Articles Tagged With: New West Network Topics
What $58 per night gets you at the Gunther Motel in Choteau, Montana, out on the plains just east of the Rockies: two double beds, a television, a phone, an alarm clock, a full-sized refrigerator, a dish of butter in the refrigerator, a yellow formica table, a couple of mismatched plates, a microwave oven, an actual hot plate, and a coffee maker. What it does not get you: those little one-pot pouches of coffee you may have grown accustomed to at the Super 8s along the highway, nor any other kind of coffee, nor cups, coffee or otherwise, disposable or otherwise. No coffee filters, either.
The Elusive HutteritesThe further we drive down the gravel road, the stupider I feel about the whole thing. We have no idea if it's even the right road, but, if it is, the fact that there was no sign back at the highway suggests that these people are not exactly eager for drop-in visitors. Three miles, four. We haven't seen a single vehicle or person, just ranch fields full of cattle to either side of the road and then the occasional house. Like some ghostly overlay, older houses often stand crumbling somewhere off to one side of the newer ones, co-generational with the rusty pickups subsiding gradually into the earth in the front yards, the past rubbing shoulders uneasily with the present and everyone's back turned on a future that has not looked good for small ranchers and farmers for quite some time.
Settling In To MissoulaSmoke from fires in Idaho blew into the Missoula Valley yesterday, tinting the sky an evil, sulphorous yellow and leaving a pinkened sun to squint weakly through the haze. Somehow, according to this morning's paper, the Idaho smoke helped the firefighters battling the local blazes (less oxygen for our fires?). Either way, it was the perfect atmosphere in which to view the demolition derby at the county fair last night: the sense that the world was on fire anyway seemed to further justify smashing three dozen cars to pieces, with the smoke from the oil burning in their shattered crankcases and the dust kicked up by their spinning tires rising to mingle with the dark cloud squatting down from on high. Cars caught fire, and rough-looking men in orange t-shirts sauntered out into the muddy track with fire extinguishers while the audience looked on almost uninterestedly.
The Long and Winding Road To MissoulaDesperation set in. We considered flying to other airports and driving to Missoula, but the fact of having a cat with us complicated this, as airlines restrict the number of pets that can travel carry-on on a given flight. We considered renting a car and making the 12-hour drive to Missoula, but none of the five rental companies whose Bangladeshi reservations staff I reached by cell phone from the crowded, noisy waiting area had cars available that afternoon. A. was in tears and I felt like I was losing my mind from the forced passivity of the situation (yes, yes, I know, control is an illusion, thank you, John Edwards and also the Buddha) when I saw a woman I had earlier heard identified to another passenger as a United supervisor. I decided to make one last effort to get the hell out of Denver.
Wyoming Senator Thomas in Serious ConditionSenator Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican, is in serious condition at a Washington-area hospital where he is undergoing treatment for leukemia, Congresional Quarterly reported. Doctors said the cancer had been unresponsive to treatment. His wife Susan said in a statement: “At this difficult time, all we can do is give him as much love and support as possible.”
Under Wyoming law, any replacement for Craig would be selected by Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, from a list of three Republicans put forward by the Republican state central committee.
UPDATE: Thomas died Monday night. Click here for the story of his death.
The Missoula City Council is hearing public comment and possibly making a final decision tonight on the zoning of the old Champion mill site.
The city council is required by law to finalize zoning on the property by April 9 unless the developer offers an extension. Last Wednesday during a Missoula City Council committee meeting, the project's representative -- WGM Group’s Nick Kaufman -- asked the council to make a final decision on the zoning for the district.
The Champion mill proposal, presented by the Millsite Revitalization Project, LLC, and represented by WGM Group, is a 46-acre proposed development of 285 lots and 520 units. The project is located between California Street and Hickory Street on the south side of the Clark Fork River.
WGM Group’s Kristin Smith said at Monday’s meeting, the company will present an hour-long presentation which will then be followed by comments from the public and council members. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and will be held in the City Council Chambers.
The Supreme Court's subtle, split ruling on the Ten Commandments - sometimes OK in public places, sometimes not - looks set to trigger a brand new battle in Boise. The Statesman reports that the case of a Ten Commandments monument that was once in Julia Davis Park appears to fall exactly in between the two cases that the Supreme Court addressed. The Court allowed a monument at the Texas Capitol but barred a display in a Kentucky courthouse.
Wal-Mart heir John Walton, 58, died Monday when his ultra-light aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole airport. Walton, a Jackson resident, was one of three sons of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and was worth more than $18 billion, according to the Associated Press The crash in Grand Teton Park was witnessed by many people, and the cause was not yet known.
In southern Utah, a sudden wind forced the abrupt evacuation of 200 people near New Harmony. But a larger fire in the area was near containment.
The Denver Post had a glowing editorial on the appointment of Michael Bennet, chief of staff for Mayor John Hickenlooper, as the new superintendent of Denver Public Schools. The paper did not, however, mention one detail that I think is actually relevant, aside from being interesting to me personally: Bennet's father Doug is the president of my alma mater, Wesleyan University. Michael Bennet may have no education experience, but you do learn a lot by osmosis.
Sports pride is breaking out in Utah: if University of Utah center Andrew Bogut is chosen first in tonight's NBA draft, as expected, Utah will become the first school ever to have the top pick in both the NBA and the NFL drafts in the same year. Quarterback Alex Smith was the top football pick.
Montana educators gathered this week to begin work on a plan to bring a Native American perspective to the state's school district.
The Missoulian reports that the first item on the agenda of the state's premier Indian Education for All Institute was to create a list of basic concepts every Montana educator should know about the Native American culture.
The University of Montana Graduate School is offering a class on Indian education that is based on the basic concepts.
The three-day institute is an extension of the Essential Understandings Seminar held last summer on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Organizers of the Institute said they hoped eventually to have lesson plans available for educators on the state's Office of Public Instruction website.
A Salt Lake City environmentalist is claiming Utahns are once again being used as guinea pigs to test the effects of airborne pollution.
Patty Henetz at < The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that federal researchers have found some of the highest levels of mercury in the nation in the Great Salt Lake.
