Protecting the North Fork
Inter Lake editorial
Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester are once again turning up the heat on British Columbia over potential mining in the Flathead drainage, rightly recruiting the support of the Obama administration.
The senators visited the North Fork Flathead River with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar this week, and Baucus is urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage the Canadian federal government in stopping new gold mining exploration north of the border.
In most cases, it would be an overreach to interfere with Canadian resource development. But that's not the case when it comes to mining in the narrow and unique Canadian Flathead drainage, where nutrient loading and pollution would flow south into Montana. Development would have impacts on Montana fisheries and transboundary wildlife populations.
Unfortunately, the recent gold exploration project is only the latest in a series of mining ventures that Montana political leaders and groups have battled over the last three decades.
It's time for a more permanent solution.
AS JOHN JENKINS pursues his dream of becoming a country-music star in the Country Music Showdown, he should know one thing - there are lots of folks in the Flathead pulling for him.
Jenkins, of Kalispell, has already won the state competition, and is moving on to the regional battle at Coos Bay, Ore., on Oct. 17. With his talent as a songwriter and his natural abilities as a musician and singer, Jenkins has a good chance to win there and nationally. Add in the remarkable circumstances of his true grit and determination, and he is already a winner.
Jenkins, you see, is a one-handed guitarist. He lost part of his right arm in an electrocution accident when he was just 7, and strums with a pick taped to his prostethic arm.
Sadly, Jenkins' father - his biggest fan -died in June, but the singer is continuing the journey toward success that his father encouraged him to begin. Everyone here wishes him well in Coos Bay and beyond.
EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER, who died Tuesday at the age of 88, will be long remembered as the founder of Special Olympics and for her role as an advocate of the mentally disabled.
Her own family's tragic experience with the mental illness of her sister, Rosemary, led Shriver to seek solutions and better lives for people who were too often forgotten. The Special Olympics, which she started in 1968, today has 3 million participants from more than 160 countries.
As President Obama noted, Shriver was "an extraordinary woman, who, as much as anyone, taught our nation - and our world - that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit."