Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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On Monday in Justice Court, Sanders County Sheriff's Deputy April Phillips addressed the young man who hit her patrol vehicle head-on last year. She told of her injuries and of the lasting effects. Phillips was firm in her statement before Judge Doug Dryden. However, she also showed an impressive amount of compassion for defendant Brody Hill. Phillips said jail wasn't the right place for Hill. "I'm realistic and don't think that spending time in jail would be beneficial for you, Brody. I don't think you are a bad person, so being put with other...
The state of Connecticut is thinking of exonerating people it convicted of witchcraft in the mid-1600s. They would be following the lead of noble Massachusetts which a year ago exonerated the last of those former human beings that they, too, hanged for witchcraft. I am sure the wrongly accused will be grateful. Still dead, of course, but grateful. In the witch trials of the 1600s it didn’t take a lot of people to accuse someone of being a witch. In one case a 12-year-old girl accused a local w...
Methinks there is mischief afoot. I’m a big fan of constitutions, at least those under which Americans and Montanans live. Constitutions evolved over thousands of years of bloody struggle over who really holds sovereignty – the people, or the aristocracy. The good ones are truly unique historical inventions, being marks of reason, genius, knowledge, and patriotism. And they provide the stability needed for security and progress. But a constitution isn’t foolproof. It only works if citizens agree to live under it. Frequent or easy changes mean...
Whether you find them in a text message, reading a report, or — might I say — choosing a mortgage loan, acronyms are everywhere. Some of the most frequently used ones in the mortgage world are FHA, VA, and RD. FHA stands for Federal Housing Administration which is affiliated with HUD (another acronym which references the Department of Housing and Urban Development). An FHA loan is a government-backed mortgage that is insured by the Federal Housing Administration. FHA loans allow for lower minimum credit scores, lower down payments, and the...
On separate occasions recently, I was influenced unexpectedly to listen. I’m a pretty good listener, given my occupation, but what I took away from the instances last week was being open to listening. Our lives are busier every day with more distractions and obligations. It seems almost ridiculous to add “remember to listen” to the to-do list. However, you never know when someone you listen to or something you hear is going to change your life. It might not be a major mind-blowing alteration to your life, but maybe someone will say somet...
Farmhouse Blooms would like to thank all the students, parents and faculty of Thompson Falls High School for the kindness and patience with tuxes, corsages and boutonnieres. The young men and women were really a pleasure to work with and there are many more wonderful things to come for this great group of students. A real pleasure to work with all of you! Nanette, Pearl, Mary, Tracy & Angela, Thompson Falls...
I’ve cleaned this old joke up for “family viewing:” Opinions are like ears. Everyone has a couple. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines opinion as: “a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” That is not to say that some opinions aren’t based in fact or knowledge, but that not all opinions are. I was once accused of having opinions, as if it was reprehensible. If that’s how the accuser felt, that’s their opinion, right? To their credit, their opinion was based on fact and knowledge. I do...
What does the current market look like? These numbers will be reported each month for Sanders County. Our Multiple Listing Service, which covers much of western Montana, has just switched over to CoreLogix and with it, our data service, thus this month we will review what is on the market. Next month we will resume the review of sales figures once the MLS settles in to the new provider. As is typical of February, the snow is on the ground and inventory does not change much. That does not mean there isn't still some pent up demand after a...
I recently traveled to Polson to cover the District 14-C basketball tournament. I’ve been to Polson before, but never for that long of a stretch. Polson may have a Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Starbucks, but it’s still a small town. One morning during breakfast I met Brett Butler, the assistant coach of Polson High School’s speech and debate team. He started talking about how the team was running the concessions stand at the basketball tournament to fundraise. Anyone who has ever been anywhere with me knows that I like to ask questions, so I inquir...
In a Montana Viewpoint© article a month ago called “Marketing Anger”, I wrote about the prevalence of anger as an economic force as well as a political force, saying: ”There is also the economic aspect of anger such as increasing a show’s TV ratings and market share, not to mention increasing the salaries of individual anger merchants.” I was engaging in speculation, I have to admit, but that speculation now seems to have some teeth, as a document filed in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News N...
The editorial in the 24 February Ledger discusses the changes in behavior at county meetings over time. Conduct by attendees at the Board of Health meeting on 15 February, which I attended, was specifically referenced. Attendees behaved as most would expect and want at a public meeting held to conduct, and in this case, complete, a public action. I give enormous credit to Commissioner Tony Cox for establishing immediately the purpose of the meeting and the expected standard of behavior. He allowed public comment while keeping the meeting...
Transmittal Break by Rep. Denley Loge, HD-14 This letter deals more with the process of the legislature than with the actual legislation. Currently you can find the legislation that has passed through the committees and on to the appropriate chamber floors by looking at the Montana State Legislature site online. This will give you a chance to find all the bills by number and by topic that were introduced and what the current status of the bill is. It also gives you the bill language as written, the amendments, the votes and bill sponsor. If...
I am usually at the courthouse a couple times a week. I attend meetings, conduct interviews and take care of business matters. When I bought the Ledger six years ago, there would maybe be two people at different public meetings, if that many. I was often the only member of the public at meetings. Business would be conducted and there might be one comment from a member of the public. During the pandemic, attendance increased and the dynamic of meetings changed. It became a rare instance for a meeting to run smoothly without outbursts from...
I so appreciate being able to write about differing aspects of what affects our lives. When I was considering topics to write on, I began to think of the people who have influenced my life. Whether they have been a large part or just breezed in to leave behind a change, all have contributed in some way to help me grow and develop to be the person I am today. One of the earliest mentors I had in my life was Mrs. Barbara Cooksey. As the Mother Advisor to my young Rainbow Girl Worthy Advisor, she...
We have processed most of the Red Tape reduction bills the Governor promised were coming our way, at least in the House. Passing the tax rebate, income tax refund, and equipment tax million dollar exemption have been accomplished in the House and will most likely be on the Senate agenda this coming week. The state workers pay plan came around early in the session and as predicted, was passed out of the House this week to move on to the Senate. With inflation up and the state having trouble finding enough people to fill this worker shortage, an...
In the last couple of weeks, there have been two items voted on by county commissioners that were split votes. It’s not that unusual, but it’s still noticeable. Why? Because it’s a reflection of how our county is changing. People in Sanders County were relatively similar when I was growing up. Most of my friends were born here. You had your friends not necessarily because you had the same interests, but you didn’t have a lot of choice. My senior year of high school, my best pal was a “program kid” (ironically, also named Annie) from Califo...
A friend of mine once told me how he had become a drunk. After taking his first drink he said, “I began to feel so good, so happy, so powerful that I wanted to feel—even better!” Substitute political power for drink. It is even more intoxicating, and like drink you can never get enough of it. But unlike drink, which is basically limitless, political power is limited by the desires of other people to have power, and often they get in each other’s way and fight over who gets to have the most po...
When I was in junior high, we traveled to Hale, Missouri, to visit my dad's aunts and cousins. It was a town about the size of Noxon. It had a hardware store and a feed store, and my extended family ran the one restaurant in town. My Great Aunt Ila ended up putting together a cookbook of all her recipes, and the peach pie is still the best ever. When we were in Missouri, there was a small article in the newspaper with all our names, stating that we were there visiting Ila and the family. It was my first experience being published somewhere othe...
Long ago, my girlfriend and her sister took me skiing at Schweitzer Basin. Sort of. They got me into a pair of leather boots that connected — temporarily — to a pair of Head 210s. They took me to the top of the “learning” slope and said, “See ya later. Have fun.” They did see me later. I did not have fun. This is what I learned. Having no clue how to turn, I learned that the fall line is where one falls. Often. After two disastrous trips on the chair, I resorted to the rope tow, and learned that, when you fall, let go of the rope. I did NOT l...
What do you do if you don’t have people writing to you with their book recommendations and your TBR list isn’t in the thousands? One way to find books is to use an app like Goodreads or The StoryGraph. As you enter books you’ve read and give them ratings, the apps will recommend books for you. Or Google “authors like so-and-so” using an author you like. I write down the names of any books I come across while reading other books, and any authors an author I like mentions in an interview or has a quote from on their dust jacket. Lastly, a...
by Dennis Spurlock Homeowners insurance can often be complicated for the consumer to know and understand what is covered and what isn’t. In my 13 years of experience, the most common homeowners claim comes from water leaks inside the home. Slow leaks from pipes or appliances that are not found right away or from back up of water from drains are very common. Unfortunately, those two types of claims might be excluded on your home policy. Each company has their own way of handling it, but as a consumer you should check with your agent if your p...
I always love going to the years of service celebration at the courthouse. It’s amazing to see how long people have been at their jobs, and definitely an accomplishment worth recognizing. With my parents’ generation, it seems like most everyone stayed in the same job for decades. It wasn’t unusual to have the same job for 30 or 40 years. I remember hearing a statistic in college that the average person would have seven jobs in their working career. A 2021 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people born between 1957 and 1964...
I watch people driving down the highways in $80,000 pickups towing $200,000 campers (which are bigger than a lot of people’s homes, but then, so are some of the pickups) and then a boat is being towed behind the camper, and not to forget the miscellaneous means of propulsion strapped here and there. And attached to this caravan of maybe a half a million bucks of toys is a license plate that reads “Don’t Tread On Me.” Which I like as a statement but from all appearances these folks don’t s...
The wintertime blues are real. The holiday spirit has up and gone and springtide is just out of reach. I’ve always found February in Montana to be the toughest. You know there’s going to be more snow, you know there’s going to be more temperature drops and you know there’s nothing you can do about it. All you can really do to get through the next few months, besides binge Netflix, is to just dream about Spring. I’ve spent the last few days out in my greenhouse working to get 700 tulip bulbs into pots. Now, 700 doesn’t sound like a lot, but tr...
Nanette Blake from Farmhouse Blooms brought over some newspaper pages she found under the flooring of the house she recently purchased in Thompson Falls. One of the newspapers was the November 10, 1911, issue of The Sanders County Ledger. On the front page in November 1911 was an article about the proposed sewer system in Thompson Falls. “This arrangement would bring one discharge pipe down Columbia street to the river draining blocks Nos. 3 and 4; the other discharge pipe going to the river on Ferry street and draining blocks Nos. 5 and 6. ...
