that can barely hold some over for 2 weeks and millions unemployed, it will force a number of people to seek out loans where they could be...
