Montana

In Pryor, climbing wall takes students to new heights

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Beaumont

PRYOR—Armed with about $8,000 in grant money and a box of donated climbing harnesses and shoes, Pryor teacher Loren Rausch set out last year to share one of his life’s passions with his students at Plenty Coups High School.

Rausch, a second-year science teacher at the school, has long been a rock-climbing aficionado, climbing in Alaska and Nepal between finishing his undergraduate degree and starting his job in Pryor. So, during his first year at Plenty Coups, which is located on the Crow Reservation, Rausch started ordering parts to build a 22-foot climbing wall in the school’s gymnasium. Continue Reading →

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Prairie Lights

Who can resist a winter drive across N.D.?

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Sunset

I doubt we could see all the way to Wibaux from Bismarck, N.D., but I like to think of the magnificent red sunset as our last glimpse of Montana for a week or so.

My middle daughter, who was driving, saw the sunset out her rear-view mirror late Friday afternoon, and so of course we had to stop and get some photos. She didn’t see it through the rear window because the only patch of glass visible among our vacation baggage, our supply dump, was about as big as a credit card. Continue Reading →

Diversions

Misfired email forges Montana-France friendship

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Cechs

On Dec. 4, 2013, John Cech went snowshoeing in the Elkhorn Mountains near his home in Clancy, accompanied by his two golden retrievers.

It was a beautiful day, so he snapped a few pictures on his iPhone, and when he got back home he thought he’d post a photo or two on Facebook. He sent the photos from his phone to his laptop via Gmail for easier posting.

A few minutes later, he received an email response from another John Cech—Jean-Louis Cech in Orange, France—who said, “Gee, it looks cold out there. Do I know you?” Continue Reading →

Montana

School choice advocates gaining influence, financing

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House

Much has already been made of the news that the Montana House Education Committee will be led during the 2015 legislative session by two prominent supporters of school choice and charter schools.

But since Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock is likely to veto any attempts to bring school choice to Montana, it’s the long game that is more interesting, and in that sense backers of school choice seem positioned to prevail someday soon. Continue Reading →

Montana

Guest Opinion: New House rules blatantly unfair

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Woods

The new speaker of the House recently proposed, then rescinded, a dress code he was trying to impose on the Montana Legislature. While there was a great deal of negative press regarding this issue, there are other, more dangerous rules that are being forced upon the Legislature by a minority within the GOP leadership. These rules range from being simply insulting to Democrats to being extremely dangerous to the legislative process. The following are a few of them. Continue Reading →