August 2019

Land swap expands Mill Creek fishing access

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 5:04pm
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The U.S. Forest Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the trust of a deceased Paradise Valley landowner have finalized a land swap that provides additional public access to Mill Creek and about 450 acres near Arrow Peak, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Marna Daley.

The swap was broken up into three separate projects.

Paradise Valley-Mill Creek Small Tracts Act included “the conveyance of two federal parcels bisecting private land that resolved encroachments and created a more efficient boundary,” Daley said in an email.

Explosions rock tanker truck

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:59pm
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A tanker truck hauling diesel and gasoline burst into flames Thursday night outside of Rural Fire District Station 2 near Pine Creek.

The driver of the truck was taken to Livingston HealthCare with minor injuries.

A Park County Rural Fire District #1 crew responded to the fire just after 7 p.m.

Rural Fire Chief Dann Babcox said the truck contained compartmentalized loads of red and green diesel and premium unleaded gasoline.

Idaho artifacts suggest Pacific entry for first Americans

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:57pm
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NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists say they’ve found artifacts in Idaho that indicate people were living there around 16,000 years ago, providing new evidence that the first Americans entered their new home by following the Pacific coast.

The discovery also points to Japan as a possible origin or influence for the migration, said study leader Loren Davis of Oregon State University.

Other experts were split on what the findings mean and how old they are, not an unusual reaction in the contentious topic of early humans in the New World.

Striping work

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:55pm
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First W. Nile human cases reported

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:54pm

State and local public health officials are reporting the season’s first human West Nile Virus cases in Montana. 

The cases, reported in Custer and Lewis and Clark counties, both occurred in individuals over the age of 60, who are often at greater risk for severe disease, a Montana Department of Health and Human Services news release said.

Both required hospitalization and no further information is available at this time.

Park fire grows

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:53pm

Smoke from the Brimstone Fire in Yellowstone National Park may be visible from Bridge Bay, Lake Village, Fishing Bridge, the East Entrance Road, and communities east of the park, the park announced.

Due to hot and dry weather, the Brimstone Fire grew to an estimated 80 acres the evening of Aug. 28. 

The wildfire does not pose a threat to visitors, the park said in a news release. All services are open and all roads leading into and through the park are open. 

Park visitors and communities east of the park should anticipate varying levels of smoke from the fire. 

Let’s start drawing the line and saying no in Livingston

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:52pm

Editor:

In a healthy society, you can put principle front and center and not worry about getting accused of making things personal.  Let’s check on the health of our community for a second.  

We, Livingston voters and candidates, have been told that the existing city commission, two of whom are running to stay in their current positions, have been approved to meet the public at the Farmer’s Market bandshell and Civic Center next Wednesday. That seems like a pretty subtle and incumbent-preferential change of policy.  

Making sense of things in the city of Livingston

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:51pm

Editor:

Isn’t it great!? A half-million-dollar, half-mile trail to connect town to another trail. Meanwhile a citizen made bridge over Fleshman Creek at Clark & M streets, which cost the city nothing and was used by hundreds of citizens over the last twenty years to access Mayor’s Landing, was removed by the city, with its tail between it’s legs, to appease the Girl Scouts who bought the property in 1977 for $1 and pay no property taxes. Makes sense to me.

‘Privilege-hoarding’

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:50pm

WASHINGTON — Nestled on the Front Range of the Rockies, the city of Crystal was a largely upper-middle-class paradise, chock full of health-conscious and socially conscious — meaning, of course, impeccably progressive — Coloradans. Then in slithered a serpent in the form of a proposal for a new school, to be called “Crystal Academy,” for “accelerated and exceptional learners.” Suddenly it was paradise lost.

$572M verdict recognizes a monumental human tragedy

Published on Fri, 08/30/2019 - 4:50pm

Oklahoma has won a judgment of more than $572 million against corporate health care giant Johnson & Johnson after showing that the company’s role in the state’s opioid crisis created a public nuisance that “compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans.”

The company says Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman’s verdict is wrong and has promised an appeal.