Oct252018

The term “Useful Idiots” has been credited to many people.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

The term “Useful Idiots” has been credited to many people. But where it originated from is not important. The concept matters now because it is more applicable in today’s political climate than it has ever been before. Why? Because no matter what side people are on, there is a tendency to default to party tribalism. This behavior is not new, but it is increasing with the advent of social media.

Many voters vote with the “lesser of two evils” mentality. But because of their tribal behavior, they will also fail to overtly disagree with the people they voted for. Without voter consequence, the bad behavior of elected officials is condoned. Worse, it is defended by their supporters, who have become “useful idiots.” read more

Oct252018

Griffin elected president of Montana Medical Association

Billings

Dr. Jonathan Griffin

Originally published in the 10/19/18 print edition of Yellowstone County News. 

BILLINGS – Billings native and physician Jonathan S. Griffin has been elected president of the Montana Medical Association.

Griffin was elected at the association’s 140th annual membership and board of trustees Meeting at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort.

Griffin is a member of the MMA board of trustees and has been a MMA member since 2012. He is a thought leader in health information technology, and served on the Organizing Board of Big Sky read more

Oct222018

YCN Snap Shot runner-up winners

Features

Here are two images that achieved runner up status to the Yellowstone County News “YCN Snap Shot” contest for this year.  The first place image won $100 with 2nd place winning $50 and third place getting honorable mention.  

With about 60 images that were submitted to the Yellowstone County News, we thank all those who submitted pictures and images.  We also want to thank Western Security Bank for read more

Oct222018

Obituary: Preston Ray Sweeney, Sr. “Sweeney”

Obituaries

Preston Ray Sweeney, Sr. “Sweeney”

Preston Ray Sweeney, Sr. “Sweeney” was born on Nov. 2, 1931, and was just a few days from his 87th birthday when he left this world on Oct. 19, 2018. His parents, Wilbert Preston Sweeney and Alta Faye Kephart Sweeney, moved to Billings from Holt County, Missouri, in the 1920s. Sweeney’s first job was working in the family truck garden on Poly Drive.

At the age of 8 years old, he developed polio and spent several months in the hospital. He often recounted that, from his hospital window, he had watched the Northern Hotel burn down (fall of 1940). He never read more

Oct222018

Obituary: Richard Joseph Miller

Obituaries

Richard Joseph Miller

     Richard Joseph Miller passed away on Saturday, October 13, 2018, age 72. He was born to Harry and Minola (Grammar) Miller on June 26, 1946 at home in Keeline, WY.

     Dick was raised on the family ranch with his 9 brothers and 2 sisters before moving to Glenrock, where he excelled in high school football and track. During this time, he met his future wife, Dixie. After graduating Dick enlisted in the Army, serving in 1st Battalion, 321st Artillery, 101st Airborne Division from 1966 to 1968. On February 23, 1968 Dick and Dixie eloped to Colorado.

Dick began working in the oil fields starting in Lynch, WY and then moving to Belle Creek, MT to work for read more

Oct212018

U.S. Attorney: Arrests, drug seizures show Project Safe Neighborhoods is working

Montana-Statewide • Yellowstone County

Originally published in the 10/19/18 print edition of Yellowstone County News.  

BILLINGS — In the past six months, law enforcement officers have charged 105 persons in federal and state court, seized 160 pounds of methamphetamine and confiscated 52 firearms from the Yellowstone County community as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program to reduce violent crime through a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement effort.

On Tuesday, the Montana U.S. Attorney’s office held a press conference to explain the program and its success so far. PSN is a reinvigorated U.S. Department of Justice read more

Oct212018

Vote like your freedoms depend on it, because they do!

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I am an emigrant from Communist China. My grandfather originally came to America as a Chinese coolie laborer in the early 1900s when America was building its transcontinental railroads. The Chinese men worked long hard hours to send their modest wages back to China to support their families. They had no intention of bringing their families to America until after read more

Oct202018

Weekly Ramblings: Krayton Kerns -Panic Attacks

Features • Politics

Krayton Kerns, Ramblings of a Conservative Cow Doctor. publishes a weekly column in the Yellowstone County News print edition.

Several decades back, the trophy wife and I hauled our three little ones to Disneyland. On the second night, we were touring Cinderella’s castle during their end-of-day parade and firework display. We tourists were crammed shoulder to shoulder when the night sky exploded in brilliant pyrotechnics. I was staring up into the darkness when Druann jabbed my ribs and hollered, “Grab Chelsie!”

I looked down to see our 3-year-old daughter screaming in panic and running in place. She was terrified and seconds from bolting into the crowd. Panic is a survival mechanism common to every animal species and the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh has triggered this fight-or-flight reaction in progressives.

State-approved news broadcasts and social media are filled with video clips of activists pounding the doors of the Supreme Court, screaming hysterically at conservatives in D.C. restaurants and torching trucks sporting MAGA stickers.  As deranged as these perpetrators are, they are not panicked, and instead, are read more

Oct192018

McNiven Meanderings

Meanderings

Jonathan McNiven

Well, folks, can you believe that we have surpassed four years in owning and operating this fiscal rag (as Carl claims)? Yep, October 1 was our anniversary of taking over the helm.  In fact, I have been so busy trying to set the foundation for even more success that I forgot to even bring it up until now. There is just that much good going at YCN that we just keep forging forward with more options, legal ads, obits,  news, and content that is not anywhere else.  

From Carl’s Outdoors “Me Too Movement” articles to Krayton Kern’s Panic Attacks, we’ve got the good stuff right here in your hyper-local weekly newspaper! 

Did you notice we went 24 pages again this week?  We’ve come a long ways to get a 24 page newspaper out to the masses.  A big difference from an eight and 12 page paper to now this.  It can’t be done without the support of advertisers, great staff, readers like you and great columnists like Krayton Kerns and our Favorite Euthanized Outdoorsman Carl Wolf, even if there is a lackluster editor like myself.  I’m read more

Oct182018

Your power, your vote – choose against this Socialist nonsense

Top Stories

Dear Editor:

Rosendale and Gianforte – Real Montana Values

Has the Democratic Party been exposed?  Reasonable people who value truth, the rule of law and the Constitution will vote yes after watching the Kavanaugh hearings.  This was not some anomaly — some irregularity — this is what these Socialist Democrats have and are becoming. If you look at voting records and issues, you know that Tester and Williams are not the exception. You didn’t hear Jon and Kathleen decrying these tactics.  

Democrats have been exposed as a group who care only for raw power, will destroy anyone to get it, and believe the public is ignorant and won’t recognize their tactics.  When you see emotional-accusation trump “innocent until proven guilty,” you know this is not an America you want to live in. 

These are the bottom line reasons I have confidence in two men of integrity I have gotten to know — Matt Rosendale and Greg Gianforte. read more

Oct182018

People prefer work to welfare

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

People prefer work to welfare.  Brazil and some countries in Africa where work is not available are fighting poverty and unemployment with “UBI,” Universal Basic Income.  This is a program of cash transfers to the poor. These transfers result in people eating better, less domestic violence, and improved “mental health.”

However, in the U.S., joblessness is perhaps more debilitating than a low paying job. Suicide, divorce, and opiod use are all associated with non-employment. In a recent survey, only 7 percent of men in households earning less than $35,000 per year reported being dissatisfied with their lives. But among the unemployed of all incomes, dissatisfaction soars to 18 percent.

Being rewarded for personal responsibility — for showing up on time each day, for getting the job done, and knowing that read more

Oct182018

U.S. Attorney: Arrest, drug seizures show Project Safe Neighborhood is working

Top Stories

BILLINGS — In the past six months, law enforcement officers have charged 105 persons in federal and state court, seized 160 pounds of methamphetamine and confiscated 52 firearms from the Yellowstone County community as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program to reduce violent crime through a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement effort.

On Tuesday, the Montana U.S. Attorney’s office held a press conference to explain the program and its success so far. PSN is a reinvigorated U.S. Department of Justice initiative that identifies the most read more

Oct182018

Big brother will be coming after you next.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I-185 is being touted as a health measure. Raising the price of a pack of cigarettes by $2 will encourage more people to quit smoking and pay for Medicaid expansion, they say.

Hospitals are promoting I-185 for more than a health reason. It is guaranteed income for them and bypasses the discussion in the Legislature to put some side boards on Medicaid expansion.

It was projected that 40,000 people would read more

Oct172018

“The smoking gun”

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I am tired, ad nauseum, of political ads attempting to persuade me that their candidate espouses “Montana Values” or that in order to have “Montana Values” one needs to have been born in Montana.  If political lynching and character assassination  embody “Montana Vaues”, then leave me out of it, I want no part of it.

The clock is ticking towards high noon during the recent hearing for Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and just like in the movies, here comes Senator Feinstein  and her last minute attack on Kavanaugh’s character. Spare me the facts, what we have here is an allegation… an allegation that is over 35 years old and impossible to substantiate.  We get to let the clock keep ticking for several days in an attempt to derail the final vote. Out of the woodwork, like so many “wack-a-moles,” comes read more

Oct172018

Obituary: Propp, Lucinda

Obituaries

Lucinda Propp

Lucinda (Naasz) Propp passed away on October 13, 2018, with family by her side. Lucinda was born in Napoleon, ND on June 4, 1928. Severe drought in the Dakotas forced the family to move and they settled inPompeys Pillar, MT in 1936, later purchasing a farm in 1942. After going to a high school dance with friends, Lucinda started dating the love of her life, Allen. They married in 1948 and had three sons: Greg, Tim, and Rod. Allen’s younger brother Skip lived with them for a number of years as a boy and was read more

Oct172018

Smoke, smoke that cigarette.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Smoke, smoke that cigarette.

Does anyone realize that every Marlboro Man died of lung cancer and before they got the job they did not smoke? Well, for those who like continue smoking you would not mind paying $75-$100 a pack.

Just like any other sport, you want to play, you got to pay. Even your second hand smoke not only pollutes the air, but little children wind up inhaling that smoke. read more

Oct162018

Having lived on ranches and in a small town, Janna understands

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I am writing in support of Janna Lind for House District 56. Janna earned my support from her dedication to educating our youth while engaging a diverse student body; that diversity mirrors our population. She graduated from high school in Hysham, attended RMC, and has built a home in Lockwood with her husband and son.

I knew Janna first as student at Rocky, and now as a colleague at Billings West High School. She has always been forthright, honest and direct in sharing her beliefs and opinions.

The Holocaust Museum invited Janna to training one summer and the two of us presented teaching Montana history at the National Council of Social Studies.  Janna proudly showed a national audience our cultural heritage and innovative ways of teaching its lessons. This led to other presentations on balanced use of Montana resources. read more