Latest
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TFS: THE MORE QUESTIONS WE ASK, THE MORE WE NEED THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTS
After the first three articles about TFS, something interesting has happened. People are talking. People are asking questions. People who have been involved with the fire department, the Fire Service Area, the board, and the community are offering information. That is exactly what should happen. But there is also a problem. Different people are giving different answers to some very basic questions. Who actually belongs to the fire department? Who gets to vote? Who pays the fire service fee? Do vacant property owners pay? What exactly does the FSA board control? What does the fire department board control? Where does…
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It’s time to hook the baler back up and start turning out little round bales. In the north end of the field, I have a doe, her grandmother, and her fawn. It’s not like I can tell them from other deer by appearance – but the behavior identifies them. She was a fawn in winter…
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Most Montanans probably have no idea that our state has positioned itself to become one of the most unusual experimental medicine markets in the country. This is not something being proposed for someday. It is already law. In 2023, Montana expanded its Right to Try law through Senate Bill 422. The change removed the requirement…
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Without his unquestioning followers, Anthony Fauci could have done little harm. People trained in education bought into, and mandated school closures – despite the fact that Covid really wasn’t a threat to children. The problem wasn’t Fauci screwing up – it was several layers of experts between him and our local school boards who accepted…
local
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We started the Mountain Ear (both times) because we wanted better coverage of local news. There are so many board meetings, and all of them are important. The Tobacco Valley News faces the same problem we do- not enough people and too many meetings, and their focus is on a larger area. So we started…
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An emergency meeting of the Trego school board was called again on May 4 at 4 PM to update the community on the methamphetamine contamination of the school grounds.. Although the meeting was poorly noticed, there were nearly 40 community members in attendance, these included parents, teachers, former students and teachers and interested community members.…
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Earlier this week, a meeting was held to formalize the existing long-term relationship between the TFS Community Hall and the TFS Fire Department. Tables were set to form a circle, and the meeting began with introductions. It was a joint meeting meant to prevent future problems, without any reason to expect them. The issue: an…
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An emergency school board meeting was held at the TFS Community Hall, Saturday at noon (which coincidentally is the time the Rendezvous Parade in Eureka began). The board acknowledged that they failed to provide adequate (48 hours notice) on the meeting, and cited the requisite MCA code allowing it in the event of an unforseen…
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When I went to get some repair work done, the person I was consulting advised fixing the structural issues and then putting the same ancient dilapidated siding back on the building. The rational? Property taxes. Last summer, we joked about how much the nice flowers my mother had on their porch raised their taxes. They…
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I spent most of a year away from the school after I finished my term. I attended a couple of board meetings because I was asked – on one hand, there was, at the least, the appearance of an unlawful board meeting . . . unlawful because it appeared to violate Montana’s open meeting law.…
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Historically, independent voters, and voters for minor third parties, do not get a large percentage of votes. Often, they’re considered “spoiler” candidates, who lose the election for someone by dra4wing critical support away during a close race. Or their thought of as simply “protest candidates” with no chance of winning. In Montana, for the presidential…
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Not many years ago, if you were faced with a cluster of unacceptable clowns on your ballot, you could write a name in and cast a protest vote. Hell, I guess you still can – the thing is, your write-in protest vote won’t be counted or reported. With the elimination of subsection 7 last year,…