Sep242018

Montanans take pride in their clean air and water

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Politicians are elected to make decisions in the public’s best interests. Senate District 22 candidate Doug Kary’s voting record is proof he is irresponsible when it comes to the public’s best interests.

In 2011, Mr. Kary voted against landowner rights; to “authorize public utilities to acquire property by eminent domain without certifying the necessity of the acquisition.” He gave big government the right to take your property, no questions asked.

In 2015, Mr. Kary voted for leniency for sexual assault offenders. Voting to reduce sentences for sexual offenders not only puts read more

Sep232018

Voting absentee?

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

On Oct. 12, Montana absentee ballots will be sent out. More and more voters have been voting absentee. It is important for the voters to have truthful information on the voting records of political candidates. How did Sen. Tester vote on these bills that are important to Montanans?

Immigration (sanctuary cities).Jon Tester voted to protect and preserve federal funding to sanctuary cities, who harbor illegal aliens (H.R. 2579 — Toomey amendment, Feb. 15, 2018).

Net neutrality.Tester voted to block Trump’s removal of Obama’s Internet regulations (Senate Joint Resolution 52, May 16, 2018).

Waters of the United States.Tester voted to preserve vast federal power over any plot of land which may occasionally be read more

Sep232018

A native Yellowstone Valley candidate

Billings-Heights • Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

The Billings Heights has an exciting and new choice for Senate District 22. Jennifer Merecki is a native Yellowstone Valley candidate, with strong middle-class roots and values. Merecki is doing something refreshing in this district; she is going door-to-door talking to people.

Merecki is looking to discuss important values that impact the lives of her fellow community members, including public education. Merecki and her constituents believe in quality education for our youth, as they are the foundation of our future. Honest discussion — open dialogue, rather than narrow-focused partisanship ― is necessary. While candidates and voters often read more

Sep222018

Fact check everything the Left’s TV ads are telling you

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Gianforte or Williams – who’s best for Montana?

Amid the rhetoric of this campaign, several issues are simple and worth your consideration.

First, you need to fact check everything the Left’s TV ads are telling you.

The idea that Washington is locked in gridlock and nothing is getting done is the media rhetoric. If you follow Congressman Gianforte’s reports, you know Congress has accomplished a ton. Some issues are waiting on the Senate, where there is no clear conservative majority.

Notice how the Democrats have fallen silent about how Gianforte is not a native Montanan. That is because Williams only came to Montana in 1995 after graduating from Berkeley.

Essentially, Williams has never worked in the private sector – her employment record is in government read more

Sep212018

Let Carl write!

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I was reading the paper last week and I was shocked that Carl would not be writing any more of his political views.

While I agree he is way overboard, I must protest. It wasn’t too long ago, when I made a big stink about Carl and his outlandish musings, that Jonathan told me every one had a right to his and her own thoughts on political parties and their own views, even if I didn’t like them.

I agree. The paper is going to be very boring without his political options. So I hope Jonathan remembers what he told me and lets Carl do his political opinions. It gives me a reason to buy a paper on Thursday afternoons and read Carl’s biased views. So let Carl write.

Miracle Browning

Billings

Sep212018

National group targeting Montana as election battleground state

Politics

by Judy Killen

HUNTLEY — A national grassroots organization is visiting Montana voters in an effort to support the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Marilyn Musgrave, vice president for government affairs for Susan B. Anthony List, told the Yellowstone County News in an interview Wednesday morning that the organization has targeted Montana as a “battleground” state in the upcoming November election and of key interest in the Kavanaugh nomination and confirmation hearings.

She said more than 500 volunteers are blanketing the state this week in an effort to persuade them to ask Sen. Jon Tester to confirm Kavanaugh in time for the next Supreme Court session to begin on Oct. 1.

The idea is that after the Susan B. Anthony List volunteers contact them, those voters contact Tester or one of his local representatives to ask him to vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

The group’s intent for Tester is to “give him yet another chance to do the right thing,” Musgrave said. “I hope that he will listen to his constituents.”

She said Tester voted against confirming Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017.

“We work really hard to elect good people,” she said, noting that President Donald Trump carried Montana in the 2016 election by 20 percentage points. They want to continue — and, hopefully, build on — that success in this election, she said.

People tend to respond positively to personal contact, she said.

“You see TV ads, you hear a lot of radio,” Musgrave said, “but there’s something so personal about having someone show up at your door.”

She’ll be in Montana through Friday, she said, but Susan B. Anthony List volunteers will stay in Montana through the election, with special attention as absentee ballots go out to voters on Oct. 12.

“We’re getting close to the election and so everything intensifies,” she said.

The organization wants to reach as many individual voters as possible, she said, noting recent surveys that show the Montana U.S. Senate race is close.

“If the polls are right, a few people can make all the difference,” she said.

Sep212018

Lockwood water, sewer district ponders expanding sewer service

Top Stories • Lockwood

Originally published in the 9/14/18 print edition of Yellowstone County News. 

LOCKWOOD — Plenty of public input is needed before a final plan is approved for expanded sewer service in Lockwood.

But areas that are more likely to receive sewer service are beginning to take shape in a plan being developed by the Lockwood Water and Sewer District and its engineering consultant.

The water and sewer district hosted a public meeting on Sept. 12 to provide an update on the Preliminary Engineering Report, or PER, being written by Jill Cook of Billings engineering firm Morrison Maierle. A handful of people attended the meeting, but few offered comments or questions about the report.

The water and sewer district has already completed the first two phases of the sewer system, with construction complete on the second phase in 2016.

The district began installing a sewer system after identifying neighborhoods where existing — and aging — septic systems were at risk of failure, including

read more

Sep192018

Safety number one priority for new BNSF Railway cop

Top Stories

HUNTLEY — Railroad police officers have come a long way since the days when they worked with the Pinkerton’s detectives and U.S. Marshals on the western frontier.

Justin Douglas, special agent for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway working out of the railway’s new Billings office, is more likely to use a drone or canine assist than a horse or stagecoach, but the top priority of the railway remains the same: transporting freight and maintaining equipment to keep people safe.

Douglas began his official duties in Billings on Sept. 1. He transferred to the area from Chicago when a longtime agent retired and the railway moved the regional office from Gillette, Wyoming, to Billings.

Coming to Billings feels like home for Douglas and his wife — he grew up in Moorhead, Minnesota, and she’s from Mandan, North Dakota. But the veteran BNSF employee — a former conductor and XX as well as Chicago law enforcement officer — doesn’t expect to see much of the new Billings office.

Douglas is assigned to a region that includes 17 counties and 620 track miles in Montana and eight counties and 432 track miles in Wyoming, an area that extends south to Casper.

With two other railway agents in Whitefish and Havre, Douglas concedes that a backup officer may be a long way away. He operates read more

Sep182018

As for Trump accomplishment?

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I have only been a subscriber for roughly 20 months but am increasingly amused at Mr. Wolf’s denial he’s a Democrat.  I actually find myself agreeing with him, but first some observations.  Since Carl is not a Democrat, which I agree, I think he always attempts to conveniently forget history.

He only seems to take offense to GOP politicians. Example, Carl is upset at Trump recently not paying reverence of the passing of a fellow GOP, Sen. McCain. They were rivals.

So, was Carl was equally outraged when Obama did not attend Justice Scalia’s funeral. I suspect not.  While Obama was spending so much time on the golf course, watching NCAA basketball, televising his sweet 16 picks —  Carl was equally outraged? Or was he to be found in his shop or watching birds. As for his comments about the outrage he holds for all things Trump (remember all his NMP comments), I again wonder if read more

Sep172018

Stick to writing about birds

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I was at the Republican rally last week, and just so you know, Carl, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It’s awsome to hear people talk about the United States of America like they love it instead of people who hate it and for what it stands for.

I was disappointed to see that Carl has found the president guilty on made up charges and rumors. Last I knew, read more

Sep172018

Atlas Shrugged

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I do not know how many of you have read Atlas Shrugged. For those of you that have, I am sure the similarities between President Trump and Taggart are apparent. Have we come to the point that we are happy with corporatists controlling every facet of our government? Here are a few examples: housing, grocery, fuel, travel. The free market does not exist in America today; it is a pipedream.

If you doubt that, try to start a taxi company in Montana or open a new family-owned grocery store; try to open a business to read more

Sep162018

God Bless America and MAGA!

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

“I am positive Trump is a liar, a womanizer, a tax cheat, egotist, bully, misogynist, racist, and is heartless and amoral, which means he will do or say anything to get attention.” ….says the clairvoyant Carl Wolf. Obviously there is no give and take in his world. Now what if we substituted Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or Hillary’s name in this over the top exaggeration?

As I previously wrote, I don’t agree with everything  President Trump has said or done, but he is certainly better than having the corrupt Clintons running read more

Sep152018

Vote NO on I-186. 

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Three decades ago the spotted owl was used to obstruct tree removal and to force unreasonable “hands off” forest management that has helped result in today’s mega fires. So forgive me for not believing the water pollution calamity story now being told by similar activists promoting I-186. This initiative will instead just hurt young Montana working-class families and harm local small businesses that depend on mining.

The corporations pushing I-186 are distracting voters with a nonexistent clean water crisis to hide their harmful mission in a perceived warm read more

Sep142018

Republican ‘Day of Action’ targets Montana voters

Features • Politics • Huntley Project

HUNTLEY — The Republican National Committee is going local this Saturday in its National Day of Action.

In Montana, the National Day of Action translates to at least 100 volunteers going door to door in a grassroots effort to reach as many potential voters as possible as the November general election draws closer.

On Wednesday, Miki Carver, Montana communications director for the Republican National Committee, told the Yellowstone County News that Saturday’s effort is part of the first use in Montana of the Republican Party’s extensive voter database.

The party plans to use its Republican Leadership Initiative (RIL) to “equip the next generation of grassroots leaders.” Carver called RIL the national read more

Sep142018

Rabid bat bites Worden girl, 12

Top Stories • Huntley Project

by Judy Killen

WORDEN — Her family had just returned from camping for several days in a remote spot, but all it took was a trip to the driveway for a 12-year-old Worden girl to be bitten by a rabid bat.

Jordan Schoorl-Buttram told the Yellowstone County News that her daughter, Riley, walked out barefoot to the car and stepped on a bat that was lying on the driveway next to the car. It was Labor Day, Sept. 3.

Schoorl-Buttram said before that, she hadn’t seen many bats in Worden.

“Definitely not during the day and definitely not underneath the car,” she said. Seeing a bat at about 2:30 p.m. was a warning sign, since bats usually read more

Sep142018

Guest on the Rush Limbaugh show

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

A few days ago I was listening to Mark Styn, who was the guest host of the Rush Limbaugh show. Mark stated that Limbaugh had been consistently conservative over the years, but he thought that Anthony Kennedy had not been while on the Supreme Court.

I remember becoming familiar with both of these individuals in the fall in fall of 1985 while in law school in Sacramento, California. Rush had an Op. Ed. piece in the Sacramento Union Newspaper. The piece mentioned that he had a talk show on the KFBK  radio station. I remember that I finally found out how to pronounce his last name when I did listen to the show.

In the school year 1985 to 1986, Kennedy was my constitutional law professor in law school. It was apparent at that time to us who were familiar with the founders read more

Sep102018

None of us are worthy

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor: 

Some times it hard to decide just where Krayton Kerns stands. He is against mob rule, unless it is his mob. He is for respect, responsibility and dignity for others like a liberal Christian, then he goes more like a conservative Christian, one has to meet some check list to be worthy to get medical treatment, education and a quality of life.

If I read Romans right, none of us are worthy.

Just which is it, practice what I preach or do as I say, not as I do? The great double standard is alive and well in the read more