Editorial

Legislature Advancing key infrastructure and conservation projects

In recent weeks the Montana Legislature has advanced bills to support critical infrastructure and conservation projects across the state. Starting with House Bill 632, Republicans committed to investing the latest round of federal COVID relief dollars in infrastructure, telecommunications, and economic stabilization which will support our economy for future generations. While it was fiscally irresponsible for Congress to pile up more national debt, we invested the funds wisely.

Water users given notice

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The 67th regular session of the Montana Legislature is more than two-thirds of the way through its process, and it’s starting to feel like we’re on the downhill slide to wrapping this session up. The deadline to transmit fiscal bills to the second chamber is looming, so we saw a hustle to get all final fiscal bills introduced and processed this week.

A year after the beginning of the pandemic, signs of recovery and change for the meat industry

Over a year after the pandemic but the U.S., the meat industry is seeing signs of recovery, thanks in large part to government aid and private investment. Since then, many meatpackers have implemented new equipment and protocols meant to protect workers from infection. Meanwhile, a new Agriculture Department program aims to boost that recovery with additional aid.

Time is right to expand access to high-speed internet service

Editor, the IP:

Tell the Kids

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I was putting a water line in on my ranch. My contractor was working with me. We stopped for lunch. We were setting in the pickup about to eat our lunch we had brought, when he stopped and began to pray and thank the Lord for our meal and for being with us on this day.

Library Links

As you likely already know, I have been looking for employment on the other side of the state for quite some time. I took a trip a couple weeks ago to check out a job opportunity and soon after, I accepted a position located in Conrad. It’s a bit of a full circle moment, as I attended both middle school and high school in Conrad. I will be working in the insurance industry and, coincidentally, in the same building that my mom worked in many years ago. My new position begins on June first, and my last day at Rosebud County Library will be on Tuesday, May 11th. That should give me plenty of time to get everything at the library well organized and in order for the incoming director. I plan to attend the Big Sky Conference Track and Field Meet in Ogden, Utah May 12th through 15th and then I will be busy with packing and moving the last couple of weeks in May. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve Rosebud and Treasure Counties the past nearly seven years as your Library Director. I trust that the Rosebud County Library Board will be able to find and recommend a suitable replacement in the coming weeks and I have complete confidence that the remaining Rosebud County Library staff will continue the tradition of offering excellent library services and programming to our community.

Rewriting our rural narrative

For more than two decades, experts and people have lamented the “Brain Drain” as children of rural and frontier communities have left rural America for educational and employment opportunities in the bigger cities, many on the east and west coasts. Anecdotal stories helped fuel that narrative.

National Ag Week makes a splash in Helena

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Montana agriculture was center stage this week at the Capitol. In the midst of challenges, frustrations and sometimes fears for the future on a national scale, it is encouraging and important to recognize the support we have in our state for Montana’s No. 1 industry.

Life With Lois

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Are you ready for Easter this year? I am. It was a year ago when our lives were shaken with a pandemic. We did not know what was going to happen. We did not know that we would lose family members and friends, or people we didn’t know to the disease. We did not know the hard times that our medical workers would face. All of first responders were part of that as well. Our whole world was in crisis.

HB 646 will aid coal-impacted workers and communitites

Renewable electricity from the wind and sun has become cheaper than coal-generated electrons--more than $0.009 per kilowatt hour cheaper because it creates no fuel or pollution control costs.