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committee split

After a Wednesday morning meeting of the Missoula Public Safety and Health Committee the issue of whether Missoulians will be allowed to keep chickens in their yards is still undecided. The eight member committee was evenly split down the middle on the so-called “chicken ordinance.”

Council members were unsure on how to proceed on the proposed ordinance after the vote came out tied so it was decided that City Attorney Jim Nugent would be contacted to resolve the dispute.
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31st annual public land law conference

If there’s one thing often missing from talks about energy efficiency, it’s, well, energy. But when renowned Western historian Patricia Limerick took to the podium at the University of Montana’s University Center Theater Monday night it didn’t take long to realize she wasn’t there to spout off depressing statistics and flash pie chart after pie chart.

At her keynote address for the 31st Annual Public Land Law Conference, Limerick discussed the future of energy in the Rocky Mountain West, citing hypocrisy, stereotyping, and nostalgia as key causes that undermine the Western quest to find realistic solutions to growing energy demands -- all the while spicing her talk with anecdotes about drunken friends, limericks, and a good dose of self-deprecating humor.

Limerick, author of numerous books on Western history, director of the Center of the American West, and recipient of the prestigious MacArthur “genius grant” in 1995, believes that in determining the wisest course for the West’s future we need to take a good look at the West’s past -- but not before removing our rose-colored glasses.
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2007 farm bill

The September 30 deadline is looming for the U.S. Senate to submit its proposal of a new Farm Bill, which was last updated in 2002 and is typically re-vamped twice a decade. The Farm Bill affects everything from food stamps and farmers’ markets to ethanol production and agricultural subsidies. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of the Farm Bill, which provided for an additional $4.3 billion in spending for the Food Stamp Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and other programs that help people in danger of going hungry or malnourished.

At Friday's City Club Missoula forum, Bonnie Buckingham, programs operations manager for the Missoula Food Bank, spoke about the bill and how it affects Missoulians who have “food insecurity,” connecting local food issues with national policy. [more]

Killer Lipstick

What do rising rates of learning disabilities, male infertility, and breast cancer have in common? According to Stacy Malkan, communications director of Health Care Without Harm, founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and self-described “recovering makeup addict,” they could be linked to the products –- soap, lotion, shampoo, shaving cream –- we put on our bodies every day.

In conjunction with the Missoula-based national environmental health and justice organization Women’s Voices for the Earth, Malkan is coming to Missoula on November, 1 to promote her forthcoming book, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Cosmetics Industry, an account of her fight to get toxic chemicals taken out of everyday personal care products. [more]

montana healthcare

By the end of this year the cost of contraceptives may increase dramatically for both rural, low-income women and for college students. The reason? The Deficit Reduction Act, a bill that was approved by the U.S. Congress in 2006 and took effect this past January. The purpose of the bill was to restrain federal spending, particularly in regards to Medicare and Medicaid.

One of the consequences of the bill is that, nationwide, college clinics, Planned Parenthoods and other health care providers are no longer receiving the deep discounts on hormonal birth control that pharmaceutical companies had long offered to them, and have no choice but to pass the price increases along to patients.

While many pharmacies, including the pharmacy at University of Montana's Curry Health Center, had the foresight to stockpile the most popular types of birth control while they still had their discount privileges, supplies are dwindling. [more]

smoky skies -- still

A Stage 1 Air Alert is in effect for the Missoula Valley today, according to a press release issued this morning by the Missoula City-County Health Department. Areas of dense smoke are expected until later this afternoon based on current weather forecasts.

A meteorologist at the National Weather Service said that current wind conditions are bringing in smoke from the Jocko Lakes and Sawmill Complex Fires to the east. The 36,000 acre Jocko Lakes fire is 95 percent contained and the 63,000 Sawmill Complex fire is 35 percent contained.

Missoula-City County Health Department officials recommend that people with heart or lung disease, smokers, children and the elderly limit their time outdoors today and avoid heavy or prolonged exertion.

For more smoke information or air quality updates visit www.co.missoula.mt.us/EnvHealth or call the Missoula Air Quality Hotline at 258-3600. [more]

Milchen to Lecture, lead session

While Missoula’s “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign encourages Missoulians to get local lettuce and homegrown haricots verts, there is currently no such movement for products beyond produce. This is why the Sustainable Business Council (SBC) will holding a “Buy Local” workshop and lecture series Sept. 13 and 14. The series will encourage local business owners and other community members to participate in creating a Missoula Buy Local campaign that will urge citizens to get more of their goods from local retailers.
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montana festival of the book

Want a chance to mingle with novelists, poets, and playwrights from around the West? To hear Governor Brian Schweitzer read a children’s book in Caras Park? To find out if Missoula Mayor John Engen can correctly define "peripatetic"?

Then check out the eighth annual Montana Festival of the Book, which will be held in and around downtown Missoula September 13-15.

Festival Coordinator Kim Anderson of Humanities Montana says that along with the usual readings and panel discussions this year’s bookfest is offering many new and unique events.

The festival "is just such a Missoula event," Mayor John Engen says. "There are more and better writers here per capita than you’ll find anywhere else in the West." [more]

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