There are presently 2 million incarcerated in U.S. prisons. This is 1/4 of the entire world’s incarcerated. Most of the incarcerated in the U.S. are serving terms for crimes that are drug related. It is odd that laws prohibiting the use and sale of “illegal” drugs were enacted considering the utter failure of the prohibition of alcohol with the 18th amendment. Not only did the use of alcohol actually increase during prohibition, but crime related to the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol soured during this period.

 

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Thanks to the Flathead Beacon for the excellent reporting of the Flathead County Commission meeting at which the Agency on Aging Director Lisa Sheppard's position was discussed (May 8 Beacon: “Commission Keeps AOA Director as Employee”).

 

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Republicans in Congress are trying to pass legislation that would permit the private sector to allow employers to grant comp time instead of paying overtime as the public sector has done for many years.

Just think about that statement for a minute. How ludicrous is the concept that private sector employers are not permitted to be flexible in how they reward their employees that work more than 40 hours per week?

 

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There’s a story I like to tell about my colleague Myers Reece. It involves how I “discovered” him after he had spent months backpacking through the jungles of South America. How I set him on the straight and narrow by making him my first hire at the Flathead Beacon. Of course, this story is largely embellished and is mostly told to make Myers laugh. We’ve always laughed a lot.

In reality, Myers was already an up-and-coming writer when I hired him in 2007. He had worked freelance jobs for outdoor magazines, interned at newspapers and was well known in the industry. He did have a somewhat unorthodox resume, opting to major in history instead of journalism at the University of Montana. And, yes, he had just recently returned from a trip to South America when I met him at a Bozeman restaurant.

 

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Gun control ads are hitting Montana’s airwaves and Vice President Joe Biden is lobbying around the country for gun control. As a U.S. Senate candidate, I feel compelled to respond.

The Second Amendment is not about hunting, period. I believe most Montanans realize that more restrictions on our right to bear arms will do nothing to stop the lawless from obtaining or using guns. I believe Montanans also know that guns are the only possession that when used by someone to commit a heinous crime, a law-abiding owner of that same possession is attacked with a threat on their rights.

 

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One of the first questions I ask business owners when we start working on their company is "What will it take to transform your business?"

I'm asking for several reasons - each of which are critical to knowing where you are with your business.

I want to find out what is top of mind - in other words, what tends to consume your thoughts about the business.

I want to learn what you're focused on beyond that one thing - assuming there's only one.

I want to know how big your thinking is.

And I want to know what's next - but sometimes, that isn't important yet.

 

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Young moms like Sylvia Malaga of Whitefish are organizing an educational day of action called the “March against Monsanto.” These events are planned in 200 places worldwide. One hundred and sixty are in the U.S with four rallies in Montana. The Kalispell event is Saturday, May 25 from noon to 5 p.m. at Depot Park. It is open to the public.

Malaga is part of a growing generation that unknowingly could be eating genetically modified organisms their entire lives. Her child is born into a generation that does not know life before GMOs.

 

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Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has met with public opposition over their plan to suppress illegal walleye in Noxon Reservoir. In response, Region 1 said they “will most likely respond by drafting a new EA and providing more public inclusion.”

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear; the population of invasive walleye in Noxon Reservoir is a result of illegal activity. These fish were planted by bucket biologists with flagrant disregard for state law. It has long been the policy of our fisheries managers that illegal aquatic wildlife plantings will be dealt with harshly. State policy says that, if feasible, FWP “shall attempt removal at the earliest possible date.” The current Montana Statewide Fisheries Management Plan for Noxon Reservoir calls for the department to “suppress illegally introduced walleye from the reservoir as possible.” The guidance of the law is clear, this is not a matter for public debate.

 

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