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Community Briefs: Helena Sun Run, Race to the Sky bridge dedication, voter registration event
Over 200 people participated in the 2021 Helena Clean Energy Expo and Sun Run.
Helena Sun Run to benefit local schools
The Helena Sun Run returns to Central School and the surrounding neighborhood this Saturday morning for its seventh annual running.
The run is an annual fundraiser for installing solar panels around the City of Helena on public and nonprofit buildings, with the ultimate goal of making Helena a beacon example of a renewable energy-powered community. The event includes a 5K run but also a one-mile walk and bike parade for those looking for a more kid-friendly or relaxed option.
This year’s event partners with Helena Public Schools for the third season in a row — this time aiming for the installation of a 50 Kilowatt solar system at Bryant Elementary School. The last two Sun Runs raised funds for 50KW systems on Central School (2019) and Jim Darcy (2021), both local elementary schools.
If goals are met this year, Helena Public Schools will be aided by the addition of 150 Kilowatts of renewable energy.
Founded in 2015 by then-Race Director Shiloh Hernandez, the race has been an annual collaboration between the Helena Vigilante Runners, Sleeping Giant Citizens Council, a local conservation group, and the partner organization benefitting from the run in any given year. In 2015, the first year of the event, the Sun Run raised funds for for a solar array that now sits atop the Lewis and Clark Public Library and was so successful that there was leftover funding to install smaller systems at the library’s branches in Lincoln and Augusta. Subsequent years fundraised for panels at the Holter Museum of Art, Carroll College, and the elementary schools mentioned above.
Sign up for this year’s run/walk or donate at: https://runsignup.com/Race/MT/Helena/HelenaRunfortheSun.
Bridge dedication to commemorate Race to the Sky
The U.S. Forest Service and Montana Mountain Mushers have joined together to dedicate the new bridge across Beaver Creek Road near Lincoln. The bridge dedication is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8 at 3:30 p.m. on the bridge site, which is near the Beaver Creek Campground just outside Lincoln. Everyone is welcome.
The Forest Service, Lincoln District, placed the permanent bridge over Beaver Creek giving multi-use access for Race to the Sky trails connecting Lincoln to Seeley Lake for the 300 mile sled dog race held every February.
A sign at the bridge commemorates Race to the Sky and its beginnings through today, Jack Beckstrom’s part in seeing the race happen, and the history of the race. There will be representatives from the organizations to speak briefly about the bridge and sign. Everyone is invited.
Directions: About half a mile west of Lincoln is a road called Beaver Creek Road, head north on Beaver Creek Road, (you are on the flats near Lincoln but will be climbing slightly to rolling hills), stay left at the Y (on Beaver Creek Road) to Pine Grove Campground, go through campground, (about 5 miles from highway turn-off), at the north end of the campground there is an ATV parking area. Park there and the bridge is about 100 yards from the ATV parking area right on the creek. The campground is about 5 miles from the highway turn-off near Lincoln.
For more information, call 406-881-2909 or email adanac@adanacsleds.com.
Voter registration at library this week
Attention Lewis & Clark residents. Hurry up and get registered to vote so you can vote in the upcoming Nov. 8 General Election. This election will decide Montana's Representatives to Congress, Montana Supreme Court Justices, County Commissioner, Public Service Commissioner, County Attorney, County Sheriff, County Treasurer/Clerk and Recorder to name some of the races. Also, all state representatives and half of Montana state senators are up for election.
For your convenience, voter registration volunteers will be at the Lewis & Clark Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch, from 5 to 7 p.m. every night, starting Monday, Oct. 3, through Friday, Oct. 7. Registering to vote is an easy process that just takes a couple of minutes and no ID is required.
All Montana U.S. citizens who are 18 and older by Nov. 8, and have lived in Montana for 30 days can vote. This includes Montanans on probation or out on parole, those in a pre-release center, and felons who have served their sentence and are now out of prison.
Need assistance voting? Call Montana Women Vote at 406-317-1505.
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2022-09-30T14:02:58Z
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helenair.com
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Community Briefs: Helena Sun Run, Race to the Sky bridge dedication, voter registration event
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https://helenair.com/news/local/community-briefs-helena-sun-run-race-to-the-sky-bridge-dedication-voter-registration-event/article_125395aa-f474-51a8-8985-d3e358b842b7.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/community-briefs-helena-sun-run-race-to-the-sky-bridge-dedication-voter-registration-event/article_125395aa-f474-51a8-8985-d3e358b842b7.html
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'I couldn't stay quiet': Ryan Busse's one-man crusade against gun, NRA 'radicalization'
KALISPELL – Sometimes, Ryan Busse freely concedes, his one-man crusade against the "radicalization" of the firearms industry and National Rifle Association is a lonely endeavor.
But then his phone rings. Or his text flashes. Or his Twitter pings.
All reminders Busse isn't alone at all.
On a recent weekday morning, for instance, the 52-year-old former gun-industry executive and jet-lagged author of “Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America” had a solemn reminder of the tragedy he and especially his wife, Sara, dub their "tipping point": A call from a Connecticut woman whose son and 25 others were riddled with AR-15 rounds at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Next was a second appearance on former senator Al Franken’s podcast, the two inserting Saturday Night Live-esque levity into the otherwise deadly serious topic of gun-culture threats to American democracy.
Busse recently wrote “Gunfight: My battle against the industry that radicalized America” where he describes in detail his experience working for the gun industry, its ties with the NRA and the culture and ideologies it harbors.
ANTONIO IBARRA Lee Newspapers
For Busse, who spent “25 years and four days” as an industry innovator and leader but now warns of its tectonic shift from advocating responsibility and reason to fomenting anger and grievance for power and profit, those calls and his rapid-fire unvarnished tweeting represent just another day at the Kalispell home office — when he’s there.
Five days earlier, Busse had engaged a rapt crowd of 700 at Chautauqua, New York, on the stage where Salman Rushdie was stabbed. He's given a closed-door briefing for senators at the behest of Montana Sen. Jon Tester, has twice testified before Congress, and is a fixture with media outlets not holstered at the hip with the NRA.
Busse is, by his own admission and lament, the one industry ex-pat — out of the millions who have worked for it, or paid NRA dues, or like him simply value gun ownership as an intrinsic part of America’s fabric — who has pierced the veil of gunsmoke to speak out credibly against a culture that prosperously fed, clothed and housed him.
Busse was once the sales savvy behind the stylish Kimber America brand, selling millions of guns. He won industry awards. He also orchestrated a ruthless dealer boycott of Smith & Wesson, ultimately costing its CEO his job, after the company went rogue by negotiating with the Clinton Administration after the 1999 Columbine massacre.
Now, in his book and on the stump, Busse takes aim at his former industry, and even himself, for an evolution he realized two decades ago was “really going off the rails.”
“Why me? I don’t know,” he says reflectively. “I just happened to be somebody who decided to be critical of it while still being in it, and that just doesn’t happen in the gun industry. If it’s an affliction, if it’s a blessing, whatever. I just cared too much about the stuff. I felt like the industry betrayed me and is betraying all of America, and I literally just couldn’t look away from it. It just ate at me every single day.
"We got into this through 30 years of incremental bad decisions that made things marginally worse and we have to start making decisions that make things marginally better." -- Ryan Busse at his home in Kalispell on Aug. 24.
Busse is sitting at the dining room table in his spacious west Kalispell home, an elk rack above a stone fireplace presiding over his left shoulder. With his rugged build, salt-and-pepper beard beneath a bald scalp, and checkered flannel shirt, he looks as if he bushwhacked straight from the pages of a Cabela’s catalogue.
A few feet away, near picture windows framing a lush side-yard of Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, a life-sized mountain goat appears poised to leap onto a rocky cornice. Photos of the couple and their lanky sons, high schoolers Lander (Wyoming) and Badge (Badger-Two Medicine), are mostly set outdoors, some with firearms.
At his feet, bird dogs Aldo (Leopold) and Teddy (Roosevelt) circle restlessly, their internal clocks issuing an early whiff of grouse season.
It is this persona that helps explain how Busse is thriving with a narrative — or, at least, hasn’t been muzzled — where all others fail.
At the time, NRA membership was a literal badge of responsibility, worn on a hunting vest for passing a firearms-safety course. Busse recalls an industry writer showing up to a popular shooting event on the ranch with an AR-15 and being roundly scolded to stow it away.
Ryan Busse pictured at his home in Kalispell on Aug. 24 with a sample of his personal gun collection. Busse, a former firearms executive who helped build Kimber America into a top-tier gun company, has broken his silence to talk about his one-man ex-insider crusade against an industry and culture he helped build.
So after playing baseball at little Bethany College in Kansas he gravitated to a vocation that allowed him to be outdoors and around guns. First it was briefly with Burris Optics, but then he and a colleague were asked to run a two-man shop for Kimber, a fledgling outfit in Clackamas, Oregon, known for its craftsmanship. Told they could settle anywhere, northwest Montana was the idyllic fit.
Kimber was hand-to-mouth when Busse arrived as an entry-level executive, but he devised a dealer-direct sales approach revolving around the revered Kimber 1911 pistol that quickly elevated him to the vice president’s chair, hawking products he calls the “Porsche, BMW or Jaguar” of firearms. Twice he was among three Industry Person of the Year finalists.
“We sold really nice stuff and marketed it in very desirable ways and people in the industry appreciated the way we marketed it,” he recalls. “So we got lots of friends and I got a lot of recognition because of that.”
His life, he reckoned, was perfectly scripted.
It took five epiphanies over 18 years to drive him from it.
Doubts first emerged in 2000, amid the boycott that nearly crushed Smith & Wesson. Bowing to public and legal pressure, the iconic company with the "Insured by Smith & Wesson" bumper-sticker bravado had agreed to handgun locks and authorized-dealer background checks, among other compromises intolerable to Second Amendment absolutists.
The boycott, which resulted in a subpoena and New York grilling of Busse for potential antitrust-law violations, jump-started today’s radicalization, he now believes.
Four years later, Busse, an eventual board chairman of Montana Conservation Voters and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, spoke passionately at the National Press Club against oil-and-gas exploration of Montana's Badger-Two Medicine roadless area, country so pristine it moved him to tears when he first solo hiked deep into it. As a kid whose father was among the first in Kansas to farm according to Conservation Reserve Program principles, he'd developed a spiritual connection to wild spaces even as he understood the tilled soil paid the bills.
The subsequent backlash, especially among hunters, surprised and chagrined him. Busse assumed hunters would revere such habitat. He decided then he was “not going to look away from stuff I knew was wrong.”
“For a lot of Americans, guns and gun ownership is something emblematic like Campbell’s soup and Americana. It’s not bad, don’t demonize them.” – Ryan Busse at his home in Kalispell on Aug. 24
Though he was weaned on Rush Limbaugh as a teen, Busse had taken a liking to presidential candidate Barack Obama by 2007. To reveal it publicly or even to insider friends, though, could cost him his job — “I know it sounds crazy, but it was totally true,” he says — because of the NRA narrative that Obama was coming for America's guns.
Even worse was an insidious ugliness.
“It went from an industry never selling more than 7 million guns (annually) before Barack Obama was elected to selling 16 million guns, but that didn’t bother me,” he recalled. “It was the reasons that bothered me. So much of that happened because of irrational fears about the first Black president. Or the conspiracy theory that he was going to rewrite the Constitution.
“Heck, I was trying to build a gun company and I wanted to sell more guns, but I didn’t want to sell them because people were fearful of a Black president. That really started to scare me.”
Then, the "tipping point”: Sandy Hook. At the time, his boys were near the same age as the victims.
Until Sandy Hook, Ryan says he was “someone who tried to do well while doing good” while Sara, his conscience prodder, was “focused on doing good and the doing well part will take care of itself.”
Sandy Hook flipped him. They began to plot his exit, culminating when Sara locked the door of their hotel room on the night of their 20th wedding anniversary and told him they weren't leaving until he had a plan.
“For me, viscerally, I said, ‘You can’t be doing this’,” remembers Sara, 45, a tall, trim and athletic Kansas State alum who met Ryan at his brother Cory’s wedding a quarter-century ago. “This literally feels like we have blood on our hands.”
Even so, it was yet six more years before Busse, who still thought he had the cachet to create change from the inside, extricated himself from career paying $200,000 annually.
On Valentine’s Day 2018, a shooter with an AR-15 killed 17 and injured 17 at high school in Parkland, Florida. In a moment of rage, Sara posted on Facebook that “the ONLY way this will EVER change is if the NRA goes up in FLAMES. Period.”
Ryan called Sara from Kimber and told her he was “catching a lot of heat”. Did he want her to remove the post? He replied he wouldn’t tell her what to do.
“I wasn’t thinking," she recalled. "I was just being a mom. I was so angry. But I was not willing for him to bear that cost.”
Ryan Busse with his wife, Sara, at their home in Kalispell. After publishing his book, Ryan said he received an "overwhelming" show of support from the public.
Busse left Kimber in August 2020. And sat down to write.
Initially he considered a cheeky wild-West hybrid of TV's “Breaking Bad” and “The Office”. His Missoula literary agent, Julie Stevenson, pushed back.
Ryan and Sara braced for “Gunfight” to unleash vitriol, much like they’d already experienced up close and too personal.
During a tense 2020 Black Lives Matter rally in Kalispell, a man in a red MAGA hat with a holstered pistol screamed from spittle range at 12-year-old Badge, jabbing a finger in his chest and berating him as “an evil little bastard.”
Ryan, who recalls the scene as "terrifying", stepped between them and told the man he wouldn’t walk upright for months if he didn’t back off. The man moved away, calling him “an evil f*cker” as a parting shot.
As publication neared, Ryan and Sara fretted about safety, especially for Lander and Badge, also dedicated activists — “I have a lot to say about my dad,” Lander said. “I couldn’t be more proud of what he’s doing” — in their own right. They imagined AR-15s aimed at them from the nearby hills, perhaps even along the forested asphalt road to their home, where they pass scribbled conspiratorial rants on a chain-link fence. They considered moving.
To their surprise and relief, the reaction since the October publishing of “Gunfight” has been overwhelmingly supportive, perhaps due in part because the industry has purposefully ignored it — though Busse suspects that'll change with the Sept. 23 announcement that he has been appointed to the Interior Department's Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council. He said he receives a steady stream of grateful emails, texts and social media responses. Book signings, including in Whitefish and Kalispell, are routinely rewarding.
“I’m not anti-gun, but I am anti-radicalization of guns.” – Ryan Busse at his home in Kalispell on Aug. 24.
“In some ways it was a little anticlimactic because of the incredible nastiness we thought would happen right off the bat that I detested and was scared about,” Busse said. “Not that I don’t get ugly comments. (Donald) Trump Jr. attacked me and I get some of that. But for the most part it has been positive.
Not that there isn't pain. They’re estranged from some family members. And they’ve lost longtime friends, notably from Ryan’s old social circles.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers publicly distanced itself. So did Kimber. Some hunting groups label him a traitor.
Busse can rattle off names of the few who dared question the industry's direction, all silenced or allowed back only after unfettered contrition.
He says he’s avoided such a fate because firearms are no longer his livelihood. “Gunfight”, speaking engagements and advising the Biden Administration and Giffords advocacy group pay the bills, along with Sara’s marketing company.
Busse, 52, worked for more than 25 years as an innovator and leader in the firearms industry. Now he's taken a step back to talk about the gun industry's shift from advocating responsibility and safety to fomenting anger and grievance for political power and profit.
“He started with one book and one voice, and as soon as he started speaking out and as soon as people started reading his book, he wasn’t alone for long.”
Said Tester: “The Second Amendment is pretty damned important to Montana, and it's pretty damned important to Ryan. He understands guns and the important role they play in Montana and many other parts of the country, and that gives him a unique voice in the debate about community safety. He is honestly and earnestly concerned about the direction of our country, and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind.”
Amid such backing, Busse is even more empowered to take on the industry and NRA, which he says are shamelessly exploiting fear, especially in young men. Such "couch commandos", he said, represent a tiny fraction of Americans, but they are aggrieved, loud and armed.
“The byproduct of the culture that is created is directly contributing to outcomes like Buffalo and Uvalde and Highland Park," he said, "because these are for the most part troubled young men, teenagers in many instances, who are told they, too, can be a tactical bad ass and solve their problems by grabbing this gun. There’s a direct line to the marketing and divisive fearful conspiratorial political rhetoric that the industry is engaged in, and I don’t see any of that lessening now.
“There’s a twisted sense of what guns have become to so many people that they almost wish for a time when they could use guns to overthrow a democracy.” – Ryan Busse at his home in Kalispell on Aug. 24
Getting there, he said, required reframing the issue.
Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo, Highland Park and Las Vegas have all been rationalized as “single bad actor” incidents. What can’t be rationalized away, he said, is what he calls “domestic terrorism” groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Boogaloo Boys organizing around firearms.
As much as Busse decries the industry and NRA evolution, he also looks inward. To that end, “Gunfight” has been cathartic.
He did, though he insists it isn't him that changed. It's the gun culture.
He knows he isn't alone, but voices like his remain scarce or, in his old industry, nonexistent.
Watch the full video interview with Ryan Busse here:
Watch now: Ryan Busse talks about his crusade against the gun industry, NRA radicalization
Montana Firearms
Former Kalispell firearm executive tackles industry in new book
In recent months Busse was featured on the front page of the New York Times, appeared on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, gave a TED Talk and has appeared on more than 30 podcasts.
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2022-09-30T23:13:44Z
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helenair.com
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'I couldn't stay quiet': Ryan Busse's one-man crusade against gun, NRA 'radicalization'
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/i-couldnt-stay-quiet-ryan-busses-one-man-crusade-against-gun-nra-radicalization/article_81692e82-7067-51d0-b307-d267fefffbb2.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/i-couldnt-stay-quiet-ryan-busses-one-man-crusade-against-gun-nra-radicalization/article_81692e82-7067-51d0-b307-d267fefffbb2.html
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A kiosk at Spring Meadow Lake State Park offers loaner lifejackets.
In 2021, Spring Meadow Lake State Park was the state’s fourth most-popular park, hosting 254,141 visitors and ranking behind Cooney Reservoir, Flathead Lake and Giant Springs respectively.
Online, the 61-acre getaway is touted as an urban day-use park and a “popular spot for family afternoons of swimming, sunbathing, fishing, birdwatching, and having fun.”
On Wednesday it was the site of a drowning, when 29-year-old Kyle Verley went underwater after apparently getting stuck in mud as he carried a toddler on his shoulders.
Verley, according to reports, was fully clothed and not wearing a lifejacket. The toddler, who had been thrashing, had been pulled from Verley.
It’s one of several drowning deaths at the park in the past 20 years, according to a review of the Independent Record’s archives. A 9-year-old girl fell through the ice and drowned in 2003, a 6-year-old boy drowned in 2012 and a 7-year-old boy drowned in 2017.
Visitors at the park are warned by signs there are no lifeguards on duty and that they are swimming at their own risk.
Starting in 2018, loaner lifejackets have been made available at the park. The first batch was donated by Lewis and Clark County Search and Rescue, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and local businesses.
In 2021, the Department of Public Health and Human Services launched a collaboration with FWP for a “Kids Don’t Float" program by donating more than 300 life jackets for state parks.
Hope Stockwell, administrator of the parks and outdoor recreation division for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Friday the department was “saddened by this tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all affected.”
She said people want to recreate and enjoy Montana’s natural resources, but the parks department has used signs to emphasize that lifeguards are not on duty and swimming comes with risk.
She said any change in policy would have to come from the state parks and recreation board.
Signs at Spring Meadow Lake State Park caution visitors there are no lifeguards on duty.
She said in 2021 there were two drownings at other state parks: Tongue River and Flathead Lake.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff/Coroner Leo Dutton said while there are groups that offer free use of life jackets, people need to realize the danger of any body of water, including Spring Meadow.
“The lake is such dimensions that it would be difficult to have lifeguards watch all areas. The cost involved would be prohibitive,” he said.
“We realize there have been many deaths at that lake, all of the seasons,” he said. “It’s very close to town and people often do not expect trouble.
“In my time here, we have not pulled a drowning victim out of that lake that had a life jacket on,” Dutton said.
Hope Stockwell
Lifejackets
Flathead Lake
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2022-10-01T00:45:47Z
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helenair.com
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Latest drowning was one of several at popular Spring Meadow Lake State Park
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https://helenair.com/news/local/latest-drowning-was-one-of-several-at-popular-spring-meadow-lake-state-park/article_052b39ae-b2f5-5b16-a7cf-7b0d8e8b6f9d.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/latest-drowning-was-one-of-several-at-popular-spring-meadow-lake-state-park/article_052b39ae-b2f5-5b16-a7cf-7b0d8e8b6f9d.html
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People gather outside the Myrna Loy Center on Thursday evening for a dedication ceremony for a new mural created by Blackfeet artist Louis Still Smoking.
“The rain is coming, I know that’s a good sign too,” said Major Robinson, a fellow artist and member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. “Our water is sacred, and I think it’s kind of blessing the mural right now.”
On Thursday, around 65 people gathered at 6:30 p.m. on Breckenridge Street on the north side of the Myrna Loy for the unveiling of the monumental artwork by Still Smoking.
Still Smoking is one of the most exciting contemporary artists in Montana with his art highlighting the modern lives led by Native Americans today. He was born in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation and still resides there, painting, drawing, sculpting and more.
“People also ask me, ‘What inspires your work?’” said Still Smoking. “The Native people of Montana is what inspire me … I think it’s important to use those positive messages, especially in public works because you’re engaging with the community, and I try to approach that with a sense or realism but also like colors. I like very expressive color … I hope people see this and understand that these people in this image, they’re now. They’re living their lives in these places they call home.”
The celebration started off with an honor song by Mike Jetty, who’s a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and a Turtle Mountain Chippewa descendant. He translated the thank you song, “All around the world, I’m sending my voice in thanks. Thank you creator for this life he has given us.”
Robinson then spoke and introduced Still Smoking, proclaiming “This space has been waiting for what Louis had to offer.”
The celebration ended with a round dance in which everyone held hands and joined in.
In the mural, five Natives stand proud with their presence floating over a historic map of Montana from around the 1800s. On the left is Jesse DesRosier who’s a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a Blackfeet Tribe language teacher. DesRosier is a descendant of the Gros Ventre.
Next is fancy dancer Siliye Pete, who belongs to the Bitterroot Salish, Vanajo and Klamath Tribes.
In the middle is the Grass Dancer Kasey Nicholson, who performed comedy directly after the mural celebration inside the Myrna Loy. Nicholson also spends time as a wellness educator and motivational speaker and is a part of the Aaniiih (Fort Belknap Indian Community) and Pikuni (Blackfeet Indian Reservation) Nations.
To the right of Nicholson is Dessie Badbear and her little sister, Bespoke, on horseback. They’re both members of the Apsaalooke (the Crow Tribe).
The farthest right Native is Lynwood Hisbadhorse Jr., who’s a part of the Hisbadhorse Relay Team. Hisbadhorse Jr. is a veteran who served in the U.S. Marines. He’s from Lame Deer and is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation.
The executive director of the Myrna Loy Kris Holmes said that around a year ago in early September, the Myrna Loy hosted an exhibit by Still Smoking called “Perseverance.” His work moved Holmes and others so much that at the artist reception, they approached him about giving him a space on the outside of the building to display a mural. The backside near Rodney street was chosen because the original historic building part cannot be altered.
“It’s a proclamation of the vibrancy, diversity and activity of Montana’s native community,” said Holmes. “Where it is on the building, you have to look up to it, which I think we all should.”
The nine individual panels were transported up to Browning in June where Still Smoking painted them over the summer. Then, they were brought back to Helena, and Alliance Sign Company framed them together.
This is the final mural installation as part of “Rodney Street Is…”, the Myrna Loy’s Creative Placemaking Project, which is fueled from a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts. This artist-led project was a collaboration with local businesses, neighbors and the city of Helena to breathe some new artistic life into Helena’s historic Rodney Street.
This project included artworks, street and landscape improvements, historic tours, video interviews, oral history and more with residents.
“For several years, we have been talking about how the Myrna Loy can erect some kind of public art that declares and celebrates that wherever we are, inside the Myrna Loy, outside, in Helena, or outside of Helena, we are in Indian country,” said Holmes.
A post shared by @rodneystreetis
Kasey Nicholson
Jesse Desrosier
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2022-10-01T00:45:53Z
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helenair.com
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The Myrna Loy unveils new mural by Native artist Louis Still Smoking
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https://helenair.com/news/local/the-myrna-loy-unveils-new-mural-by-native-artist-louis-still-smoking/article_64111e39-03ef-5268-8936-da3af3f6ccc8.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/the-myrna-loy-unveils-new-mural-by-native-artist-louis-still-smoking/article_64111e39-03ef-5268-8936-da3af3f6ccc8.html
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Helena-area candidates running for state legislative seats told members of a grassroots group a little bit about themselves and asked those in the room for their vote come election time.
The forum at the Montana Club downtown on Thursday was sponsored by Hometown Helena, and each candidate was given four minutes to address the audience. There was no debate among the candidates who instead mostly focused on experience, goals and other reasons why they were running.
Election Day is Nov. 8. Ballots are mailed out Oct. 13.
The following are the Helena-area races, candidates and some of what was said:
Janet Ellis, incumbent Democrat, discussed her work the Audubon Society and other conservation work. She said she has been on budget track her whole time in the Legislature.
She noted she has served in either the House of Representatives or Senate since 2015. Ellis said the Legislature meets for four months every other year, “so experience really matters.” And she noted her familiarity with the state budget and how she was able to influence it.
Ellis said that as a Democrat, she is in the minority and has to work across the aisle. She said the fact she is on seven interim committees shows she is willing to seek cooperation and compromise.
Dave Galt, the Republican challenger, was born and raised in Lewistown and said he has lived in eastern and western Montana. He said he was a surveyor for Montana Department of Transportation (DOT).
He said he was introduced to the state Legislature in 1987 when he served as an administrator for the state’s motor carrier services. He said he was named DOT director in 2000 by Republican Gov. Judy Martz.
Afterward, he was hired by Montana Petroleum Association to be its executive director.
He said he still does contract advocacy work and spends spends a lot of time working on health issues with particular interest in children.
Republican Matt Olson touted his business background and said he and his wife ran the Dairy Queen in Helena for 28 years and sold it in 2020.
He said he wants to create a more prosperous Montana.
“My message is simple,” he said. “I think we can do better.”
Olson mentioned the state’s lack of affordable housing, health care and epidemic drug problem. He said he believes the state can do better for seniors as there are too many stories of seniors hurt by inflation. He said the state needs to do better to support law enforcement and provide all help necessary to fight fentanyl.
Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell, who was attending a memorial service for her sister, spoke by video. She said she is in her eighth year of serving in the state House and is now running for senate because she wants to keep serving the people of Montana.
Dunwell said her sister’s death strengthened her resolve to keep working for a Montana economy that works for everyone and hardworking families. She wants to keep working on issues such as housing, health care and affordable child care. She also wants to keep working to protect the Montana Constitution and all the rights it affords.
Republican Keith Pigman said the city needs services such as sewer and wants to work with the city commission on infrastructure issues. He said the state needs to develop a philosophy of rational development to solve its housing crisis.
He said Montana needs to accept a little bit of change to grow.
Pigman said he has a lot of issues with government regulations and that is why he is running.
He said the state has too many restrictions and will work hard to make sure the proper bills get passed.
Democrat Laura Smith said she is a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted violent crimes and sexual assault. She also served several years as deputy director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Smith said her experience as an attorney provided a strong foundation for work in the Legislature.
She said she wants to make sure there is a safe future for the next generation.
Smith said she has been hearing mostly on the campaign trail about the affordability of housing and child care, and more providers are needed.
Democrat Melissa Romano said her experience as an educator will help her in the Legislature.
She said on the campaign trail she is hearing about affordable housing. She said she is passionate about pre-education. Romano said she would seek and support legislation that eases a family’s ability to provide access to health care.
She said she wanted to see a happy and healthy Montana. Romano said she would work across the aisle with legislators to find solutions. And she said she was a skilled leader.
Republican Jill Sark talked about her career with the state.
She said she had no college education as she had to help support her family at a young age. She said she worked in public assistance and learned to apply federal and state policies to a person.
She worked in various state departments. She was program director of the Insure Montana Program at the State Auditor’s Office. She recently retired as bureau chief for the Department of Public Health and Human Services Community Services Bureau, where she managed several Medicaid programs for Montana’s elderly and people with physical disabilities.
Sark called for Medicaid reform and more government oversight.
Democrat Jill Cohenour said she will work to make sure agriculture remains one of the state’s greatest assets.
She said she is a product of public schools, and was proud to be a union president and a public employee. She believes in advocacy for workers.
She said many public employees are not making the wages they should be making and are either leaving state government or moving away.
Affordable housing and affordable child care are two of the hot topics she is hearing about on the campaign trail. She said she wants to continue work on property tax relief and other important topics for Montana.
Republican Kaitlyn Ruch said she was raised with faith, family and freedom and has been taught to work hard. She said she graduated early from Helena High School and has spent the past year being out in the world.
She said she served as a legislative page in the last session because she wanted to get involved and enjoyed observing the process. She said she has found that representatives are accessible and she can see herself sitting in one of those chairs.
Ruch, who is now in college, said she has insight as to how the education system works. She said public education is a great system but it is not for everyone. She wants to make sure opportunities are available for students.
Republican Becky Beard is unopposed in her reelection.
She spoke about her work on water and sewer grants and how regulations and permits have doubled costs. She said many communities cannot afford the high prices.
Beard said she serves on several prominent committees.
Democrat Mary Caferro said this is her 12th campaign. She said the Legislature has bolstered community services for people with mental illness.
She said there is a group of legislators from both sides of the aisle who work together to get things done.
She said serving in the Legislature provides her with the opportunity to help people.
Republican Alden Tonkay did not attend the forum.
Democrat incumbent Kim Abbott said she has worked on complicated compromises as a legislator and is focused on making sure the system works better to offer insurance to nearly 100,000 people.
She also said she has spent a lot of time getting infrastructure through. She said she would like to use some of the state surplus for permanent tax relief and invest in child care, education and housing, adding it will likely include private partnerships.
Republican Bob Leach did not attend the forum.
You can view the forum at https://hometownhelena.blogspot.com/2022/09/hometown-helena-september-29-helena.html.
Becky Beard
VA report says Montana has 'significantly higher' rate of veteran suicide
Montana’s suicide rate was “significantly higher” than the national average not only for veterans, but for the general population as well, a new report says.
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2022-10-01T00:48:21Z
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helenair.com
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Helena-area legislative candidates outline goals at forum
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/helena-area-legislative-candidates-outline-goals-at-forum/article_2a6c0a87-ec55-5fdd-9ac4-0133063ed0f4.html
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/helena-area-legislative-candidates-outline-goals-at-forum/article_2a6c0a87-ec55-5fdd-9ac4-0133063ed0f4.html
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Vi Gauvin, center, poses for a photograph with the many neighbors and other volunteers who worked Saturday to rebuild an outbuilding lost in the Aug. 23 Rising Moon fire.
The report from the team of first responders who eventually knocked down the Rising Moon fire on Aug. 23 listed the only structure lost among the nearly 30 homes in the area as a "garage," but it was so much more than that.
Known as the "bunkhouse," Vi Gauvin said it was the site of family vacations and home to her late husband's large collection of antiques.
Vi and Rich Gauvin moved into their home, a stone's throw from the Missouri River, in 1998. The couple were veritable pioneers as the first to develop in the area. By 1999, the two and some friends finished building the bunkhouse.
A photo of Vi Gauvin and her late husband Rich sits atop an organ he learned to play in his final years.
It was 60 feet by 24 feet and had a boat bay and a second story living space, a favorite of the Gauvin's grandchildren.
Rich, an Army veteran and excavation business owner, died of cancer in May 2021. Vi said she was still figuring out what to do with his collections when disaster struck.
The fire burned through 135 acres around the Gauvin's home as about 40 residents of the area were evacuated.
"The fire was right here as we were pulling out," Vi said, gesturing to the nearby ridge at the edge of her property still charred from the fire.
Vi's next door neighbors Heath and Tammie Cooper said they had three tanker trucks parked in their yard protecting their home. Heath said his shop building had to be dosed in fire retardant foam.
Heath was in Avon at the time and said his family had only 20 minutes to grab their belongings and flea from the inferno.
"Ms. Vi took the brunt of it," Heath said.
Another neighbor Brian Goddard said he stayed behind to keep an eye on the neighborhood. Goddard said he provided "unfortunate" updates to his neighbors over the phone.
"It was a pretty stressful night for everyone," he said.
Vi did not return to her property once allowed to. Her daughter was at work still, and she said she could not return alone.
For two weeks, Vi and family and friends did their best to clear the charred remains of the bunkhouse.
"I would dig through the ashes for hours looking for anything, but it was all gone," the 73-year-old Vi said.
Vi Gauvin holds up a photograph of the bunkhouse lost in the Aug. 23 Rising Moon fire.
An antique electric stove she bought for her husband as a 70th birthday gift was turned over and completely blackened in the blaze. Vi said inside the oven, perfectly preserved, was a beautiful ceramic pie plate, which now sits on her kitchen island.
Saturday morning, Goddard and more than 30 neighbors and area contractors surprised Vi when they showed up unannounced to build her a new out-building despite the rainy weather.
"There was an onslaught of people," he said.
Vi smiled as she watched the first truss get hoisted into place.
"It's a big surprise," she said. "Everybody is in trouble here."
She said she saw the numerous cars staged at Goddard's house next door and thought he must have been having a party and did not invite her.
"Our neighborhood is really close. They're all like our children," she said.
Neighbors and local contractors help build a new outbuilding for Vi Gauvin, whose beloved "bunkhouse" burned down in an August wildland fire.
Goddard, a contractor himself and owner of Cardale Industries, put out an SOS among the neighbors and his contacts in the business.
He said Lowe's provided materials at a reduced cost and donated some items. A1 Rentals loaned him a truss boom and trencher. Tri-County Disposal provided three dumpsters for the remaining debris.
He said thanks to the generosity of everyone involved, they were able to secure materials and labor for less than what it would have cost Vi in insurance deductible.
Neighbors work a truss into place over a new outbuilding on the property of Vi Gauvin. The Aug. 23 Rising Moon fire claimed the "bunkhouse" originally on her property.
"We need to step up and help one another like they did in the old days with barn raisings," Goddard said.
Vi said her late husband would have "loved all of this, them all getting together like this."
"Take the time to get to know your neighbors," she said. "Be friendly. There's a lot of nice people out there."
Rising Moon Fire
Vi And Rich Gauvin
Brian Goddard
Rising Moon
Cardale Industries
Tri-county Disposal
Gauvin
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2022-10-02T01:24:36Z
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helenair.com
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'Like they did in the old days': Neighbors help rebuild after wildfire
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https://helenair.com/news/local/like-they-did-in-the-old-days-neighbors-help-rebuild-after-wildfire/article_33e9aea7-b276-5587-a4ec-625aa6072ffa.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/like-they-did-in-the-old-days-neighbors-help-rebuild-after-wildfire/article_33e9aea7-b276-5587-a4ec-625aa6072ffa.html
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Republican Ryan Zinke and Democrat Monica Tranel are running for Montana's Western U.S. House District.
It marked the second time in three days that Democrat Monica Tranel and Republican Ryan Zinke squared off, this time without John Lamb, the Libertarian who did not meet criteria to attend the event organized and moderated by Montana Television Network.
Zinke is the former Secretary of the Interior and served as Montana’s congressman before. Tranel is a lawyer from Missoula and a former Olympian.
During the forum held in a TV studio, Tranel at one point said Zinke was like “Alice in Wonderland, you never have a day without saying at least three lies before 10 a.m.”
Zinke repeatedly fired back on the label of liar during the hour-long format.
“As a man of integrity, it's difficult to have an election and have your family and your kids listen to the lies about you,” Zinke said.
With a little over five weeks until Election Day, the tone and rhetoric of campaign advertising has heated up and one of the candidate’s spats over truthfulness came in response to a question about a TV spot paid for by Zinke’s campaign. The ad says Tranel worked as a private attorney on an appeal to the state Supreme Court filed by a man convicted of child sexual abuse.
The segment says Tranel worked to get the man out of prison to “roam our neighborhood streets.” Tranel said she’s asked Zinke to take down the spot.
“Ryan’s ad is dishonest. It’s a lie,” Tranel said.
Tranel said the underlying trial resulting in the man’s conviction was not fair and that he did not have effective counsel. She said her work on the case was about ensuring he had due process.
“It had nothing to do with the underlying charges. It had to do with a trial itself. We claimed it wasn't fair,” Tranel said. “There was no set of circumstances where the person in question would have been released to roam the neighborhood streets free.”
In the 2011 filing, Tranel and another lawyer wrote that the man's ineffective representation meant there should be a reversal of his conviction and a new trial. The Supreme Court did not find the man had an ineffective lawyer and upheld the district court’s ruling.
In the forum, Zinke said that while he agreed everyone deserves fair legal representation, “In Montana, we throw child rapists that are guilty … we throw them in jail. We don't elect lawyers who defend them and want to release 'em.”
The forum kicked off with a question about the 18 federal investigations into Zinke while he was Secretary of the Interior during the Trump administration.
That again drew accusations of lying, with Zinke saying Tranel has misrepresented the outcome of those inquiries by running ads saying he lied to investigators.
“I don't lie, but neither am I going to be intimidated or bullied by biased investigators from the very department that I was trying to change,” Zinke said.
Prosecutors have declined to pursue criminal charges and Zinke has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. A report into a Whitefish project found he didn’t comply with ethical obligations and duty of candor. The Inspector General, a Trump appointee, reviewing the casino dealings found Zinke "made statements to ... investors with the overall intent to mislead them."
Zinke said he was not interviewed in the investigation into his actions around the Whitefish project.
“How do you lack candor when you weren't interviewed? And oh, by the way, the same person that said ‘lack of candor’ was a political hack,” Zinke said.
Tranel again said Zinke wasn’t being truthful.
“Those investigations say themselves that he lied to criminal investigators,” Tranel said. “And the fact that he says he wasn't interviewed, that's a lie right there.”
In February, NPR reported that lawyers representing Zinke, his wife and the Whitefish project developers declined interviews, so the report included emails obtained via subpoena and text messages.
Zinke accused Tranel of lying again.
“You know, Monica, lies seem to come from your mouth, because I was not interviewed on the Whitefish project,” Zinke said. “ ... The investigation never says lie. … Let's be clear. I'm a (U.S. Navy) SEAL. I don't lie, but I'm not going to be intimidated or bullied by biased investigators.”
Abortion was another place the candidates said their opponents mislead on their stances.
Tranel said she supports a person’s right to decide if, when and how they become a parent, and in the last two forums also framed the issue as one of privacy. She said that some state attorneys general have already started seeking location data from cell phones to track people seeking abortions.
“If they can come after you for searching about abortion, they can come after you for searching about guns, for hunting and even about what book you want to read,” Tranel said.
Zinke has said he’s “pro-life,” but that he does not support an all-out ban on abortion because of his concerns over “dire circumstances” such as cases of rape, incest or if the life of a pregnant person is at risk.
Where the candidates said their opponents were misconstruing things was in how they characterized each other’s views. Zinke has called Tranel’s stance “barbaric,” saying that she’d support abortion to “take a child's life moments before birth.”
Tranel objected. Doctors in Montana say abortions performed at the end of pregnancies are done so when the fetus is not viable and the life of the pregnant person is at risk.
“What's barbaric is for you to take this moment of incredible heartbreak at the end of a pregnancy and parents who choose that do (so) in very extreme, heartbreaking circumstances, for you to use that as a political pawn to justify taking away our privacy and our freedom to make choices about when we become a parent? That's barbaric,” Tranel said.
Tranel has called into question Zinke’s disagreement with a full abortion ban, saying he has not disavowed GOP platforms that support it and that he’d be voting with Republicans in Congress on the matter.
“Once again, you lie about my position and you lie to women about it,” Zinke said. “ … I'm pro-life, and I wish life was perfect. And I wish there was never a reason for young woman to have an abortion or had that difficult decision. But I am not for banning (abortions) and that for some Republicans, that's a hard pill to swallow,” Zinke said.
Health dept. asks Supreme Court to strike order on updating birth certificates
The lawyers for the state argued the judge's order could only address a 2021 law, not an administrative rule enacted by the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
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2022-10-02T05:02:11Z
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helenair.com
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Western congressional candidates trade accusations of lying in forum
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/western-congressional-candidates-trade-accusations-of-lying-in-forum/article_fde0ca87-5baa-535d-a748-6a4f33576b74.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/western-congressional-candidates-trade-accusations-of-lying-in-forum/article_fde0ca87-5baa-535d-a748-6a4f33576b74.html
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East Helena's American Chemet celebrates 75 years
American Chemet CEO Bill Shropshire talks about the company's history during a recent tour of a new expansion of the company manufacturing operation.
The story of American Chemet Corp. is one of family.
The manufacturer of metal-based powders and chemicals and its East Helena facility are celebrating their 75 years of business, and President and CEO Bill H. Shropshire said from the shareholders to the workforce on the factory floor, an emphasis on family has guided the company through the decades and into new frontiers.
American Chemet manufactures Cuprous Oxide, Cupric Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Copper Powder, Cuprous Oxide based Agricultural Fungicides, and related products.
"I'm not thinking exclusively of shareholder families," said Shropshire, the third generation of Shropshires to helm the company. "In the workforce, we've got mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers, uncles and nephews. To me, it's a huge honor that people believe in this place enough to vouch for us to family members."
Kyle Kambic started his career at Chemet about 20 years ago filling bags with product, as all new hires start out doing and today works a superintendent and production scheduler.
Kambic said his uncle worked for the company when he applied for a job.
"One thing I try to portray to new hires is our family atmosphere," Kambic said. "Shropshire and the board treat people like family. It's what really keeps me coming back."
Former President and CEO for about 34 years William W. Shropshire, the father of Bill, said his company's family atmosphere was never something they intentionally set out to foster.
The elder Shropshire said by investing in the employees and creating a positive work environment, "the people who were working with us enjoyed the work and suggested it to their kin. And we're always looking for good people."
William handed over the company to Bill about 12 years ago, but at 86 years old, he still chairs the company's board of directors and said he is "just tickled to death" by the direction the company is headed.
"It's a really exciting time," he said.
Chemet is in the midst of about a $22 million expansion, and like it has throughout its history, is transitioning into new product lines and new methods of manufacturing.
"The expansion is giving us a whole lot more flexibility in how we produce our products," he said. "As the technology broadens, we have the capability to produce compounds from other elements."
American Chemet's first plant was in Chicago in 1946, but within a year manufacturing was moved to East Helena, Montana.
Back in 1946, when the grandfather, William Wallace Shropshire, and three business partners formed the company, the world was only just coming out of World War II, and the men anticipated a need for paint.
The grandfather moved from Chicago to East Helena and set up shop next door to the East Helena American Smelting and Refining smelter. Chemet sourced their materials from the smelter and produced zinc oxide out of its waste.
Over the decades, product availability, environmental regulations and shifting market demands forced the company to adapt.
"There's an expression around here, 'the Chemet way,'" current President and CEO Bill Shropshire said. He said it harkens back to those early days of adapting to a rapidly changing world.
"There's the challenge. Here are the resources available. How can we make this work?" Shropshire said. "There were times in our history where it's been duct tape and bubble gum. Now we have more resources."
He said the company uses that deep-seeded entrepreneurial ingenuity to guide itself into its next 75 years.
Between its locations in East Helena, Chicago and Tennessee, Chemet employs about 200 people. This year, Chemet's East Helena facility expects to ship 86 million pounds of product around the globe, up from around 75 million pounds the prior year and about 61 million pounds in 2020.
"We're in one of those periods right now where the markets are presenting opportunities to us, and we're deploying capital to give industry what its asking for," Shropshire said.
After 34 years, Bill Shropshire handed American Chemet Corp. down to his son, William H. Shropshire.
DYLAN BROWN, Independent Record
The massive new facility erected on the south side of the East Helena property represents that capital deployment and, in Shropshire's eyes, the next 15 years of expansion "the Chemet way."
Father William Shropshire said in addition to the talented workforce and sharp management, the company's neighbors have helped to bring it along, adding that its relationship with the cities of East Helena and Helena have been "very good for a long time."
"Over the 75 years, we have been really helped out and cheered on by our community," he said. "The people who live here have always been wonderful to work with."
Kambic is one of those people. He said he had no idea the job he took in the '90s at the suggestion of his uncle would blossom into a more than 20-year career.
This photo of American Chemet and its leadership was taken in the summer of 1947 after the company's first year. The lights in the background belonged to the local baseball field used by the Smelterites, a semi-pro team.
photo courtesy Bill Shropshire
He said he and his family lived in Butte at the time, but not long after his hiring, he moved the family to Helena.
Kambic also serves on the company's donation committee and said he is proud to continue on the company's community involvement. Through that role he has been able to help local food pantries, Meals on Wheels and veteran causes.
"This company invests not only money, but also time into its facilities, employees and community," he said. "That community involvement has kept me sticking around."
It is also part of why Kambic's son started his new job at Chemet this month filling bags with product.
Kyle Kambic
American Chemet Corp.
William Wallace Shropshire
Bill H. Shropshire
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2022-10-02T13:13:14Z
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helenair.com
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East Helena's American Chemet celebrates 75 years
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https://helenair.com/business/east-helenas-american-chemet-celebrates-75-years/article_1510da08-487c-5d61-be24-ba4966829f0a.html
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https://helenair.com/business/east-helenas-american-chemet-celebrates-75-years/article_1510da08-487c-5d61-be24-ba4966829f0a.html
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Open Range: The good old days of grocery shopping
LYNDEL MEIKLE
There were grocery stores in France as early as the 14th century, and their stock consisted of products such as vegetables, fruits and meats. Now we can buy a bicycle or a porch swing in the same store where we pick up our milk, eggs and frozen pizzas.
Of course, that’s assuming we actually go to the store and don’t have it delivered to our door. Being something of a dinosaur when it comes to modern marketing, I didn’t realize that a lot of people order their groceries online these days.
My grandfather went to work for a brand-new store called “Safeway” in Idaho back around 1919. It was a far cry from the fruits, vegetables, spices and other foods of the original French grocers, but food, fresh or packaged, was still the “theme.”
By the time I took a job as a checker, the foods came from across the country and beyond. Brand names were household terms and the stock expanded to include books, magazines, toys and medicines. “Scanners” were new then, and the worst part of the job was dreaming all night about sliding cereal, cookies, peanut butter and other edibles across the scanner.
The earliest reference I’ve found to a grocery store in Montana was in 1867 in Virginia City. It was reportedly moving into a room in the “old Crystal Palace”. How “old” could it have been, considering the town wasn’t even incorporated until 1864?
Before the “Golden Spike” was driven at Promontory Point in Utah in 1869, canned goods came up the Missouri River by Steamboat to Fort Benton and then by wagon or ox cart to Helena and Deer Lodge.
Once the railroad crossed the country, goods were brought to Montana by wagon from Utah. By 1871, newspapers reported arrivals of fresh California fruits, fresh cured hams and California groceries “of every variety."
Particularly in small towns, the postmaster was nearly always the owner of the grocery store. The job didn’t pay very well. Some received only $10 or less a year, but it was worth it because people tended to stock up on groceries when they came for their mail.
In 1876 there was a flap over a law that required businesses selling liquor to be closed on election days and Sundays. Deer Lodge and Beaverhead counties protested because this would mean closing grocery stores at those times.
The driving of the “Last Spike” at Garrison in 1883 completed Montana’s connection with trade from across the country, and grocery stores lost a lot of local products to big producers.
But even after the big stores – and the ever bigger store – arrived, there were still what were called “Mom and Pop” stores.
When I first moved back to Montana I was perplexed by the police report in the Deer Lodge Silver State Post newspaper. It seemed that every week, a small child would be reported missing, and nearly every time the child would turn up at Young’s Market. I finally asked the proprietor why. He pointed to the penny candy rack, an irresistible attraction for a youngster. I can just recall such a rack at the store in Elliston in the late ‘40s, where my brother and I spent our hoarded pennies.
The good old days.
Lyndel Meikle lives in the Deer Lodge area.
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2022-10-02T13:13:26Z
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helenair.com
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Open Range: The good old days of grocery shopping
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https://helenair.com/news/local/open-range-the-good-old-days-of-grocery-shopping/article_9d490bf9-bc00-529a-9403-f7660c28d5a3.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/open-range-the-good-old-days-of-grocery-shopping/article_9d490bf9-bc00-529a-9403-f7660c28d5a3.html
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Hurricane Ian, identified as the sixth most powerful hurricane in U.S. history, and one of the worst to hit Florida, stimulated rapid intermittent buying of crude oil, diesel, gasoline, natural gas, orange juice, and lumber all week.
After a brief hiatus, as the category 4 storm moved into the Atlantic and lost energy, the eye was aiming at the Carolinas for a somewhat milder category 1 dose of flooding and damage. Crude, heating oil, and gasoline spiked upward midweek but weakened on Friday as damage to rigs and refineries were assessed.
Frozen OJ continued higher throughout the week. By late Friday, December crude was $79 per barrel, down roughly $3.50 from last Friday. December gasoline was $2.28 per gallon, down about 7 cents from last Friday. December diesel fuel traded at $3.13.
Nations claim sabotage of gas line
Commodities are physical natural resources that have been traded since 1852 in the form of futures contracts. It has been a highly efficient system providing advantages, liquidity, and uniformity for producers (such as farmers), end users, and investors. Both agricultural and industrial commodities are now traded throughout the world with Chicago remaining a major center. These are the most basic resources at the foundation of our economy and entire civilization.
The futures contract system was adapted by the financial industry during the last 25 years as an efficient way to trade currencies.
Stock indexes followed suit and, most recently, Bitcoin and other financial instruments have as well. Futures trading now includes both actual commodities, like grains and metals, and financial markets such as stock indexes, Bitcoin and treasury bonds traded in the form of futures contracts.
Hurricane Danny 2015
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2022-10-02T16:35:07Z
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helenair.com
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Futures File
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https://helenair.com/news/local/futures-file/article_1217ebb6-8788-5ebd-b761-f0230707ba35.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/futures-file/article_1217ebb6-8788-5ebd-b761-f0230707ba35.html
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"I am trying to facilitate anything to improve the property," said Buck Rea, who owns the shuttered Memorial Park Apartments.
Jesse Chaney, Independent Record
The Memorial Park Apartments near the intersection of Last Chance Gulch and Lyndale Avenue closed in 2016.
AshLy Tubbs and Karli Mosey are in the midst of developing The Bell, Helena's Boutique Hotel. They describe it as a 12-room luxury hotel with a mid-century modern aesthetic that could offer Helena-centric vacation packages and local small business-supplied amenities.
The development is set to occur on the former site of the long-shuttered Memorial Park Apartments at 40 E. Lyndale Ave.
The old apartments were demolished this summer with the help of $175,000 of the city's Railroad Urban Renewal District tax increment financing funds.
The land will remain under the ownership of Buck Rea, who purchased the property from his family in 2000 and ran it as the 35-unit Memorial Park Apartments before its closure in 2017 due to costly needed repairs.
In addition to the hotel, Mosey and Tubbs said they hope to bring in a second business to operate on the property.
A "For Lease" signs on the property meant to attract potential businesses has caused concern, Tubbs said in an interview Thursday.
"Since the signs have gone up, we've gotten a ton of questions," she said. "We are proceeding as planned."
Mosey said she is "really excited to be moving forward."
The pair said they are still navigating financial, design and city processes.
"It's a long process," Tubbs said.
The demolition was a big step.
"I've never been so happy to see dirt," Mosey said.
At the time the TIF funds were awarded by the Helena City Commission, Mayor Wilmot Collins expressed his enthusiasm for the project in a press release.
"I am thrilled the city had the opportunity to support the proposed project at the old Memorial Park Apartments property," Collins said in the press release. "The TIF funds are a tremendous resource for businesses in Helena. This is a significant project for the community and exactly the type of redevelopment we hope to use TIF funds for."
Bell Motel
Historic sign, other relics emerge from demolition of Helena apartment building
Several artifacts have been uncovered at the site now being cleared for a hotel to be known as The Bell, Helena's Boutique Hotel, including a neon sign for the Bristol Hotel which was several blocks away.
City to help fund demolition of Memorial Park Apartments in Helena
The Helena City Commission approved the use of $175,000 for the demolition of the long-shuttered Memorial Park Apartments to make room for a n…
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2022-10-02T16:35:14Z
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helenair.com
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Plans for Helena boutique hotel still on track, developers say
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https://helenair.com/news/local/plans-for-helena-boutique-hotel-still-on-track-developers-say/article_969de6c1-c8df-5475-b3ad-a18bdf5012ba.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/plans-for-helena-boutique-hotel-still-on-track-developers-say/article_969de6c1-c8df-5475-b3ad-a18bdf5012ba.html
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In the past several months the importance of judicial elections and appointments has become ever more apparent. Our constitutional system of three separate co-equal branches is being fundamentally threatened.
If we, as citizens and voters, do not care enough to understand what is happening in Montana and throughout the U.S., the wisdom of our founding fathers and the framers of Montana's 1972 Constitution will be voluntarily forfeited.
The stark contrast between our experienced and trusted incumbent, Justice Ingrid Gustafson, and her opponent presents a litmus test. Justice Gustafson learned first-hand how the law impacts ordinary Montanans and small businesses over the 15 years during which she practiced law in Billings. The knowledge she gained — and the respect she earned — in private practice, resulted in her appointment as a District Judge in Billings by Republican Governor Judy Martz.
After serving on the district court bench 14 years, Justice Gustafson was appointed to the Montana Supreme Court in 2017, by Democratic Governor Steve Bullock.
Now, compare Justice Gustafson’s record to that of her opponent. James Brown was a mere law student when Justice Gustafson became a district judge. To members of the bench and bar, he is known as a lobbyist. In one of his TV ads, Brown accurately describes himself as a businessman, not a lawyer.
And far from representing thousands of ordinary Montanans like Justice Gustafson, Brown has been counsel of record in fewer than 100 Montana court cases — roughly the number of decisions Justice Gustafson has written just since 2021, 90 percent of which were unanimous opinions.
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2022-10-02T16:35:20Z
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helenair.com
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Gregory R. Todd: Vote for the qualified, experienced, impartial candidate
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/gregory-r-todd-vote-for-the-qualified-experienced-impartial-candidate/article_a26b0a25-5921-596c-aa32-949d4d85ca8e.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/gregory-r-todd-vote-for-the-qualified-experienced-impartial-candidate/article_a26b0a25-5921-596c-aa32-949d4d85ca8e.html
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I met Gary Buchanan 25 years ago, and in the years since, he became a trusted friend and adviser. Gary always tells you what he truly believes, listens and takes into consideration what others have to say, takes the time to educate himself, and can admit when he is wrong. For these reasons and more, I’m honored to endorse my friend, Gary Buchanan, as our next congressperson in the Eastern district.
As a former Democrat lawmaker and state-wide elected official, some have asked why I would support an Independent instead of the Democratic party nominee. Please know my choice has nothing to do with the Democratic candidate. My choice has to do with Gary Buchanan’s strong character, values, and history in Montana.
Gary worked with governor’s from both sides of the aisle, worked to protect our public lands and clean water, believes in fiscal responsibility, and understands Montana’s history and common-sense values. He will listen and do what is best for Montana. I know Gary, his family, and his heart. There is no doubt he would make the best congressperson for Montana. Please join me in voting for the Independent candidate for Congress, Gary Buchanan.
Monica Lindeen,
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2022-10-02T16:35:32Z
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helenair.com
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Gary Buchanan will do what's best for Montana
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-will-do-whats-best-for-montana/article_a4c2a6ea-4e05-5f65-94db-22411078ae94.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-will-do-whats-best-for-montana/article_a4c2a6ea-4e05-5f65-94db-22411078ae94.html
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Petty Officer 1st Class Bert Williams with his two sons (Circa 1963)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Bert Williams (retired, circa 1982)
Retired U.S. Naval Chief Bert Williams served a total of 21 years active duty in the armed forces; three in the Marine Corps (1953-56) and 18 in the Navy (1957-75). He sailed on three oceans, and spent time on several continents, spanning three decades.
“I’m glad I did it, I experienced things that an old country boy coulda never done,” he said, when asked to assess his military career. “I served as the Officer of the Day (OOD) on a million dollar vessel, responsible for hundreds of men … something I never coulda accomplished back on the farm.
“I’m very proud of my service, and I’d do it again if I had a chance.”
Williams was born in Bays, Kentucky, in 1935. He graduated from Breathitt County High in 1953, and enlisted in the U.S. Marines later that fall. After boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, and combat training at Camp Pendleton, California, he shipped over to Korea in May 1954.
Assigned to the 11th Marines Regiment, Headquarters and Service outfit, he was stationed with Charlie Battery and the artillery’s 105mm Howitzers.
Williams returned stateside from tour of overseas duty, and after scoring “248 and 249” points out of a possible 250 in the marksmanship tests, he “never worked again” while in the Marines.
“Most Marines are basically riflemen,” related Williams, 87, in an easygoing southern drawl during an interview in his home near Goose Bay, Canyon Ferry. “I won several Western Division championships, and was assigned to preliminary rifle school instructor, training officers how to shoot.”
He was honorably discharged in late 1956, as a corporal, although he made sergeant but didn’t stay in long enough for the promotion.
After marrying his wife Lorene (they would go on to parent three children - Michael, Harold and Brenda Gail), he enlisted in the Navy near the end of 1957, and was sent to Great Lakes for a military refresher course. He was then assigned to the USS Severn, AO-61, an oil tanker that was home ported in Newport, Rhode Island.
“Our skipper was Cpt. David McCampbell, a Medal of Honor winner,” related Williams, who soon became a store keeper petty officer third class in supply. “He was a clean freak and had us spiff the Severn so spotless it became the showboat of the fleet.
“I started cutting hair in the forward storage units, for a dollar or two, and then the XO sent word that he needed a haircut. Well, I did too good’a job, and he told me ‘You’re the new ship’s barber.’”
Aboard the USS Tutuila (ARG- 4), an internal combustion engine airship out of Norfolk, Virginia, Williams advanced to PO first class in his fourth year in the Navy.
As the flagship of ServRon4, the Tutuila made a cruise to the Caribbean for underway training. Then came shore duty in Norfolk in the controllers office with the test and evaluation force.
From 1963-66, he served at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. In the Airdale Squadron, his job entailed duty maintenance with the Air Terminal Office, ordering parts until computers took over.
A favorite memory was a request for a set of snow tires for the four-engine “Ellouise” aircraft.
Next he served aboard the USS Alcor (AK-259), which was stationed out of Charleston, South Carolina. The Alcor was a Greenville Victory-class cargo ship that had been converted to carry Polaris missiles.
They made runs to Scotland and Spain replenishing missiles. The Alcor also sailed down to Florida to view the target practice missile shots of the nuclear sub Thomas Jefferson, which impressed Williams with its accuracy.
“The targets were 55 gallon barrels, and they usually hit ‘em, shooting from several miles away,” he said.
Williams had been promoted to chief petty officer by this time, and when the Alcor was decommissioned in 1968, he was the last person left aboard, in charge of making all the final reports.
His next duty was aboard the USS Simon Lake (AS-33), a submarine tender, docked out of Holly Loch, Scotland.
The “Blue & Gold crews” of Sub Squadron 14 alternated every 90 days, trading crews off the Simon Lake, on closed communication lookouts while replenishing the tug boats.
Williams served as cargo chief on a “pugger” coal barge, in charge of a 100-man working party. Every month they unloaded and loaded thousands of products transported by the TAK civilian supply ships.
The Simon Lake also worked in conjunction with the supply warehouse at the Gander Royal Canadian Air Force Base.
For Williams’ next assignment, the family drove cross-country from coast to coast in a 1968 Ford station wagon, to Bremerton, Washington.
He was assigned to the Naval Jim Creek Radio Station, which was a low frequency transmitter facility near Oso, Washington. Next came a three-year stint at the Polaris Material Office in Bremerton. This project consisted of overhauling subs with new products, and involved traveling to Vallejo, California, while inventorying thousands of parts, “forwards and backwards.”
His final stint took place aboard the USS Camden (AOE-2), a Sacramento-class fast combat support ship ported out of Bremerton. The 800-foot, 20.7-ton vessel could reach speeds of 30 knots, and combined the functions of three logistic support ships; fleet oiler, ammunitions and refrigerated stores ship.
SK Senior Chief PO (E8) Williams served aboard the Camden on extensive cruises up and down the West Coast, and deployed on a scheduled six-month cruise to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, which turned into 15 months.
“We pulled into Subic Bay (Philippines), that was before the hurricane, off-loading supplies,” he recounted, “and there were several white spy ships in the area.”
He was honorably discharged in September 1975.
Following another 20 years of employment – as the assistant purchasing manager for the city of Everett, Washington – Bert and Lorene relocated to Montana in two vehicles, where they purchased property in Powell County and Goose Bay.
So how’d they choose Big Sky Country?
“I liked the huntin’ out here, and we just liked Montana people in general,” said Williams, who also owns a 50-year Masonic pin for his voluntary work with the Free and Accepted Masons organization.
Bert Williams
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2022-10-03T14:25:09Z
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helenair.com
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Stories of Honor: Marines/Navy veteran Bert Williams served 21 years in military
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https://helenair.com/news/local/stories-of-honor-marines-navy-veteran-bert-williams-served-21-years-in-military/article_84a6633a-523b-5c9a-a619-93d886c77e78.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/stories-of-honor-marines-navy-veteran-bert-williams-served-21-years-in-military/article_84a6633a-523b-5c9a-a619-93d886c77e78.html
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Joe Dooling complained because others had endorsed a candidate to serve on the Lewis and Clark County Commission. He explained that this is a nonpartisan election. Yet, in the same op-ed, Dooling, a professional partisan, endorsed a different candidate.
Dooling implied that candidates for public office can be bought by the highest bidder. That claim calls into question the integrity of the various elected individuals whose campaigns Joe Dooling has promoted during his long career as a political operative. And, what does that have to say about the candidate whom he endorsed?
Dooling also distorted Candace Payne's resume. Specifically, he ignored the breadth of her experience with issues that the county commission deals with on a regular basis. Candace’s experience clearly demonstrates her understanding that private property rights include the rights of those who are negatively impacted by development, not just the rights of those who propose development. That experience also demonstrates her commitment to work for balanced solutions that benefit all the residents of Lewis and Clark County, not just those who might profit from commission decisions.
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2022-10-03T14:25:22Z
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helenair.com
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Candace Payne is committed to work for balanced solutions
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/candace-payne-is-committed-to-work-for-balanced-solutions/article_480f74e7-0036-5b4c-a138-b4ec28448351.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/candace-payne-is-committed-to-work-for-balanced-solutions/article_480f74e7-0036-5b4c-a138-b4ec28448351.html
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A coroner's inquest will be held Friday regarding the suspected suicide of an inmate at the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center on Oct. 24, 2021.
Delain Valenzuela Davis died as a result of affixation from hanging while in the custody of the detention center, according to a press release from the Lewis and Clark County Coroner's Office. The Montana Department of Justice's Department of Criminal Investigation investigated the death, and a coroner's inquest is required any time someone dies while being taken into custody or while in the custody of a peace officer.
The one-day inquest will be conducted by Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Coroner Jessie Billquist-Jette. It will begin at 9 a.m. Friday in room 204 of the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse with the selection of a six-person jury.
In late 2020, Davis was arrested and charged with felony sexual intercourse without consent with a child in Lewis and Clark County. He was 27 at the time of the arrest.
In 2013, Davis was charged with attempting to sexually assault 7-year-old girl in Yellowstone County. He was later found guilty of that crime and was classified as a Level 1 sex offender.
Lewis And Clark County Coroner
Delain Valenzuela Davis
Helena man charged with raping child
A convicted sex offender from Helena is back in jail on suspicion of raping a child younger than 13.
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2022-10-03T20:59:59Z
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helenair.com
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Coroner's inquest set in death of Helena jail inmate
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/coroners-inquest-set-in-death-of-helena-jail-inmate/article_706d588e-929a-5b6b-a94f-20df1d3c3155.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/coroners-inquest-set-in-death-of-helena-jail-inmate/article_706d588e-929a-5b6b-a94f-20df1d3c3155.html
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Thousands gather in Helena for the 2022 Montana Pride Parade and Rally on Last Chance Gulch and the Walking Mall.
What: Coming Out Day Celebration
When: 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 9
Where: Big Sky Unitarian Universalists Church, 400 S Oakes St. in Helena
Big Sky Unitarian Universalists (BSUU) Church is hosting a special National LQBTQ+ Coming Out Day Celebration on Sunday, Oct. 9 at 11:30 a.m.
“What we are doing with this particular service is we want to simply first of all highlight that we are an LGBTQ+ affirming and inclusive church, because I know myself personally as a member of the LGBTQ+ community that I have less than ideal experiences with other faiths,” said Lennon Keppen, member of the board for BSUU and member of the LGBTQ+ community. “Specifically with the Unitarian Universalists faith, we are an LGBTQ+ open and affirming church and space.”
This is the second Coming Out Day service hosted by BSUU. The first one was held virtually in October of 2020. This service is in honor of National Coming Out Day, which is on Oct. 11 every year. October is also LGBTQ+ history month.
“When I came out this year as nonbinary, (BSUU) was specifically one of the first groups I talked to about coming out, and everyone has been super affirming, using my new affirmed name, working on using my affirmed pronouns, very accepting when I chose to let them know early on in my coming out process that I was openly identifying as nonbinary,” stated Keppen.
Keppen has been a member of BSUU since January of 2020 and sat on its board since January of 2022. There are two other members of the LGBTQ+ community who sit on the board as well.
“We have a pretty diverse generational group of people who attend,” said Keppen. “We have people like myself who are working business professionals in their 20s and 30s. We have families who attend. We have folks who are retired. So we have a fairly large age demographic of community members.”
There are specific Unitarian Universalist Churches, including BSUU, listed as LGBTQ+ affirming and welcoming through the Unitarian Universalist Association, the church's national organization. Keppen pointed out that BSUU has had this designation since the 1990s and then in 2020, they were approached about reaffirming their designation as a welcoming and affirming church. One of the things they were asked to do as part of reaffirming was to host a specific LGBTQ+ related service.
“Unitarian Universalism is a non-Christian religion without any creedal faith or dogma for being a part of it. People come from all spiritual and religious backgrounds. We have people who are agnostic. We have people who are atheists. We have people who may believe in some form of a god,” said Keppen. “Essentially people who are a part of the UU faith simply come together to affirm the seven principles.”
There are seven guiding principle of Unitarian Universalism: “The inherent worth and dignity of every person; Justice, equity and compassion in human relations; Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; A free and responsible search for truth and meaning; The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” according to BSUU’s website.
Keppen highlighted that the Coming Out Day Celebration affirms the faith’s first principle of "The inherent worth and dignity of every person."
“Because we don’t generally gather with a specific set of things we have to believe, we come together to support each other and to celebrate our different beliefs and learn from each other’s different beliefs and practices,” said Keppen. “We come together to do things like social justice related work as that is a big part of our spirituality.”
Some social justice activism BSUU has done recently is sponsoring a monthly dinner at God’s Love, Helena's homeless shelter, providing support to the Afghan refugees in town, and medical relief projects in Ukraine.
Helena’s first UU church was founded in 1891 and called First Unitarian Society. The faith built their first church in 1901, where Grandstreet Theater resides today. The present church, BSUU, was formed in 1983. BSUU has met at the Plymouth Congregational Church since the fall of 2009 and continues to do so today. To learn more about the faith’s history, visit their website: https://www.bigskyuu.org/about/history.
Unitarian Universalists
Big Sky Unitarian Universalists
Lennon Keppen
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2022-10-04T00:45:17Z
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helenair.com
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Big Sky Unitarian Universalists Church to host Coming Out Day Celebration in Helena
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https://helenair.com/news/local/big-sky-unitarian-universalists-church-to-host-coming-out-day-celebration-in-helena/article_8bd291c7-9d04-594b-b041-22e77a3bac1b.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/big-sky-unitarian-universalists-church-to-host-coming-out-day-celebration-in-helena/article_8bd291c7-9d04-594b-b041-22e77a3bac1b.html
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A young boy was on Kyle Verley's shoulders when Verley became stuck in some mud. The boy started to thrash until a woman came into the water and got him, but Verley became submerged.
"He went out a hero and deserves nothing but the very best. Kyle was born and grew up here in Helena and was known and loved by many," Kaleb Verley, Kyle's brother, wrote on GoFundMe. "Kyle gave his last breath to save the life of another, and not only that, a child; please help him get the memorial he deserves."
The community has raised more than $2,500 to help honor Kyle and lay him to rest.
To view the GoFundMe, visit: https://gf.me/v/c/7qzq/kyle-gage-verley.
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2022-10-04T02:32:55Z
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helenair.com
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GoFundMe site set up for funeral costs for Helena drowning victim
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https://helenair.com/news/local/gofundme-site-set-up-for-funeral-costs-for-helena-drowning-victim/article_aedbb8cf-293b-55f4-aed5-128294234a06.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/gofundme-site-set-up-for-funeral-costs-for-helena-drowning-victim/article_aedbb8cf-293b-55f4-aed5-128294234a06.html
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A bump stock is displayed March 15, 2019, in Harrisonburg, Va. A federal appeals court was told Tuesday that there is no basis in federal law for a Trump administration ban on bump stocks — devices that enable a shooter to fire multiple rounds from semi-automatic weapons with a single trigger pull.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen had filed briefs in support of overturning the ban in both the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals last year and again in April before the high court had determined whether it would hear the case. Knudsen’s office was accompanied by 17 states in the 6th Circuit Court filing and 21 states in the brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Knudsen had argued bump stock-equipped firearms should not be classified as a "machine gun" but that the device itself is only an accessory. In the latest brief, Knudsen argued Montana's interest in the case was preventing a federal rule from making "hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens" into criminals and abridging their Second Amendment rights in the process.
A spokesperson for Knudsen did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the U.S. Supreme Court decision late Monday.
“This significance of this case goes beyond any firearm accessory and gun rights. No federal agency should be able to create criminal code without Congressional authorization,” Knudsen said in April after filing the amicus brief with other states in support of the plaintiffs, Gun Owners of America.
— Reporter Seaborn Larson contributed to this story.
Bump Stock
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2022-10-04T02:33:01Z
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helenair.com
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Supreme Court rejects bump stock ban cases
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/supreme-court-rejects-bump-stock-ban-cases/article_503198f0-54a9-5d8a-93ba-c3acca0fcfa2.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/supreme-court-rejects-bump-stock-ban-cases/article_503198f0-54a9-5d8a-93ba-c3acca0fcfa2.html
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This year we will have the opportunity to select an additional legislator to the U.S. Congress to represent Montanans' interests. The differences between the candidates in regards to how they will develop and support resource policies are striking. Currently the wildlife and fish in our beautiful state belong to all of us. We are also blessed with huge, sprawling, wild public lands. These are too important to all of us to entrust to someone who doesn’t have their roots in the land and an understanding of what Montanans’ need. Outside, wealthy interests are looking to develop and capitalize on our public land and wildlife resources. We need a representative in Washington who can stand up to outside interests and has a record of battling and winning against attempts to privatize and limit public access to these resources.
Ryan Zinke has no strong ties to the land. He has turned his back on Montana for “grander” promotions. As secretary of the interior (a position he had to resign from in disgrace), he scrapped the national plan to protect sage grouse habitat, and removed protections from thousands of acres of public land to oil and gas leasing and development, permanently altering your public land and wildlife. He oversaw the placement of William Perry Pendley, a person who spent much of his career calling for the sell-off of our public lands, to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Zinke was given a chance to show that he could represent Montanans’ interests and he failed. It’s one thing to say you’re for hunters, anglers and the lands and waters we all enjoy, and another to actually conserve special places and strike a balance on the management of our public lands.
Tom Puchlerz, retired biologist, U.S. Forest Service, Stevensville; Kathy Hadley, hunter, angler and conservationist, Deer Lodge; Chris Servheen, retired biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Missoula.
Tom Puchlerz
Kathy Hadley
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2022-10-04T12:50:09Z
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helenair.com
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Guest view: Wildlife, fish and the great outdoors, do your homework
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/guest-view-wildlife-fish-and-the-great-outdoors-do-your-homework/article_dc1961eb-55b1-5668-bb62-9bfcdafa6a7f.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/guest-view-wildlife-fish-and-the-great-outdoors-do-your-homework/article_dc1961eb-55b1-5668-bb62-9bfcdafa6a7f.html
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It is a great honor to serve Helena as your new postmaster.
In my 28 years with the U.S. Postal Service, I have seen firsthand the role the Postal Service plays connecting neighbors and our community to the nation. Our post offices serve as a lifeline for our small businesses to reach customers no matter where they are.
Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s leadership and Delivering For America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan, we are maintaining universal six-day mail delivery and expanded seven-day package delivery, stabilizing our workforce and spurring innovation to meet the needs of our modern customers.
As your new postmaster, I believe that I can guide our office to be a “best in class” delivery service to provide postal customers timely and correct delivery of mail and packages.
From an incredibly successful 2021 holiday mail and shipping season to our role delivering COVID-19 test kits, the Postal Service continues to provide a vital service for our nation and Helena.
Prior to my postal career, I worked as a butcher at a local grocery store in Tennessee and in 1994, I was hired as a letter carrier.
Last month, my wife, Sherri, who also works for the Postal Service, and our four children moved to Helena from Nashville, Tennessee, where I also served as postmaster.
I feel this is such a rewarding position because I have the opportunity to interact with so many employees on a daily basis and provide a presence in the community I serve.
On behalf of the 650,000 men and women of the U.S. Postal Service, I thank you for continuing to support the Postal Service. Providing reliable mail delivery while strengthening the future of this treasured institution is our commitment to you.
Stephen Cole,
Helena postmaster
Leo Dutton is dedicated sheriff
I have had the privilege of knowing and supporting Leo Dutton for many years. I have seen his funny side and his serious side. I can't think of anyone better than Leo Dutton being my sheriff!
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2022-10-04T12:50:15Z
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helenair.com
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New postmaster in Helena: From butcher block to postal blue
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/new-postmaster-in-helena-from-butcher-block-to-postal-blue/article_2c556499-35d3-5d5c-8c09-16011e4d2e78.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/new-postmaster-in-helena-from-butcher-block-to-postal-blue/article_2c556499-35d3-5d5c-8c09-16011e4d2e78.html
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In this file photo, Jake Crasco stands on the back of his feeder truck while looking over his grazing cattle. As drought continues to ravage Fort Belknap, ranchers like Crasco have been forced to shrink their herds.
Helena set a record this summer. On 54 days, the temperature was 90 degrees or higher. Since 2010, Helena has averaged 36 90-degree-plus days per year. Before 1950, the average was 11 per year. Montana is getting hotter. The heat is not just uncomfortable, it is hurting Montana’s economy.
For example, agriculture accounts for 5% of Montana’s economy and over two-thirds of Montana’s exports. Increased heat causes soil to dry out faster, hurting crop and forage production. The flash drought of 2017 caused crop yields to fall by one-half to two-thirds in parts of eastern Montana. This year, Montana ranchers have had to cull cattle because of drought and high hay prices. This doesn’t just hurt farmers and ranchers – it hurts the communities that rely on farm and ranch income.
Our outdoor recreation economy creates 10% of Montana’s jobs. Higher stream temperatures and decreased flows result in fishing restrictions and closures, contribute to algae blooms, and contributed to a multi-week closure of the Yellowstone River in 2016. The snow sports season has been getting shorter. And a longer and more severe smoke season keeps people from visiting Montana. A recent report on the outdoor recreation economy estimates that climate change will cause a loss of 11,000 jobs and $281 million in income in Montana by 2050.
There are no comprehensive estimates of the total impact of climate change on Montana’s economy. However, national studies find that climate change will permanently reduce economic output and income by 5-10% over the next 50-70 years. In contrast, the Great Recession of 2008 caused an annual economic contraction of “only” 2.6%, and only for one year. Unchecked climate change will be the permanent equivalent of two to four Great Recessions.
But studies find that we can avoid the worst climate change impacts at a cost of 1-3% of economic output — a relative bargain. The investments needed to transition to a low-carbon economy will cost money but will, on balance, create new jobs.
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2022-10-04T15:58:49Z
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helenair.com
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Richard Ready: Climate change is expensive
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/richard-ready-climate-change-is-expensive/article_dc11d88d-c58c-5a23-a758-9378fbd6f1d3.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/richard-ready-climate-change-is-expensive/article_dc11d88d-c58c-5a23-a758-9378fbd6f1d3.html
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We write this letter with the hope of reaching as many Montana veterans and their family members as possible regarding the recent passage of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester. The PACT Act is a historic new law that expands VA health care and benefits for veterans — and their survivors. It recognizes toxic exposure as a "cost of war" by addressing the full range of issues impacting toxic-exposed veterans.
It’s estimated that there are 66,000 Montana veterans who were exposed, mostly through burn pits. Sen. Tester, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, authored the PACT Act to cover the toxic exposure as a cost of war. That bill almost didn’t make it, largely because of disagreements over the expense of taking care of our veterans. Rep. Rosendale objected to the bill and voted against it in Congress.
Instead of being supported for their service, every generation of veterans has had to fight for their benefits upon returning home. Rural veterans often have trouble accessing care because VA facilities in Montana are either far away or backlogged — or both. It can take several months to get an appointment which usually requires hours of travel, only to be seen by non-Native, non-veteran doctors, and therapists.
We need to provide our veterans with caring, experienced health professionals that are also veterans and/or Native Americans, who can relate to the patient’s situation and gain their trust. Patients should be able to keep their doctors and have greater access to appropriate care at more convenient locations. Veteran care should also focus on improving mental health, expanding telehealth, and increasing outreach for rural veterans, tribes and tribal organizations. We need to show them that good help is available and that it is OK to reach out for help.
Unlike Sen. Jon Tester who always fights for Montana’s veterans, our other congressmembers voted against the PACT act and are an embarrassment to Montana. As they “fist bumped” their united lack of support on the floor of Congress, veterans are suffering from exposure to burn pits, lack of proper health care and most shameful of all, a lack of respect. Montana’s veterans deserve better than the current Republicans are willing to give. And if we can’t afford to support our veterans, then we shouldn’t be sending them to war (and the inevitable burn pits) in the first place.
Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy, Crow Agency, and Rep. Rynalea Whiteman Pena, Lame Deer.
Sharon Stewart Peregoy
Rynalea Whiteman Pena
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2022-10-04T15:58:55Z
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helenair.com
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Sharon Stewart Peregoy and Rynalea Whiteman Pena: MT vets encouraged to see if new PACT Act can help them
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/sharon-stewart-peregoy-and-rynalea-whiteman-pena-mt-vets-encouraged-to-see-if-new-pact/article_2f171305-ee0c-5554-b976-d2b9354ecbde.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/sharon-stewart-peregoy-and-rynalea-whiteman-pena-mt-vets-encouraged-to-see-if-new-pact/article_2f171305-ee0c-5554-b976-d2b9354ecbde.html
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Commissioner Joe Lamson speaks during a meeting of the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission in the state Capitol on Thursday.
Former Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau stands in front of Hellgate High School in 2018, shortly before beginning a job as Seattle Public Schools superintendent.
Joe Lamson
One of the Democrats on Montana’s redistricting panel stepped down this week, and is being replaced by former Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau.
Joe Lamson, one of five members of the Districting and Apportionment Commission, on Monday sent his resignation letter to Senate Minority Leader Jill Cohenour, citing health reasons. Lamson’s resignation was first reported by the Montana Free Press.
The commission, comprised of four partisan members and a nonpartisan chair selected by the Montana Supreme Court, has about three months left to conclude the bulk of its once-per-decade job drawing new legislative districts. It completed work drawing a new congressional district last year.
“There is an awful lot of extremely hard and time-consuming work ahead, and I wanted to resign to provide enough time for whoever my replacement was to be able to participate in that,” Lamson said in an interview Tuesday.
Following a three-year battle with cancer that extended into the oft-heated congressional redistricting process last year, Lamson, now 72, said his cancer is now in remission.
“I’m getting to an age where I need to take a little better care of myself,” he said, noting the long hours involved in the redistricting process. “It takes a lot out of your body.”
Lamson has been a fixture in Montana Democratic politics for decades, including a stint as the party’s executive director in the early ‘80s, more than a decade working for former Congressman Pat Williams and roles in the administrations of governors Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock.
His redistricting work stretches back to 1980, when he worked as a staffer for the commission. He was appointed by Senate Democrats to serve on the commissions that met in 2000 and 2010.
Compared to the computer-driven process of drawing districts in the modern age, Lamson said the technology when he got his start was limited to hand calculators and the irons commissioners used to flatten the poster-sized maps of census blocks that would arrive from the printer rolled up in tubes.
He said he’s confident passing his role to a new generation, including his Democratic colleague on the commission, Kendra Miller.
“I just think on a more general philosophical level, all political parties right now are undergoing generational shifts and we’ve got to move aside and not just hold onto things because we’re there and can do it,” he said.
Reached Tuesday, Cohenour said she accepted Lamson’s resignation Monday and appointed Juneau later in the day. Elected in 2008 as the state’s top education official, Juneau was also the first Native American to win a statewide office in Montana. She served two four-year terms before running unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016.
Cohenour said Lamson’s institutional experience will be missed, but expressed confidence in Juneau’s leadership skills and ability to quickly learn the process.
“She’s very intelligent, and she’s going to bring a wealth of background to advocating for Indian Country and a lot of these communities she’s already spent decades working with,” Cohenour said.
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2022-10-04T21:19:13Z
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helenair.com
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Lamson resigns from state redistricting panel
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/lamson-resigns-from-state-redistricting-panel/article_b0ad4325-cad1-5b4b-a994-4c213b67b2d4.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/lamson-resigns-from-state-redistricting-panel/article_b0ad4325-cad1-5b4b-a994-4c213b67b2d4.html
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She was charged with two felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide and a misdemeanor count of obstructing a peace officer or other public servant, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Lewis and Clark County Justice Court.
If Petersen posts bail, she will have to check in with Helena Probation and Parole. Her arraignment is set for Oct. 25 at 8:30 a.m. in District Court in Helena.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a residence in the 100 block of Edwards Street for a report of a disturbance.
According to a press release from the Helena Police Department on Monday, the residents would not answer the door, and it appeared the door was barricaded from the inside. They observed someone inside the residence with injuries, so they entered.
Officers located a male with serious bodily injuries. Petersen was found hiding in a bedroom and had blood on her with no visible injuries. She was found sitting next to a knife and a puddle of blood, according to court reports filed Tuesday.
“(Petersen) admitted to striking the victim several times with several different blunt objects before pepper spraying and stabbing the victim with two different knives,” the reports say.
Petersen told officials that she wanted to murder the male so he wouldn’t be able to tell the police what happened. Court documents say that when she heard police at the door, she returned to the bedroom to see if the male was dead. She stated “dead people can’t snitch," court document say.
Petersen said she was not assaulted by the male, nor did she feel threatened by him before she allegedly assaulted him.
The male was transported to Benefis Health System in Great Falls with “possibly life-threatening injuries,” the press release said.
Petersen was placed under arrest and booked into Lewis and Clark County Detention Center on Monday.
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2022-10-04T23:37:57Z
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helenair.com
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$500K bond set for attempted homicide suspect in Helena
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/500k-bond-set-for-attempted-homicide-suspect-in-helena/article_0fc4ee79-90b7-5809-87b8-79d5c95ff60f.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/500k-bond-set-for-attempted-homicide-suspect-in-helena/article_0fc4ee79-90b7-5809-87b8-79d5c95ff60f.html
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Eric Jon Zimmerman, 52, of Helena, has been charged with one felony count of negligent vehicular assault for negligently operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and causing serious bodily injury, according to a complaint filed in Justice Court of Helena on Tuesday.
Officers were dispatched to the intersection of W. Lyndale and Getchell streets around 7 a.m. Monday for a report of a pedestrian that was struck and injured by a vehicle, according to court reports.
The pedestrian was crossing Getchell Street in a marked crosswalk and obeying traffic signals, according to eyewitnesses. The garbage truck allegedly struck the pedestrian while turning onto Getchell Street. Zimmerman told authorities the turn light was blinking.
Authorities detected an odor of alcohol coming from Zimmerman's mouth. The driver said he consumed four to six alcoholic beverages the night before, stating that he believed he stopped drinking around 8 p.m.
Zimmerman agreed to Standardized Field Sobriety Maneuvers, and some clues of impairment were observed by officials. He agreed to a breath sample, which indicated a breath alcohol content of 0.06.
Zimmerman is currently employed by the City of Helena. City officials said they are unable to comment on Zimmerman's employment status or ongoing personnel issues, but Mayor Wilmot Collins said "Our prayers go out to the victim and his family."
Helena Police Department Chief of Police Brett Petty said the investigation is still ongoing and that HPD has partnered with the Montana Highway Patrol for this incident. Officials are working on collecting video evidence from the surrounding businesses before commenting further.
Petty said the pedestrian was taken to Benefis Health System in Great Falls, but he does not know the victim's health status.
Zimmerman was arrested and booked into Lewis and Clark County Detention Center on Monday.
Eric Jon Zimmerman
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2022-10-04T23:38:03Z
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helenair.com
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Helena garbage truck driver accused of hitting pedestrian while under the influence
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-garbage-truck-driver-accused-of-hitting-pedestrian-while-under-the-influence/article_538c09f3-1674-5a38-83ac-6a1c598e161a.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-garbage-truck-driver-accused-of-hitting-pedestrian-while-under-the-influence/article_538c09f3-1674-5a38-83ac-6a1c598e161a.html
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Jordin Shapiro
A 32-year-old woman from Canyon Creek was charged with felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Sept. 30, an officer responded to a report of three people possibly trespassing in a storage unit in the 3000 block of McHugh Lane in Helena.
The complainant stated that one of the people was Jordin Kerstie Michelle Shapiro, who had warrants out for her arrest and was absconding from probation.
According to court records, officers located Shapiro and the two others inside the storage unit. A search of the storage unit resulted in the discovery of drug paraphernalia, loaded syringes and a white crystalline substance, all of which tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.
Shapiro admitted to using meth. Shapiro was listed as the sole renter of the storage unit. She was placed under arrest.
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2022-10-05T01:47:58Z
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helenair.com
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Canyon Creek woman charged with possession of dangerous drugs
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https://helenair.com/canyon-creek-woman-charged-with-possession-of-dangerous-drugs/article_1c38dee5-03b1-5fd5-8831-c3ece97d592a.html
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https://helenair.com/canyon-creek-woman-charged-with-possession-of-dangerous-drugs/article_1c38dee5-03b1-5fd5-8831-c3ece97d592a.html
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We, as a group of Montana attorneys, former and current elected officials, and concerned citizens, are committed to supporting our Montana and United States constitutions. We believe in the rule of law and the separation of powers between our executive, legislative and judicial branches. We also believe in the absolute need for a fair, independent and nonpartisan judiciary to interpret our laws and invalidate those laws that infringe on our constitutional rights.
Unfortunately, recent actions of certain members of the legislative branch have threatened Montana’s independent and nonpartisan judiciary. These legislators have become frustrated that some of their legislation has been found to be unconstitutional by our courts. The same politicians who have attacked our judiciary have a new strategy to force the courts to do what they want — by replacing members of the Montana Supreme Court with candidates who will rubber stamp their legislation without regard to constitutionality.
Justice Rice has been a Montana attorney since 1982 and has served on the Montana Supreme Court since 2001, after being appointed by Gov. Judy Martz. Although Justice Rice is a former Republican legislator, his 20 years on the bench demonstrates his commitment to an independent judiciary and his adherence to the rule of law. These values transcend partisanship. In his own words, “The ultimate duty of the courts is to protect the individual liberties and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.”
This opinion column is signed by 76 coalition members. See full list online.
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2022-10-05T15:17:05Z
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helenair.com
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Guest view: Broad coalition supports Gustafson and Rice for Supreme Court
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/guest-view-broad-coalition-supports-gustafson-and-rice-for-supreme-court/article_e033d9ea-ebc9-5ccb-8750-108a9e3a01a6.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/guest-view-broad-coalition-supports-gustafson-and-rice-for-supreme-court/article_e033d9ea-ebc9-5ccb-8750-108a9e3a01a6.html
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Janet Ellis is committed to protecting our land
Sen. Janet Ellis has a long track record of advocating for conservation, open space, clean energy, hunting and fishing access, and wildlife habitat. Before becoming a legislator, Janet served as a citizen advocate through her work with Montana Audubon. Through that work, Janet earned several awards, including “Conservationist of the Year” from the Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Wildlife Federation and Montana Audubon; a 2016 “Lifetime Award for Conservation and Clean Energy Achievement” from the National Wildlife Federation; and a 2013 “Special Achievement Award” from the Montana Native Plant Society. Over four legislative sessions, Janet has continued her steadfast commitment to protecting our land, air, and water. There’s no one better than Janet Ellis to champion habitat protection and public access to public lands and streams. If you like to hunt, fish or hike, Janet Ellis deserves your vote on Nov. 8.
Barbara Chillcott,
Barbara Chillcott
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2022-10-05T15:17:09Z
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helenair.com
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Janet Ellis is committed to protecting our land
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/janet-ellis-is-committed-to-protecting-our-land/article_543387b1-ce1c-515b-8685-b410a78c2845.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/janet-ellis-is-committed-to-protecting-our-land/article_543387b1-ce1c-515b-8685-b410a78c2845.html
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Helena's synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Montana, is historically known as Temple Emanu-El.
The Montana Jewish Project is hosting a celebration and community opening of historic Temple Emanu-El and for the holiday of Sukkot from 4-6 p.m. Sunday at 515 N. Ewing St. in Helena.
All are welcome — Jewish and non-Jewish — to attend.
On Aug. 25, MJP finalized its negotiations with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena and bought back the oldest synagogue in Montana. This returned the building known as Temple Emanu-El to Jewish community use for the first time in 87 years.
More than 2,000 individual donors and several Helena businesses donated to make this come to fruition.
Beginning at 4 p.m., MJP will offer guided building tours, which will explain the history of this landmark building and the community who built it in 1891. They will offer arts and crafts activities for children, and light refreshments.
At 5 p.m., Rabbi Ed Stafman will lead a celebration of Sukkot outdoors on the lawn next to the building. There will be music and materials to help everyone follow along. Sukkot is a Jewish harvest festival that is held outdoors (it’s perfect for children, organizers say).
MJP is a Helena-based nonprofit that is creating a statewide Jewish community center inside the historic synagogue. Their mission is to foster Jewish life across the state, collaborate with existing Jewish communities, work to combat rising antisemitism, and conduct interfaith outreach.
Will Peratino and his partner Lauren Stepp would not leave their Pine Island compound in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, even as authorities pleaded with residents to abandon their homes because of damaged roads, including a collapsed bridge that prevented deliveries of food, gas and other life-sustaining supplies. The couple could not give up on their two lemurs and flock of birds — 275 parrots, including some of the world's rarest.
Montana Jewish Project reaches goal to buy back Helena's Temple Emanu-El
Officials with the Montana Jewish Project said they have bought back Helena’s Temple Emanu-El, the oldest synagogue in Montana, returning it for Jewish use for the first time since 1935.
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2022-10-05T17:23:13Z
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helenair.com
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Public invited to Temple Emanu-El celebration on Sunday in Helena
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https://helenair.com/news/local/public-invited-to-temple-emanu-el-celebration-on-sunday-in-helena/article_c566b66f-5af3-54b8-bf9a-685036009975.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/public-invited-to-temple-emanu-el-celebration-on-sunday-in-helena/article_c566b66f-5af3-54b8-bf9a-685036009975.html
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Two historical society galleries to temporarily close as Heritage Center work continues
The Homeland and NENUK galleries are serving as temporary storage space, museum officials said.
The Montana Historical Society is temporarily closing two galleries due to construction of the Montana Heritage Center, but the Charles M. Russell Gallery and the Lobby Gallery will remain open, museum officials said.
Because of the closures, entrance fees will be waived at both the MTHS and the Original Governor’s Mansion in Helena.
Winter hours at the MTHS are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; the Original Governor’s Mansion offers guided tours on Saturdays at noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
“While we would rather remain open during construction, we have to inventory, pack, and store our priceless art, artifacts, and documents in order to protect them,” MTHS Director Molly Kruckenberg said in a news release. “As contractors move into renovation work at the 70-year-old Veterans and Pioneers Memorial building – which is our current home – we need secure space to store the boxed items. The Homeland and NENUK galleries will give us that necessary temporary storage space.”
NENUK is an acronym for “Neither Empty Nor Unknown,” and the exhibit explores the history of what’s now known as Montana before the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Homeland Gallery exhibit showcases the history of Montana from 13,000 years ago to the mid-1900s.
Once the Heritage Center project is completed, an updated Montana Homeland exhibit will wind through a 16,000-square-foot gallery. That expanded space will provide more room for more artifacts to be on display and will include multi-media elements to share additional stories. Overall, 66,000 square feet is being added to the current Montana Historical Society facility. The Montana Heritage Center also will include a café, plus an auditorium that can hold up to 300 people.
The Charlie Russell Gallery also will double in size near its current location.
The Library & Archives reference room is slated to close by January so construction crews can update utilities where the archival materials are stored. Prior to that work getting underway, the staff will inventory, pack, and protect all of its documents. Once renovations are complete, Library & Archives will move from the second floor of the existing building to the main floor.
“Construction crews are actually a few months ahead of schedule, which is a good sign,” Kruckenberg said. “That makes it a little more difficult to predict exactly when the Library & Archives will temporarily close, but the sooner this work is complete the faster we can reopen.”
More than 100,000 digitized items in the MTHS collection can be viewed online at mhs.mt.gov/Research/OnlineCollections.
The cost of the project remains at $81.4 million. The anticipated opening date is in early 2025.
Montana Heritage Center
Charlie Russell
Nenuk
MHS honors Montanans, group for protecting state's history
Arlyne Reichert of Great Falls and Margie Smith of Anaconda are recipients of the 2022 Heritage Keeper award, while The Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers recently were named as the 2022 Heritage Guardian winners.
MHS research center, some galleries to close during Heritage Center construction
The Montana Historical Society Research Center, as well as some galleries, will temporarily close in a couple of months in preparation for the 2025 opening of the Montana Heritage Center.
Montana Historical Society receives $525K in donations
Five recent gifts totaling $525,000 are helping the Montana Historical Society reach its private fundraising goal for construction of the Mont…
Helena group gets update on new Montana Heritage Center project
Completion of the Montana Heritage Center will now likely be in the spring of 2025 instead of 2024, due to construction material delays, state officials said Thursday.
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2022-10-05T19:25:06Z
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helenair.com
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Two historical society galleries to temporarily close as Heritage Center work continues
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https://helenair.com/news/local/two-historical-society-galleries-to-temporarily-close-as-heritage-center-work-continues/article_3f606a15-944d-5572-8e2c-b05ef6e0825b.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/two-historical-society-galleries-to-temporarily-close-as-heritage-center-work-continues/article_3f606a15-944d-5572-8e2c-b05ef6e0825b.html
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A delegate from the 1972 Montana State Constitutional Convention holds a copy of the Montana Constitution at an event in September 2021 recognizing the 49th anniversary of the convention inside the state Capitol.
A former state supreme court justice warned that if Republicans get a supermajority in the Montana Legislature in the 2022 election, and he thinks they will, it could pose a serious threat to the state constitution.
James Nelson’s comments came as part of a four-member panel discussion on Montana's constitutional right of privacy during a webinar Monday sponsored by the Montana League of Women Voters of the Helena Area and Lewis & Clark Library.
The panel also included former Supreme Court Justice Patricia Cotter; Raph Graybill, the former legal counsel to then-Gov. Steve Bullock; and Mae Nan Ellingson, an attorney who was among the delegates at the 1972 constitutional convention.
A supermajority consists of two-thirds of the full Legislature and would allow a unified party to place proposed changes to the Montana Constitution on the ballot. Some fear Republicans will try to make changes to parts of the state constitution, such as the right to privacy.
Nelson said the Legislature could call for a limited constitutional convention and place items on the ballot for people to vote on or place a referendum to revise portions of the constitution.
He said all those protections would be on the chopping block and “up for grabs.”
“For those of you who have seen ‘Shark Week,’ think feeding frenzy,” Nelson said.
He said rights would be jeopardized in an effort to make the Legislature the most powerful branch of government. Those rights include the right to a clean and healthful environment, a right to dignity, a right to participating in government and a right to reproductive autonomy.
In 1999, Nelson authored a state supreme court ruling in Armstrong vs. Montana, that the privacy provisions in Montana’s Constitution ensure women can access pre-viability abortions.
The panel spoke through much of the hourlong discussion about threats to the privacy provision, which states: “The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.”
Ellingson said the provision was among the least debated during the 1972 constitutional convention.
“How lucky we are in Montana to have a strong declaration of rights as we do, particularly the right of privacy … and citizens are not at the mercy of the ever-changing supreme court to abolish the notion of (abiding by earlier court decisions),” she said.
Cotter said a right to privacy is a fundamental right of Montana law.
She said attacks have been made on privacy since the last legislative session.
Cotter said privacy is purely an individual right designed to protect people from an overbearing government and extends to many facets of a person’s life, including the right to make their own medical judgment.
Graybill said the Republicans winning the governor’s race and retaining majority control of the Legislature unleashed a slew of laws legislators wanted passed for some time.
Graybill, legal counsel for Planned Parenthood in Montana, said there are a series of challenges dealing with the extent the Legislature can regulate access to abortion in Montana. He said Planned Parenthood is challenging four laws passed by GOP lawmakers.
One law bans abortion after 20 weeks, another places restrictions on medication abortion, another requires providers to give an ultrasound image to someone seeking an abortion and one bans certain kinds of insurance coverage.
Graybill said he has gotten preliminary injunctions from the courts to pause the laws from going into effect.
He said the state has decided to appeal and has asked the court to overrule the Armstrong case. The state supreme court has agreed the cases should remain paused.
Cotter said she is concerned by attempts to politicize the Montana Supreme Court and have justices elected by districts and make it regional.
“I don’t like the idea of politicizing the court or the idea of how people are elected to the court,” she said.
Cotter said the Legislature seems intent on taking away privacy rights and “having control over our personal medical decisions.”
She said if some of these rights are taken away, Montana will go back to the “good old days” of repression and persecution.
Ellingson said the majority of the majority party of the Legislature seems to want no limitations over what they can do.
“I think there is a basic unwillingness to accept the constitution and something that controls the legislators' ability to act,” she said.
Ellingson said she has been told that some legislators have been told bills they want to introduce are unconstitutional, and they introduce them anyway.
“They don’t like the notion the constitution limits them,” she said. “And they don’t like the courts interpreting the constitution, which is what the court’s job is.”
Nelson urged people watching the webinar to stand up and defend the constitution.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” he said. “Every one of us must do our part. We’ve got to vote, we have to support candidates that support our vision of the constitution.”
He said people need to speak up for the constitution.
“If we don’t fight for the constitution and our rights, then we’ll lose it,” he said.
Watch the webinar on HCTV at https://www.helenacivictv.org/on-demand/4033.
Mae Nan Ellingson
Patricia Cotter
Raph Graybill
Lewis And Clark Library
Hctv
Montana's voting rights under attack, panel tells League of Women Voters
During a League of Women Voters of the Helena Area webinar on Montana's Constitution hitting the half-century mark, speakers warned listeners that the state’s voting rights are under attack.
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2022-10-05T19:25:18Z
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helenair.com
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Panel fears Montana's constitutional rights are in peril
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/panel-fears-montanas-constitutional-rights-are-in-peril/article_a28a51d7-7856-54b1-ace2-d772fd1c1a47.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/panel-fears-montanas-constitutional-rights-are-in-peril/article_a28a51d7-7856-54b1-ace2-d772fd1c1a47.html
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Dave Anderson, left, hands Helena Food Share Executive Director Bruce Day a box of fruits and vegetables in this IR file photo. The produce came from the USDA Farmers to Families food distribution program.
Helena Food Share, through the city of Helena, has applied for a $750,000 community development block grant to help offset the cost of a proposed larger facility.
The grant, administered through the Montana Department of Commerce, is an integral part of a larger funding package that includes nearly $1.5 million in new market tax credits and a half million dollars in Lewis and Clark County American Rescue Plan Act funds. The nonprofit also hopes to raise $5 million through a capital campaign expected to conclude early next year.
"HFS currently serves one in seven community members and has seen an increase in the number of people needing to access for services," a Helena Community Development Department memo states. "The current facility is being utilized beyond its functional capacity and does not give HFS the space it needs to meet the ongoing and future needs that are anticipated."
Bruce Day
In an interview ahead of the commission's approval Monday evening, Helena Food Share Executive Director Bruce Day said the need in the community is outpacing the rise in population.
Helena Food Share currently serves about 1,500 households a month or about 120 people per day. The current facility's confines allow only seven people at a time to pick up food for their family, resulting in long lines every day.
"We're just way beyond the point of having enough adequate space to be able to provide the kind of services we're providing to the community," Day said.
Helena's Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator Ellie Ray told the city commission Monday the need for the nonprofit's services was also "in no small part exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic" and noted that it serves more than Helena residents.
"They serve the tri-county area, so it's a broad cross-section of the population in the region," Ray said.
Since moving into the current building in 2000, Day said the number of services offered to the community have increased by 2,600%, including delivering 1,100 meals for Helena area school children each week in addition to food specifically for seniors and unsheltered people.
The sharp increase in services and a larger staff made it necessary for the nonprofit to rent two additional spaces, a warehouse for food storage and some office space within about four blocks of the food pantry, which helped temporarily alleviate the pressure, but Helena Food Share has long outgrown those as well.
"Our staff has to look hard to find a place to put a pallet with soup on it," Day said. "With this project we'll try to combine all of our operations, all of our services to the public as well as our food storage and processing and space for staff all under one roof."
Helena Food Share volunteer Penny Cope fills a shopping cart with food for a client at the Lewis Street Pantry.
The additional space will allow the pantry to store additional food it might receive from the United States Department of Agriculture or Montana Food Bank Network. It will also be better suited to make bulk purchases.
The food pantry's budget will also benefit from the proposed facility.
"There's definitely going to be cost savings from the amount of money that we're spending every year to rent those spaces that will be able to go back into the new building," Day said.
The city commission unanimously approved sponsoring the grant application, a requirement for applicants.
The $750,000 ask is the maximum the commerce department will award, and Helena Food Share noted in its application the funds would be exclusively dedicated to construction activities.
"It's clear the impact that this organization has on this community," City Commissioner Emily Dean said. "Particularly during the pandemic for school kids whose lives were turned upside down. They're the most heavily impacted when there's this kind of disruption... Very grateful for your work and very excited to support this."
Day said his organization is grateful for the city's partnership.
"We greatly appreciate the city's work on this," he said. "City staff has been great in providing us support, helping us prepare and get this grant ready to submit."
Ray thanked Helena Housing Coordinator Kara Snyder, the Helena Food Share board and its staff for their work in the application process.
The other critical component in Helena Food Share's more than $8 million funding package is its $5 million capital campaign.
Day said the campaign began September of 2021.
"We're well over halfway to that $5 million with a number of funding requests out and in the pipeline that we expect to be positive, so we've just been kind of taking it piece by piece and doing the best we can to raise that money," he said. "It's coming from a lot of different sources, public and private, individuals, businesses, foundations. We think that by early next year, we'll have the resources needed to be able to move forward and start construction."
The plan is to break ground by spring or early summer of 2023 and complete construction in the summer of 2024.
The commerce department awards community development block grants to projects based on criteria related to community planning, overall need, technical design, community efforts, citizen participation and benefit to low and moderate income persons, among others.
"I wouldn't say we're celebrating yet, but it's getting close to becoming a reality," Day said. "The community has just been really supportive and we know will continue to be supportive as we move forward with this, so we're feeling pretty good."
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2022-10-05T21:18:03Z
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helenair.com
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Helena Food Share seeks funding for new, larger location
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-food-share-seeks-funding-for-new-larger-location/article_71ce9647-32c9-58bc-a7ee-65e5cfbf5587.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-food-share-seeks-funding-for-new-larger-location/article_71ce9647-32c9-58bc-a7ee-65e5cfbf5587.html
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Child care providers and advocates gather at the Missoula County Courthouse in May to bring attention to challenges providers and parents face, including low wages and the need for affordable access to care.
Labeling the “extraordinary demand for child care” in Montana as a “crisis,” the director of the state health department said it would follow recommendations from a recent audit to improve the system.
Outside of the millions of dollars from federal COVID-19 relief programs, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services distributes about $40 million every year to support subsidies for families and child care providers. About $30 million of that is federal money and the rest comes from the state.
An August 2021 report found that "Montana's parents and businesses have suffered from a lack of access to (child) care" and that capacity in the state only met 44% of estimated demand. About 60% of the state's counties are classified as child care deserts, according to the report.
As the department is working to improve the subsidy system, child care providers and advocates are urging the state to use some of the expected $1 billion or more in budget surplus to continue pandemic-era changes that helped make the program more reliable for businesses and accessible for families.
Those changes came after Congress passed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act in 2020 to help states stabilize their child care sectors that had been dramatically altered by COVID-19.
With the money, Montana expanded who was eligible for the Best Beginnings Scholarship program that helps families afford child care and lowered the co-pay requirement to $10. The state also changed the way providers are paid to ensure that they would be paid in a more stable, reliable way and not miss payments if a child stayed home while sick or for other reasons.
About 2,000 families have benefitted from the higher eligibility or lower co-pay amounts, according to a letter sent to the health department by more than 65 advocates, organizations and child care providers. The letter estimated another 14,000 children could be eligible for assistance under the increased eligibility level.
Audit recommendations
Auditors from the Legislative Audit Division issued three recommendations to the health department, including to better distribute the $40 million from the Child Care and Development Fund. The report was discussed during a Legislative Audit Committee meeting Wednesday.
Based on demographic information, auditors found the amount of aid going to counties in the state did not always match the estimated need in those regions.
“This one indicated to us that maybe there's some needs out there that aren't being met as fully as they could be,” said Sarah Carlson, senior management and program analyst. “There's problems with access, and then by extension with choice. Affordability seems to seem to be an issue.”
While the health department agreed with recommendations from auditors to do more to make sure needs are being met based on demographics, Economic Security Services Executive Director Erica Johnston said they’re also limited because the Best Beginnings assistance is based on if people apply to and are qualified for the program, and if they can find a provider that accepts the program.
“Knowing more about the demographics and the counties where there's a high utilization of the scholarship and the low utilization of the scholarship certainly informs what we might need to do differently and better about increasing awareness of the program in encouraging people to participate both as clients and as providers,” Johnston said. “(But) it is still limited by the financial means testing and the availability of services at the time and place.”
The audit also identified three instances where a child care license was approved at a location where someone on the state’s sexual or violent offender registry had registered with their address. Licenses should not be issued if a person on the registry lives at the child care facility’s address, but the system is based on self-reporting.
Auditors found that two of those locations were no longer providing child care and the other was still operating and had their license renewed. Carlson said health department staff were notified of the citation during the audit, and when auditors checked in the department staff said they had not checked or called the provider because an official complaint hadn't been made.
Legislative Audit Committee chair Rep. Denise Hayman, a Bozeman Democrat, asked Carlson for clarification that the agency could not investigate unless there was a formal complaint.
“Something is really wrong. Really, really wrong,” Hayman said.
Auditors recommended the department change the license approval and renewal process to check addresses against the registry and develop training on how to follow up if a potentially dangerous situation occurs.
Johnston said the department has the ability to make phone calls and ask questions, but has been limited from formal investigations. The department will work to follow auditors’ suggestions, she added.
“It moves from the trust and self-reporting to actually verifying, taking that next active step to say ‘we believe you but we're also going to check’ and if we find something on that list, we're going to act appropriately ... ,” Johnstone said. “We're committed to improving the safety of our licensing process and take this recommendation very seriously.”
Department Director Charlie Brereton said the health department will also collaborate with the state Department of Justice to pull address data from the registry and see if any match with licensed providers.
Pandemic-era changes helped providers, families
Hayman asked auditors if their study took into account the cost of living, especially for places like Gallatin County where housing prices outpace the rest of the state.
“You can … make enough money to be able to live in Gallatin County, be able to live in Bozeman, pay your rent … but in order to get to that level, it disqualifies you for the eligibility determinations related to this income-based subsidy benefit,” Hayman said of the Best Beginnings program.
Xanna Burg, director of Montana Kids Count, said the changes made using the 2020 federal COVID aid to increase eligibility and help with co-pays made things more affordable for families. One of the changes was capping co-pays at $10.
“If that goes away, a family toward the upper end of the eligibility criteria is going to start paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a month toward their co-pay,” Burg said. A single-income, single-parent with one child making $28,000 a year, for example, could go from paying $10 a month now to $320, or about 14% of their monthly income. Spending about 7% of a household’s monthly income on child care is what’s considered affordable.
The income eligibility level also increased during the pandemic, from 150% of the federal poverty level to 185%. That change meant families who were able to enter the workforce or make other changes to increase their incomes because of the availability of child care didn’t have to worry about losing benefits if they earned a bit more each month.
“There’s a balance between ‘I can get a raise but then I lose eligibility for all these programs,'” Burg said. “ ... This is the way to help ease that cliff a little bit. (A household can) get a raise and don’t immediately lose child care benefits.”
While Brereton said the department is also looking at ways to ease regulations to become a child care provider, existing providers said pandemic-era changes to the Best Beginnings programs that make their payments more reliable is a major factor in being able to stay in business.
Prior to COVID, a provider would only be paid for each day a child using the Best Beginnings scholarship attended. That’s unlike a private-pay situation, in which a family pays the same tuition each month regardless of how often their child went to care.
Christina Carmichael, owner of My Sister's Keeper Childcare in Ronan, said that stability has been critical.
“This extra support eases the burden on families when they have absences and guarantees the families to always have space for their child regardless of the number of absences they have,” Carmichael wrote in an email last month. “Without the extra funding of support parents are stuck having to pay out of pocket for every single absence. Sometimes kids get sick and have to stay home from child care, this causes the family financial strain of not only missing work and losing income, but also still having to pay for child care absences.”
Carmichael has switched to charging a flat monthly rate to make the facility more stable, but said that will be challenging if families have to go back to higher co-pays and not having absences covered.
“COVID has changed the way the world operates, (with a) higher emphasis on health and safety, especially relating to child care. Many facilities have implemented very rigorous sick policies post-COVID and this drastically changed the way child care operates,” Carmichael wrote. “Parents more now than ever have children being sent home for illnesses they may have otherwise never been sent home for before, this forces the parent to miss work, or pay for back-up care, both of which are costing the family even more money.”
The letter from child care advocates said not extending these provisions will create additional burdens for child care business and families.
“Without stable reimbursement payments, child care providers face uncertain funding for their slots used by a Best Beginning family or must pass that cost onto families to cover more than a few absences each month," the letter reads.
The department said in late September it was planning to “communicate back to the providers soon.”
Sexual Offender Registry
Denise Hayman
Christina Carmichael
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2022-10-06T00:51:13Z
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helenair.com
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Audit raises issues with Montana child care system, providers ask to extend COVID-era provisions
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/audit-raises-issues-with-montana-child-care-system-providers-ask-to-extend-covid-era-provisions/article_60b9b3b4-d2f9-5a52-aadd-d3062b3acdf9.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/audit-raises-issues-with-montana-child-care-system-providers-ask-to-extend-covid-era-provisions/article_60b9b3b4-d2f9-5a52-aadd-d3062b3acdf9.html
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‘Imagine This’: Chip Clawson opens new playful exhibit at the Holter
Chip Clawson inspects his exhibit titled 'Imagine This" while is was being installed at the Holter Museum of Art on Monday.
Childlike joy and happiness.
These are some of the feelings that arise as one steps into Chip Clawson’s colorful fantasy world, “Imagine This.”
The new immersive sculptural exhibit that stretches through the vast expanse of the Holter Museum of Art’s Baucus Gallery has an opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m.
“My work is about engaging the viewer’s imagination,” said Clawson.
“What do they see? I just want people to create their own story.”
Clawson, who is a ceramic artist, may be most well known in Helena for his quasi-public artwork, the fantastical “Ode to Edward James” that towers 20-plus feet into the air from his backyard at 202 Pine St.
For this show, he has found a way to resize the magic to fit it into the Baucus Gallery.
Just the names of some works – “Galaxy of the Imagination,” “Reptilian Meringue” and “Mexican Tree Flower” – fire the imagination.
Part of the inspiration for the current exhibit started with a conversation Clawson had with Holter Executive Director Chris Riccardo.
“We were sitting around a fire in his amazing backyard. It’s such a neat atmosphere to be surrounded by all his amazing work. I thought it would be really cool to have it in the gallery.”
Clawson was looking for a new challenge and creative project.
Together, they put together funding to make it happen.
“We took his backyard and moved it into the Holter. It’s like walking into a whole new world.”
“For me, it’s very Dr. Seussy,” said Riccardo.
“Very unreal – just the pure imagination.
“It just makes you happy.
“There’s no way you can go in there and not smile.”
“Ice cream,” is what curator Ramsay Ballew first thought of.
“I think there’s sort of a visceral aspect to it,” she says of the exhibit. “It’s overwhelmingly colorful. It’s so warm, but it also has a wildness that is both friendly and aggressive in the way that nature is – imposing but really inviting.”
“I sometimes think of ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’” the children’s book by Maurice Sendak. “It has that element both of making you feel small and powerless, but also really whimsical and really safe.”
Clawson’s sculptures are inspired by the natural world, using forms such as beetles, budding plants, shells, seed pods or lava flows.
Chip Clawson talks about one of the pieces in his new exhibit 'Imagine This' at the Holter Museum of Art on Monday.
He imagines these objects sometimes as towering architectural elements or large, lightweight aerial sculptures and creates them with the help of cutting-edge digital technologies and innovative materials.
If one looks closely, the exhibit also tells Clawson’s story of how all this came to be.
It begins at the far north end of the gallery, where a fantasy array of 100 sculptural shapes float in space– the “Galaxy of Imagination.”
Beneath it floats a purple, winged-shaped sculpture, “Origin.”
Clawson draws inspiration from the fields of architecture, engineering, and technology, as well as from nature, surrealism, and installation art to create this exhibit that invites viewers to see the world through his eyes, and embody the spirit of imagination and play.
And below that, resting on a pedestal sits Clawson’s surreal self-portrait sculpture with an electronic circuit board projecting out of the top of its skull, “The Challenge.”
'The Challenge' by Chip Clawson
An important seed was planted 15 years ago, when Clawson was trying to take an idea for a ceramic piece he’d made, but enlarge it and make it much lighter so it could be airborne.
He found a company in Austin, Texas, that took his 11 inch clay model weighing 10 pounds, scanned it and enlarged it to be 44 inches long and only 7 pounds, by recreating it in foam and polyurea. That work became “Origin.”
It opened Clawson’s eyes to how he could marry his ideas to technology to create the images he saw in his imagination and dreams but turn them into lightweight sculptural forms.
Using digital technology, Clawson scans clay forms or found objects, then reshapes them digitally to play with their scale, color and shape. He then uses an array of materials, to change and merge the forms, creating larger-than-life objects that become “lightweight aerial sculptures and sensual architectural elements.”
One of the most profound influences on the art of possibility was Clawson’s 2015 trip to Xilitla, Mexico to visit Edward James’ surrealist sculptures rising from the jungle.
Clawson who worked at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts from 1977 to 2017 as both the clay business manager, facilities manager and then overseeing the construction of two new buildings at The Bray, already had an impressive array of skills as a ceramic artist and sculptor. He dove into learning a whole new set of technologies to create his latest monumental works.
In 2021 the Montana Arts Council awarded him an Artist Innovation Award. At that time, he said, “I’m an inquisitive problem solver by nature and nurture, using innovation to resolve challenges and create art.”
He’s fully embraced innovation and technology to bring his visions to life. “It’s definitely changed his outlook,” said Riccardo.
“He almost reinvented his career because of a technology none of us knew a lot about.”
“Ode to Edward James” and “Imagine This,” are Clawson’s two most ambitious works, and both were completed during the past seven years after he’d celebrated his 70th birthday. It has one wondering what could possibly come next.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Clawson on Tuesday, the final day of installation. “It’s an incredible opportunity I have here.
“I’m very, very pleased. It’s like wow!”
What: “Imagine This” by Chip Clawson
When: opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7;
artist talk at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Holter Museum of Art, 12 E. Lawrence St.
Contact: holtermuseum.org, 406-442-6400
Info: the exhibit runs through Dec. 31
Chip Clawson
Ramsay Ballew
Ode To Edward James
Holter Museum Of Art
Chris Riccardo
Take a peek at Chip Clawson's towering sculptures
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2022-10-06T14:19:50Z
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helenair.com
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‘Imagine This’: Chip Clawson opens new playful exhibit at the Holter
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https://helenair.com/news/local/imagine-this-chip-clawson-opens-new-playful-exhibit-at-the-holter/article_b24a3561-b1c3-5a15-a578-c56726a941b1.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/imagine-this-chip-clawson-opens-new-playful-exhibit-at-the-holter/article_b24a3561-b1c3-5a15-a578-c56726a941b1.html
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I had the good fortune of working with and for Gary Buchanan in the 1980s when he was appointed by then-Gov. Ted Schwinden to lead the new Department of Commerce. I say with because we were truly a team under Gary’s leadership. He recognized and utilized the skills we each brought to the table. Tourism, small business and local government assistance, infrastructure development, agriculture marketing and more all fell under the umbrella of economic development. No matter our program or “turf” if you will, we were all on Team Montana in Gary’s Commerce Department. If you are as saddened by the divisions and incivility in our politics as I am, vote for the kind of leadership that unites us, not divides us. Vote for Gary Buchanan for Congress. He truly loves Montana and cares about its future.
Norma Tirrell,
Norma Tirrell
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2022-10-06T14:20:08Z
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helenair.com
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Gary Buchanan cares for Montana and its future
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-cares-for-montana-and-its-future/article_2cf977b2-9cde-510e-ab49-aa18dacff414.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-cares-for-montana-and-its-future/article_2cf977b2-9cde-510e-ab49-aa18dacff414.html
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I am writing to share my support for Janet Ellis for SD 41. I have known Janet for a number of years and feel she is the right choice to represent Helena at the Legislature. Access to broadband is an issue of importance for both our community and our state, and Sen. Ellis is one of two Democrats who is on the state’s ARPA Broadband Advisory Commission. It is vitally important that this money be distributed in a fair and equitable manner to bring economic and educational opportunities to underserved areas — including rural counties. I owe my career in IT to early access to dial up in Chinook, on a ranch outside of the town's infrastructure. Dial up is no longer fast enough for today's internet demands powering better education, business and entertainment. I know Janet is doing the work to fight for us on this commission, and that she will continue to fight for us during the 2023 legislative session. Please cast your vote for Janet Ellis for SD 41.
Andrew Swallows,
Andrew Swallows
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2022-10-06T14:20:14Z
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helenair.com
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Janet Ellis will fight for us
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/janet-ellis-will-fight-for-us/article_3df15ad5-41e5-5ec3-8153-cfc9e5836ea4.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/janet-ellis-will-fight-for-us/article_3df15ad5-41e5-5ec3-8153-cfc9e5836ea4.html
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In November incumbent Sheriff Leo Dutton will again ask the citizens of Lewis and Clark Co. for their vote of confidence to serve them for four more years. As in past elections his qualifications far exceed those of his opponent.
During the Leo Dutton's 37 year career with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office he has established solid relationships with the other local, state, and federal agencies. These relationships are especially necessary during a time of crisis. Sheriff Dutton also cordinates multi-jurisdictional, multi-level incidents, involving these local, state, and federal agencies. Accomplishments which most opponents would be hard pressed to compare with.
In the last 13 years as Lewis and Clark County Sheriff he has managed a $15M annual budget while supervising 134 employees. He also oversees 150+ bed Detention facility, is responsible for the County Search and Rescue, and has served as the County Fire Warden since 2008.
Sheriff Leo Duttons longstanding friendships with the citizens of Lewis and Clark County are what makes him REALLY stand out from any opponent. Our sheriff cares about the safety and well being of our communities. Lets re-elect Leo Dutton as our sheriff in November 2022. He’s the only qualified and proven choice.
Rick Cottingham,
Leo Duttons
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2022-10-07T15:26:01Z
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helenair.com
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Sheriff Dutton is qualified and proven
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/sheriff-dutton-is-qualified-and-proven/article_bcb70fc0-6de4-5f57-9c7b-0feb10ea2348.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/sheriff-dutton-is-qualified-and-proven/article_bcb70fc0-6de4-5f57-9c7b-0feb10ea2348.html
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First of all, make sure you are registered to vote before Tuesday, Oct. 11!
Secondly, I am asking you to re-elect Mike Delger to the office of County Commissioner for District 2. His opponent, Lyndsey Richtmyer, is smart and idealistic. It is commendable that she wants to serve in this important position. But at this time of unprecedented change and growth in Broadwater County, I feel that Mike’s experience in local government is the steady hand that we need.
Mike Delger has the big picture of the county’s challenges well in hand. He has a deep understanding of the responsibilities for handling taxes, roads and development. A life-long resident, who grew up on a farm, and a local business owner, he has served on the MT Ditch Board, City Council as well as the County Commission.
We are very fortunate to have a unified and compatible group of commissioners who are doing a good job of protecting our tax dollars by going by the laws and regulations of the county and state. Of course, that is frustrating at times but it protects us, and our tax dollars, from legal liability.
I believe we should count our lucky stars and keep this team of Commissioners together. Please vote to re-elect Mike Delger.
Sharon Potenza,
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2022-10-07T15:26:07Z
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helenair.com
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Vote to re-elect Mike Delger
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-to-re-elect-mike-delger/article_837149fc-a0d6-5585-bbb7-ac59d8424935.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-to-re-elect-mike-delger/article_837149fc-a0d6-5585-bbb7-ac59d8424935.html
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A coroner’s inquest Friday into the 2021 death of Lewis and Clark County Detention Center inmate Delain Valenzuela Davis found the death was a suicide by asphyxiation due to hanging.
On Oct. 21, 2021, Davis was moved to pod 5 in the jail, the disciplinary pod that is more isolated, after he had thrown some food at a detention center officer, according to facts presented at the inquest.
That night, a detention officer was doing rounds. Around 7:20 p.m., the officer entered pod 5 and saw Davis alive in his cell. Around 10-15 minutes later, the next officer on rounds found Davis hanging in his cell and not breathing.
The detention officer performed CPR while an automated external defibrillator (AED) was located. Emergency services were called in, and Davis was transported to St. Peter’s Health. He was put on a ventilator before he died Nov. 2 in the hospital. Testing of his blood done by St. Peter’s Health showed no substances in Davis' system upon being admitted to the hospital. Davis had completed a mental health screening prior to his death by suicide where he denied having suicidal ideations.
A coroner’s inquest is a specific section of the law managed by the county attorney’s office where a formal inquiry is done into the causes of and circumstances surrounding the death of a person. In this case, a coroner from out of the county was brought in due to a conflict of interest. Jessie Billquist from the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Coroner’s Office was brought in to oversee the inquest.
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2022-10-08T01:05:44Z
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helenair.com
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Helena inmate's death ruled a suicide due to hanging
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-inmates-death-ruled-a-suicide-due-to-hanging/article_89e098d7-e8aa-5b26-9d72-f91a33736979.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-inmates-death-ruled-a-suicide-due-to-hanging/article_89e098d7-e8aa-5b26-9d72-f91a33736979.html
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Bryant Elementary School third graders work in their classroom on the first day back to school on Aug. 30, 2021.
After more than a year of controversy, an advisory board again made recommendations on how to update the state’s code of ethics for educators — this time removing the word “equity” but trying to retain the spirit of the language.
As early as July 2021, an advisory council that previously flew under the radar started getting comments about changes to the Professional Educators of Montana Code of Ethics.
It’s a non-binding and aspirational document that undergoes revision every five years in a process that normally gets minimal attention outside the scholastic world.
Educators said using the term means encouraging teachers to help every student get the resources they need to do their best. For them, equity is the concept that not all students start out on equal footing, so some may need additional help to succeed.
But opponents levied accusations that adding “equity” was a pathway for teaching the college-level legal concept known as critical race theory to Montana's K-12 students. Some said in public testimony last year the inclusion of the word amounted to Marxism or would have teachers be racist toward minority students. They view equity as treating kids differently based on their socio-economic status or race.
“I think the current political climate suggests that the word ‘equity’ is somehow a woke term, that it has political ramifications for some, and I'll be the first to say completely unfounded,” said Kelly Elder, the chair of the Certification Standards and Practices Advisory Council (CSPAC), during a meeting Thursday in which the council voted to advance a new recommendation that removed the word.
CSPAC, which is under the Board of Public Education, first forwarded recommendations to the board a year ago on how to update the code and included the word. In September, the board accepted some changes but rejected including "equity" and sent the code back to the council for more work.
“It seemed that equity was the issue, so I think trying to find middle ground and listen to what the Board of Public (Education) wants that perhaps we should consider going to another option,” said Kate Eisele, a member of the CSPAC and teacher in Big Sky, during Thursday's meeting.
Eisele suggested the council recommend a previously drafted option “which still preserves the sentiment of educational equity but avoids that politically hot-button word.”
The language the council voted to recommend says an ethical educator: “demonstrates an understanding of educational inclusion, respects human diversity, and provides opportunities and resources for all students to reach their full potential.”
Before the council started its work, that part of the code said an ethical educator “understands and respects diversity.” Council members initially wanted to update the language to add clarity.
The suggested edit that drew so much controversy and was struck Thursday said an ethical educator “demonstrates an understanding of educational equity and inclusion, and respects human diversity.”
Earlier in the meeting, the council said it would strive to include the definition of the word equity but avoid the word itself because of controversy.
Elder, a teacher in Helena, told the council he was frustrated with the process but echoed their concerns that not removing the word might cause the Office of Public Instruction to no longer include the code on things like teacher licenses.
“We are subservient … to help the Board of Public Education with their work. We serve the Board of Public Education. And when they give us a directive to remove that word, I don't feel we have an option of somehow still including it. That's very hard for me to say,” Elder said.
Estee Aiken, a member the Montana Council of Deans of Education who is a professor at of the University of Montana-Western, said though the process became politicized it was critical to maintain a meaningful code that’s embedded in several courses at the college.
“Even when political climate or external constituents may be leaning in ways that discourage the Code of Ethics or discourage the underpinnings of our program, we have a strong commitment from our faculty that this is what's best for our learners,” Aiken said.
Others raised concerns that removing the word could make the state not comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“The term equity has a long history in special education, and it is codified into federal law. So removing the word equity could jeopardize our compliance with our IDEA requirements,” said Adrea Lawrence, co-chair of the deans council and dean of the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education at the University of Montana, where she is also a professor.
“ … It is an important set of frameworks that are built around this notion that all students need to be served in ways that recognize both where they're at and to help them meet their full educational potential. … It's really serious to think about removing it from things that we are expressly committed to through accepting things like federal funding for education, even though it's a small percentage of budgets across the state.”
Doug Ruhman, a member of the deans council and dean of Division of Education and department chair of elementary education at Salish Kootenai College, said the code is a part of many classes on that campus too.
“I can't even imagine a framework for the profession that wouldn't include equity in a state like Montana, which contains diverse, vibrant perspectives on ways to live one's life,” Ruhman said. “Want to make sure that we represent all of those interests as we prepare teachers and it is tied to our accreditation.”
The council also retained language clarifying the code is an aspirational document, though the deputy superintendent of public instruction gave testimony Thursday saying the office wanted the word removed.
Deputy Sharyl Allen said OPI would raise the issue again when the Board of Public Education takes action on the council's recommendation, which is expected later this year.
Teacher Code Of Ethics
Kate Eisele
Montana congressional candidates react following raid of Trump property
Montana has two House seats up for election this November.
Stage set for Zinke-Tranel battle in the general election
Watching results trickle in after the polls closed on election night, the word many political observers in Montana landed on was “surprise" to sum up the western U.S. House race.
GOP primary too tight to call, Tranel on top in western U.S. House race
Montana added enough population in the 2020 U.S. Census to regain its second seat in the U.S. House after losing it in the 1990s.
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2022-10-08T01:05:50Z
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helenair.com
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Board again deals with 'ethics' in educator code
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/board-again-deals-with-ethics-in-educator-code/article_5b72343a-5ac8-5036-9a4e-2c55a4149690.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/board-again-deals-with-ethics-in-educator-code/article_5b72343a-5ac8-5036-9a4e-2c55a4149690.html
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The City-County Building in downtown Helena.
Candidates for county offices and Public Service Commission gave members of a grassroots Helena group a little insight into their backgrounds and plans for what they will do if elected in November.
It was the second in a series of somewhat informal forums held at the Montana Club by Hometown Helena. The first meeting featured candidates running for state offices in the Nov. 8 election. The ballots go out Oct. 13.
Thursday’s meeting included candidates for the county attorney’s office, county clerk, county commissioner, justice of the peace, sheriff/coroner and, on the state level, Public Service Commissioner.
There was no debate among candidates, and office hopefuls more or less spoke about themselves during their four-minute speeches, some offered goals, and all asked for the votes of those in the room.
Kevin Downs and Dan Guzynski are running for the seat being vacated by longtime County Attorney Leo Gallagher, who is retiring.
Downs, now serving as a prosecutor in the office, said he can bring the broadest perspective to the job.
He said, on the criminal side, the office prosecuted 650 felonies and 4,000 misdemeanors last year. It has a $3.5 million budget and 30 employees. He said the office has a civil side, which provides service and legal advice to county departments and the county commissioners.
Downs said the office protects children in the community and is involved in coroner’s inquests and drug task forces. He said it is a broad-sweeping office that impacts the community.
Downs said he grew up in Helena and graduated from Capital High School.
Dan Guzynski, who touted 22 years of experience, said he is chief prosecutor for the state attorney general's office. He said he has been in Helena 15 years and worked in Kalispell for seven years as a deputy county attorney.
He said has learned the craft of protecting children and has become a leader in that area, and that is what he is most proud of. Guzynski said he was promoted by then-Attorney General Tim Fox in 2018 and is a skilled administrator.
Lewis and Clark County Treasurer, Clerk and Recorder
Amy Reeves, incumbent clerk and recorder, said she and her husband have been Helena residents since 1988 and raised their family here. She said she has worked in the city-county building for 30 years and in the treasurer’s office for 29 of those years. She said her duties have included distribution of property tax revenues. Reeves was appointed by the Lewis and Clark County Commission in September 2020 to succeed Paulette DeHart, who retired.
She said she has also worked with the elections department. She said she is ready for the position and was ready when the county commissioners appointed her. She got some laughter when she said she has tried to make it so people enjoy going to the motor vehicle department, which has undergone some big changes in the past two years.
On her Facebook page she said staffing shortages have plagued all five divisions in the Treasurer/Clerk & Recorders Office, adding there has been staff turnover ranging from one-third to two-thirds in the divisions. She says in the post she appreciates the public's patience and understanding while new staff is hired and trained.
Challenger BettiJo Starr said she was born in Lewis and Clark County. She said her campaign has more of a direction than a platform and said she will perform the duties of clerk and recorder and treasurer with transparency and integrity.
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking, Starr said.
She said she has ideas for improvements for the office, including the department of motor vehicles and employee satisfaction. She said she is hearing from voters that they want change and that comes with new ideas.
She said she worked in the audit department of the Internal Revenue Service and was assistant vice president of a bank and in real estate banking 38 years. She now works for a small construction company.
Two candidates are running for the seat being vacated by Jim McCormick, who decided not to seek another term.
Candidate Curt Dallas said there is diversity in the county and there are different wants and needs throughout the valley. He said the county needs to find innovative funding methods for roads and infrastructure.
He said the issue of affordability of homes was near and dear to him. He said there will be 10,000 people in the area in the next 20 years. He said even though he is a ranch kid, there is nothing he would like to see more than more houses in the valley.
Candidate Candace Payne said she is passionate and outspoken about many issues.
She is a creative problem solver and a hard worker. She said she is fiscally conservative and independent and is committed to the nonpartisan nature of this race. She is a believer in the rule of law and said county commissioners do not make the law. She said she is not an advocate for any cause or group.
Mike Swingley said he is running for a fourth term. He said he is running again because he is dedicated to the county and dedicated to making the community and victims safer and restoring defendants to being legal citizens.
He said he was a state trooper for 22 years and has been a judge for 12. He said the judge position is busy and there were 7,200 cases filed last year in Justice Court that included small claims, civil and criminal cases.
Swingley said crimes in the county are driven by mental health issues and drugs and alcohol. He said he would work with various agencies. He said the county was in trouble. He said we need to start punishing the dealers and treating the people with mental health issues and addictions.
Shawn White Wolf said he has served the Helena community as a board member of the Rocky Mountain Development Council, the Helena Indian Alliance, the Holter Museum and neighborhood councils. He noted his experience as a businessman. He said he has worked with progressive groups to address racism.
White Wolf said he decided to run for justice of the peace because he knows the community. He said he has a history of being critical of the justice system, adding some people get stuck in the system longer than they should be.
Sheriff/Coroner
Incumbent Leo Dutton said safety, service and trust are what people get from him. He said he has no birthright to the job, but hoped people would return him to another term.
He said he has added an officer to the Missouri River Drug Task Force. He said he is committed to the safety of children in schools and that his department trains for school violence. Dutton said he will continue to focus on domestic violence and sexual assault and internet crimes against children.
John “Doc” Holiday was unable to attend, saying he had a previous campaign commitment.
John Repke is the Democratic candidate for Public Service Commission in a heavily Republican area, but said he will do the job honestly and objectively. He said the commission regulates utilities in the state and makes sure they are affordable, reliable and sustainable for the long term.
He said he plans on focusing on that if elected.
He said he is the most qualified candidate for the job and has a career of more than 40 years doing that type of work. He said he would return integrity to the commission.
PSC candidate Anne Bucacek did not participate in Thursday’s discussion.
You can view the forum at: https://bit.ly/3MdWtLk.
Mike Swingley
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2022-10-08T02:48:23Z
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helenair.com
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County and PSC candidates tout experience, goals at Helena forum
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https://helenair.com/news/local/county-and-psc-candidates-tout-experience-goals-at-helena-forum/article_60ec615f-3f7c-5bd3-92fc-078276548afe.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/county-and-psc-candidates-tout-experience-goals-at-helena-forum/article_60ec615f-3f7c-5bd3-92fc-078276548afe.html
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Two teens were detained in Helena Thursday after leading law enforcement on a chase that resulted in the crash of a stolen pickup truck and one of the youths fleeing from the scene before being apprehended several hours later, officials said.
Sgt. Jay Nelson of the Montana Highway Patrol said Friday that a trooper located a stolen 2003 Chevrolet Silverado occupied by two juveniles.
The vehicle did not yield to the trooper, and a chase started on Brady Street near Capital High School. The vehicle turned off of John G. Mine Road onto Curt Allen Court, which is a dead-end street. It then continued past the end of the road through a field and collided with the railroad tracks, Nelson said.
He said one of the juveniles was detained at the scene and the other ran on foot. The juvenile who fled was located and detained three hours later. An MHP helicopter, a K-9 unit, the Helena Police Department and the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the incident.
The juveniles were 15 and 16. Nelson said they were turned over to the Helena Police Department and are under investigation. One of the youths was taken to St. Peter’s Health as a precaution, Nelson said.
There were no injuries reported in the incident, officials said.
Sgt. Jay Nelson
Lewis And Clark County Sheriff's Office
John G. Mine Road
MHP offers back-to-school traffic safety reminders
The Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) and Attorney General Austin Knudsen want to remind drivers to follow traffic rules to keep students safe as they return to the classroom.
Helena area holds remembrances in honor of heroes, victims of 9/11
The Montana Highway Patrol and state elected officials hosted members of the public in the Capitol Rotunda Sunday morning to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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2022-10-08T02:48:24Z
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helenair.com
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2 youths detained after chase ends in crash in Helena
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/2-youths-detained-after-chase-ends-in-crash-in-helena/article_f487b211-3af2-55b0-9834-860e3520e947.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/2-youths-detained-after-chase-ends-in-crash-in-helena/article_f487b211-3af2-55b0-9834-860e3520e947.html
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If it weren’t for the seat belts worn by all four people involved, the Montana Highway Patrol trooper investigating the crash said Friday he believes there would have been one or two fatalities.
The crash occurred at 5:55 p.m. Thursday at York Road and Valley Drive.
A Toyota Tacoma was eastbound when a Toyota 4Runner, whose driver was under 18, had stopped at a stop sign but crossed into the path of the Tacoma and was struck on driver’s side.
Both vehicles rolled, Trooper Cale Bruun said.
The driver of the 4Runner suffered serious, but not fatal, injuries, Bruun said. The Tacoma driver, who was an adult, was checked by emergency responders and said he had soreness in his chest, but declined to be transported to the hospital.
Bruun said he believed all three occupants of the 4Runner were East Helena High School students, but did not immediately know what cities they lived in.
Several emergency units, as well as Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office and East Helena police, responded, he said.
Bruun said he would nominate them for the “Saved by the Belt” award, an award given the by the state to people who survive a serious vehicle crash because they wore their seat belt.
Cale Bruun
Helena man charged with raping and assaulting children
A 39-year-old Helena man was arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes involving three children.
City, contractors sued over death at Helena construction site
The estate and the wife of a medical doctor who was struck and killed by a construction truck in Helena last year is suing the city and two contractors.
Helena man who shot at officers gets 42 years in prison
A Helena man who shot at law enforcement outside his home last year was sentenced Monday to 42 years behind bars.
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2022-10-08T02:48:25Z
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helenair.com
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Crash at York Road and Valley Drive leaves four people injured
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/crash-at-york-road-and-valley-drive-leaves-four-people-injured/article_e1a77290-9de0-51c4-afda-00d87b85cfa1.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/crash-at-york-road-and-valley-drive-leaves-four-people-injured/article_e1a77290-9de0-51c4-afda-00d87b85cfa1.html
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Dagim, a freshman at Carroll College, is an Ethiopian student in the college's Global Student Refugee Initiative. Two other Carroll College students from Ethiopia asked not to be photographed.
If they were in their home country, three Carroll College students from Ethiopia would be at war with each other because of their ethnicities.
Here in Helena, they've found love and friendship with one another.
“With what’s happening back home, all three of us would be trying to kill each other instead of trying to help each other," an Ethiopian student named Bersabeh said during the launch of Carroll College’s Global Student Refugee Initiative (GSRI) earlier this week at the Montana Club. " ... As a person who’s witnessed war firsthand, it’s easy to hate, but instead we are intentionally choosing to love each other.”
Bersabeh, who is in the GSRI program, is in the process of seeking political asylum in the United States. Two other Ethiopian students at Carroll College -- Dagim, who’s on a student visa, and E, who’s also seeking asylum -- are in this program as well.
For safety reasons, the Independent Record is not using the full names of these students.
About 50 people attended this week's GSRI launch event, where the three Ethiopian students shared their stories of war, of losing friends and family, of losing their hopes and dreams. The event was intended to inspire others to give in any way possible to help meet the GSRI’s goal of bringing in more than 20 Ethiopian and Ukrainian students who have been displaced by war in their home countries, covering their tuition at Carroll and finding them host families.
Selam Mulu, 2, is treated for malnutrition Oct. 4 at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.
A woman collects wood for heating from a destroyed school where Russian forces were based in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine.
Ray Kuntz, who graduated from Carroll in 1977, has covered most of the finances the past few months for these three students. He realized that he didn’t have to do it alone and that the best way to ensure the safety and well-being of these students and future students was to get the community involved.
Susie and Ray Kuntz.
Jerry Kozak
“These students apply to Carroll and get scholarships and then we pay the role of the parents to make up the difference,” said Kuntz. “There’s now three other people contributing, and after (Tuesday night) there’s going to be hopefully 40 other people contributing… I would like to see the community of Helena and the Carroll College community get behind it… That’s what I’m hoping the Helena community will do is help give a few more kids hope.”
The Carroll College campus in Helena.
In Ethiopia, an ethnic civil war has displaced millions, killed thousands and reduced many to famine, according to reporting by The New York Times. The Tigrayan people make up about 7% of Ethiopia’s total population. The two largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and the Amhara, make up around 60% of Ethiopia’s population. Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) formed in the 1970s to fight Marxist military dictatorship in Ethiopia and won but was accused of corruption years later. In 2018, Abiy Ahmed was elected prime minister and launched an offensive military campaign against TPLF. The Oromo Liberation Army has allied with TPLF against the Amahara’s militia. The war started in November of 2020 and is still going today.
Soldiers loyal to Capt. Ibrahim Traore are cheered Oct. 2 in the streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Kilaye Bationo, Associated Press
The idea for the GSRI began amid the fall semester, during Carroll College President John Cech’s "Lessons in Leadership" class. He invited 10 guest speakers throughout the semester, one of whom was Kuntz.
Bersabeh was studying abroad at Carroll for a semester and taking the "Lessons in Leadership" class. She approached Kuntz after he spoke and told him about her situation back in Ethiopia and how impactful his speech was to her.
“Bersie comes up to me and says, ‘I had no hope anymore.’ I get teary eyed because it’s so emotional… Bersie said, ‘You gave me hope tonight,’” recalled Kuntz.
Kuntz invited Bersabeh to meet over coffee the next day, and she told him the story of war that had broken out in her home country and how she couldn’t go back due to fear for her safety over her ethnicity and escalating conditions.
“I learned I couldn’t go home when I was already (in the U.S.),” said Bersabeh. “It felt devastating… (I left behind) my whole family, my whole past friends, I don't have anyone from my past life here. Everything that exists now is what has come up after my exchange semester.”
Kuntz and his wife, Susie, stepped in and covered Bersabeh’s tuition for the next semester. They’ve done everything in their power to ensure she can stay safe in America.
“People are put into your life for a reason,” said Kuntz. “The odds of me meeting Bersie were one in a million. I spoke at a class; what were the odds that she was in that class? … It took a lot of guts for Bersie to come up to me afterwards.”
Before the 2022 school year began, Bersabeh heard of another student, E, who was displaced in America at the time. Bersabeh knew E through a mutual friend back in Ethiopia.
Back home, E had been studying law and was set to graduate in the spring when war interrupted those plans. Many of E’s classmates were killed, but E went to study at a college in Oklahoma on a partial scholarship. E’s family agreed to pay the rest of her tuition, but upon arriving in America, her family’s bank was shut down.
“My family told me they could not cover the rest (of tuition). Mind you, I had no family here or anyone. I had no money,” said E. “The family who hosted me had a very tiny house, so they couldn’t keep me anymore.”
E lost her student visa because she wasn’t going to school, so she filed for political asylum. However, the average cost of filing for asylum is between $5,000-$7,000, according to RIF Asylum Support. She found work at an Ethiopian restaurant, but because she didn’t have a work visa, she was only paid in tips.
“The tips were very tiny, so I had to work 12-16 hours a day for seven days in a week,” said E. “I never had work experience, my family used to cover my expenses in Ethiopia.”
Both Bersabeh and E expressed their fear and frustration with the almost insurmountable asylum seeking process in America.
“When you’re an asylum seeker, you’re not guaranteed to stay here. You still have to prove your fear of persecution to the asylum officer. The thought that I could be forced to go back is the scariest part,” said Bersabeh, with tears brimming.
“As an immigrant, I feel very vulnerable because unlike European countries, the U.S. doesn’t really support immigrants,” said E. “I applied for asylum but I still haven't gotten my work permit. Can you imagine how a person can survive, especially a person who came from a war zone and not having any kind of support from back home?”
Bersabeh reached out to E in July of this year about the GSRI at Carroll, and the Kuntzes and a few others paid for E’s travel to Helena and tuition.
Dagim left his family and moved to a bigger city in Ethiopia to pursue soccer when he was just 14 years old. He was almost a junior in college at the time the war broke out. He had to flee Ethiopia on a few days' notice because there were rumors that he would be killed.
“I wasn’t ready,” said Dagim. “I wasn’t ready to leave the country in the first place. It’s home, we have everything there, friends, a life there, we go to school there. No one wants to leave home.”
His soccer coach was American and put Dagim in contact with some people in the United States. Dagim got a student visa and was accepted into the University of Montana. He attended for one semester before he decided to look for a college with a men’s soccer program to help pay for his school. That’s what brought Dagim to Carroll, where he plays goalie for the Saints.
An issue arose when Dagim’s loan was declined going into the fall 2022 semester. Doug Mello, the men’s soccer coach, reached out to Cech about Dagim’s situation, and Cech called the Kuntzes, who paid Dagim’s tuition.
One community member who has opened her heart and her home to the current Ethiopian students is retired Rev. Sue DeBree. Last spring, Bersabeh gave a talk about her situation to Saint Paul's United Methodist Church, and DeBree was so moved that she offered to be a host family for Bersabeh and then E when she came too.
“At the time, we did not even know if Bersie could continue studies at Carroll, but (my house) would be a safe place to stay as Bersie figured out her options,” DeBree wrote in a statement. "In the meantime she made snow angels, shoveled snow, made a snowman and walked on water (frozen) at Spring Meadow."
“The snow is beautiful, but when it stays longer than a few weeks, it’s freezing,” laughed Bersabeh. "Helena just accepted me as I am, accepted us as we are. They acknowledged us and recognized us as people. They’ve been so supportive in all of the processes we’ve gone through.”
Bersabeh wants to go to medical school after Carroll and study infectious disease. She wants to volunteer in refugee camps and with organizations like Hands on Global as a humanitarian doctor.
E wants to become a lawyer and a judge. Back in Ethiopia, many women are still considered second class citizens and many things are done to them that they’re powerless to prevent. She wants to be a part of the solution.
Dagim wants to go into business and help bring fair wages to Ethiopian coffee farmers who are often taken advantage of because of the long supply chains.
All three of them wish to help displaced students in the future and give back in similar ways that benefitted them.
“Helena and Carroll are just the right size to embrace these students and help them fully assimilate,” said Cech. “We are big enough to support them but also small enough to nurture them.”
In the past, Carroll has run other initiatives to aid displaced students.
Cech noted that in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, Carroll welcomed Cuban, Hungarian, and Polish displaced students fleeing communistic regimes. In the ‘90s, students from Liberia arrived on campus. One of these students was Dr. Maddie Collins, who was a refugee student from Liberia studying nursing at Carroll. She now teaches at Carroll in the same program. Her husband is Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins, who was also a Liberian refugee.
Wilmot and Maddie Collins.
Dave Hunter and Linda Carlson also played a large role in starting GSRI and supporting these three students. Over $100,000 has been raised so far for the program.
“I had no idea how bad things were, and it’s really easy to sit in front of our TVs thousands of miles away, and you hear that all these people are getting killed, but it’s not in our backyard,” said Kuntz. “All the sudden, real people show up in your life that are those people… They’re just like you and I. They’re just three kids that need a chance at life. When you meet them and see how wonderful they are, it’ll change you. It’ll change you forever.”
To give, go to carroll.edu/give and click the "GIVE NOW" box, then select “Global Student Refugee Initiative.” People can also Email giving@carroll.edu or call 1-406-447-4406. Make checks payable to Carroll College with a memo notation “Global Student Refugee Initiative,” and the address to send them to is Carroll College Office of Institutional Advancement c/o Global Student Refugee Initiative, 1601 N. Benton Avenue, Helena, MT 59625. To volunteer as a host family for a displaced student, email HostFamilyHelena@gmail.com.
Bersabeh
Carroll College Office
Ray Kuntz
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2022-10-08T20:35:09Z
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helenair.com
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Carroll program welcomes international students displaced by war
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https://helenair.com/news/local/education/carroll-program-welcomes-international-students-displaced-by-war/article_6aac3625-1f96-50e5-befe-884dcde4b3c0.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/education/carroll-program-welcomes-international-students-displaced-by-war/article_6aac3625-1f96-50e5-befe-884dcde4b3c0.html
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Book review: An 'ornery' history of two ranch families
Bill Vaughn: "The Last Heir: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Two Montana Families."
If there’s one newspaper-allowable word to describe the kind of people drawn to ranching life in Montana, it’s “ornery.”
Tough, cussed, leather and hard might all deserve a second opinion in the matter, but for the sheer level of defiance of the elements and potentially even God Himself, ranchers certainly deserve the adjective.
Bill Vaughn’s latest book is a visitation of the vexatious nature of two families eventually drawn together and then pushed apart by a ranch outside of Helena, on the banks of Holter Lake. It’s actually a history of Vaughn’s wife’s kin — which would seem to be a dangerous game to write about the struggles and travails therein. But it appears they are still married so all apparently worked out — and Vaughn makes use of the articles, receipts, correspondence and other ephemera families produce while trying to make a living in Montana for over a century.
And boy, does Vaughn get the receipts. This book has multiple appendices that go over legal battles and the history of the Oxbow Ranch, where so much of the Herrins’ history happens. It’s a well-researched book, to say the least, and makes for interesting reading in another extensive Notes section at the end of the book. And Vaughn shines while gathering so many different bits and pieces of family life and weaving them all together. This book is a lovingly made quilt: the patches might look strange from a distance, but there is a strong sense of connection once you get up close and see the stitchwork.
The Burkes and the Herrins’ struggle and romance has the sense of tragedy: for this, Vaughn should be commended. It’s rare that reading a hyperlocal history, albeit one that stretches its starting point all the way to Ireland and springs across the United States like an airline pilot’s year-in-review, contains more than just a sense of facts being laid out for future generations to consider. Narratives in a family’s, or families’, history are difficult creatures. Who hasn’t heard a story that seems to be pointless regarding a bit of family connection to one place or another? But the Burkes and the Herrins have a sense of purpose in their relayed tales. And when a marriage breaks up, and the ranch is sold off, there’s a sense of loss that appears when reading a good work of fiction.
There are a lot of books written about Montana. If you go by the local bookstores, it’s either two shelves or an entire corner of a shop, along with a standalone, double-sided island. It makes sense, ‘cause the state has a rich history. But at the same time, there are so many times you can walk the same path before it becomes a readily remembered trail. By looking at the family he married into and following the tendrils out from Helena to Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and back home to Montana again, Vaughn did something new and unusual in the historical literature of Montana. That’s something to be admired.
"The Last Heir, The Triumphs and Tragedies of Two Montana Families" by Bill Vaughn (238 pp., $19.95, University of Nebraska Press)
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2022-10-09T13:18:18Z
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helenair.com
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Book review: An 'ornery' history of two ranch families
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https://helenair.com/news/local/book-review-an-ornery-history-of-two-ranch-families/article_aecd3ed0-7d7f-562c-988d-2d4b582f4e80.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/book-review-an-ornery-history-of-two-ranch-families/article_aecd3ed0-7d7f-562c-988d-2d4b582f4e80.html
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'For heavens sake stop it': Montana soldiers among famed 'Lost Battalion' of WWI saved by pigeon
By Ken Robison Overholser Historical Research Center
The First Battalion of he 308th Infantry, the famous "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division's Argonne campaign of the Great War, march up New York's Fifth Avenue just past the Arch of Victory during spring of 1919.
World War I, known as the Great War, was won 104 years ago by the combined forces of the U.S., France and Great Britain through an intense and bloody series of assaults on entrenched German troops in the autumn of 1918.
One American unit leading that assault in the Argonne Forest was the 77th Infantry or Statue of Liberty Division composed of young men from the streets of New York City. Just a week before the offensive, the 77th was heavily reinforced by about 476 Montanans transferred in from their replacement division.
"The Lost Battalion" is the name given to nine remarkable companies of the 77th Division, some 554 men including about 59 Montanans, surrounded and isolated by German forces during their attack in the Argonne Forest. On Oct. 2, the Battalion, commanded by Maj. Charles W. Whittlesey, launched an assault into the Argonne, under the belief that French forces and two American units were supporting their flanks.
Maj. Charles W. Whittlesey, the Lost Battalion commander.
As the battalion drove forward, they broke through German lines and advanced so rapidly into the Argonne Forest that they outpaced the forces on their flanks. Soon, the battalion was deep in German territory — “lost” to allied support.
But the “Lost” Battalion was by no means “lost” — they knew right where they were in their seemingly untenable position, and so did the Germans who had them surrounded.
The Whittlesey battalion, found themselves positioned on a steep, heavily wooded slope in the Charlevaux Valley. The nine trapped companies, A, B, C, E, G, and H of the 308th, K of the 307th Infantry, and C and D of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion and its parent 77th Division were composed of three dozen nationalities from all walks of life on the streets of New York. Remarkably, many Montanans were mixed in these melting pot companies.
For the followingly six days, with scarce ammunition, food, and supplies, but an abundance of courage and a leader who simply refused to surrender, these Yanks fought valiantly against attacking Germans. Communications were also a problem, and at times they were bombarded by their own artillery. As every runner dispatched by Whittlesey either became lost or ran into German patrols, carrier pigeons became the only method of communicating with headquarters.
Meanwhile other companies from the 307th and 308th Regiments sought desperately to locate and break through German lines to bring relief.
Finally, on Oct. 8, other Yanks broke through German lines to rescue the defiant but desperately weakened survivors of the Lost Battalion. Twenty-four Montanans were among the 197 Killed in Action including Otto J. Schultz of Somers, who was captured and died of wounds. Seventeen Montanans were wounded. Eighteen more Montana men were among the 194 rescued, although four would die of wounds and one of pneumonia in the aftermath.
Members of the “Lost Battalion” in late October, 1918 in France.
A Montanan among the survivors, Pvt. James G. Irvin of Billings, Company D, 308th Infantry, later related his ordeal in the Great Falls Tribune:
His firsthand account of the experiences of the gallant little detachment of the 77th division . . . reveals some interesting sidelights . . .
Irvin was close to Maj. Whittlesey, commander of the detachment, when the American who had been taken prisoner by the Germans and released to carry the message back to his comrades requesting they surrender, delivered the message. The widely heralded reply accredited to Whittlesey, in which he is supposed to have told the Germans in stentorian tones to “Go to hell” never was uttered, Irvin says, although the sentiment therein expressed was carried out.
“What Major Whittlesey did remark,” says Irvin, “was addressed to the message bearer and uttered in a low voice. It was: ‘I ought to shoot you for bringing this kind of a message.’”
As a matter of fact, the bearer of the message nearly was shot by mistake by Irvin, who was stationed several rods away from where the detachment lay partly concealed, by hastily thrown up breastworks and the rank undergrowth. Irvin observed the messenger approaching and waiting for him to announce himself.
The guard had his rifle leveled on a patch of moonlight across a path which the messenger was traveling. If the stranger made no sound before reaching the patch of moonlight, Pvt. Irvin intended to fire. He knew better than to make known his own presence for fear the visitor might be a German, and several enemy raiding parties had already tried to storm the position where the Americans lay.
“By the merest chance, the messenger divined the presence not far off of his comrades and hailed them just before he stepped into the patch of moonlight on which I had my rifle leveled. He passed safely through the lines.”
“Major Whittlesey appeared highly displeased at the messenger and rebuked him severely. The messenger then took his place among us.
“For some time after arriving at our rendezvous we were under fire of both our own (French) and the enemy artillery. We lost several of our men from this source. Major Whittlesey sent back all the carrier pigeons we had with us with messages to our artillery to cease firing on that point. I was only a few feet away when the major sent back the last pigeon. All the others, apparently, were killed before reaching their destination, for the shells from our guns kept falling in the vicinity. As the major adjusted the message to the leg of the last pigeon (named Cher Ami), he remarked:
“’Now then you little devil, if you don’t get through, I don’t know what’s going to happen to us.’”
Cher Ami, the hero of the 77th Infantry, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre by the French.
“The bird got through safely, we learned later, and the artillery fire lifted. That last message also resulted in our rescue.”
Cher Ami’s message read: “We are along the road paralell (sic) to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heavens sake stop it.”
As Cher Ami took flight to fly to home base, the Germans saw him rising out of the brush and opened fire. Within seconds, he was shot down but managed to take flight again. Cher Ami arrived back at his loft at division headquarters 25 miles to the rear in just 25 minutes, helping to save the lives of the 194 survivors. He had been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and had a leg hanging only by just a tendon. Army medics saved his life. Cher Ami, the hero of the 77th Infantry, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre by the French.
Cher Ami, The Pigeon That Saved the “Lost Battalion,” Arrives Home. Anaconda Standard, April 27, 1919.
Anaconda Standard
Irvin’s account continued:
“ . . . Where the detachment of the 77th was surrounded (was) called . . . ‘the pocket,’ there was a small spring which furnished the only fresh water the Americans could reach. The German artillery had the exact range of the spring and German outposts had a clear view of the spot. Whenever one or more Americans tried to reach the spring, the enemy laid down a barrage. It was here the Lost Battalion suffered its heavy casualties,” Irvin said. Machine guns manned by Germans were stationed on three sides of the American position and a constant storm of lead was directed on the spot. The little band was nearly famished when found.
(Few of the) men who composed the detachment were taken out alive. A majority went directly to a hospital and remained there several weeks recuperating. Irvin and a half dozen others volunteered for duty the following day and resumed the advance, but the Billings man was forced by weakness to drop out.
“I marched until I couldn’t stand up any longer, carrying the regulation pack which a soldier takes into the front lines. This pack weights 110 pounds. I stumbled along for a couple of miles and suddenly everything went black. When I woke up I was in a hospital, and I was still there when the armistice was signed.”
The monument to the Lost Battalion in the Argonne Forest, France.
Photo by Mark A. Wilson
In the aftermath of their horrendous experiences, some men suffered what we would now call PTSD.
For survivor Pvt. Joe Prusek, a young homesteader from Melville, Sweet Grass County, the effects proved fatal. In the terms of the times, Prusek “suffered from the effects of shell shock and a general nervous breakdown caused by his experiences with the Lost Battalion.”
He killed himself in a cabin at his homestead. When the sheriff arrived at the scene four days later he found Prusek’s dog faithfully tending over the body of his master. Since his death, the dog apparently had never relaxed his vigilance. When the sheriff arrived, the dog would circle around the body at intervals, then take his position near the head of his dead master.
Note: For more about Montanans in World War I, see historian Ken Robison’s books World War I Montana: The Treasure State Prepares and Montanans in the Great War: Open Warfare over There. For names and more information about the Montanans in the Lost Battalion see: https://bit.ly/3SY5NF8
The Lost Battalion
Maj. Charles S. Whittlesey
Otto J. Schultz
James G. Irvin
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2022-10-09T13:18:24Z
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helenair.com
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'For heavens sake stop it': Montana soldiers among famed 'Lost Battalion' of WWI saved by pigeon
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https://helenair.com/news/local/for-heavens-sake-stop-it-montana-soldiers-among-famed-lost-battalion-of-wwi-saved-by/article_f9ceb440-89f8-5651-858b-506fb5d7e4f5.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/for-heavens-sake-stop-it-montana-soldiers-among-famed-lost-battalion-of-wwi-saved-by/article_f9ceb440-89f8-5651-858b-506fb5d7e4f5.html
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Republican candidate in the race for Montana’s western congressional district Ryan Zinke answers a question on Thursday evening during a forum on the campus of Montana Technological University.
Zinke has faced accusations of wrongdoing and dishonesty from both Republicans in June’s primary, and now from his Democratic opponent Monica Tranel leading up to November’s general election. They've pointed to two reports from internal agency investigators as well as the sheer volume of investigations, numbering from 15-20.
"You have weaponized investigators that are biased, that can run amok, in my case, 18 investigations on my socks, my dog, etc, etc, etc." Zinke said in a recent debate. "And they all lead to no conflict of interest, no breaking of rules and laws."
“After five years, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, you know what the report concluded? That I didn’t follow the employee handbook and had a lack of candor. I don’t know that means. I answered their questions. They just didn’t like my answers,” Zinke said at a recent debate.
In late August, Interior’s Office of Inspector General released a report stating Zinke made statements to investigators "with the overall intent to mislead them'' over conversations he had with lobbyists, lawmakers and other officials regarding a bid by two Indian tribes to operate a casino in Connecticut.
A letter from Zinke’s attorney, included in the report, said the finding that Zinke lacked candor was "wrong and without merit.''
The inspector general's findings in both cases were referred to the U.S. Justice Department, which declined to prosecute the cases.
This screen shot posted Tuesday, June 26, 2018, on the official Twitter account of U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke shows him wearing socks with an image of President Trump and the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again," which has been blacked out on the photo, during an official event in Keystone, S.D.
U.S. Interior Department via AP
Interior policy sets out a process for handling scientific information to ensure that findings are credible and "free of political influence," ABC News reported.
In 2018, Zinke was cleared in an OIG investigation into whether the redrawing of the boundaries of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument benefited a Republican state representative.
OIG report on Connecticut casino dealings
OIG report on Whitefish project
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2022-10-09T13:18:37Z
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helenair.com
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Through election, Zinke faces heat for investigations while at Interior
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/through-election-zinke-faces-heat-for-investigations-while-at-interior/article_071b9b6d-23d0-5580-b9af-58e3fd9a44e8.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/through-election-zinke-faces-heat-for-investigations-while-at-interior/article_071b9b6d-23d0-5580-b9af-58e3fd9a44e8.html
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It’s hard to believe that November’s general election is just around the corner. Montanans across the state will soon be receiving their absentee ballots to vote in an election that could very well be transformational for our government.
With many longtime legislators termed out, the Legislature is sure to have lots of newer faces this time around.
Frederick Douglass famously declared “I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.” This mantra should be embraced by all of Montana’s future leaders. While Montana’s government has traditionally avoided much of the vicious politics we see play out on the national stage, friendliness can start to fade as election season reaches the home stretch.
Remember that people of all political stripes are individuals deserving of dignity. Remember that it’s OK to have respectful disagreements on policy. Focus on finding common ground around solutions.
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2022-10-09T13:18:49Z
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helenair.com
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Kendall Cotton: Future leaders should embrace good governance
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/kendall-cotton-future-leaders-should-embrace-good-governance/article_f2930fa0-0860-514e-aeb5-a9927cb434e8.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/kendall-cotton-future-leaders-should-embrace-good-governance/article_f2930fa0-0860-514e-aeb5-a9927cb434e8.html
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Please join us in supporting Candace Payne for the office of Lewis and Clark County Commissioner. With no major agenda, only wanting to serve, Candace has the positive attitude, temperament and experience to make high quality decisions and to build the important relationships necessary for good outcomes.
Candace is committed to addressing the issues faced by the county with reason and common sense, making her an excellent candidate to serve our community. Knowing Candace over the years, she has shown a love and dedication for the community that will help her to represent what is good and right about Lewis and Clark County.
Andy Hunthausen and Jim McCormick, Lewis and Clark County Commissioners
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2022-10-09T15:12:39Z
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helenair.com
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Support Candace Payne
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/support-candace-payne/article_80304d95-d2e4-5b9c-8204-f224d63522d6.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/support-candace-payne/article_80304d95-d2e4-5b9c-8204-f224d63522d6.html
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Rabbi Ed Stafman leads the Sukkot celebration Sunday at Temple Emanu-El in Helena.
Dave Campbell stood with dozens of other people in a line Sunday that started at the front doors of Temple Emanu-El and snaked down the steps and on to the sidewalk that ran parallel to Ewing Street.
“I just wanted to see the inside of the building,” the Helena resident said.
Campbell was among the folks who joined in a Sukkot celebration and dedication of the historic Jewish temple.
On Aug. 25, the Montana Jewish Projected finalized negotiations with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena and bought back the oldest synagogue in Montana, returning the building for use by the Jewish community for the first time in 87 years. The effort included donations from more than 2,000 individuals and several Helena businesses.
Many faiths were represented at Sunday’s celebration. Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. It celebrates the harvest.
People line up Sunday for a tour of Temple Emanu-El in Helena.
“We are so excited for them to celebrate Sukkot, said Nicole Giacomini, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“This is an amazing opportunity to learn and get a tour of the new temple building,” she said.
Rabbi Ed Stafman of Bozeman led the celebration. He called Sunday’s turnout “fantastic.”
“I am amazed at how many people from the faith community came out to celebrate with us today,” he said. “It is a momentous day.”
Rebecca Stanfel of the Montana Jewish Project agreed.
“Today is going fabulous,” she said prior to the celebration. “We have an outpouring of people.”
During the holiday, it is traditional to eat and, for some, to sleep in a Sukkah, or booth, for seven days. A booth was built for Sunday's celebration.
People gathered on the side lawn for singing and prayer, including a Sukkot teaching and blessing.
Roman Catholic Diocese Of Helena
Nicole Giacomini
The Montana Jewish Project is hosting a celebration and community opening of historic Temple Emanu-El and for the holiday of Sukkot from 4-6 p.m. Sunday.
Montana Jewish Project hosts ceremonial signing at former Temple Emanu-El
Around 75 people gathered in front of what is historically known as Helena’s Temple Emanu-El for a ceremonial signing celebrating MJP buying back the temple for Jewish use.
Temple celebration in Helena
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2022-10-10T03:08:15Z
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helenair.com
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'A momentous day': Community celebrates Helena Jewish temple's return, Sukkot
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https://helenair.com/news/local/a-momentous-day-community-celebrates-helena-jewish-temples-return-sukkot/article_de4c383b-b9fa-554c-8229-7c0b69c4efa8.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/a-momentous-day-community-celebrates-helena-jewish-temples-return-sukkot/article_de4c383b-b9fa-554c-8229-7c0b69c4efa8.html
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Dan Guzynski is the clear choice in the Lewis and County attorney's race. His experience in the courtroom, obtaining actual felony convictions all over Montana, is unmatched by his opponent, Kevin Downs. Mr. Downs claimed at a debate recently that he was involved in confronting some of the most dangerous criminals in the world when he worked for homeland security. He needs to explain to the voters what specifically he did in his role and what courtroom experience he has confronting violent crime. We know that Dan Guzynski has this experience because he is the chief prosecutor for the statewide prosecution services bureau. Mr. Downs, by contrast, has worked in the county attorney's office for less than two years. Mr. Downs is a very nice guy and has done some good things, but he lacks the proper qualifications for this job. As an attorney here in Lewis and Clark County who has dealt with the county attorney's office and tried a case or two against them (including the defense of Mayor Wilmot Collins) I can tell you that Dan is the man for this job. Period. This is a serious position, for a serious person. That person is Dan Guzynski.
Brian Miller,
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2022-10-10T15:28:47Z
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helenair.com
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Dan Guzynski is clear choice for county attorney
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/dan-guzynski-is-clear-choice-for-county-attorney/article_07268ccb-c59d-5c1e-9799-64768125b87e.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/dan-guzynski-is-clear-choice-for-county-attorney/article_07268ccb-c59d-5c1e-9799-64768125b87e.html
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Current County Commission Chairman Jim McCormick is stepping down at the end of the year, and candidates Curt Dallas and Candace Payne are vying for county residents' votes come November. Dallas is a Realtor with Dallas Land Company and a relocation specialist for the Montana Department of Transportation, and Payne is a retired private practice attorney.
Payne, who put herself through law school in Missoula, worked as a lobbyist in the Montana Legislature beginning in 1993, representing various groups from the Montana Stockgrowers Association to the Montana Alliance of YMCAs.
Payne said assembling the county budget is the most important work the commissioners do. She said she plans to bring her ability create consensus between opposing viewpoints, a skill learned at the Legislature, to the county commission if elected.
"I think there's kooks on both sides, but there is a core of good people who are trying to do the right thing, and I want to be a part of that core," Payne said. "I'm not willing to follow a party line because I think for myself."
Dallas said that if elected, he would start talking to people across the county about their concerns beginning the day after the election.
"By the people, for the people. That's still the rule of the land," he said.
He said he would use his 25 years of state government experience working with budgets, land purchases and the like to inform his work on the commission.
"In land use with the department of transportation and in real estate, I have a lot of experience, and I can bring that to the commission," he said. "I think all of that brings a lot to the commission."
Recently implemented Helena Valley zoning regulations are among the issues getting attention in the race.
Dallas said affected landowners have told him they feel the new zoning rules came from the top down.
He said that if elected, he would immediately work to repeal the 10-acre lot size minimum in rural zones.
"When people complain about the 10-acre minimum, that's the end of what they want to talk about," he said. "There are some things in that zoning document that probably aren't bad, but it all starts with that 10-acre minimum."
He cited the lack of affordability and availability of existing housing in the area and said development needs to extend beyond the urban and rural interface to meet the increased need.
"I'm a ranch kid. I don't want to see (the Helena Valley) broken up into quarter-acre lots," he said. "But I'm also a realist. The growth is coming."
Payne noted that there are exceptions to the 10-acre minimum if a developer is able to prove there is adequate water to support high-density development.
"I think there is not a real clear understanding of what the 10-acre minimum actually does," she said. "It's flexible."
She said the availability of water and the use of single household septic systems pose a big problem for the valley and believes the zoning regulations help address those concerns.
"I do not have an ax to grind," she said. "And I am not going to make a whole bunch of money if we have unfettered development out in the valley."
Lewis and Clark County infrastructure is also an important issue for both candidates.
"The county roads are just like the state roads, they are getting older and harder to maintain," Dallas said. "And the bridges are a big issue."
He said the condition of the roads and bridges was among the reasons he decided to run.
Payne said in her talks with rural fire council members, she learned "there are a whole bunch of bridges in Lewis and Clark County that cannot hold the fire trucks because they have a weight limit," she said. "This is basic infrastructure. ... It's something we need to be concerned about."
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lewis and Clark County Board of Health and the county's Health Officer Drenda Niemann enacted a variety of health orders affecting businesses and crowd sizes.
Although the Montana Legislature recently passed new laws limiting the power of county health officials, Dallas took issue with the way the health orders were enacted previously.
"When we make the decision to effectively shut down our economy, that has to be done by elected officials with input from the experts," Dallas said.
Payne said the law is the law whether she likes it or not. If elected, she said, she will rely heavily on the guidance of the experts.
"The county commissioners have limited knowledge; they have problem solving skills; they do the best they can," she said. "They hire somebody, the best person they can to run public health."
The general election will be held Nov. 8. Absentee ballots are accepted at the County Elections Office or any polling place until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Voters can check their voter status and determine their polling place by visiting MyVoterPageMT.com or by calling the Lewis and Clark County Elections Department at (406) 447-8339.
Independent Record editor Jesse Chaney contributed to this story.
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2022-10-10T21:01:07Z
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helenair.com
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Lewis and Clark County Commission candidates share differing views
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/elections/lewis-and-clark-county-commission-candidates-share-differing-views/article_1bb33da7-ba61-5769-9071-cd4d77469176.html
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/elections/lewis-and-clark-county-commission-candidates-share-differing-views/article_1bb33da7-ba61-5769-9071-cd4d77469176.html
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Bob Heberly, Dick Anderson Construction vice president, with Carrie Krepps, executive director of Florence Crittenton Family Services.
Florence Crittenton Family Services
Florence Crittenton officials said Monday they have selected Dick Anderson Construction as the general contractor and construction manager to complete the renovation of their new campus on Cooney Drive in Helena.
The renovation is scheduled to start in February with the child care floor, followed by the residential programs and finally the administrative and community services wing.
Carrie Krepps, executive director of Florence Crittenton Family Services, said in an email they are still in the final design phase of the project so hard costs are not available.
“Based on current design and estimates made on those designs, we anticipate the full renovations (including design, engineering, and construction) will be in the range of $4.75 – 5.6 million,” she said.
In December, Crittenton announced it had purchased a 28,294-square-foot building on 3.75 acres at 3404 Cooney Drive from Paul and Kelly Arneson for $2.5 million. The property has two homes and a duplex. The campus has served as an office for the Mountain-Pacific Quality Health Foundation and, at one time, the county hospital. The building already has Wi-Fi, internet wiring and access, a security system, air conditioning and a generator, officials said.
What started as a quest to find more space turned into the nonprofit group buying a 28,294-square-foot building on 3.75 acres at 3404 Cooney Drive from Paul and Kelly Arneson for $2.5 million.
Crittenton offers residential treatment programs for women and children, outpatient clinical services and home visiting programs for families, and early childhood education programs. Until now their programs have been operating in three facilities across Helena. Officials said the organization and the families they serve will greatly benefit from co-located services with this new campus.
Crittenton has been working with Slate Architecture and engineering firms in Helena to define the project's scope and ensure it meets the needs of the organization’s growing programs.
Krepps said Crittenton was excited to go with Anderson on this project.
“The renovation is a crucial step in moving to a single campus and we needed a firm that had the capacity and experience to meet the demands of this project,” she said in a news release.
Bob Heberly, vice president of Dick Anderson Construction, said this project will make a large impact on the Helena community and his company, which was founded in 1975, is happy to be part of it.
“This project and what they do is very personal to me. As a child, our family supported many of the mothers and families at Florence Crittenton,” he said, adding he can remember his family hosting birthdays and holidays with many of the families.
The “Project Sunshine” campaign to complete the renovations is continuing and information can be found at www.projectsunshine.info.
Dick Anderson Construction Inc.
Carrie Krepps
Cooney Drive
Florence Crittenton launches fundraising campaign to renovate Cooney property
Florence Crittenton has launched its $4.5 million "Project Sunshine" fundraising campaign to renovate the historic Cooney property in Helena.
Florence Crittenton to receive $900K from Childcare Innovation Grant
Florence Crittenton Family Services will receive more than $900,000 to help with the renovations of child care facility on the first floor of its newly acquired Cooney campus.
Helena groups to get $270,000 in grants from Bremer trust
Five Helena-based groups will get a total of $270,000 from nearly $11 million in grants dispersed in several states by the Otto Bremer Trust.
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2022-10-10T23:14:31Z
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helenair.com
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Crittenton picks Dick Anderson Construction for renovation of new campus
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crittenton-picks-dick-anderson-construction-for-renovation-of-new-campus/article_954f46d4-ece0-5545-9e76-0b625747bde0.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crittenton-picks-dick-anderson-construction-for-renovation-of-new-campus/article_954f46d4-ece0-5545-9e76-0b625747bde0.html
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The Morelli Bridge in Reeder's Alley was recently nominated for the National Historical Register.
The Montana Historical Society has announced eight new nominations for the National Historic Register, including the Morelli Bridge above Reeder’s Alley built in 1892.
The nomination form was prepared by Jon Axline, a cultural resource specialist/historian at the Montana Department of Transportation.
“The Morelli Bridge is associated with the Helena City Council’s efforts to improve the local infrastructure during the 1890s,” wrote Axline in the nomination form. “The city sanctioned projects that included street grading and paving, sidewalk and sewer installations, and the construction of a massive cut on Lawrence Street in downtown in 1892.”
To be eligible for the National Historic Register, a property has to be associated with significant events or significant people, have its historical integrity intact or yield important information about history.
For the Morelli Bridge nomination, it's listed as associated with significant historical events as far as engineering and transportation and having its historical integrity intact, meaning it reflects the time period it was built in.
According to the nomination form, “The period of significance begins in 1892 with the construction of the bridge and ends in 1972, the end of the historic period. The dates of significance include 1892, the year of the bridge’s construction, and 1893, the year the road that approaches the bridge was completed and the bridge put into actual use.”
The presence of two railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Montana Central, brought transcontinental connections to Helena, sparking an economic boom and population growth. The bridge is tied to Helena’s transformation from a wooden mining town into a brick and masonry city.
The need for better roads for the growing population was an infrastructure must, so this led to the Helena City Council authorizing the "extension of Howie Street from a point about 230 feet south of the intersection of Adams Street 500 feet to the intersection of [Donaldson] Street," according to the nomination form. This extension authorized the building of Morelli Bridge to connect the First and Third wards of Helena.
Morelli Bridge is the oldest remaining timber bridge in Montana. It’s made from locally quarried stone.
“The bents and abutments reflect the stonemason’s craft and the stone used for their construction was extracted from a nearby quarry on Mount Helena by a quarryman who lived near the bridge site,” wrote Axline. “Indeed, the builder of the bents and abutments lived only one hundred yards from the bridge in a stone house he also constructed about the same time he constructed the Morelli Bridge. A path still exists between his house and the north approach of the bridge.”
The bridge measures 96 feet long and 22 feet wide and was designed by Swiss immigrant and stonemason Carlo "Charles" Morelli. Folklore tells that he based the bridge’s design off a bridge in Italy, but it is not known which one.
After the bridge construction was completed, Howie Street was being surfaced when a tragedy occurred. One of the timbers that supported the rock crusher’s bin failed. Seven tons of rock was dumped onto Thomas Joyce, who had only been employed two days on the rock crusher. He was killed on impact.
Work also stopped on the project in December and January due to a Montana winter. It was set to resume on March 28, 1893. On March 14, a resolution was introduced by an alderman to the council to discontinue work on Howie Street until there was a cost estimate for the project's completion. At the time, two aldermen were elected to represent each of the seven wards in Helena. The city council passed this resolution.
An alderman for the First Ward argued for rescinding the resolution and allowing the project to be completed. Among the reasons for completion were people wanted work and tax revenue from the section opened by the road and bridge would pay for the project in the next few years. Six aldermen voted to continue the project, four voted against it and three missed the meeting, so work on Howie Street resumed in the spring of 1893.
The Morelli Bridge nomination was considered at the Sept. 29 Montana State Historic Preservation Review Board Meeting. It passed the nomination phase and will be reviewed at the federal level by the National Park Service, which oversees the National Historic Register.
Eve Byron, a public information officer for the Montana Historical Society, noted that the advisory board is a critical crowd, and that once a property passes the nomination phase, odds are high that it will become listed on the National Historic Register.
Some parts of Morelli Bridge were replaced in 1975 as part of Helena’s Urban Renewal Program, but the structure still holds much of its integrity and original design.
“...It retains a high degree of architectural integrity as an exceptional example of a late nineteenth century timber bridge with unique and distinctive rubblestone abutments and piers built from locally quarried stone,” wrote Axline. “Other than the replacement of the deck and original guardrails, no significant changes or modifications to the bridge have occurred since its construction.”
Morelli Bridge
Jon Axline
Carlo Morelli
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2022-10-10T23:14:37Z
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helenair.com
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Morelli Bridge above Reeder's Alley nominated for National Historic Register
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https://helenair.com/news/local/morelli-bridge-above-reeders-alley-nominated-for-national-historic-register/article_542cca99-3f79-5516-abf5-e52a87e4a77a.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/morelli-bridge-above-reeders-alley-nominated-for-national-historic-register/article_542cca99-3f79-5516-abf5-e52a87e4a77a.html
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Lennon Keppen was the service leader for Big Sky Unitarian Universalist's "LGBTQ2S+ Coming Out Day" service. Keppen is on BSUU's board and is a member of the LGBTQ+ community as a non-binary person.
“Here you are. Here, in this holy space, on this ground that is holy because you are here. Here you are, in flesh and bone, filling up this body that belongs to you alone. Your pumping heart is a wonder because it keeps you alive. Your loving heart is a blessing because it keeps all of us alive. The Spirit of Love has a home in you. May we all see that love in you and let our hearts become mirrors for the compassion at your core. The Spirit of Justice has a home in you. May we light our wicks from one another until we are all aflame, until we burn out every prejudice we carry in these bones. Here you are. Holy as you are. Blessed be.”
Service leader Lennon Keppen, who read the poem by Jess Reynolds, explained that the “2S” on the end of LGBTQ+ stands for Two-Spirited Native Americans who are traditionally both male and female or a third gender. Keppen is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and is non-binary.
Sunday's service was held in advance of National Coming Out Day on Tuesday.
“We create LGBTQ2S+ inclusive religious communities as a core part of who we are," Keppen said during the service. "All of who you are is sacred. All of who you are is welcome here in this space. Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day where people nationwide celebrate LGBTQ+ loved ones who have come out."
On Oct. 11, 1987, around 500,000 people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This was the second demonstration in Washington, D.C., for the LGBTQ+ community. The date was chosen to celebrate National Coming Out Day because of its historical significance to the community, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Lay member Cass Mitchell read a story out loud as the children at the service gathered around her. The story was “Pink is for Boys” by Scott Stuart. The theme was that colors don’t have genders, and that anyone can wear or be what they want.
Music was provided by Judy Fjell and Cheryl McKenty throughout the service. One of Fjell’s original songs was played called “We Arise (No More Silence).”
Fjell is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She grew up in Big Timber and became interested in music when she bought a guitar at a garage sale in high school. She plays the guitar, ukulele, piano, trumpet, some fiddle, and more instruments. She’s written over 300 songs and over 20 albums throughout her music career that has been grounded in compassion and justice. She’s a music teacher and runs musical workshops and summer camps.
“Music to me is the basis of existence,” said Fjell. “One of my callings has been to empower people to make music, and particularly women because women are so disenfranchised for voices.”
Fjell was out as a lesbian before National Coming Out Day even was celebrated. She recalled how difficult it was to be out decades ago.
“(Coming out) was very painful having been a ... Lutheran kid from a small town, very difficult,” said Fjell. “It was a process. It’s always a process.”
Fjell spoke of one of the songs she had written called “Oh Yes I Know” about how isolating the process of coming out can be.
“And who would have thought when I told them I was gay that old Red Sea would come together and sweep me away,” sings the bridge of the song. “It seemed those waters had parted for everyone but me, and I was left alone, so alone.”
The song ends with newfound hope: “My friends, now it’s me and you. Those waters are parting for me and you.”
Fjell has been a member of the Unitarian Universalist faith since the 1980s, and a member of BSUU since 2012, when she moved to Helena to be closer to her partner of about 10 years now.
“At this point being 72 and just seeing … all the things that I’ve lived through, all the perceptions of other people that I’ve witnessed, well it’s an interesting life,” stated Fjell.
Throughout the service, the flaming chalice’s candle flickered quietly. This Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition dates back to World War II, and today when it is lit, it stands for hope, truth, reason, and creates a sacred space for reflection. The flame was extinguished at the end of the service, and words were read that were written by Elizabeth Selle Jones, a UU minister who died in 2006.
“We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.”
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2022-10-11T14:17:53Z
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helenair.com
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'All of who you are is sacred': Unitarian Universalists celebrate National Coming Out Day in Helena
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https://helenair.com/news/local/all-of-who-you-are-is-sacred-unitarian-universalists-celebrate-national-coming-out-day-in/article_33669095-9669-5b95-889f-6cdcd4555f4f.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/all-of-who-you-are-is-sacred-unitarian-universalists-celebrate-national-coming-out-day-in/article_33669095-9669-5b95-889f-6cdcd4555f4f.html
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But my greatest concern arose when I learned Brown was the lawyer for Western Traditions Partnership Inc., the most notorious corrupter of Montana politics in modern times. In the case of Western Traditions Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, 2011 MT 328, the court determined this “foreign corporation” was created “to solicit and anonymously spend the funds of other corporations, individuals and entities to influence the outcome of Montana elections.” Brown’s client informed its anonymous wealthy donors they were “not required to report [their] names or the amount of any contributions.... [They could] just sit back on election night and see what a difference [they had] made.” Now, everyone’s entitled to an attorney, but I cannot believe an attorney who voluntarily chooses to represent a corporation, whose expressed purpose is to corrupt Montana’s government through “dark money,” is qualified to sit on our Supreme Court.
For these reasons and as a lifelong Montana attorney, I must steadfastly oppose Brown’s candidacy. It would be a very sad day for Montana if he were to gain a seat on our Supreme Court.
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2022-10-11T14:17:59Z
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helenair.com
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Erik Thueson: Lawyer to lawyer -- James Brown not qualified
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/erik-thueson-lawyer-to-lawyer----james-brown-not-qualified/article_20ca20ec-01fe-56a5-bea0-0beebe1341b9.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/erik-thueson-lawyer-to-lawyer----james-brown-not-qualified/article_20ca20ec-01fe-56a5-bea0-0beebe1341b9.html
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It was no surprise to open the paper last week and learn that the Public Service Commission had approved a $92 million interim rate increase for Northwestern Energy. In this case, "interim" means step one of the much larger requested increases amounting to 25.6% for electricity and 11.1% for gas. If I had to bet, I’d put money on the current members of the commission approving that increase as well. That’s why we need a change. Beyond the sheer size of the increase, along with the short notice, other aspects of the commission’s decision are also concerning.
In its Interim Order, the PSC describes the rate increases as “a reasonable means of providing interim relief to NorthWestern.” For 2021, NorthWestern reported net income of $187 million ($30 million more than 2020) and the 2021 compensation for its top six executives was a combined $9 million. These numbers do not strike me as consistent with a company needing relief. NorthWestern is "investor-owned." If its investors gain when the company does well, then they also need to share the risk when the company trips up — even if that means just buying some time.
Also, one commissioner was quoted as saying “If the final bill comes in lower …then a year from now NorthWestern customers would receive a rebate, plus interest…” The PSC is agreeing to have the ratepayers finance NorthWestern? On the surface, a rebate plus interest sounds great, but it really would be a loan – and I suspect that most Montana families and businesses are not interested in carving out some of their budget to provide NorthWestern a financial cushion. If interest is paid, maybe the rate should be like the one on your credit card.
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2022-10-11T14:18:05Z
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helenair.com
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John Repke: Montanans deserve better than what we are getting
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/john-repke-montanans-deserve-better-than-what-we-are-getting/article_fbdd6e96-518b-5f5a-bfaa-127eb8a5f506.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/john-repke-montanans-deserve-better-than-what-we-are-getting/article_fbdd6e96-518b-5f5a-bfaa-127eb8a5f506.html
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The "next" election is the most important, or so I've heard, for 50-plus years.
The 2021 Legislature passed laws restricting voter access; though stymied by the courts for the November election.
Five local candidates check all the boxes: Jill Cohenour (HD 84), Kim Abbott (HD 83), Mary Caferro (HD 82), Janet Ellis (SD 41), and Mary Ann Dunwell (SD 42).
The "most" important election is here: Nov. 8!
Vote, it's your "right", for now!
John Ilgenfritz
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2022-10-11T14:18:18Z
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helenair.com
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The most important election is here
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/the-most-important-election-is-here/article_894edd45-256b-546f-ab5e-379bdc472fed.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/the-most-important-election-is-here/article_894edd45-256b-546f-ab5e-379bdc472fed.html
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In the race for Lewis and Clark County Attorney, it’s an assistant attorney general who has spent more than two decades as a prosecutor versus a deputy county attorney with broad work experience in the U.S. and abroad.
A criminal prosecutor for 22 years, Dan Guzynski came to Montana for law school in 1997 and later worked as a deputy county attorney in Cascade and Flathead counties. He joined the Montana Department of Justice in 2007 and now manages a team of 13 criminal prosecutors and support staff as chief of the DOJ’s Prosecution Services Bureau.
Kevin Downs is a Helena native who worked with people with disabilities in Ireland and orphaned teens in Honduras before becoming an attorney in 2014. He has worked for the Montana Attorney General’s Office, the Montana Supreme Court, the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington state and New York, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in New York during his law career, and he spent the last two years as a deputy county attorney for the Lewis and Clark County Attorney’s Office.
The successful candidate in the Nov. 8 election will replace County Attorney Leo Gallagher, who is retiring after 22 years in the position.
In his role with the Prosecution Services Bureau, Guzynski said he helps train and mentor county attorneys across the state. He said he has prosecuted criminal cases alongside county attorneys in most Montana counties, advocating on behalf of victims of violent crimes and sexual assaults.
After losing the first child sexual assault case he prosecuted as a new attorney in Flathead County in 2001, he said, he realized he could have done better and set out to learn everything he could about sex assault prosecution. He said he can’t think of a sex assault case he has lost since then, and other prosecutors are now asking him to train them.
“You actually learn from your failures,” he said. “The one case I lost was probably the most transformative.”
As a member of the Montana Commission on Sentencing, Guzynski worked to strengthen the state law that requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for most offenders convicted of sex crimes against children who are 12 or younger.
“If we’re going to be good at one thing and one thing only, we have to protect our children,” he said.
Guzynski said he would make some changes to the county attorney's office if elected.
He said the office needs more structure, and he would add a chief deputy and probably some lower supervisory roles to the organizational chart. With more supervision comes more mentoring, he said, and it’s important to make these changes as the community grows and the office gets busier.
Guzynski also said he wants to continue to modernize the office through technology and address high turnover to help the staff complete their important and technical work.
“You’re taking away somebody’s liberty. You better be right when you do that,” he said. “You better follow best practices, you better follow every rule and procedure, and if you get it wrong the stakes are so high because an innocent person may be found guilty or a guilty person may go free.”
While some state laws demand a presumption of probation or deferred imposition for certain crimes, he said it’s important for prosecutors to be transparent during plea negotiations.
“It’s never appropriate to plead a case just because you didn’t want to do the work,” he said. “You need to be able to move forward and get justice for the victims.”
Guzynski noted that he has worked for both Republican and Democratic attorneys general during his time with the Department of Justice, adding “we don’t get involved in politics.”
“The reason I want to do this job is because this is my home,” he said. “Helena, Montana, there’s no other place like this on the planet. I’m in Helena, Montana because I want to be here.”
Downs emphasized that the county attorney’s office does more than prosecuting those suspected of committing crimes.
The office also handles civil issues and advises county commissioners and department heads on legal issues, he said. It is involved in youth court, drug court and family court proceedings, he said. It works with victims and witnesses and handles dependency and neglect cases and involuntary commitments of those who are believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
“This office does a lot, and what I bring to that is 20 years I’ve been doing public service,” he said. “I haven’t just been doing prosecution. … I’ve done a whole smattering of things that have impacted this community, communities and jurisdictions across this country and also other parts of the world.”
Downs said the county attorney’s office also works with local organizations such as AWARE, the YWCA and the Court Appointed Special Advocates, and he would like to see it doing more educational outreach.
“Our office has a huge opportunity to be proactive in the community, and that’s outreach and speaking with groups and schools,” he said.
While Gallagher has taken an active role as a prosecutor in the courtroom, Downs said he would focus more on management and oversight if elected.
“I don’t foresee that I’m going to take on that many cases because I think some of this oversight is really important,” he said.
Downs described the county attorney’s office as a “flat organization” that needs more hierarchy, adding that he would like to appoint criminal and civil division chiefs to serve as point people and provide consistency when issues arise.
He said the office recently started using an online case management system, and it is important to continue modernizing the office to help ensure staff and attorneys are making the most of their time.
“There’s more work than we have staff,” he said.
He said staff turnover is a natural part of any profession, but “what I hope is that our office is a place that people want to come and work.”
Downs acknowledged that many cases result in plea deals but noted that there is a lot of thought that goes into them. The defendant’s criminal history, the victim's wishes, the community’s safety and the resources needed to go to trial are among the factors taken into consideration when plea deals are made, he said.
“When there’s a plea agreement in place, rest assured that whoever is handling that case is putting a lot of thought into why an offer is made the way it is,” he said.
While incarceration may be necessary for violent or repeat offenders, Downs said, it’s not the best option in every case.
“Putting a person in custody doesn’t necessarily make the solution better, because you’re putting someone in custody who could otherwise be on probation and working or paying back restitution or bail,” he said. “If they’re sitting in jail, it’s hard to do that.”
Lebanese President Michel Aoun announced that Lebanon accepts the final U.S. proposal for a border, marking the first border agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the deal still preserves all of Israel's security interests. Avi Pazner, former Israeli Ambassador to France & Italy, is in the studio for more insight.
Leo Gallagher
Lewis and Clark County Attorney Gallagher offers advice as retirement nears
Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher said Thursday that the county suffers because of under-funding from the state, and urged another revenue source to be found.
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2022-10-11T18:41:52Z
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helenair.com
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County attorney candidates tout different types of experience
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/elections/county-attorney-candidates-tout-different-types-of-experience/article_14bec279-ff87-57a8-8ec0-dcbd73a4ffc3.html
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https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/elections/county-attorney-candidates-tout-different-types-of-experience/article_14bec279-ff87-57a8-8ec0-dcbd73a4ffc3.html
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Randy Wildish gets a haircut from Lauren Montoya on Tuesday at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.
Every Tuesday morning since November 2021, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church has opened its facilities to provide free showers for Helena's unsheltered community.
To celebrate the first year of the Shower to Empower program -- which is co-hosted by United Way of the Lewis and Clark Area and Good Samaritan Ministries -- free haircuts, bike repairs and lunch were also provided at the church on Tuesday.
Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins, Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Andy Hunthausen, state Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell and other local officials came to the celebration to participate in a conversation about housing.
“If you know what I know, this is a needed program, and we need to roll up our sleeves and get involved…" Collins said. "Let’s get together and see how we can help our unsheltered neighbors.”
The discussion touched on topics including American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, the Montana Emergency Rental Assistance (MERA) program for temporary housing, bathroom access near downtown, lighting on Logan Street, the “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) pro-housing movement, felonies as a barrier to housing, internet access to apply for assisted housing and to get on waitlists, the length of the housing process for unsheltered people, the high cost of housing in Helena, parking and more.
“I think one thing we’ve figured out while we are here is that the issues are vast, complicated and complex,” said Mark Nay, the street outreach coordinator for Good Samaritan. “They’re not going to be fixed overnight. I think what is really important to this community as we look for solutions is that number one sustainable solutions. I think just as important as sustainable solutions is that we have efficient solutions, and there’s a lot of red tape in the processes that we have. They’re complicated. They delay things. Folks in crisis or living on the street… have to sit on a waitlist for four months to get an ID. That’s inefficient.”
Mark Nay, street outreach coordinator for Good Samaritan, speaks during a community conversation about homelessness at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on Tuesday.
The conversation highlighted the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all unsheltered people, but they are all worthy of a solution.
Jeff Buscher, a community impact coordinator for United Way, knows many of the Shower to Empower participants by name. He explained what he calls the “Continuum of Care” (COC).
“Each week on Wednesdays, we have our conference call over Zoom where all these agencies get together, and we actually pull a list of unsheltered folks,” said Buscher. “We go through the list and check who is working with this person and that person, have they been in the hospital, are they any closer to gaining housing. We have those conversations. That’s the 10,000 foot view of talking about these people.”
Buscher brought up the “Point In Time Survey” that United Way conducts each January, which is a population count of Helena’s unsheltered population. This involves counting people at God’s Love homeless shelter and on the street. Last year, Buscher stated that five to 10 people were counted outside in the cold, but most had found shelter.
Buscher explained that God’s Love has a men's shelter for about 30, a women’s shelter for seven, and room to host seven families. On very cold nights, they open up the dining room floor to take in about 20 more people. God’s Love is a privately funded shelter, and it’s the only shelter option in Helena for unsheltered people currently.
“Last year during the Point In Time Survey, I spent a good three or four hours (at God’s Love),” said Buscher. “Frankly, I had some great conversations with some of our unsheltered neighbors, and I just came away with the sense that as a community, we could do better than that for people.”
Buscher pointed out that the community conversation around housing would hopefully spark more community involvement and more public funding instead of the main responsibility being put onto non-profits to fundraise to support these programs.
United Way has sorted its housing goals and policies from the last five pages of its 2018 “Tri-County Housing Needs Assessment Survey” into categories and is working on creating subcommittees to address the need for changed policies, finding housing, speeding up the housing process and more.
“That’s our role as United Way to hold the conversations, to invite people to the table who can make a difference,” said Buscher. ”…You got to start somewhere.”
Good Samaritan Ministries
Jeff Buscher
Wilmot Collins
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2022-10-12T00:21:37Z
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helenair.com
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Shower to Empower: Celebrating a year of helping Helena's unsheltered neighbors
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https://helenair.com/news/local/shower-to-empower-celebrating-a-year-of-helping-helenas-unsheltered-neighbors/article_2e89f839-3c61-50c1-8253-302fc38e758d.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/shower-to-empower-celebrating-a-year-of-helping-helenas-unsheltered-neighbors/article_2e89f839-3c61-50c1-8253-302fc38e758d.html
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Helena-based Indian Law Resource Center to get $20M to advance racial equality
The Indian Law Resource Center
Indian Law Resource Center
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation said Tuesday that the Helena-based Indian Law Resource Center will receive $20 million to expand and strengthen Indigenous land ownership rights in Mexico and Central and South America.
Kellogg officials said Tuesday that it is part of $80 million being awarded to five projects as part of its Racial Equity 2030 Challenge to help with ideas for change in systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities.
“An indigenous-led project of this scale is a true landmark,” Robert T. Coulter, executive director and founder of the Indian Law Resource Center, said in an email.
He said the work over the next eight years will demonstrate what is already known -- that the more Indigenous peoples plan and execute their own initiatives, the more positive the outcomes for the community and the environment.
The Indian Law Resource Center, along with partner organizations the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon and the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, will address a root cause of the poverty and inequity suffered by thousands of indigenous communities from Mexico to Argentina.
That includes the lack of legally secure land rights and ownership, which is the most important need expressed almost universally by Indigenous leaders and crucial to sustaining indigenous cultures.
“The denial of Indigenous land rights is the denial of culture, language, tradition and community,” said Carla Thompson Payton, vice president for program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
She said the Indian Law Resource Center is an Indigenous-led effort that’s helping to restore more than 500 years of colonialism and oppression.
The Indigenous Lands Initiative will help Indigenous communities formalize their land ownership and develop a network of lawyers and other experts to assist communities, without charge, to overcome legal and technical barriers to secure their land rights.
In addition to bringing more than a million acres into Indigenous ownership over the next eight years, the initiative will establish a permanent new organization that works to expand successes in indigenous land titling across geographies and to change discriminatory systems and practices concerning indigenous land ownership and management.
“Legal, documented land ownership will be transformative for Indigenous communities,” said Leonardo Crippa, a senior attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center and the director of the project. “It will enable a community to protect itself against land theft and invasions by using the courts and other government interventions. Secure land rights will create a level of legal, economic, and political security never previously realized — an opportunity for communities to prosper and improve lives.”
“The land is our mother, our market, our medicine. It is the only inheritance that our ancestors have given us,” says Miguel Guimaraes, vice president of AIDESEP and an Indigenous Shipibo leader from the Flor de Ucayali community in Peru. “That’s why we are always willing to defend it, even with our lives.”
The Racial Equity 2030 Challenge was announced in 2020, 90 years after the founding of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in anticipation of the Foundation’s 100th anniversary in 2030, and is aimed at helping to find solutions to tackle social, economic, political or institutional inequities to improve the lives of children, families and communities worldwide. The challenge received 1,453 submissions from 72 countries.
All finalists moved through a process of multiple levels of review, feedback and diligence involving peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts from around the world.
Founded in 1978, the Indian Law Resource Center is a nonprofit law and advocacy organization that provides legal assistance to Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
More information about the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge, the awardees and the finalists can be found at www.wkkf.org/re2030.
Interethnic Association For The Development Of The Peruvian Amazon
Coordination Of The Indigenous Organizations Of The Brazilian Amazon
Robert T. Coulter
Miguel Guimaraes
Racial Equity 2030 Challenge
Interethnic Association
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2022-10-12T02:04:15Z
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helenair.com
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Helena-based Indian Law Resource Center to get $20M to advance racial equality
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-based-indian-law-resource-center-to-get-20m-to-advance-racial-equality/article_605f9463-de8c-5b0b-a326-e359cbb7a10e.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-based-indian-law-resource-center-to-get-20m-to-advance-racial-equality/article_605f9463-de8c-5b0b-a326-e359cbb7a10e.html
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Mexican citizen arrested after illegally crossing Canadian border, agents say
U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Sweetgrass Station said Tuesday they arrested a Mexican citizen who illegally crossed into the United States from Canada on foot near the duty-free store in Sweetgrass.
They said the arrest occurred Monday after the person was interviewed and determined to be illegally in the country. He was taken to the Sweetgrass Station for further processing. Agents said they were notified about the person entering the United States.
“Havre Sector agents once again prove that they are the best first line of defense in gaining operational advantage against all northern border threats. I am proud of the work they do, and the vigilance displayed on a daily basis,” Acting Chief Patrol Agent Richard Fortunato said in an email.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection welcomes help from the community. People can report suspicious activity to Border Patrol by calling 800 BE ALERT or (800) 232-5378. All calls will remain anonymous.
Havre Sector
Duty-free Store
Richard Fortunato
Richard Fortunato Said In An Email. U.s. Customs And Border Protection
Montana officials point to southern border as driving fentanyl crisis
Col. Steve Lavin, head of the Montana Highway Patrol, said in a press release troopers had seized 12,079 fentanyl pills as of March 15, up from about 3,800 last year.
ACLU asks Montana Supreme Court for clarity on ICE detainers
Lawyers for a man who was held in Lincoln County on a request from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2018 told the state Supreme Court on …
House gives initial OK to sanctuary city ban
"I ask you to think how you would feel as a non-white person in an atmosphere that encourages this rhetoric," Marler said.
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2022-10-12T02:04:27Z
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helenair.com
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Mexican citizen arrested after illegally crossing Canadian border, agents say
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/mexican-citizen-arrested-after-illegally-crossing-canadian-border-agents-say/article_e2a8658a-2952-52a3-aca9-89914401faa9.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/mexican-citizen-arrested-after-illegally-crossing-canadian-border-agents-say/article_e2a8658a-2952-52a3-aca9-89914401faa9.html
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Health Matters: What you can expect when diagnosed with breast cancer
ELIZABETH BIGGER and PAM SASSER
Dr. Elizabeth Bigger
Pam Sasser
October isn’t just for trick-or-treating, or dressing up in fun costumes. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Coffee shops are selling the latest pink drink. Athletes are donning their pink jerseys and shoelaces. Celebrities begin sharing their personal stories about developing breast cancer and some turn to educating the public of the importance of early detection and may even include what treatments they experienced.
Not only will 1 in 8 women be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, nearly 2,500 men will also be diagnosed with breast cancer each year. These are shocking numbers, but there is hope as current research and treatments are becoming more sophisticated, person dependent and survival rates overall are increasing exponentially.
Most clinics and/or hospitals offer highly sophisticated technology, such as 3D mammograms, to detect breast cancers at an early stage allowing for curable treatments. But what happens if something is detected on your screening mammogram? For most individuals, a breast biopsy is conducted. If cancer is confirmed, the next typical step on a breast cancer journey is surgery.
Surgery entails either a lumpectomy to remove the tumor plus surrounding tissue to ensure clear margins, or a mastectomy to remove the entire breast.
Some people will only need surgery alone, however, others might need additional therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy to treat the cancerous tissue. For the most common type of breast cancer -- estrogen/progesterone positive breast cancer -- hormonal therapy will likely be recommended as well.
Chemotherapy is medication given intravenously and is used to treat any cancer cells that have not been removed with surgery alone, or may have traveled outside of the breast into other areas of the body. Chemotherapy medications differ based on the type of breast cancer a person has (did you know there are 15 different types of breast cancer?) Not everyone with a breast cancer diagnosis will need chemotherapy and there are tests available to look at an individual’s tumor type to see if she/he would specifically benefit from chemotherapy or not.
Radiation therapy is usually used in conjunction with a lumpectomy to target breast tissue that wasn’t removed via surgery. Radiation therapy targets the entire chest wall of the effected breast and sometimes includes additional areas such as the armpit. The treatment is usually Monday through Friday and lasts about 15 minutes per treatment. Some people only need a short course of radiation such as five treatments, and others will need a longer treatment plan that can last up to 30 treatments.
Hormonal therapy is a daily pill that one takes for five to 10 years and is intended to block estrogen from being made and not allowing it to bind to any free floating cancer cells. The goal of this type of therapy is to prevent a recurrence or a whole new breast cancer from developing.
If breast cancer is caught early, the cure rate is greater than 98%. Please talk with your provider if you have any questions about your breast health.
Dr. Elizabeth Bigger is a board-certified medical oncologist and hematologist with over 15 years of experience caring for patients with a cancer diagnosis. She joined the St. Peter’s Health Cancer Care Services team in February of this year. Pam Sasser is a registered nurse also at St. Peter’s and has been the breast and gynecological nurse navigator for over 10 years. She is a Navy veteran and a Carroll College graduate.
Elizabeth Bigger
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2022-10-12T13:08:13Z
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helenair.com
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Health Matters: What you can expect when diagnosed with breast cancer
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https://helenair.com/news/local/health-matters-what-you-can-expect-when-diagnosed-with-breast-cancer/article_2c89c76b-ce19-57c7-95b5-d9d56e9c754f.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/health-matters-what-you-can-expect-when-diagnosed-with-breast-cancer/article_2c89c76b-ce19-57c7-95b5-d9d56e9c754f.html
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I am writing today in support of Dan Guzynski for Lewis and Clark County Attorney and Dave Galt for the Montana State Legislature SD 41. For the past 38 years I have devoted my law enforcement career to serving and protecting the citizens of Lewis and Clark County. There are few things more important to me than the security and safety of the people I serve, and this is the reason I have chosen to publicly support both Dan Guzynski and Dave Galt.
It is vital that Lewis and Clark County have an experienced county attorney who knows how to successfully prosecute the toughest criminal cases while having the ability to mentor and guide the prosecutors that serve in his office. The County Attorney’s Office works in tandem with the law enforcement to hold criminal offenders accountable for their crimes, and civilly prosecutes child abuse and neglect cases, youth court cases and civil mental commitments. In short, the county attorney is responsible for ensuring that violent criminals and sexual predators go to prison, that children who reside in the community are safeguarded from abuse and neglect, and that individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis are compassionately and civilly committed. The county attorney position demands someone who has demonstrated the ability to successfully try complex cases and effectively lead a prosecution team. Dan is the only candidate in this race who possesses these essential qualifications.
Dan has been a prosecutor for 22 years, serving seven years as a deputy county attorney. In 2007, Dan was hired by former Attorney General Mike McGrath as an Assistant Attorney General Prosecution Services Bureau (PSB). PSB is an elite prosecution team whose mission is to assist county attorneys with complex prosecution, along with training and teaching prosecutors.
In 2018 Dan was promoted by former Attorney General Tim Fox to be the chief prosecutor for the state of Montana. Dan has tried 15 homicide cases and numerous child sexual assault cases with a tremendous amount of success. Dan was the lead prosecutor in State v. Lloyd Barrus who was convicted of killing Deputy Mason Moore. In short, over the last two decades, Dan has proved himself to be one of Montana’s most skilled prosecutors successfully trying and obtaining convictions in Montana’s most important cases. Dan has a demonstrated record of advocating on behalf of victims and working collaboratively with law enforcement. Additionally, Dan has shown himself to be an effective administrator who currently leads 10 prosecutors.
I have approached my decision to endorse in the county attorney race here the same way I would approach the process to actually hire a county attorney. Although Dan’s opponent is a nice man from a nice family, this is a job that requires much more, as literal lives will be in the balance. Hands down, Dan Guzynski overwhelmingly has the qualifications, experience to be your next Lewis and Clark County Attorney.
Just as it is vital to have an experienced county attorney at the local level, it is critical our state legislators understand the complex criminal justice system in order to maintain the public safety safeguards all of our citizens expect and deserve. My first introduction to Dave Galt’s experience and knowledge of the legislative process was when he started working as the contract lobbyist for the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. I was impressed with Dave’s diligence and thoughtfulness as he tackled each issue and bill impacting local law enforcement and public safety and was impressed with his compassion for people and his understanding that the main tenant of local law enforcement is to keep the peace and help people. I have always approached issues from that perspective myself and it was heartening to know and work with a lobbyist with similar values. Now more than ever, we need legislators who are willing and able to work with diverse stakeholders, associations, individuals, and other legislators to ensure the legislative process, the state budget, and policy decisions are about the best outcomes for Montana’s citizens.
I hope you will join me on Nov. 8 and vote for Dan Guzynski to be your next county attorney and Dave Galt to represent you in SD 41.
Leo Dutton is sheriff of Lewis and Clark County.
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2022-10-12T16:18:50Z
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helenair.com
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Leo Dutton: Support Dan Guzynski and Dave Galt
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/leo-dutton-support-dan-guzynski-and-dave-galt/article_bef1b124-d774-5855-b3df-dc876fa6712b.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/leo-dutton-support-dan-guzynski-and-dave-galt/article_bef1b124-d774-5855-b3df-dc876fa6712b.html
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Gary is running as an independent for Montana’s eastern congressional district because neither political party is getting it right. Certainly our incumbent is off the rails, an embarrassment. The answers to the many issues facing Montana are all across the spectrum and require the experience, skill, thoughtfulness and open-minded approach to problem solving that Gary is well-known for. His decades of service to Montana through several administrations in a wide variety of roles and in volunteer capacity, in addition to his success in the private sector, has uniquely prepared him for this role. To this point, Gary’s preferred way of serving has been quietly, generally behind-the-scenes, and he’s been very effective.
But now we have the opportunity to send this honorable and effective leader to represent Montana in a divided Congress. Thank you, Gary, for stepping up when we need you.
It’s about time we get about solving the difficult issues facing our state and nation. It’s about time for Gary Buchanan.
Bruce Whittenberg,
Bruce Whittenberg
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2022-10-12T16:19:09Z
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helenair.com
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It's about time
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/its-about-time/article_c9ce9217-4d1d-56a0-abf4-2202b0aaeb01.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/its-about-time/article_c9ce9217-4d1d-56a0-abf4-2202b0aaeb01.html
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Mary Ann Dunwell will fight for our rights and freedoms
In the state Senate, we need someone who will advocate for the interests of Helena voters. We need someone who will fight for our rights and freedoms. I believe that Mary Ann Dunwell is the perfect person for that job. As a former state employee, a legislator, and a mother, Mary Ann has shown us that she's willing to work hard to serve our community. She knows the importance of looking out for working-class families in Helena, and we can count on her to do what needs to be done to make life better for our friends and neighbors.
In the Legislature, Mary Ann has fought for affordable housing and fair tax policies that will allow Helena families to thrive. She's worked towards building up our local workforce to bring more good paying jobs to the people of Helena. She also fought against special interest groups that want to limit our access to public lands.
We deserve representation that serves the interests of Montanans instead of playing political games, and Mary Ann has shown that’s exactly where her priorities lie. We need to vote for Mary Ann Dunwell if we want to keep that type of representation.
Michelle Wheat,
Michelle Wheat
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2022-10-12T16:19:27Z
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helenair.com
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Mary Ann Dunwell will fight for our rights and freedoms
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/mary-ann-dunwell-will-fight-for-our-rights-and-freedoms/article_851e1db8-1572-524d-b60a-c73114b6bb75.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/mary-ann-dunwell-will-fight-for-our-rights-and-freedoms/article_851e1db8-1572-524d-b60a-c73114b6bb75.html
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Matt Olson has character and integrity
Our state and country are facing many challenges right now and it’s important to elect someone with character and integrity and someone who understands the needs of our community. Matt Olson is that person.
I have known Matt for many years and I know him to be a hardworking, compassionate person. He truly cares about the community of Helena and will do a great job representing Senate District 42. Matt and his wife Chiko have spent the last 28 years serving our community as the owners of the local Dairy Queen. I had the privilege of having Matt as my boss and witnessed firsthand how he treated his customers and employees with fairness, worked hard every day to make sure Dairy Queen was the best it could be for the community and never gave up when challenges arose. I am excited to see him run for the state Legislature and I know that you can count on him to vote for the best interests of his constituents.
Join me in supporting Matt Olson for Senate District 42 on Nov. 8.
Marissa Stockton,
Marissa Stockton
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2022-10-12T16:19:33Z
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helenair.com
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Matt Olson has character and integrity
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/matt-olson-has-character-and-integrity/article_a12f2ec6-e833-5103-9506-cab814f82f12.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/matt-olson-has-character-and-integrity/article_a12f2ec6-e833-5103-9506-cab814f82f12.html
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Thomas Culpon
A Helena Valley man has been charged with eight felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent, one felony count of sexual abuse of children and one felony count of sexual assault.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested Thomas Earl Culpon, 23, at his home on the 600 block of Star Road Oct. 5 just after 10 p.m.
Deputies responded to the St. Peter's Health emergency room Oct. 4 for a report of sexual abuse of a child. Child Protective Services was also dispatched.
The child reported being sexually abused by Culpon on Oct. 3 and on multiple other occasions since October 2021, beginning when the child was a young teen.
The child's mother said the most recent incident involved a "physical altercation" and "a knife was involved, but there was no serious injury," the arresting deputy's affidavit states.
The child stayed in the hospital overnight and underwent a forensic interview Oct. 5.
A medical exam and the child's "statements to the nurse were consistent with the forensic interview," the affidavit states.
Culpon was arrested and booked into Lewis and Clark County Detention Center. He has been charged with with 10 felony counts in total.
Sex And The Law
Thomas Earl Culpon
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2022-10-13T00:04:57Z
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helenair.com
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Helena Valley man arrested on suspicion of child rape
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-valley-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-child-rape/article_4e23f519-a4cc-5fa2-8208-8c291eb15277.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-valley-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-child-rape/article_4e23f519-a4cc-5fa2-8208-8c291eb15277.html
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An unofficial trail system on private land at the base of Mount Helena is now closed to anyone who does not sign a petition supporting the landowner’s plan to build a subdivision on the property or obtain written permission to enter.
The developer recently installed eight signs on the property noting that trespassing is prohibited without prior registration. To register, trail users are required to add their name to an online petition supporting the subdivision project or obtain written permission by emailing info@sussexconstruction.com.
However, some community members were dismayed to learn about the registration requirements for nearby trails.
Another nearby resident, Joanne Sherwood, said she does not think it's appropriate to ask people to sign a petition in order to use the trails.
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2022-10-13T00:05:09Z
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helenair.com
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Helena developer closes private trails to subdivision opponents lacking written permission
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-developer-closes-private-trails-to-subdivision-opponents-lacking-written-permission/article_b44ab161-247e-5f10-85b2-29fada43ab8e.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-developer-closes-private-trails-to-subdivision-opponents-lacking-written-permission/article_b44ab161-247e-5f10-85b2-29fada43ab8e.html
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Windermere real estate agents Jessica Moore and Cherie Farnsworth tour a Habitat for Humanity house on Wednesday that was just listed for sale in the Mountain View Meadows neighborhood.
As the median home price in the area nears half a million dollars, one Helena home will be sold for a flat $240,000 via a lottery drawing among eligible buyers.
The two-story, 1,440-square-foot home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Helena Area Habitat for Humanity built the home in 2019 at 2889 Stacia Ave. in Helena’s Mountain View Meadows for a local family in need of affordable housing.
The original homeowner, who is now moving, owns the structure and leases the ground from a statewide land trust called Trust Montana.
About 20 local Habitat For Humanity homes were built on land that was deeded to Trust Montana to help ensure the properties remain permanently affordable to future generations of homebuyers.
The two-story, 1,440-square-foot home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Helena Area Habitat for Humanity built the home in 2019 at 2889 Stacia Ave.
“This is the first land trust resale in the Helena area,” Jacob Kuntz, executive director of Helena Area Habitat for Humanity, said in a press release. “Through a land trust, the homebuyer receives a discount on the price of the home in exchange for agreeing to restrict the resale price of the home in the future. In this case, the equity of the homebuyer may gain in the home is capped at 1.5% (per year) of the $240,000 sale price.”
The home is being co-listed for sale by Mary Ahmann Hibbard and Jared Engels of Helena Home Team. To be eligible for the lottery drawing, prospective buyers must make less than 80% of the area median income (which comes out to $78,650 a year for a family of four), submit a lender’s pre-approval letter, and not currently own any other real estate.
The home will be available for private showings Oct. 13-23. All offers must be submitted before Oct. 24, and the lottery drawing will be Oct. 25.
Based on comparable homes in the area, the press release says the home is valued at $365,000. Offers above $240,000 will not be accepted.
“In September, the median cost for the average home in the Helena area was $485,335,” said Hibbard. “Having grown up in Montana, I am fortunate to be able to still afford to live, work, and play here. This is not the case for many other Helena residents who are simply priced out of the current market conditions.”
Jessica Moore of Windermere Real Estate in Helena said she has already heard from seven or eight people interested in the property, and she will be reaching out to more who were priced out of homeownership in the past.
“The minute it hit the market my phone started blowing up,” she said.
For more information and photos of the home, visit www.helenahometeam.com/property/2889-stacia-ave.
Helena Area Habitat For Humanity
Helena Habitat
Wells Fargo workers, Habitat for Humanity put finishing touches on Helena homes
A team of volunteers gathered in a Westside Helena neighborhood last week to put the finishing touches on two houses that will give local families a place to call home.
Helena Area Habitat for Humanity organizing aid for Red Lodge
Helena Area Habitat for Humanity officials said Thursday they are organizing efforts to send volunteers to Red Lodge to help with general clea…
AmeriCorps team completes bevy of Helena-area service projects
After nearly two months in the Helena area, a National Civilian Community Corps team moved on Sunday, leaving behind spruced up community gardens, pristine campsites and even some affordable homes.
Helena Habitat for Humanity presses Gianforte on housing solutions
In a full-page ad placed in the May 13 edition of Helena’s Independent Record, the Helena branch of Habitat for Humanity pressed Gov. Greg Gia…
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2022-10-13T00:05:15Z
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helenair.com
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Helena Habitat home to be resold for $240K via lottery drawing
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-habitat-home-to-be-resold-for-240k-via-lottery-drawing/article_b448b947-b12e-5161-a3d6-12b773d6b7ff.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-habitat-home-to-be-resold-for-240k-via-lottery-drawing/article_b448b947-b12e-5161-a3d6-12b773d6b7ff.html
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Tester to hold in-person town hall meeting Friday at Helena College
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester will hold an in-person, public town hall meeting at 2 p.m. Friday in the student center at Helena College, 1115 N. Roberts St.
An unofficial trail system on private land at the base of Mount Helena is now closed to anyone who does not support the Westside Woods subdivision project.
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2022-10-13T00:05:28Z
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helenair.com
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Tester to hold in-person town hall meeting Friday at Helena College
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https://helenair.com/news/local/tester-to-hold-in-person-town-hall-meeting-friday-at-helena-college/article_417a32ec-a904-5f12-b754-76388046dd53.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/tester-to-hold-in-person-town-hall-meeting-friday-at-helena-college/article_417a32ec-a904-5f12-b754-76388046dd53.html
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A screenshot from a video sent to Gov. Greg Gianforte from attorneys from Reep, Bell & Jasper representing Lake County, renewing their case for funding through the state to help fill a financial hole created by a law enforcement system unique to the Flathead Reservation.
Photo courtesy of Reep, Bell & Jasper
A lawsuit filed against Lake County and the Montana governor will proceed as a class action case on behalf of all current and future inmates of the county jail, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
The lawsuit aimed at improving conditions at the jail began gathering steam earlier this year, when 38 inmates saw their complaints — hanging largely on dangerous and unsanitary conditions, lack of health care access and refusal of religious practices — consolidated into one case. The case now bears 54 individual plaintiffs, several of them members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, whose reservation overlaps with much of Lake County.
Constance Van Kley, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said the class certification ensures any benefit awarded in the lawsuit will benefit all inmates.
"If the plaintiffs succeed on their constitutional claims, all inmates will be entitled to constitutionally adequate conditions of confinement," Van Kley said in an email Wednesday. "And if the plaintiffs succeed but the conditions at the Lake County Jail do not improve, all inmates will be able to enforce the judgment."
Lake County meanwhile is playing both offense and defense in the legal arena over the conditions at its jail.
Just because the inmates' case took hold, Lake County made its own public plea to the state for funding toward a 60-year-old arrangement called Public Law 280, in which tribal police coordinate with state and local law enforcement in their jurisdiction, rather than federal law enforcement.
The state, the county argues, has not paid into the resources for that arrangement, leaving Lake County on the hook for expenses outside its taxable population, leaving the county on a $4 million hook and pushing conditions at the jail to what local officials described as a "breaking point."
In that dispute, Lake County first sought to negotiate funding from the state. After that approach met an impasse, the county sued the state in July in District Court to recover the costs going back to 1963, when Public Law 280 was enacted.
In the case at hand, Lake County also filed a crossclaim against Gov. Greg Gianforte, arguing he is responsible for the ultimate funding and administration of the costs associated with Public Law 280.
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy noted Tuesday the defense argument that many of the inmates who had filed complaints were no longer housed at the jail, and that some of those complaints had been varied. However, the judge noted the conditions at the jail are suffered equally by those currently incarcerated there, as well as those who will be housed there in the future.
"Each inmate might have a slightly different concern on a different day, but they are all subject to living in the same conditions and suffering the same harms," Molloy wrote.
Constance Van Kley
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2022-10-13T00:05:34Z
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helenair.com
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Federal judge certifies class action lawsuit over Lake County jail conditions
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/federal-judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-over-lake-county-jail-conditions/article_5179bb2c-ce4f-51ac-9e7e-dea10a56af42.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/federal-judge-certifies-class-action-lawsuit-over-lake-county-jail-conditions/article_5179bb2c-ce4f-51ac-9e7e-dea10a56af42.html
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Patience Breann Davis
Patience Breann Davis was charged with two felony counts of accountability for attempted deliberate homicide, two felony counts of accountability for assault with a weapon, and one felony count of theft.
On Aug. 14, an officer investigated a report of a stolen vehicle after its owner reported it disappearing that same day from a parking lot on the 500 block of Euclid Avenue. Four days later, the stolen vehicle was seen on Helena Housing Authority surveillance cameras circling around Stuart Homes just before two men were injured in a shooting there.
The suspected shooter, 22-year-old Jory Jerae Songer of Helena, was later arrested and charged with two felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide and two felony counts of assault with a weapon.
After the shooting, investigators believe Songer was picked up by the stolen vehicle driven by Davis. The vehicle was discovered the next day in Helena’s Yesco parking lot with a man and his dog sleeping inside.
On Sept. 13, Davis was arrested on outstanding warrants unrelated to the shooting. During an interview with authorities, she admitted to stealing the vehicle on Aug. 14. She originally denied she was near Stuart Homes during the shooting, but then she admitted to driving the vehicle around the complex about the time the shooting occurred.
She told authorities she didn’t expect to see the shooting suspect again that night, but the suspect did get back into the vehicle after the shooting. Davis denied knowing anything about the shooting.
Davis is also being charged with felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia for crimes allegedly committed in March.
On March 15, officers were dispatched to Euclid Avenue for a report of gas theft. The driver of the vehicle was Davis, according to the affidavit filed on Sept. 26 in Justice Court of Helena.
Two black bags were found in the vehicle, and on March 22, an officer was granted a search warrant for the bags.
Inside the bags were used syringes, small baggies containing a white crystalline substance, a clear container with a white crystalline substance, pictures of Davis, and debit cards in someone else’s name, said officials.
On April 12, the small baggies with the white substance tested presumptive positive for meth, and the evidence was forwarded to the Montana Crime Lab for further testing. A chemical analysis report indicated that one of the bags contained meth, according to court reports.
As of Aug. 11, the investigation was listed as ongoing.
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2022-10-13T02:14:00Z
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helenair.com
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Helena woman accused of helping shooting suspect
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-woman-accused-of-helping-shooting-suspect/article_fccaaf87-ee49-592a-a3c7-6b72114c89ce.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/helena-woman-accused-of-helping-shooting-suspect/article_fccaaf87-ee49-592a-a3c7-6b72114c89ce.html
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Last week, Gov. Gianforte's Housing Task Force released its draft recommendations to address housing in Montana. These include forcing every community to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on every residential lot, removing local restrictions on how small lots can be, and stopping local governments from requiring parking spaces for new development. These recommendations to remove local regulations are not surprising because the task force began with the assumption that local regulations are the primary cause of the housing crisis in Montana.
The state has spent billions in marketing to convince people to move here to work, live and play. Now they are here, and we can no longer afford to live in our own communities. Housing advocates, local governments, planners and other experienced public and private sector organizations have been working to solve the housing problem for years and find solutions to ensure that people can find a home they can afford. The complex intersection of virtual employment, the high price and scarcity of building materials, increasing land prices, labor shortages and chronic lack of state support for housing programs require multi-layered solutions and public-private partnerships. In some communities, water and sewer services are inadequate for the new growth. In others, land prices make housing development too expensive. And in yet another, public opposition to a new development becomes insurmountable. There is no one solution.
Our state's outdated land use and planning laws, which only allow review and public participation after an application is submitted, make the development approval process long, expensive and uncertain. These antiquated laws and processes stand in the way of increasing our housing supply. Fortunately, the 2021 Legislature decided to create a Land Use Interim Working Group to officially look at an overhaul of land use and laws in Montana. This committee includes representatives from the realtors, builders, land surveyors, professional planners, clerks and recorders, and engineering companies, in addition to the Montana League of Cities and Towns, the Montana Association of Counties, and a bipartisan group of legislators. This working group has been meeting regularly since 2021 to carefully craft a proposal that helps developers with faster, less expensive review processes to help make projects pencil out.
Modernizing land use and planning laws are a far cry from the one-size-fits-all zoning reforms that the Housing Task Force recommends. Their draft report calls for removing parking requirements in every community and allowing a second dwelling unit on every residential lot in Montana. These aren't Montana solutions. These state-down requirements are ideas straight from California. The state shouldn't dictate such zoning reforms – they should be based on local circumstances, needs and priorities. Removing parking requirements for communities without bus systems can result in less mobility and access. Additional dwelling units without local permitting will lead to inadequate sewer treatment in some communities. Our local elected officials know what their communities need and the solutions to build more housing in their communities.
Montana's cities and towns want to work with the Legislature to demonstrate what they need locally to create more housing. We support local decision-making on what zoning reforms work best in each of our communities. We need more investment to expand our infrastructure capacity to serve increasing populations with drinking water, sewer treatment, and road construction and maintenance. We need to increase the state's commitment to financing the construction of housing people can afford. We need to modernize our state planning laws. These solutions are complicated, long term, and require large-scale investments, but this is the hard work necessary to truly address Montana's housing crisis.
Kelly Lynch is the executive director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, a nonpartisan, nonprofit association supporting 127 Montana communities to provide resources and advocacy to build and maintain unique, vibrant, healthy and safe communities.
Montana League Of Cities And Towns
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2022-10-13T13:31:31Z
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helenair.com
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Kelly Lynch: Hard work necessary to address housing crisis
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/kelly-lynch-hard-work-necessary-to-address-housing-crisis/article_75beb19e-9bdb-51a9-b11b-947ade0b1f8e.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/columnists/kelly-lynch-hard-work-necessary-to-address-housing-crisis/article_75beb19e-9bdb-51a9-b11b-947ade0b1f8e.html
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In early September news broke of a plan to re-develop Holland Lake Lodge. The proposal seeks to remove 10 aging structures and add 32 new buildings, including a new 28-room lodge, a new restaurant and 26 new cabins near the lake.
Originally built in 1924 and last updated in 1947, Holland Lake Lodge Inc. owns the buildings but leases about 15 acres of land from the U.S. Forest Service to operate under a special permit.
The proposal has drawn the ire of many and lead to countless letters to the editor and online campaigns against it.
On this episode Dave Erickson of the Missoulian newspaper helps make sense of what the future may hold for the north side of Holland Lake.
An aerial view of Holland Lake in Montana.
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2022-10-13T17:15:20Z
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helenair.com
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A bold bid: National developer proposes major expansion to Holland Lake Lodge
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https://helenair.com/outdoors/a-bold-bid-national-developer-proposes-major-expansion-to-holland-lake-lodge/article_5e201b8a-20f5-5914-9a2f-e129de48c25a.html
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https://helenair.com/outdoors/a-bold-bid-national-developer-proposes-major-expansion-to-holland-lake-lodge/article_5e201b8a-20f5-5914-9a2f-e129de48c25a.html
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Val Bone
Val Bone doesn’t sleep, except for when she does, but even then she’s on call as a volunteer firefighter 24/7.
“I never thought for a second about being a firefighter, but in 2017, my husband and I got evacuated from our home…” said Bone. “We went to the meeting to be told we could go back home, and the fire chief basically made this impassioned speech about how people are really stressed out about these situations but no one ever really wants to help and the fire department needs help.”
Bone and her husband joined as volunteers for the Wolf Creek/Craig Fire Service Area, and Bone has now moved her way up to captain.
“I do medical for them, but I also do fire in our district, which is huge, just under 500 square miles, one of the biggest if not the biggest in Lewis and Clark County for as small as we are as a department,” said Bone. “Wildland firefighting in the summer, structure fire if it comes about, everything in between. We have a fireboat and we service like 90 homes on Holter Lake that are only accessible by boat. It’s something different every time I get a page.”
They’ve lived in Wolf Creek for the past seven years and in Montana for 28 years now.
“Montana is the best, straight up, there’s nothing like it,” said Bone. “…What’s kept me here is first of all I live out in the mountains on family property, and I bought my own property next door to it. Being out there with my husband and dogs in this beautiful state, the culture here, I just love it the way Montanans are. It’s different than any other state.”
Bone works as an RN for St. Peter’s Medical Group in the asthma, allergy and immunology specialty. Growing up, she wanted to be a coroner before realizing she wanted to go into nursing.
“I realized I wanted to help people, maybe the ones who were still alive, so I went into nursing and found out that I really loved it,” said Bone. “I love especially being in a subspecialty like I am. I work in a clinic, and my patients are the same rotating patients for the same part all the time, so you get to know them and become a family with them.”
The most challenging part of both jobs is her desire to help everyone and get them out of pain and struggle as quickly as possible.
“If there’s something that we can’t help with or it is just more complicated to figure out, it’s a challenge in a good way because it steps up the challenge of let’s figure out how to help this person, but at the same time you want to have the answers right away and not delay. Anything that is a barrier to me immediately making someone’s day better, that would be my challenge,” said Bone.
To recharge outside of work, Bone hikes, shoots rifles, and spends time with her family, friends and pets. Her hero in life is Jesus, and she tries to glorify God each day.
“What my patients love the most is that I’m real with them. I’m not a robot. I remember their stories when they come back,” said Bone. “That makes a difference to me because I know it when I talk to them how much they appreciate that from me that I actually care and remember the things they tell me and don’t just treat them like another number that walks through the door.”
Nominated by Colleen Gambill
Craig Fire Service Area
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2022-10-13T20:35:30Z
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helenair.com
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Val Bone, Wolf Creek/Craig Fire Service Area and St. Peter's Health
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https://helenair.com/news/local/val-bone-wolf-creek-craig-fire-service-area-and-st-peters-health/article_efef512e-8eab-560d-8daa-aafb96ea8e33.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/val-bone-wolf-creek-craig-fire-service-area-and-st-peters-health/article_efef512e-8eab-560d-8daa-aafb96ea8e33.html
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Two of the four candidates running for the eastern district congressional seat squared off Thursday in front of a Helena grassroots group, repeating much of the same themes of their campaigns but also getting in an occasional verbal poke every now and then.
Independent Gary Buchanan and Democrat Penny Ronning appeared before Hometown Helena with Buchanan attending in person at the Montana Club and Ronning appearing over Zoom.
Republican incumbent Matt Rosendale and Libertarian Sam Rankin did not attend, and event organizers did not say why. Election Day is Nov. 8, with Montana having a second congressional district for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Candidates were each given seven minutes to tell voters why they should be elected. The most heated exchange of the morning was when Ronning, responding to a question from the audience, accused the Buchanan campaign of telling voters that a woman could not win the election.
Buchanan quickly denied ever saying that, but did say he has said that a Democrat could not win the election – this time.
He told the crowd he decided to run when embarrassment caused by Rosendale became shame. He noted Rosendale did not support Capitol police caught in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He also noted Rosendale voted against aid for Ukraine and voted against Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
“People are tired of diatribes of both parties and vitriol against each other,” he said.
Buchanan, who has had a career in finance, did not commit to a party to caucus with as an Independent. He said he is pro-choice and pro-state constitution. He said hears a lot on the campaign trail about inflation.
“I think both parties spend too much,” he said.
Buchanan also said he hears a lot about crime and added Montana’s county jails are full. He said he also hears about national and international security.
He said has been called a “closet Republican” and a “closet Democrat.”
“That is exactly where I want to be,” he said.
Ronning said her father owned a restaurant in Billings and her mother worked for the federal government.
She said she grew up with an appreciation of business and government.
Ronning, a photographer and former member of the Billings City Council, said it was concerning to her when she heard a president say in the ‘80s that the most dangerous words are "I from the government and I am here to help," because the government was her mother.
She said Rosendale was the worst representative that Montana has ever had.
She said she was invited by Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester to watch the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and saw that 13 senate seats empty, adding those senators made a mockery of the process. This is one of the reasons she decided to run, she said.
Ronning said hot topics for her campaign are the economy, health care, affordable housing, reproductive rights, prescription drug prices and agriculture.
Responding to a question from Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, about allegations that a woman cannot win the race, Ronning said "never in a million years did I dream that would be the biggest challenge I faced in this race” is the Buchanan campaign saying a female can’t win in eastern Montana.
“That is shocking to me,” she said, adding that Buchanan cannot defeat her.
“It's clear to me females are here to stay within the election process, we’re winning, we have the right to be at the table and we are working to actually earn our spot at that table,” she said.
Buchanan quickly denied ever making that claim, but said he has said a "Democrat can’t win this year and I believe it.”
Paul Pancini said neither candidate will win because their votes will be split among Democrats.
Ronning said she is the Democrat who won the nomination and that Buchanan was “on the ballot representing himself.”
Buchanan responded as well: “My intention is to take a hell of a lot of votes from Democrats and a lot of votes from Republicans.”
He said Independents are the fastest-growing sector of Montana politics.
“I don’t feel like a spoiler at all,” he said.
Hometown Helena
Sam Rankin'
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2022-10-13T23:29:41Z
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helenair.com
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Eastern congressional district candidate forum in Helena turns feisty
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https://helenair.com/news/local/eastern-congressional-district-candidate-forum-in-helena-turns-feisty/article_5cf11365-f6d8-5c3c-8a82-669c9c00b353.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/eastern-congressional-district-candidate-forum-in-helena-turns-feisty/article_5cf11365-f6d8-5c3c-8a82-669c9c00b353.html
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Republican Ryan Zinke continued to outraise and outspend Democrat Monica Tranel — but that margin tightened somewhat in the final stretch of the campaign — according to numbers released by the campaigns this week for the quarterly period ending Sept. 30.
In the race to represent Montana’s new western congressional district, Zinke, a former congressman and Secretary of the Interior, has for the past year handily outraised both his primary and general opponents.
Tranel, an attorney who was previously the legal counsel for the state Public Service Commission, for the first time broke the $1 million mark for quarterly fundraising. Her campaign brought in $1.1 million during the third quarter. They spent $955,000, and ended with $353,000 cash on hand.
Zinke raised $1.7 million from July 1 through Sept. 30. The campaign spent $2.1 million during the third quarter, leaving $525,000 in the bank.
Zinke’s fundraising haul pads an existing gap between the two campaigns in total fundraising to date. Tranel’s third-quarter numbers bring her fundraising total to $2.4 million, while Zinke’s campaign hit $5.5 million this month.
Libertarian John Lamb had not previously raised enough money to require him to report campaign finance information. As of Thursday he had not filed any new reports with the Federal Election Commission.
The quarterly financial reports, which include detailed information about where the campaigns’ cash is coming from and where it’s being spent, are due at the FEC this weekend. Zinke’s campaign filed their full report Thursday. A Tranel spokesperson said their campaign’s likely wouldn’t be filed until Saturday.
Outside spending has also started to ramp up in the race, with a pair of super PACs recently making dueling six-figure expenditures to benefit both candidates.
Big Sky Voters PAC has spent $371,000 on communications opposing Zinke since it was created in mid-September, according to FEC filings. And the super PAC More Jobs, Less Government has spent $314,000 opposing Tranel and supporting Zinke since late August.
Absentee ballots, which typically about three-quarters of Montana voters use to vote, started getting mailed out this week. Election Day is Nov. 8.
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2022-10-13T23:29:53Z
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helenair.com
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Zinke maintains fundraising, spending lead in congressional race
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/zinke-maintains-fundraising-spending-lead-in-congressional-race/article_5c02f120-c94a-50bf-bfcd-7b8e6df1ec93.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/zinke-maintains-fundraising-spending-lead-in-congressional-race/article_5c02f120-c94a-50bf-bfcd-7b8e6df1ec93.html
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Both of Helena High's soccer teams were home at the Siebel Soccer Fields on Thursday for the final home match of the season, at least for the Bengals, who took on Missoula Hellgate.
The girls played first and it was a defensive affair all the way between the top two teams in the Western AA standings. After 80 minutes, the Bengals and Knights each had to settle for a 0-0 draw. Regardless out of the outcome, Hellgate had already locked up the top seed. Helena High is also locked in to the No. 2 spot in the Western AA so it can't improve its position by defeating Big Sky Saturday in Missoula.
Helena can still play spoiler in the Western AA race though. Big Sky leads Capital by one point in the girls team standings for fourth. With a win and a loss from Big Sky to Helena, the Bruins would move into the top four. Yet, they would need to upset Hellgate and have Big Sky lose to Helena to get a top four seed.
The Helena boys also lost to Hellgate 6-0 on Thursday. The Bengal boys will also wrap up their regular season on Saturday in Missoula.
"There's a different vibe than in any other game," Said Avery Kraft. "It's the town rivalry and it just has a different atmosphere."
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2022-10-14T04:35:03Z
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helenair.com
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Local roundup: Helena High girls draw with Hellgate in soccer
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https://helenair.com/sports/high-school/soccer/local-roundup-helena-high-girls-draw-with-hellgate-in-soccer/article_7c68a4fd-dad9-52ff-a928-ea6639e0b394.html
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https://helenair.com/sports/high-school/soccer/local-roundup-helena-high-girls-draw-with-hellgate-in-soccer/article_7c68a4fd-dad9-52ff-a928-ea6639e0b394.html
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The words, “Go home. We Love you. You’re very special!” Spoken by former President Trump to his supporters during the January 6th insurrection echo in my mind even today. While some of Trump’s supporters defecated and urinated in our nation's capital complex, 138 capital police officers were physically hurt, one capital police officer was killed, four others committed suicide later, and one protester was killed. Trump’s MAGA supporters along with the Proud Boys, Militiamen, White Supremacists, and others damaged not only our democracy by creating “fear, anger, and bigotry” used by autocratic leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, and Putin, but also showed the American people the true character of some Republican Senators, Congressman, Governors, and elected officials at the local level. Staying silent and lacking the courage to speak out when you know your Republican Party is taking a sledgehammer to our democracy is unpatriotic. Voters can uphold our democracy during the upcoming midterms and presidential election in 2024 by voting for either a Democratic or Independent candidate. You may not like everything that a Democratic or Independent candidate has to offer, but, I believe, they will keep the fundamentals of our democracy from disappearing into an authoritarian abyss.
CPT William B. Davis (retired),
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2022-10-14T14:52:54Z
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helenair.com
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Democrats and Independents will keep the fundamentals of our democracy from disappearing
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/democrats-and-independents-will-keep-the-fundamentals-of-our-democracy-from-disappearing/article_50b95dfd-66f7-5ef7-bd4c-b8bb73864cdc.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/democrats-and-independents-will-keep-the-fundamentals-of-our-democracy-from-disappearing/article_50b95dfd-66f7-5ef7-bd4c-b8bb73864cdc.html
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Penny Ronning has knowledge, experience
Last week the candidates for Montana's eastern congressional district (which includes Helena) met in a forum. When asked a question about controlling inflation, the Republican candidate, Matt Rosendale, went off on a tirade, blaming President Biden for our economic woes. He even blamed Biden for the war in Ukraine. He never answered the moderator's question, though. Perhaps he doesn't know much about economics.
The other two candidates were Penny Ronning, a Democrat, and Gary Buchanan, an Independent. Ms. Ronning, who has an MBA, answered the question in detail, giving a perspective on the problem that made sense. She also offered constructive ways the U.S. House of Representatives could ease inflation’s impact now and in the future by investing in the American workforce. Mr. Buchanan’s backward-looking and vague response left me wondering about his commitment to attacking inflation.
Penny’s in-depth policy knowledge, experience with writing and working to pass legislation in Montana, and service as a non-partisan elected official on the Billings City Council make her the perfect replacement for a do-nothing embarrassment like Rosendale. I am casting my vote for Penny Ronning, and urge you to learn more about her qualifications and platform before making a voting decision.
Linda Beischel,
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2022-10-14T14:53:13Z
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helenair.com
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Penny Ronning has knowledge, experience
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/penny-ronning-has-knowledge-experience/article_c72dfa6c-9d35-5a1c-b796-95f0c42fd049.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/penny-ronning-has-knowledge-experience/article_c72dfa6c-9d35-5a1c-b796-95f0c42fd049.html
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Regulations are not 'top down'
In the recent article County Commission candidate Dallas opined that new zoning regulations were "top down." I was a member of the City/County Planning Board during development of the growth policy which the new regulations implement and attended numerous open houses and public hearings which were well attended. The County Commission put its consideration of the regulations on hold while a specially appointed committee of stakeholders considered whether the 10-acre minimum lot size was appropriate. Provisions were made to create smaller lots if public health and safety issues could be adequately mitigated. It is not "one size fits all." It can be tailored to the site. This was not a "top down" process. The public had abundant opportunity to participate at all stages.
These regulations address water availability, water quality, adequate roads, wildfire and flood risks, and protect both existing and new residents. Mr. Dallas is in the real estate business and the public interest may not be foremost on his mind.
Dick Thweatt.
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2022-10-14T14:53:19Z
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helenair.com
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Regulations are not 'top down'
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/regulations-are-not-top-down/article_8a532f7f-ee3c-588a-a3f9-f3c90eb3d45b.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/regulations-are-not-top-down/article_8a532f7f-ee3c-588a-a3f9-f3c90eb3d45b.html
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We have qualified candidates running for County Attorney each with specific strengths and personal integrity. I support Kevin Downs for several reasons including his character, compassion and, commitment to the rule of law. Kevin Downs is a servant leader. His work with immigrants, youth, poor and disadvantaged people in our judicial system is a solid foundation for fair and balanced justice in Lewis and Clark County. He is a prosecutor who will not only seek justice for victims but also find solutions and support for those most in need of help.
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2022-10-14T14:53:25Z
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helenair.com
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Vote Kevin Downs for County Attorney
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-kevin-downs-for-county-attorney/article_285f79cb-1159-5b71-9268-c4663fd3503a.html
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https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-kevin-downs-for-county-attorney/article_285f79cb-1159-5b71-9268-c4663fd3503a.html
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PSC candidates vary widely in experience and philosophy
LUKE SEYMOUR Community News Service UM School of Journalism
Voters in the Public Service Commission's District 5 are facing clear choices in experience and philosophy between candidates vying for a spot on the body that oversees the rates most Montana households pay for energy.
He said he hopes to bring greater objectivity to the commission’s decisions.
District 5’s seat is currently held by former chairman Brad Johnson of Helena, who is limited by law from running for another consecutive term. The PSC’s current chairman, James Brown of Helena, is running for the Montana Supreme Court.
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2022-10-14T19:42:26Z
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helenair.com
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PSC candidates vary widely in experience and philosophy
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/psc-candidates-vary-widely-in-experience-and-philosophy/article_206328a5-ddaa-5b1c-9257-695b26300507.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/psc-candidates-vary-widely-in-experience-and-philosophy/article_206328a5-ddaa-5b1c-9257-695b26300507.html
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Tim Blixseth
Via Tim Blixseth
A federal bankruptcy panel has dismissed an appeal by the Montana Department of Revenue in a lawsuit filed against the state by Yellowstone Club Founder Timothy Blixseth, saying Montana did not have sovereign immunity which protects states from lawsuits.
The two-page decision was made Thursday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Appellant Panel of the 9th Circuit Court.
The state has argued it was immune from the suit under the 11th Amendment, which prohibits federal courts from hearing certain lawsuits against states. A judge said earlier the state, by initiating action in federal court, waived the sovereign immunity rights.
Blixseth offered comment on the panel's order.
"The decision today by the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate panel to dismiss Montana's frivolous appeal which claimed that the state had not waived its sovereign immunity defense in my lawsuit against the state, now paves the way for the trial of my damages which I expect to be at or near $700 million," Blixseth said in an email.
The state did not respond to queries seeking comment.
This is the latest decision in more than a decade of legal action between Blisexth and the state. Blixseth claims he incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in damages when the state filed a petition nearly a decade ago to force him into involuntary bankruptcy.
He sued the state and is seeking a jury trial and arguing for damages from Montana because he was forced to sell resorts and other properties, including an airplane and a yacht, at financial losses to fund his legal battles. He's also seeking hundreds of millions in damages for lost financial opportunities.
The Yellowstone Club, a private ski and golf resort in Big Sky founded by Blixseth in 1997, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Blixseth was accused of pocketing much of a $375 million loan to the resort and later gave up control of the enterprise to his ex-wife during their 2008 divorce.
The club is now under new ownership and has emerged from bankruptcy.
The Montana Department of Revenue had audited Blixseth and in 2009 said he owed $56.8 million in taxes, penalties and interest arising from eight audit issues, court documents stated.
In June, a U.S. bankruptcy judge upheld court decisions that the state of Montana lacked legal standing to file an involuntary bankruptcy petition.
Blixseth spent 14 months in jail for civil contempt for violating a bankruptcy judge’s order not to sell Tamarindo, a luxury property in Jalisco, Mexico, for $13.8 million in 2011. He was released in 2016.
Yellowstone Club
U.s. Bankruptcy Appellant Panel Of The 9th Circuit Court
Timothy Blixseth
Judge rules Blixseth lawsuit against state can move forward
The judge also ruled that the state is liable for all compensatory damages, fees and costs for Blixseth if he wins.
State says it is immune from Blixseth lawsuit
The Montana Department of Revenue said a federal court lacks the jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed against it by Tim Blixseth, co-founder of the Yellowstone Club.
Yellowstone Club co-founder Blixseth sues state for more than $300M in damages
A businessman embroiled in a longtime legal dispute with the state has filed a complaint against the Montana Department of Revenue, asking a U…
Judge dismisses Montana involuntary bankruptcy petition against Yellowstone Club founder
A U.S. bankruptcy judge has upheld court decisions that the state of Montana lacked legal standing to file an involuntary bankruptcy petition …
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2022-10-14T23:51:53Z
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helenair.com
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Panel dismisses Montana’s sovereignty immunity appeal in Blixseth case
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/panel-dismisses-montana-s-sovereignty-immunity-appeal-in-blixseth-case/article_50645c57-bd9c-5aec-b328-bf25824cc186.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/panel-dismisses-montana-s-sovereignty-immunity-appeal-in-blixseth-case/article_50645c57-bd9c-5aec-b328-bf25824cc186.html
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TO BE BUILT. Don't miss out on this new home on the upper west side of Helena. Close to downtown, Bill Roberts Golf Course, Spring Meadow Lake, and C.R.Anderson School. Beautiful new construction home with 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and a 2 car garage. Get in before they get too far so you can customize the home a bit and make it yours. You can pick the interior and exterior colors and a few other choices so the home can reflect you and your personality. Call me or a realtor of your choice today. **Pictures are of a similar home
Spring Meadow Lake
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2022-10-15T07:08:31Z
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helenair.com
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2 Bedroom Home in Helena - $394,000
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https://helenair.com/2-bedroom-home-in-helena---394-000/article_ed925979-be3d-50f3-b042-ffee495f9a0a.html
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https://helenair.com/2-bedroom-home-in-helena---394-000/article_ed925979-be3d-50f3-b042-ffee495f9a0a.html
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Dr. Thomas Weiner
Nearly three-dozen people stood Friday for about two hours near the hospital’s administrative offices on Broadway Street, clutching signs of support for Dr. Thomas Weiner.
The supporters, a combination of groups “Patients and Friends of Dr. Tom Weiner” and “We stand with Dr. Tom Weiner,” have done weekly rallies in support of the doctor for the past two years. They moved their rally to Friday to more closely coincide with Weiner’s dismissal as a cancer doctor from the hospital.
Holding signs of support for Dr. Thomas Weiner, from left, are Sam Gane, Teri Gane and James Doney. Rallygoers stood Friday for about two hours near the hospital’s administrative offices on Broadway Street.
The gathering took place about three miles away from the Helena Civic Center, where St. Peter’s Health Foundation held a fundraiser Friday to help the hospital serve the community.
St. Peter’s defended its decision regarding Weiner.
“St. Peter’s stands by the steps we’ve taken to ensure safety, quality and integrity in the care we provide,” it said in an email Saturday. “We’re focused on building a gold standard cancer care program, and we are thrilled with the addition of Dr. Elizabeth Bigger to our team as we continue expanding services in our community through the partnership with Huntsman Cancer Institute.”
The vigil in front of the hospital included a drive-by appearance by Weiner, organizers said, who, like at the one-year anniversary rally in 2021, did not get out of his vehicle but waved as he passed by. Drivers behind the wheel of a steady stream of vehicles sounded their horns as they passed by the Weiner supporters. He has filed a wrongful termination suit against the hospital.
Sam Gane was among those at the rally, saying his wife Teri had been a cancer patient of Weiner’s. She now goes to another medical provider.
Teri Gane said she was certain Weiner would return to St. Peter’s.
“I hope he owns the hospital when it’s all said and done,” she said.
James Doney said Weiner saved his life.
“I would have been dead a long time ago,” he said.
Some at the rally said they were not cancer patients but had family members of friends who were.
Linda Peterson said Weiner saved her husband.
She said she was committed to attending the weekly rallies “until it gets to 40 below.”
Robin Burk, a hairstylist, said she has clients who are cancer patients.
She said many had years added to their lives because of Weiner.
Weiner had served as chief of staff and a member of St. Peter's board of directors during his nearly 25 years with the health system. He started with the hospital in 1996 and on Oct. 15, 2020, he gave up hospital privileges "in lieu of summary suspension," court documents state. He said the hospital terminated his employment on Nov. 17, 2020.
St. Peter's Health in Helena.
St. Peter’s Health has said Weiner had incorrectly treated a patient for lung cancer for 11 years before it was determined that the person did not have the disease at the time of death. The hospital’s legal counsel also said that it learned of “alarming narcotic prescribing practices” by Weiner.
Weiner has denied the allegations and argued he had seen as many as 1,500 patients a month, had worked daily for six months without a day off and had done the work of two or more full-time physicians.
He has sued the hospital for wrongful termination. At St. Peter’s request, a judge has granted a change of venue due to the hospitals claims an impartial jury cannot be found in Lewis and Clark County.
Attorneys are to meet May 25, to schedule a trial date.
St. Peter's Health has made renovations to its cancer center. Officials also said in 2021 the hospital will affiliate with Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah and later announced the hiring of Bigger.
Earlier this month, the Montana Hospital Association named St. Peter’s Health as the recipient of the statewide association’s 2022 Leadership in Quality and Patient Safety Award. The award recognizes a health care organization that has taken "innovative steps to make patient safety a top priority throughout the organization."
St. Peter’s Health Foundation's fundraiser at the Helena Civic Center, “The Gala: Life’s a Party,” was to celebrate the hospital’s impact on Helena and its work with community groups. It also recognized St. Peter’s Hospital Association for its 100 years of support.
A St. Peter’s spokeswoman said Saturday there was “record-setting support” from 350 sponsors, donors and volunteers,” and $360,000 was raised in support of 700 babies born each year at St. Peter’s Health and their families, as well as the families served by St. Peter’s Health Neonatal Intensive Care Unit partner, Bozeman Health, who need help with transportation, lodging, meals and other expenses.
She said 75% of gala proceeds will go to the new “Arlene Mathews Cherished Babies Fund.” St. Peter’s Health will buy three baby warmers, sun protection caps, educational materials and swaddling wraps, and continue to offer counseling services and address other areas of need. The remaining 25% of the proceeds will go into the NICU Family Compassion Fund at Bozeman Health Foundation.
St. Peter’s Health Foundation Vice President Stephen Mason said, according to the email, the gala was back in full force after a six-year hiatus. He said annual support has increased five-fold and will provide even more support for patients, families and the community.
Three young mothers shared their birth stories and spoke of St. Peter’s Health and Bozeman Health caregivers who saved lives and helped through difficult experiences. The Foundation also celebrated the life of the late Arlene Mathews, who for 67 years dedicated her life to the babies at St. Peter’s; honored the St. Peter’s Hospital Association for their 101 years of volunteer and financial support; and highlighted the works of Honorary Chairs, Margaret and Dick Anderson.
The program ended with a standing ovation for St. Peter’s Health and community caregivers who worked to keep the community safe through COVID. It followed with a video tribute featuring “Everyday Heroes,” a song written and performed by Stephi Johnson, wife of CEO Wade Johnson.
Patients And Friends Of Dr. Tom Weiner
We Stand With Dr. Tom Weiner
St. Peter's Foundation
Sam Gane
Teri Gane
Robin Burk
James Doney
Margaret And Dick Anderson
Stephi Johnson
Judge OKs change of venue for trial in Dr. Weiner vs. St. Peter's Health
A Lewis and Clark County District Court judge on Tuesday agreed to a change of venue for the civil trial in which oncologist Dr. Thomas Weiner claims he was wrongfully terminated from St. Peter’s Health.
New oncologist joins St. Peter's Health Cancer Care staff
St. Peter’s Health Cancer Care on Wednesday welcomed oncologist Dr. Elizabeth Bigger to the hospital, filling a full-time position that has be…
One year later, dispute over fired Helena oncologist still strong
It’s been a year since Dr. Tom Weiner and St. Peter’s Health parted ways, launching a very intense public battle between the hospital and the …
Judge denies Weiner request for restraining order against St. Peter's
A District Court judge has denied a request by a fired oncologist to force St. Peter’s Health to halt administrative hearings on his dismissal…
St. Peter's Health denies Dr. Weiner allegations, files counterclaim
St. Peter’s Health has denied allegations by a former oncologist who said he was wrongfully fired from his job, saying the doctor “deceived” t…
Judge sets timeline in Dr. Weiner case against St. Peter's
A district court judge has set a timeline in the civil case filed by an oncologist fired by St. Peter’s Health, setting a five-day jury trial …
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2022-10-16T00:10:33Z
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helenair.com
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Group keeps seeking doctor's return to hospital; St. Peter's gala sets record
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https://helenair.com/news/local/group-keeps-seeking-doctors-return-to-hospital-st-peters-gala-sets-record/article_1a7a424f-77f4-5c18-ae91-43fdcdd74ac4.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/group-keeps-seeking-doctors-return-to-hospital-st-peters-gala-sets-record/article_1a7a424f-77f4-5c18-ae91-43fdcdd74ac4.html
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Thursday morning, the U.S. released the Consumer Price Index. It indicated an 8.2% rise for the past 12 months.
The core increase, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 6.6% from last September, the largest increase since August 1982. Shelter and groceries were among the hottest components, with a key measure of housing prices hitting a 40-year high. Rental rates and higher interest rates on mortgages contributed to that increase.
Candy — which will see Halloween demand for the next couple of weeks — was one of the leading items on the up list, whereas gasoline was on the weaker side. Lumber futures made a two-week high that is in line with the housing sector. The rise in inflation will probably keep our Federal Reserve on track for raising interest rates.
Commodities, stocks crushed by higher rates
Putin threatens, wheat rockets
A look at the financial world through the eyes of Walt Breitinger, a commodity futures broker in Valparaiso, Ind.
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2022-10-16T11:20:32Z
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helenair.com
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Futures File
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https://helenair.com/business/futures-file/article_b43c5527-1e21-5c88-adc0-50fb2e180726.html
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https://helenair.com/business/futures-file/article_b43c5527-1e21-5c88-adc0-50fb2e180726.html
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JANE ROONEY Community News Service UM School of Journalism
"What inspired me to run for this race was my mom was a career federal employee,” she said in an interview. “My mom taught me the love and respect for government. I've seen that respect for the government deteriorate under the attempted leadership by current representation."
Ronning, a former member of the Billings City Council, won the new district’s Democratic primary in June, earning the right to challenge Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale. The race also includes Billings financial adviser Gary Buchanan, who’s running as an independent, and Libertarian attorney Sam Rankin.
Ronning draws much of her political beliefs from growing up in a bipartisan household. "We didn't talk about parties; we talked about people. We talked about candidates and the issues that stood out to us in our family. That's how I was taught to vote," Ronning said.
Still, she’s not shy in her criticism of Congressman Rosendale. Ronning rejects his blanket opposition to abortion and said he needs to do more to improve health care, fight climate change and boost agriculture. She says she supports the Second Amendment, “common sense” gun laws, and mental health funding. She favors forgiveness for student debt and wants the federal government to legalize marijuana.
Beyond the issues, the race has posed some unexpected blows for her campaign, the biggest of which was the late candidacy of independent Gary Buchanan, whose background includes service for both Democratic and Republican governors in the ’80s and ’90s. He also won endorsements from the Montana Federation of Public Employees and the Montana AFL-CIO.
The MFPE’s Amanda Curtis, a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, said the union’s decision came down to Buchanan’s experience in government. "It really was not intended to be an anti-Penny Ronning endorsement. Our members compared the two candidates and chose their favorite."
"This is not going to be one of those multimillion-dollar campaigns,” she said. “We are a state that's a little over a million people. Campaigns should not cost over a million dollars here. That's buying votes."
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2022-10-16T14:00:38Z
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helenair.com
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Democrat Ronning faces tall odds in conservative U.S. House District 2
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/democrat-ronning-faces-tall-odds-in-conservative-u-s-house-district-2/article_abf08022-a836-5795-8769-9f393848e5e0.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/democrat-ronning-faces-tall-odds-in-conservative-u-s-house-district-2/article_abf08022-a836-5795-8769-9f393848e5e0.html
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GENTRY HALE Community News Service UM School of Journalism
Gary Buchanan smiled all evening as he warmly welcomed guests to a recent fundraising event in Helena. Friends and supporters of Buchanan giggled as former Gov. Marc Racicot stood at the front of the crowd, commenting on the sea of gray hair before him.
Buchanan is running as an independent this fall against Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale, Democrat Penny Ronning and Libertarian Sam Rankin. He said he hopes to bridge the gap between two extremes he sees in Montana’s eastern congressional district.
“Think independently, vote independently” is Buchanan's slogan. The 73-year-old who runs a longtime Billings-based financial advising business told listeners he has split his vote between the left and the right candidates for years and served a half dozen governors from both parties.
Born in Iowa, Buchanan moved to Montana in 1975 with his wife and two children. He spent most of his career working in finance and starting his own financial firm. But he also served as the first director of the state’s Department of Commerce and helped Racicot reorganize state government in the ’90s.
Bradley said the second she learned Buchanan was running, she called former Gov. Racicot, who narrowly defeated Bradley when they ran against each other in 1992.
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2022-10-16T14:00:39Z
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helenair.com
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Independent Gary Buchanan seeks middle ground in run for Congress
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/independent-gary-buchanan-seeks-middle-ground-in-run-for-congress/article_8d959dad-a26f-511d-a4a0-9fb71f2d26ad.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/independent-gary-buchanan-seeks-middle-ground-in-run-for-congress/article_8d959dad-a26f-511d-a4a0-9fb71f2d26ad.html
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Democratic candidate in the race for Montana’s western congressional district Monica Tranel says she is happy to start the forum without notes though it was not indicated that notes were not allowed after Ryan Zinke questioned her before the start of the September event on the campus of Montana Technological University.
Democratic candidate Monica Tranel grabs the microphone from Republican candidate Ryan Zinke's hands during a town hall at Missoula's DoubleTree on Aug. 8. The debate was hosted by City Club Missoula.
DUPUYER — Thirty days before the midterm election that will decide if Monica Tranel is the first Democrat Montanans send to the U.S. House of Representatives in nearly 30 years, the candidate sat at a long table in the back room of a bar and restaurant surrounded by about a dozen voters.
The community of less than 100 sits close to the northeastern corner of the new congressional district, in the only county bisected by the line dividing the eastern and western House seats and where just 111 people cast ballots in the Democratic primary last June.
While it isn’t a high-payoff region for Tranel, the campaign stop was emblematic of her ethos this election — showing up everywhere and talking to all-comers.
Democrat Monica Tranel high-fives a young girl at the Ravalli County Fair Parade in Hamilton in August.
“One of the things that I've heard a lot on the trail is, ‘I don't know who to trust and I don't know where to get my news and I don't know who to believe,’” Tranel told the group. “The most important thing we can do is show up and have you ask us questions, and then you make up your minds about who you want to vote for.”
Tranel has campaigned on a mix of sharp criticism of her main opponent, Republican Ryan Zinke, and touting her own brand as a moderate Democrat focused on returning Montana to a less-divisive landscape.
Going everywhere
Tranel has traveled all around the newly drawn House district that elections rankings websites have pegged as leaning Republican in this race. She's seeking to rally support in Democratic strongholds, sway undecided and unaffiliated voters who feel like the two-party system left them without a political home and pick off Republicans alienated by the recent trajectory of their party.
She works as an attorney in Missoula and before moving to private practice, she was the lawyer for the Public Service Commission and once worked for Republican Conrad Burns in Washington. She's run twice unsuccessfully for the PSC as a Democrat and Republican.
Tranel, 56, points to her legal experience to give voters examples of how she’s advocated for them, including a case where she blocked NorthWestern Energy from folding the rates for a yet-to-be-built gas plant into consumers’ power bills and attempting to put the costs of outages onto consumers.
But as often as that, she refers to her rural upbringing of growing up in eastern Montana and playing Class C basketball — where everyone had to participate for the school to field a team — and uses that history as a reference point for understanding the Montana some voters feel is becoming extinct in a hostile national political environment.
“In the Montana I grew up in, nobody talked about (political) parties. We didn't mention it. We talked about each other, we talked about the basketball game,” Tranel said.
Monica Tranel takes questions from the press before a forum in Missoula.
As Republicans have tried to harken back to an idea of better times in the past via the “Make America Great Again” slogan immortalized by Trump, Tranel is trying to capture a sentiment that Montana has lost what makes it the Last Best Place and she’s the candidate to return the state to that footing.
“We can disagree, and be agreeable about that process, and still shovel each other's walks, take care of each other as a community, and see things in a different way,” Tranel said. “ … That's partly what I see as slipping away in Montana."
Zinke and his campaign war chest have spent time and money painting Tranel as an extremist liberal, citing everything from the lawsuit against NorthWestern and criticism of the clients she’s represented to her support of access to abortion and a forceful forum performance in Missoula when Tranel took the microphone from Zinke’s hand. She's taken heat for representing a convicted child sex offender seeking an appeal on claims of insufficient legal representation.
There’s also a major effort to nationalize issues in the race, and portray Tranel as someone who'd be little more than a potential shill for President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. One Zinke ad featured repeated images of the president’s face morphing into Tranel’s.
But Tranel herself has forcefully attacked Zinke during the race, focusing on federal investigations into his time as Secretary of the Interior and saying he’s lying about his record now and unfit to represent the state, while also defending herself against the criticisms.
“I don’t even know that guy,” Tranel said of Biden when asked about if she’d align with the president. The question came from a caller when Tranel sat down for an hour on a conservative talk radio show recently. “I bet Ryan Zinke knows (Biden and Pelosi). They were in Congress together at the same time. I’m here in Montana.”
Bucking labels
Back in August at a campaign event in Butte, more friendly territory, Tranel described her campaign to a voter as “all gas and no brakes.” That mantra was evident in another response she gave to a caller into the radio program who didn't ask a question so much as swipe at Tranel on culture-war issues including critical race theory and what he called an "immoral" agenda in public education.
“I have served Montana, I am in this for Montana, and I am tired of this nationalization,” Tranel replied. “I'm who I am and if you have any questions about who I will serve, or whether I conform to a national agenda, I will give you my mom's phone number.”
She later dealt with another question about transgender women playing sports by asking “Where's that happened in Montana?”
Monica Tranel, a candidate for the new western congressional district, greets a constituent before the forum in Butte in September.
When the host said he wasn’t sure it’s occurred in the state, Tranel continued, “Let's talk about what's happening in Montana, here on the ground, in our home.”
In an interview Friday, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, the lone statewide Democrat left standing after the 2020 elections, said those kinds of answers could help her take the seat.
"God bless her for answering it right, because she's right, Tester said. "And I think if she wins, that'll be why she wins."
Over the campaign, Tranel has also garnered some support from Republicans via endorsements from Susan Good Geise, the former chair of the state GOP, as well as former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot and Bob Brown, who was a GOP Secretary of State and state senator.
“There's no path to victory without getting crossover and Independent votes,” Tranel said back in April.
But it’s clear Tranel is a Democrat, from her stance on abortion that she’d vote “for women's rights to live life on our own terms and to be able to choose how, when and whether we become parents” to a call for electric vehicle charging stations around the state and an accelerated transition to clean, renewable energy.
'The middle'
Though the district is new, Zinke’s history as a past congressman and Secretary of the Interior gives him as close to an incumbent status as possible. That’s left Tranel needing to split her time between criticizing her opponent and discussing where she stands on the issues.
In Dupuyer, Tranel implored voters to look at the candidates’ track records and judge them by their actions. That includes the federal investigations into Zinke. But her critiques of Zinke while also pushing for a move away from the hostility of present-day politics led one voter during the radio show to ask her why she’s been so forceful in her line of criticism against the Republican.
“It's important that you all know who you're hiring for this job. It's important that you know our records. It's important that you know what we've done,” Tranel said. “ … I am not trash talking. I'm telling you what's true. I'm telling you the record."
Monica Tranel, a candidate for the western district congressional seat, speaks as former nine-term congressman Pat Williams, back left, cheers during an October event in Butte.
“I want to be talking about and running on what I’m for,” Tranel said.
At another event in Hamilton this summer, a voter asked Tranel how she'd bring the parties back together.
“... I know how easy it is to overlook the middle, which is what’s happening right now," Tranel said. " … We feel left behind.’ I shook hands with a guy at a parade in Dillon and he had a MAGA hat on and he said 'I’m going to vote for you, but don’t forget about us.'”
'Candidate with a plan'
Without a voting record to campaign on, Tranel has leaned on her legal record and held several press conferences around the district discussing policies and legislation she’s backed to address everything from the cost of prescription medications to the affordability of living in Montana.
Monica Tranel particpated in a candidate forum in Missoula over the summer.
Just under four weeks from the election, Tranel released a plan focused on economic relief for senior citizens. She advocated for allowing reimportation of prescription drugs and revising deals that protect big pharma, as well as more oversight of pharmaceutical companies that get federal dollars. She also called for examining CEO pay and corporate profits of companies that get federal funding, part of themes in her campaign of seeking to address problems by doing what she calls “rooting out corporate greed.”
Tranel has also pushed for consumer, family and worker protections, including the FAIR Act to end forced arbitration, the child tax credit and paid family leave, early childhood education and more.
In late July, Tranel released a plan she said would address inflation and affordability for Montanans, with a focus on ending corporate federal subsidies and anticompetitive practices, legislation to boost middle-class wages and an all-of-the-above energy approach centered on renewables. It included support for bills to create a special investigator to probe and enforce antitrust laws in the meatpacking industry, to create transparency in meatpacking and to add new labor protections under the PRO Act.
During the primary when the job was to differentiate herself among a field of three Democrats, Tranel refined her pitch to the “middle,” explaining her position on the Olympic rowing team was in the “engine room” in the middle of the boat — a low-glory, high-output workhorse slot she said she’d also fill in Congress.
Now in the general election race, it’s more about tone and character as Tranel and Zinke face off, with Libertarian John Lamb in the mix.
'My home'
Anyone who's tuned into part of the campaign by now will have heard Tranel talk about how Montana is her "only home." It's a jab at Zinke and time he's spent out of the state. Zinke vigorously defends against these claims in part by saying while his wife owns property in California, they still reside in the same Whitefish home his family has for four generations.
In August when Tranel was at An Ri Ra, the Irish festival in Butte, she was doing the strange social activity demanded of political candidates — having to walk up to strangers and introduce herself. Tranel was greeted with supporter after supporter in the blue-belt city, with one man telling her she’d come to the “good country today.” But not everyone was a stranger; one person she came across knew Tranel’s family the way a lot of Montanans know each other — somebody at some point down the road somewhere went to school with someone else's sibling.
Tranel has staked much of her race on those kind of connections — the "you know me and you know what I stand for" message that aims to push back on nationalization of the race and bring things back to neighbors talking to each other.
"What's great about America is our ability to look in the mirror and say we've gotten things wrong, we've done things that we're not proud of, that we can read about in books," Tranel said in Dupuyer. "But we can own that, and we know we can be better (and) sit at the table and have this conversation. That's what I love about not just about Montana but America."
— Reporter Sam Wilson contributed to this story.
Western Congressional Seat
Watch now: Pat Williams at the Blue Collar Corridor Society
Former Nine-term Western District Congressman Pat Williams speaks about the blue collar ethic of the area and why blue collar values are parti…
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2022-10-16T14:01:00Z
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helenair.com
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Tranel stakes election pitch on a return to the 'middle'
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/tranel-stakes-election-pitch-on-a-return-to-the-middle/article_6f78b3b1-0f00-561a-ab4b-20a3837b3189.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/tranel-stakes-election-pitch-on-a-return-to-the-middle/article_6f78b3b1-0f00-561a-ab4b-20a3837b3189.html
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Ryan Zinke speaks at a small business roundtable in Bozeman in September. Zinke is the Republican nominee for Montana's new western congressional district.
TOM KUGLIN, Montana State News Bureau
GALLATIN GATEWAY — Ryan Zinke told a Gallatin County campaign rally in late August that his bid to reclaim a seat in Congress is critical in gaining a Republican majority in the U.S. House.
Zinke, 60, railed against Democrats and the federal government while touting his time as secretary of the Department of the Interior under former President Donald Trump. The stakes of this election, he said, were nothing short of the values that define the United States.
Ryan Zinke speaks at a campaign rally in Gallatin Gateway in August. The event in part highlighted six former Navy SEALs running for Congress, including Zinke.
“We face an evil that’s trying to take down this country,” he said. “And we’re just not going to let them have it. Period.”
The stop was the final on his Freedom Rally tour, featuring Medal of Honor recipient Michael Thornton and retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden, who is also running for a U.S. House seat in Wisconsin. The event, which featured ticketed entry with free admission for service members, in part highlighted six former SEALs running for Congress, including Zinke.
Zinke’s campaign stops have included GOP dinners and meet-and-greets, parades, rodeos, football games and private events. He has participated in three forums, sponsored by City Club Missoula, Lee Newspapers and Montana Television Network respectively. He often campaigns on his Montana roots, talking about growing up in Whitefish, playing on a state championship football team and earning a scholarship to the University of Oregon.
His military service has also long been part of his personal and political identity as he highlights his time as a SEAL and uses military analogies to talk strategies on issues. He paints himself as a pragmatist but also a D.C. antagonist that understands the issues facing Montanans.
Some of his ads offer imagery of Americana like rodeos and raising the nation's flag. His campaign has also channeled a mix of offense by targeting his chief opponent Democrat Monica Tranel and defending himself from attacks on a record that has provided fuel to his opponents in both the primary and general elections.
At the campaign rally, Zinke told the crowd that Republicans in control of the House must first unify their message and then take charge of the budget to defund policies they oppose from Democratic President Joe Biden. The country is failing, Zinke continued, but is fixable.
“There is no other alternative if we want to save the country,” he said. “We’re all going to have to step up.”
Long record
Zinke came into the race for Montana’s new western Congressional district as the likely favorite, according to political analysts. He carries high name recognition as the state’s previous at-large representative, a strong fundraising network and the endorsement of Trump.
The district also favors Republicans but by far less than the new eastern U.S. House district, with Democratic strongholds such as Missoula, Bozeman and Butte offering sizeable voting blocks for Tranel. A national political ranking website recently tightened the race from likely Republican to leaning Republican, and Zinke told the campaign rally he "faces a strong opponent" in the Democrat.
Zinke was elected to the Montana Senate in 2008, made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor and emerged from a crowded GOP primary in 2014 for what was then the state’s sole U.S. House seat, going on to win. In 2016 he easily won reelection before a historic appointment to Interior secretary, making him the first Montanan to serve in a president’s cabinet.
At Interior, Zinke worked to expand oil and gas leasing on federal lands and backed shrinking several national monuments, while also pushing a new wildlife migration corridor initiative and announcing a ban on mining federal lands north of Yellowstone National Park.
Then-U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces a ban on mining claims north of Yellowstone National Park in October 2018.
He would resign after two years amid more than 15 federal investigations, saying they had become a distraction to the agency. The Associated Press reported at the time that the administration raised concerns that Zinke could be a prime target for Democrats who won control of the House, but he has refuted that he was asked to resign by the former president.
Zinke offered a unifying message when he announced his run, telling the Montana State News Bureau, “I think there’s too much anger, and the anger is distracting us from getting things done.”
At the same time he levied heavy criticism on Democrats, saying that “crazy is crazy no matter where it comes from,” and suggesting that a “woke movement” threatens American and Montana values on issues ranging from education to energy to immigration. Zinke has staked out a number of traditional GOP policy positions including support for completing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, bolstering U.S. energy production and reducing government spending. And he maintains opposition to selling or transferring federal lands, but advocates for better management and access.
The June primary was not the coronation many predicted, with Zinke winning by a narrow 2 percentage points in a five-way field. Whether Zinke or former state Sen. Al Olszewski would prevail remained uncertain for a couple of days while votes in Lincoln County were tallied by hand because of a ballot-printing error.
After the primary, Zinke told the Flathead Beacon the close margin was due to “this giant snowball of malicious political rhetoric, none of which was true,” as both Republicans and Democrats attacked him.
Ryan Zinke speaks before a candidate forum during the summer in Missoula.
Facing attacks
His opponents have spent much of their campaigns questioning Zinke’s track record, honesty and even the amount of time he spends out of state. The attacks have often put Zinke in the position of publicly defending himself against federal investigations and media reports about them. He has accused his opponents of pushing false narratives about his character and maintains the investigations were politically motivated.
“As a man of integrity, it's difficult to have an election and have your family and your kids listen to the lies about you,” Zinke said during a recent debate.
Western Congressional Candidate Forum for Montana's 1st U.S. Congressional District in Butte, Montana
Olszewski brought up an internal Interior investigation that said Zinke “lacked candor” over a development in Whitefish, telling the Montana State News Bureau it was “an integrity issue.”
Tranel has persistently hit Zinke with accusations of lying about both the Whitefish project and a subsequent investigation released in late August which found Zinke provided misleading statements and lacked candor when investigators asked him about contacts with lobbyists while Interior considered a tribal casino in Connecticut.
“Those investigations say themselves that he lied to criminal investigators,” Tranel said at a recent debate.
Democrats have also accused Zinke of being beholden to the fossil fuel industry — he worked as a consultant after resigning from Interior including for oil giant Conoco Phillips — and criticized the amount of his campaign fundraising that has come from outside Montana. Zinke has raised $5.5 million with about $1 million from Montana, according to his campaign. Tranel has raised $2.4 million with about $1.9 million coming from Montana, according to her campaign.
For his part, Zinke says he favors an “all-of-the-above” energy portfolio. He does not believe wind or solar is ready to fully replace fossil fuels, noting that wind energy has issues with killing birds and bats, and that solar arrays cover large swaths of land and most panels are not currently recycled. The reliability of fossil fuels will be important to maintaining a stable energy supply and reducing energy prices will be key to combating inflation, he says.
“If we let America run, no one, not any nation on the face of this planet, can do what we can do, but we’ve got to let America run and get the government off our back,” he said at the Gallatin County rally.
Zinke has also proposed ideas to address housing affordability, such as opening up federal financing programs to more types of housing, or offering 50-year mortgages.
“I hear a lot about affordable housing, just the concern that property values have gone up, that means taxes will go up, rental costs have gone up, it’s the lack of ability and affordability of housing across the board,” he said in an interview.
While he agrees with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade, Zinke has a more moderate position than some in the GOP now seeking a national abortion ban. He supports exceptions in the case of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality and to protect the life of the mother. He also says birth control should be available over the counter.
“You can’t legislate all circumstances, and some women have to face very, very difficult circumstances,” he said in a recent interview in Bozeman. “(Abortion) should be rare and by exception rather than routine.”
Zinke has levied his own attacks on both Tranel and Libertarian John Lamb.
He accuses Tranel of being weak on crime for her representation of a convicted child molester during an unsuccessful appeal — Tranel argued the man did not have effective counsel at trial. He also says her work with the organization 350 Montana means she supports defunding law enforcement, a claim both Tranel and the organization have disputed.
“I’m not sure where she’s going, but I’m hearing a lot of things different,” he said in the interview. “They don’t like the tone, they don’t like woke, they don’t like what they see as abandonment of principles.”
He also often ties Tranel to national Democrats.
“I think in the election, I can’t think of a greater contrast between two visions,” he said in an interview. “I see her as in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi.”
Zinke has also singled out the federal bureaucracy for reform, targeting a system he believes unfairly protects officials that stifle meaningful change. The first bill he would introduce is the Federal Employees Accountability and Reduction Act, or FEAR Act, that would aim to reduce the size of the federal government through employee attrition and defunding and repealing recent expansions of agencies such as the IRS.
Zinke often rhetorically asks during speeches and debates if attendees trust government agencies. He has heavily criticized officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was the public face of the federal government's pandemic response, and has defended Trump during investigations into the former president.
“We’ve got to get back to transparency, holding people accountable, because I think it’s a dangerous path once the people no longer have confidence in any branch of government,” he said when announcing the proposed legislation.
Republican Ryan Zinke hands out flags at the Ravalli County Fair Parade in Hamilton in August.
Montana Western House Race
Al Olszewski
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2022-10-16T14:01:06Z
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helenair.com
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Zinke says American values at stake in election
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/zinke-says-american-values-at-stake-in-election/article_78645352-ca53-555b-8fa0-71b6edb2a005.html
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https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/zinke-says-american-values-at-stake-in-election/article_78645352-ca53-555b-8fa0-71b6edb2a005.html
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Online scams are on the rise
Tactics used by scammers have shifted drastically during the past several years, with scams being perpetrated online rising 87% since 2015, according to a new report published by the Better Business Bureau.
During the same period, scams perpetrated by phone dropped by 42%.
The report, Start With Trust Online: BBB Online Scams Report, analyzes the changes in how scams are being perpetrated, including new information about impersonation and online purchase scams. This research paper is based on two sets of data: 1) An analysis of more than 300,000 reports submitted to BBB Scam TrackerSM between 2015 and 2022, and 2) survey research conducted in July 2022.
The No. 1 place people reported being targeted by a scam was while browsing social media (25%), followed by online shopping (24%), email (14%), search engines (10%), and job search (7%).
Start With Trust Online
Computer Scams
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2022-10-16T14:03:40Z
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helenair.com
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BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
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https://helenair.com/business/better-business-bureau/article_00f287bc-1054-5621-9a01-8f4c6a6c9f49.html
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https://helenair.com/business/better-business-bureau/article_00f287bc-1054-5621-9a01-8f4c6a6c9f49.html
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The Teccas perform at Broadwater Hot Springs.
Scott Tecca plays guitar during a performance at Broadwater Hot Springs.
Kayla Perbil sings vocals during a performance at Broadwater Hot Springs.
The Teccas
Kayla Perbil, the vocalist and daughter in the band, said The Teccas have been playing bars and RV parks across the West since 2018, steadily building a fan base and accruing accolades.
The Teccas are up for four awards at the 2022 Josie Music Awards, billed as "the largest, all-genre, privately-owned, independent music award show," according to the show's website. This year's Josies will take place at the Grand Ole Opry, and The Teccas will be performing during the festivities at the show's outdoor main stage.
The two have averaged nearly 230 shows a year in order to keep the dream alive.
"This is our job," father Scott Tecca said in an interview ahead of a concert at Broadwater Hot Springs in Helena earlier this month. "We just want to make a living."
Inflation and rising fuel costs have put the squeeze on the pair of musicians recently.
"There are certain days you wake up and think, 'Why are we doing this?'" Tecca said. "It's brutal these days with fuel costs."
As a result, The Teccas scheduled a nine-state tour to bankroll the trip to Nashville, including stops in South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma.
For two nights in Kansas City, they will play private "pass the hat" shows.
"Our fans have supported us very generously," Tecca said.
Tecca said he has been playing guitar since he was 5. He played in bands throughout high school. He traded that lifestyle for a family and a 9-to-5 as a land surveyor for about 20 years before the desire to play came knocking again.
"I just got that itch to get back into music," Tecca said.
He started "just kind of gigging around town" in 2016, with the shows attended mostly by friends.
"I would be doing the solo shows and Kayla would come up to the stage to sing a few songs," he said.
Perbil said they would get positive feedback about their "family harmonies."
"We decided we should be a duo," she said.
By 2018, The Teccas set out on their first tour playing about 40 shows across eight states in 10 weeks. The duo traveled more than 10,000 miles in that time.
"Working together is not that hard," Perbil said. "It's fun. We do butt heads from time to time."
The Teccas were nominated for four Josie Awards: country duo of the year, country entertainers of the year, fan choice award for duo of the year, and country single of the year for their song "Montana Kinda High," off their album "These Days" released on Valentine's Day this year.
They won the 2019 Josie Music Award for fan choice for country duo of the year, and said they hope to be as fortunate this go-round.
But with more than 52,000 submissions for this year's award ceremony, Perbil said she is honored just to be among the less than 2% of acts actually nominated.
"I feel like that's already a feat," she said. "We're happy just to be there and invited to perform."
The Teccas planned to perform at Philipsburg Brewing Company on Oct. 14 and at a Nashville Send Off Party at The Office in Tecca's hometown of Livingston on Oct. 15.
More information about The Teccas and their schedule of upcoming shows can be found on their Facebook page at facebook.com/TheTeccas/.
Entertainement
Teccas
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2022-10-17T15:50:25Z
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helenair.com
|
Helena father-daughter country duo heading to Nashville
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-father-daughter-country-duo-heading-to-nashville/article_80db6fe5-e82b-5d7a-be39-875e415bb7eb.html
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https://helenair.com/news/local/helena-father-daughter-country-duo-heading-to-nashville/article_80db6fe5-e82b-5d7a-be39-875e415bb7eb.html
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Stories of Honor: Vietnam combat vet Steve Durbin’s service spanned 4 decades
Gio Linh, South Vietnam, 1967, from left: machine gun squad leader Chico, Steve Durbin and machine gunner Kurt.
Steve Durbin's Carroll College freshman photo, 1965 Hilltopper yearbook.
In between earning an English degree from Carroll College, Steve Durbin served a 13-month tour of duty with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam in the late 1960s, earning two Purple Hearts.
Durbin reentered the military in 1983, and over the next 23 years, his service included the Army National Guard with Huey medevac during the first Gulf War, in the Middle East; flying with the Air Force Reserves Aero medevac C-141s; and as an Army Reservist training Iraqi police and mentoring troops returning to Iraq.
By the time he retired from the armed forces at the age of 60, his time in flight consisted of 73 combat NVG hours (Iraq), 212 NVG hours (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait), 1,476 total Huey hours and 2,031 total C-141 (noncombat) hours.
Durbin graduated from St. Patrick’s Academy prep school in Sidney, Nebraska, in 1964. He enrolled at Carroll College, where he majored in English and minored in Spanish and sociology. During this time he also worked part time as a steam fitter at St. Peter’s Hospital, while holding down a work-study job at St. Helena’s school next to the Cathedral, coaching seventh and eighth grade basketball and track.
He also sang with the Carrolleers under the tutelage of Father Beausoliel. Durbin joined the Marine Corps in May of 1966 on the 120 delayed entry program after completing two years of study at Carroll College.
“I spent that summer in Helena and then September 19 I flew out of Butte for MCRD San Diego,” Durbin, 76, wrote in a recent email from his home in Whideby Island, Washington. “I graduated boot camp, Basic ITR (infantry training), then advanced second ITR specializing in 3.5 rockets, 106 recoilless rifle, demolition/explosives and flame throwers.”
In March 1967 at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Durbin recounted meeting up with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Division, which had been “all but wiped out fighting the NVA in the DMZ” in Vietnam. They trained in the jungle survival school with a new unit utilizing the new M-16.
Marine Steve Durbin, right, loads the 3.5 rocket launcher in the DMZ-Con Thien area 600 meters south off Ben Hai River, North Vietnam, May 1967.
On May 13, they landed in Dong Ha, Vietnam, in the middle of a rocket attack. It was pitch dark and there was “no one there to direct them to cover," so they dove under the first cover they could find.
“In the morning, we realized we had sought cover in an ammo dump,” he related, “and although none of us in the ammo were harmed, my Kilo Company suffered 40% casualties (killed in action/wounded in action).”
On May 17 they were helilifted into the DMZ, about 200 meters south of the Ben Hai River, which separated North from South Vietnam (the first American units to fight there).
“For the next 3-4 weeks we slogged through triple canopy jungle, thick with 7-8 foot high elephant grass and heavy bamboo thickets,” Durbin wrote. “As good shape as we thought we were, we lost 4-5 Marines a day as heat casualties and almost that many to NVA ambushes.”
From there they went to Con Thien, witnessing numerous B-52 strikes on the northern edge of DMZ. He said they patrolled daily, set nightly ambushes, and were nearly overrun by the enemy.
Durbin received his first Purple Heart at Con Thien, when 14 pieces of shrapnel lodged in the left side of his body. But it would’ve been much worse had his best friend, Cpl. Johnnie Morris, not jumped in front of the blast, saving Steve’s life but losing his own.
When the wounds healed, the unit had moved to C-2 bridge – “The Washout,” a strategic bridge on the main supply route to Con Thien – where they were overrun three nights after securing the perimeter.
Everywhere they went they wound up in firefights with the NVA.
By October 1967, in less than six months, Marine units in the DMZ suffered 1,582 KIA and 9,584 WIA, and the ARVN (South Vietnam’s army) had 631 KIA and 2,021 WIA, according to Durbin. The NVA (North Vietnam’s Army) had suffered 10,828 KIA, and probably three times more. That’s 13,041 human beings killed in a 10-square-mile area in six months.
He received his second Purple Heart in October just outside of Gio LInh when he stepped on a foot trap. “Luckily only 4 of the spikes penetrated my foot, but the resultant sepsis got me mede-vaced and sent to Battalion aid in Dong Ha,” for two weeks of twice-daily penicillin and hot soaks.
Durbin recalled going from E-1 to E-5 in a matter of months because of high turnover. “Every unit operated at about 60% capacity, he said” There were more fire fights in December and January 1968, as well, at A-3 and A-2 firebases and again at the Washout.
At the end of his 13-month tour, Durbin made stops at Danang and Okinawa, before landing at MCAS El Toro in order to avoid the anti-war demonstrations at LAX. He was mustered out of Marine Corps active duty on Sept. 19, 1968.
In January 1969, he returned to Carroll to finish his degree and serve inactive reserve time.
His first day back on campus, Steve and another veteran (in a wheelchair) entered a classroom, where professor greeted them with, “How many people did you murder in Vietnam?” Because of that comment and other isolated incidents at Carroll, he attained his degree without walking at graduation.
Durbin and his new bride Kathy lived in Helena for the next two years. He taught at CR Anderson as a full-time substitute for a year, and was employed at McGaffick’s gas station, while Kathy worked at J.M. McDonald’s Department Store.
Among Durbin’s best friends on the Hilltop were Chuck Petaja, Mike McCarthy, All-American basketball player Tony Sapit, Mike Maher, Mike Weggenman, Chip Dockery, Tim Juhls, Joe Wilcynski and Ken Knutson.
After a one-year teaching gig in Shelby, the young family returned to Nebraska. In 1982, in Aurora, Steve helped create a Vietnam vets VFW. The organization consisted of psychologists, bankers, lawyers, a psych nurse, teachers, a couple of well-known businessmen, a doctor, some well to do farmers and lots of worker bees.
Also among the group was Navy SEAL Vietnam vet and Medal of Honor recipient Gov. Bob Kerry.
“We pooled our different sources of power and money, borrowed some, and bought out the lease where the WW2 era vets’ Current VFW facility met,” Durbin said. “We started the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans’ Reunion, the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Group, a PTSD ‘rap’ group that lasted for over 6 years, Teen Club movie night, and Sons and Daughters of the VFW.”
In 1983, Durbin joined the Nebraska National Guard 24th Med Company (a 15 Huey helicopter unit in Lincoln) and trained as a flight medic/crew chief, EMT, CPR and ALS instructor. He described how the outfit flew emergency flood relief, blizzard relief and medevac for the other guard units as they performed their annual training.
Prior to the outbreak of the first Gulf War broke out, Durbin flew medevac in Camp Zama, Japan. “Upon our return, we headed to Saudi Arabia via Fort Riley Kansas, after loading our aircraft on C-5-As,” he recalled. “My crew flew 100 night vision goggle medevacs, 30 of which were combat medevacs into Iraq, almost to the Tigris Euphrates Rivers.”
One such mission rated their crew Air Medals. He left Saudi Arabia in May and wound up flying eight years total for the 24th Med. He said they lost one Huey in the war, and all souls on board perished.
Several years later the Durbins relocated to Whidbey Island, where he joined the 446 Aero Medevac squadron (Air Force Reserve) out of McChord Air Base, Washington. After attaining his flight certification on C-141s, he joined a team of TQM instructors that flew to every Air Force base from Elmendorf, Alaska, to the Florida Keys. He was the only enlisted airman in a team of 10 instructors, flying six years for the 446.
His last military move was Fort Lewis, Washington, with the 91st Regiment, 4th BDE, Army Reserves, whose mission at the time was to oversee and train all of Washington state’s national guard personnel. Their mission broadened during the second Gulf War to overseeing all the units’ 30-day validation training at the Desert School, and later for units heading to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Master Sgt. Durbin retired from the armed forces on June 6 (D-Day), 2006. His civilian career consisted of 40 years of teaching high school English. One of his students in Washington was John Burbidge, a current Helena resident. Last year, Burbidge’s daughter presented a profile on Durbin’s war experiences for a history class at Capital High.
In regard to Steve’s own healing process dealing with the horrific memories and tragic losses he suffered during the war, he has authored a large collection of poems and essays to help cope with those experiences.
And of course, once a Marine, always a Marine.
“I left the service at Ft. Lewis as an E-8 platoon sergeant,” wrote Durbin. “Not bad when you consider each branch of military move I made, cost a stripe: E-5, E-6, E-7 all had to be earned twice.
“I stayed enlisted because I was a field Marine at heart and didn’t want to get stuck behind a desk.”
|
2022-10-17T15:50:31Z
|
helenair.com
|
Stories of Honor: Vietnam combat vet Steve Durbin’s service spanned 4 decades
|
https://helenair.com/news/local/stories-of-honor-vietnam-combat-vet-steve-durbin-s-service-spanned-4-decades/article_cae2bb59-4ccb-5454-b70a-b428d37d2327.html
|
https://helenair.com/news/local/stories-of-honor-vietnam-combat-vet-steve-durbin-s-service-spanned-4-decades/article_cae2bb59-4ccb-5454-b70a-b428d37d2327.html
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Helena is a tight-knit town, it’s a political town, and a town of silver and gold, that is of new residents and our longtime families. Because of this, many of us are familiar with the saying, “show up.” Show up if you care about Helena. Show up if you want to make a change. Throughout the primary and general election season, we have a county attorney candidate who has shown up for us — Dan Guzynski.
Like me, he wasn’t born in Helena, and isn’t related to any longtime family here in Helena, but he cares about this community, his home. He is an honest, hardworking, qualified candidate who has spent the past 15 years working and raising his family in Helena. He has knocked on doors throughout Lewis and Clark County to meet with leaders and businesses, nonprofits, law enforcement and firefighters, and to garner support from both democrats and republicans. I know Dan Guzynski will represent the citizens of Lewis and Clark County in much the same manner as he has run his campaign, reaching out, learning, asking questions and making hard decisions to protect and serve all Helena citizens. DANFORMT.COM. Make your vote count on Nov. 8.
Theresa Frances Ortega,
Theresa Frances Ortega
|
2022-10-17T15:50:37Z
|
helenair.com
|
Dan Guzynski will 'show up' for Helena
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/dan-guzynski-will-show-up-for-helena/article_0cc281a7-ba2f-5337-938a-ce879a275dce.html
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/dan-guzynski-will-show-up-for-helena/article_0cc281a7-ba2f-5337-938a-ce879a275dce.html
|
Gary Buchanan will defend the rights of all
I am supporting Gary Buchanan for the Eastern District House of Representatives seat for Montana. Gary has a long career working for both Democrats and Republicans in state government. In those positions, as well as his private business, Gary has consistently demonstrated integrity, courage and service.
Gary will represent Montana well by defending the rights of all, including the right to privacy and reproductive choice. Gary supports our treasured public lands and will support policies that conserve them for "the greatest good for the greatest number in the long run." He supports providing quality public education and affordable health care. His years in the business sector and his labor endorsements prove that he understands what it takes to grow good jobs while ensuring a fair and level playing economic system for all. Gary also has shown that he will stand up for democratic ideals around the world, by supporting Ukraine's brave stand against unprovoked Russian aggression.
Finally, I'm supporting Gary Buchanan because he had the guts to leave a successful business and enter into the public arena on our behalf. His courage speaks volumes.
Bill Avey,
Bill Avey
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2022-10-17T15:50:43Z
|
helenair.com
|
Gary Buchanan will defend the rights of all
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-will-defend-the-rights-of-all/article_d438f281-7b6d-516a-841a-4e811df436c7.html
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/gary-buchanan-will-defend-the-rights-of-all/article_d438f281-7b6d-516a-841a-4e811df436c7.html
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We are a retired Montana Supreme Court justice and former United States attorney for the District of Montana, respectively. We are supporting Kevin Downs for county attorney because he has the experience, character, work ethic and lifelong commitment to public service the position requires.
Kevin has seasoned experience as an attorney both in Lewis and Clark County and for the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, holding hundreds of offenders accountable and achieving justice for victims, the community and the country. And while the prosecution of criminals and public safety are very high priorities of the office of county attorney, so too are many other unheralded aspects of the job. The office represents the state of Montana in child abuse and neglect cases and in juvenile court proceedings and handles involuntary commitments for the seriously mentally ill and seriously mentally disabled. Having managed an adolescent program for orphaned teenagers in Honduras and a home for disabled adults in Northern Ireland, Kevin has a deep working familiarity with these vulnerable populations. He will bring wisdom and compassion to the decisions the office must make in these difficult cases. Finally, as a well-known native son of Helena, he will effectively represent the county government and personnel in their dealings with community partners.
Kevin Downs is uniquely qualified by character and experience to manage every facet of the county attorney’s important job. Please join us in voting for him.
Pat and Mike Cotter,
Pat Cotter
Mike Cotter
|
2022-10-17T15:50:49Z
|
helenair.com
|
Support Kevin Downs for county attorney
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/support-kevin-downs-for-county-attorney/article_f6ac977c-348a-5108-9f8a-a290dbc46127.html
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/support-kevin-downs-for-county-attorney/article_f6ac977c-348a-5108-9f8a-a290dbc46127.html
|
LR-131 is a resolution to amend the state constitution known as the “Medical Care Requirements for Born-Alive Infants Measure.” It would amend the state constitution to require life-saving treatment be provided to all infants born alive — whether or not they are viable.
Seemingly innocuous, the amendment masks a cruel legislative overreach. The language of the proposed amendment states that all infants born alive are legal persons and, as such, are entitled to all live-saving measures that are necessary and available to keep the child alive. If a medical professional fails to take these steps, they face a stiff penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment and a $50,000 fine.
Who among us could possibly think that they had the right to take away the decisions of parents, in concert with medical professionals, over the care of their own infants by mandating care to save the life of a nonviable infant. Please keep their most difficult, painful moments private and dignified by voting no LR-131.
Alice Heath,
Alice Heath
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2022-10-17T15:51:02Z
|
helenair.com
|
Vote no on LR-131
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-no-on-lr-131/article_0d030a71-4fab-519c-8996-d1426dc9047d.html
|
https://helenair.com/opinion/letters/vote-no-on-lr-131/article_0d030a71-4fab-519c-8996-d1426dc9047d.html
|
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