Sep132024
Dear Editor,
I am proud to support Mike Yakawich for Senate District 24. As a dedicated friend and community leader in Billings, Mike has consistently worked to improve behavioral healthcare and create safer, healthier neighborhoods. Together, we have tackled the pressing challenges of homelessness in our city.
His service on the Behavioral Health for read more
Sep122024
Dear Editor,
In recent weeks Jon Tester’s campaign has devolved into ad hominem attacks on Tim Sheehy, most of which have no relevance to the issues that are important to Montanans. The latest of these unwarranted attacks came as a full-page ad in my local paper where the headline screamed “Sheehy’s Plan Closes Pioneer Medical Center”. I call horsepucky on that one! That ad is a near carbon copy to an attack ad directed at me in 2018. They claimed “John Esp’s (plan) Could Close This Hospital”. Same Hospital, six years apart, same disingenuous rhetoric. What the Democrat Party did not tell you back in 2018, was this: I was instrumental in read more
Sep122024
Dear Editor,
This is a Letter to the Editor (LTE) to put a few things on the table for Veteran’s thoughts.
There is an individual running for office that ‘bought’ a Bone Spur diagnosis to make him unqualified for the draft during the Vietnam War. During a trip to Europe, to remember those fallen during WWII, he called them “SUCKERS AND LOSERS”. Said, of the late Senator McCain, “He is not a HERO because he was CAUGHT”. We of that era, as well as you of other engagements, know the torture and suffering that the “Prisoners of War” are/were subject to. Called himself a “Nationalist” on several of his rallies. One has a hard time justifying being a “Patriot” when calling himself a “Nationalist”. He has supported read more
Sep102024
As November 5th quickly approaches, the Montana U.S. Senate race has quickly become Republican candidate Tim Sheehy’s to lose. The candidate has seen a relatively positive linear trajectory in polling, as he was behind by as many as nine points in February, but now holds the lead by a polling average of 5.2 points according to RealClearPolitics.
The most recent reputable poll to drop was conducted by a bipartisan coalition of Fabrizio Ward and David Binder Research and sponsored by AARP. The poll was conducted between August 25 and August 29 and took responses from 600 likely voters. In a head-to-head race, the poll found Sheehy holding a read more
Sep92024
Ron Allen Grimsrud
December 23, 1955 – September 3, 2024
Ron Allen Grimsrud, 68, of Nashua/Billings, MT, passed away tragically on September 3, 2024, in a car accident. His beloved wife, Karen Grimsrud of 47 years, survived the accident. Born on December 23, 1955, in Wolf Point, MT, to Don and Shirley Grimsrud, Ron lived a life filled with love, faith, and service to everyone who knew him.
Ron was a devoted husband, father, son, uncle, cousin, and friend who lived his life rooted in faith. He led by example, always forgiving and eager to help in any way possible. He was self-employed as a general contractor, a hard worker who loved running heavy machinery, hunting, tinkering with projects, and seeking new adventures. He never sat still—just a big kid enjoying life in his sandbox.
Over the years, Ron lived in many places, including read more
Sep62024
The Billings Times has been located at 2919 Montana Avenue since 1898. The printing business will continue operation as it has since 1891. (photo by John Warner)
by Ed Kemmick, (republished with permission)
As of today, you can add one more name to the list of roughly 2,500 American newspapers that have folded in the past 20 years.
As Publisher Scott Turner announced today on Page 1 of The Billings Times, this is the final issue of a weekly newspaper that has been published continuously since 1891.
It’s not like losing the Rocky Mountain News (Denver, 2009), but it’s still a sad occasion. I know it was a hard decision for Scott. His father, Bill Turner, moved his family from Nebraska to Billings in 1960 to work for The Times’ print shop on Montana Avenue, then ended up buying the business in 1978.
Scott worked as a delivery boy for the print shop and addressed and bagged up the newspapers every Thursday for delivery to the post office during his three years at Billings Senior High, and after some years away he went to work for his father full time in 1989. When Bill died in 2009, Scott and his brother, Craig, took over the business. Craig’s son, Kelly, joined The Times as a pressman in 1998 and now runs the read more
Sep62024
Thomas L. Hardeman, age 81, of Cameron, Montana, died Thursday, August 29, 2024, at Madison Valley Manor. Tom was born in Evansville, IN, and had been a resident of Madison County, Montana, for 26 years. Tom was a retired owner of Star Studio and Camera Shop in read more
Sep62024
Dear Editor,
Montanans, the baseless attacks against Tim Sheehy by Jon Tester’s campaign are both false and repulsive. Tester can’t defend his own horrendous voting record, so instead, he makes preposterous insinuations about Sheehy. The facts are Patriot and Navy Seal, Tim Sheehy, was awarded a Bronze Star with valor for heroism, and the Purple Heart resulting from a combat wound during his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He served our country bravely and honorably. Sheehy is also a read more
Sep52024
Dear Editor,
I have been a landowner in the Bull Mountains and ranched for over 40 years. My land is adjacent to the Bull Mountains Mine operated by Signal Peak Energy (SPE). We ranch on deeded and leased land comprising over 13,000+ acres. I want to respond to the misinformation that my ranching neighbors have spread about the impacts the Mine has had on the surface and water resources in the area.
We have watched SPE operate from the first day it started mining. I have checked the surface many times and found read more
Sep52024
Jonathan McNiven
Well, Folks, as many of you have probably heard, the Billings Times announced last week that they have published their final edition of their newspaper. Yes, we signed an agreement early last week with the Billings Times and part of that agreement was that we would allow the Billings Times to notify and break the news to the masses and wait a week before we put anything in our newspaper about it.
For some, this does not seem significant to you as some might not even recognize the newspaper. For others, it’s significant in a number of ways. First, the Billings Times had been in circulation for 133 years serving the Billings and surrounding area with news and legal notices. Before the Yellowstone County News took over the legal advertising contract for the City of Billings in 2017, the contract resided with the read more
Sep52024
Dear Editor,
The Democrats have selected their party’s presidential candidate for November 2024, Kamala Harris. Senior members of the Democratic party – Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and others – convinced President Biden he didn’t have the mental acuity to earn the support of the nation and would lose to Trump. This would mean the Democrats possibly losing not only the presidency, but the Senate and the House as well. This would cost the Democrats their current tenuous strength in the administration of our country. So Biden dropped out and endorsed his Vice President, Kamala, to go for the presidency.
We Deplorables, long ago, recognized that read more
Sep52024
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton addresses the crowd at a meet-and-greet event in support of Tim Sheehy at the Northern Hotel in Billings on September 4, 2024 (photo by Evan Hood)
As we inch closer and closer to the election in November, the stakes continue to rise. With possibly the most important statewide election in the country right here, both parties continue to throw everything they have at Montana’s U.S. Senate race between Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy.
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) joins what has become a long list of Republicans in the federal government coming to Montana in the last few months, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and of course former President Donald Trump. read more
Sep52024
According to Senator Tester’s public schedule, Senator Tester held 218 meetings with lobbyists between January 2023 and August 2024. This figure also does not include meetings between Tester’s staff and lobbyists.
Anti-lobbying sentiments have been a central theme of Tester’s campaigns and tenure in the Senate, with his first opponent, Conrad Burns, engulfed by the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. In a 2006 debate, Tester proclaimed that he “won’t sell Montana down the road by cutting deals with K-Street lobbyists.” In a campaign ad, he said “special interests will never hitch a ride in this truck.” The Senator even publicly took an ethics pledge, vowing to disclose all meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups, and promising not to read more
Sep52024
Under construction, the Dollar General on Highway 312 in Shepherd is slated to open mid to late November. (photo by Andrew Bolerjack)
The well-known discount store chain, Dollar General, currently being built on Highway 312 in Shepherd is scheduled to open mid to late November. Project Manager Bill Bache stated the project is on schedule and the certificate of occupancy should be received read more
Sep32024
A lawsuit from the Montana Democratic Party against the Montana Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen, was heard in front of a judge in a Lewis and Clark County courtroom on the morning of Friday, August 30,. The lawsuit is an attempt to have the Green Party candidate in the United States Senate race, Michael Barb, removed from the ballot. The Democrat Party fears that a Green Party candidate may siphon votes from Senator Tester in an incredibly close race against Tim Sheehy. With Tester realizing his path to victory requires him to split tickets with President Trump, and thus must appeal to moderate and conservative voters, it is a legitimate fear that he could lose the votes of more liberal Montanans to a third-party candidate such as Barb. The Green Party platform emphasizes raising the federal minimum wage, drastically cutting defense spending and ending foreign wars, and ending the use of fossil fuels.
On Tuesday, September 3, Judge Mike McMahon denied the Democratic Party’s motion, thus allowing Robert Barb to stay on the ballots for the upcoming Senate election.
The Montana Democratic Party alleged that the Montana Green Party had not read more
Sep22024
Susan Miller Dussault
Susan Miller Dussault, 71, of Huntley, Montana, died August 28, 2024, after a short battle with cancer, she was surrounded by her family. She was born on February 18, 1953, in Newton Iowa, to Clarence (Mike) and Rosemary Miller. She graduated from Plentywood High School in 1971 and then from Montana State University in 1975. She married the love of her life Raymond (Dewey) Dussault on June 15, 1973, in Plentywood, Montana. They had two boys Mike Dussault and Jere Dussault.
Her true passion was being a kindergarten teacher in Ulm, MT, and working with disabled adults at Glenwood in Plentywood, MT. Other occupations were working for the City of Fort Benton, the City Clerk at the Billings Municipal Court, the right hand-lady at R & R trading and Yellowstone County News in Huntley, MT. She had many talents but really enjoyed quilting, painting, and sewing, spending time with family and friends, she especially loved camping the summers in Montana and going to Havasu, Arizona for the winter, she belonged to the Billings Heights Lions Club and Eastern Star. Her greatest joy was her boys. read more
Sep22024
This past week, a total of 60 local elected officials all from Yellowstone County signed on to a letter endorsing Tim Sheehy for United States Senate over current Senator Jon Tester. The list of names includes current and former state representatives, county commissioners, Billings City Council members, former district judges, party leaders and former Billings mayor Tom Hanel.
The number of names continued to grow dramatically as on Thursday, August 22 at 29 and as of the morning of Wednesday, August 28 the list reached 60 names.
The letter expresses concern for several issues on which Jon Tester has negatively read more
Aug312024
As events in states like California and Hawaii have proven, nature often generates conditions that pose high risks of power lines igniting fires. NorthWestern Energy is in the process of developing strategies that will mitigate those risks, and last Monday, Jordan McNaught and Lisa Perry on behalf of NorthWestern Energy, visited with County Commissioners to inform them about their efforts.
NorthWestern Energy has established a department specifically to monitor conditions across the state at all times, in order to be prepared when high winds and drought conditions prevail in any given areas. And, when extreme weather conditions threaten safe operations, they will shut power off so a line going down won’t start a fire, explained Perry.
McNaught explained that an area in which power might be shut off could be small or large depending on conditions. Advance inspections and assessments of areas regarding vegetation, forestation, access and other situations will help identify higher risk situations. For example, Emerald Hills in Lockwood is an area which has greater vulnerability in Yellowstone County. Other areas that are especially vulnerable exist in Carbon County and along the Beartooth Front.
McNaught said that much like the Forest Service does in posting fire risk levels, NorthWestern Energy will assess and read more
Aug312024
The Lockwood School Board approved its $13,052,562.52 budget, with one dissenting vote, at their meeting last week. The budget falls about $700,000 short of what is needed, according to the School’s Business Manager and Clerk Laurie Kvamme. But trustees have targeted some opportunities to reduce that short fall, she said.
“All and all, we still have work to do,” said Kvamme, “But it’s not horrible, not like a lot of schools.”
The increasing cost of hiring teachers is part of the reason, but all costs are going up for all school districts.
Since the addition of the new high school, Lockwood has been having to add to the number of teachers hired each year.
Superintendent Don Christman reported that this year the district has filled read more
Aug312024
The last I heard, or read, the FBI had declared the attempted murder of President Donald J. Trump was done by a lone murderer. Such a statement is political speak. (Does this remind us of similar statements about Hunter Biden’s laptop?) That is, the murderer may have been alone when he fired the shots, but the murderer did not act alone. The sum of all the parts seems to provide strong evidence that the murderer had a lot of help.
So what are the parts in the summation? Foreign entities can be ruled as very unlikely since such actions would be committing an act of war. Even Puppet Biden’s handlers would’ve had to take some kind of action. If there are no foreign entities, then we have to look within our own country.
Montana Senator Jon Tester said, “Punch him in the face.” Puppet Biden said, “…I’d take him behind the gym and beat the read more
