Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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Of all the horrors Republicans see in the Democrats’ grossly misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act,” the biggest bogeyman is that the Internal Revenue Service is going to get funding to hire new employees to boost their auditing efforts. Tax auditing, in case you don’t know, is a multifaceted approach to taxpayer compliance; some involve simple individual returns, but the complexity skyrockets when it comes to corporate and millionaire’s returns. Mike Crapo, a Senator from Idaho, complains...
I’ve known Sam and Teri Burt since they moved to Trout Creek. I went to school with their kids. My dad was a volunteer fireman with Sam at the Trout Creek Rural Fire District. I’ve always known they are good people and known that they were involved in the community. What I didn’t know, however, was their level of investment in our communities. When I asked if I could interview them about being grand marshals, they both were very humble. They are honored to be chosen, but they don’t volunteer for the recognition or the glory. Volunte...
In the hutch in my dining room, I occasionally glance at the gavel I was presented with when I was installed as Worthy Advisor of the International Order of Rainbow Girls, Auburn Assembly #11. A beautiful silver gavel my parents proudly surprised me with to celebrate the beginning of a year-long term serving our local community. The year serving as Worthy Advisor I credit with forming the foundation of who I am. My advisor was Barbara Cooksey, an incredible woman who had a heart of service as...
When I describe Sanders County to people who have never been here or are just visiting, I often relay the fact that the county is 100 miles long and has no stop lights. Some might argue the flashing light at the corner of Highways 77 and 28 counts, but not in my world. Take the conversation further with locals and some will say, “if Sanders County ever gets a stop light, I’m moving.” While it doesn’t appear we are close to getting a stop light in the county, we are growing and changing. Our population is increasing and our communities and ser...
On election day, assuming you can still bring yourself to vote, you go down to the polls, or more likely, the mailbox and look at the selection of candidates for various offices. Some are OK, some are not, so you pick your favorite and then you come to a race where both candidates are, in your opinion, bums. Your choice is to choose the lesser of the bums, write in Mickey Mouse, or skip it entirely. But whatever you do, you don’t really get to say “these two people are bums.” I think there...
I met someone recently and after striking up a conversation, quickly found out that she had moved to the area about a year ago. Being the curious person that I am, I asked about her background. I always like hearing people’s stories of how they found themselves in a certain place. When I asked this person where she moved from, she whispered, “California,” and I wondered, “Why the whisper? Was she nervous? Worried?” Whatever the reason, I assured her that it was wonderful and welcomed her to Montana. I like to joke that I was born in a barn in...
You may have heard someone say, “That person is a real character,” generally in reference to a guy or gal who is somewhat, or very — ummm — unique. Some folks achieve status as a real character without even thinking about it, but should you yourself ever want to become a real character, several qualities are required. Some are inborn and some are acquired. Which are which, I’ve not determined, and I’m not sure it matters. To become a real character, one needs luck, a talent, a passion for something, the ability to live on air and an initial...
Hospitals. Schools. Churches. Museums. All valuable buildings that should always be protected. Let’s add libraries to that list. It should come as no surprise that as the owner of a newspaper, I value reading. I love holding a book in my hands, listening to the sound of pages turning one by one, and the way my bookmark tracks my progress while I read. I’m a lover of books and certainly believe in access to information of all kinds. Last week, the city of Thompson Falls met with county commissioners and board members from the Thompson Falls Pub...
Behold state Representative Brad Tschida bringing national attention to Montana by announcing that a woman’s uterus serves no real purpose for a woman, that it is a “sanctuary” for the pre-born. Sort of a condo leased out to a fertilized human egg. I’m not sure what Tschida’s stand is on ovaries and fallopian tubes and the other plumbing that contribute in one way or another to the creation of a human life, but if we view a uterus as a sort of freeloading body organ on standby until it is cal...
The countywide Sanders Saleing yard sale event is a great way to purge items that have been sitting in your garage or basement gathering dust. It’s a great community event. However, there’s a drawback when it comes to the tons of items leftover. What do you do with it? You can pack it up for next year, take it to the dump, or donate it to local organizations and thrift stores. The problem is, many items that should probably be thrown away end up at thrift stores and the organizations end up throwing them away. One of the most shocking rea...
Not to age myself publicly or anything, but back in the dark ages when there were limited sports for girls, I did take a chance and try out for the boy’s flag football team with two friends, Tina and Michelle. Because we were young and fearless and fast, we all made the team. Perhaps our coach was also ready to make a stand for girls in sports. We played one game in our school district before being removed from the team and offered the opportunity to be cheerleaders. Evidently parents from t...
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” wrote Thomas Jefferson — with a little help from his friends — for the first sentence in the Declaration of Independence, a document...
Whenever I hear someone talk about how honest they are, I instinctively put my hands in my pockets to see that everything that should be there is still there. So, pardon me my skepticism when I read this blurb from a large accounting firm’s website: “Our Global Code of Conduct is a clear set of standards for our business conduct. It provides the ethical and behavioral framework on which we base our decisions every day.” Or this one: “… we hold ourselves to the highest moral and ethical s...
As we approach the Fourth of July, it's important to think about the principles this country was founded on. We are the United States of America and the Constitution was an effort to bring people together in a new country. Despite the continued division in our country, we are still the UNITED states. It couldn't have been easy writing the Constitution and taking into account the needs and priorities of different colonies. One of those founding principles was the first amendment guaranteeing the right to free speech. As a news organization, we...
In John Prine’s song “Way Back Then,” he sings, “I am out undoing all the good I’ve done.” That could be a theme for the past few years in the United States. Environmental laws passed “way back then” are weakened, international agreements are abandoned, traditional friends are snubbed and rancorous, argumentative politics have settled into every level of government. I have my theories on the causes of all this, one being that the rising resistance to progressive thinking by a dogmatic, entrenched, seemingly intentionally ignorant group...
Here we are nearing the end of June, with summer chugging along at a steady pace. Warmer weather, vacation plans and leisure time are all increasing. Thoughts of school – with its classes, books, and homework – have certainly faded long ago. So where are all the college and high school kids? “Not working” appears to be the answer. While this doesn’t apply to every person in the 16-24 age range, there does seem to be a steady unemployment trend for this group that becomes quite noticeable in June and July. Babysitting, lifeguarding, refereein...
On the same day that the 50th anniversary of the Montana Constitution was being celebrated in the chambers of the Montana House of Representatives as producing the most open government of all the 50 states, it was revealed that the Governor of Montana was keeping a secret from the public: his location. He was, his office said, on a previously undisclosed “long-scheduled personal trip,” the location and timing of which were also undisclosed for “security reasons.” The deception was discovered because inconveniently – and simultaneously with the...
Can one person change the world? The skeptic in me prevents me from giving a resounding “YES!” to this well-worn, oft-repeated saying, because change can often seem too slow, and the world can often seem too big. But I do believe that one individual’s actions can influence others, that one person’s decisions can be the start of a larger movement. This is much more apparent, much more convincing, when we take a local instead of a global view. In last week’s editorial, I mentioned that one of our civic duties is voting. Why? Because taken glo...
In college one of my favorite courses was entitled “Humans Being.” It was an interesting study on what it means to be human. We explored various concepts, facts and emotions, taking an in depth look at differing views and responses to common themes of being human such as happiness, forgiveness, love and one of the most interesting for me, death. Why was it interesting? Because as a child I was raised to believe no one gets out of life alive, so I was surprised that for many, death is a dif...
I had a friend visit from Tennessee a few years ago, and she couldn't believe the number of deer in Thompson Falls. She took a lot of pictures of deer in the yard, deer on the sidewalks, deer in the streets. It is pretty unique as we live in the wilderness of northwest Montana. We have plenty of civic duties – both as U.S. citizens and as residents of Sanders County. As Americans, we pay taxes, serve on juries and vote in elections. But our obligations here in this community are just as important, and it appears we need to brush up on one of o...
Inflation has settled in for the American consumer and it’s nowhere more obvious than at the gas pump. Not so coincidentally, the only ones who are able to stay ahead of inflation are those companies which are causing the inflation itself, the oil companies whose profits have skyrocketed at the expense of the American consumer. It’s not just the price of gas. Since virtually everything produced in America uses some kind of petroleum product in its manufacture, not to mention the fuel to get thei...
The community of Paradise needs a community sewer system. The sewer district board agrees. The county commissioners and sanitarian agree. The state agreed to the point of ranking the sewer sytem as a top priority for funding. As you drive through Paradise, the "No Sewer" and "No Levy" signs are still prominent, with residents expressing their distaste for the project. More than 85% of the funding for the $5.8 million project has been secured with various grants. Last month, the Sanders County Commissioners offered to take on the majority of...
My neighbor Aaron Harris showed up with his portable sawmill this week, and we proceeded to make rectangular pieces out round logs harvested from my place by Ma Nature herself: windthrown Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock courtesy of big wind events during the past few years. Brother Kent and I salvaged them with my chainsaw and his tractor. He sent his portion off to the mill, but I reserved mine for personal use. Homegrown is best, right? The lumber is fodder for the continuing project of rebuilding the cabin my mom and dad put together over a...
My whole family got COVID recently. Ironically, we were all gathered at a funeral for my uncle, who passed away last fall, from COVID. I'm proud to say my family is fully vaccinated and boosted. More importantly, I'm very glad we all were. I have no doubt some of us would have ended up in the hospital had we not been. COVID is something we are going to have to learn to live with, just like the flu and other bugs that go around. However, we still have a responsibility to keep others safe. For now, the CDC is recommending isolating and then...
The Montana Primary election is coming up and I have been thinking about the choices I face in my rural Montana county. I don’t ask a lot of county government, just the basics; roads plowed in winter, graded in the spring, a sensible budget, a deputy sheriff within reasonable distance, and most importantly, a county commission that gets along. I’ve lived through my share of the opposite and it’s not good for anybody. A county in turmoil does not attract new businesses or medical providers; even tourists don’t feel welcome, which, now that I thi...
