Mariah Thomas, here with your Daily Roundup, and before we dive into it, I wanted to let you all know that the Beacon staff will be out of the office Thursday and Friday this week to celebrate the holiday.
Usually, I like to include a piece of news in my Daily Roundup installments, but it’s the day before the holiday and I figure it’s a good day to switch things up.
As a wordsmith by trade, it’s a requirement that I’m also an avid reader; and as a journalist who covers state politics, there’s nothing I love reading more than a book about Montana’s history. So, it’s intuitive that the Thanksgiving read I’ll be diving into while I wait for my family to carve into the turkey this year is a new one by historian Marc C. Johnson, focused on the legacy of Montana’s own Mike Mansfield.
His book, “Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate,” focuses on the legislative achievements Mansfield, the Democratic Senate majority leader during the 1960s, and his counterpart in Republican Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen, were able to accomplish by working together. Those achievements were plentiful, from voting rights and civil rights legislation to a first-of-its-kind nuclear arms limitation treaty.
In a time when political violence and extremism is on the rise and we’re coming off the heels of the longest government shutdown in history, looking to the past to see how leaders can get along to push us forward feels like a refreshing message. I’d highly recommend picking up a copy — I grabbed mine from the Whitefish Public Library — and giving this one a read.
If you do so, please feel free to reach out to me with your thoughts! Or, if you’ve got another rec for a Montana politics-focused read, send that my way too.
If reading isn’t your thing, but you’re still interested in learning about this topic and some of the book’s insights, the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana has just the video for you. Johnson, the book’s author, hosted a virtual conversation about the book in mid-October in collaboration with the Montana 250th Commission and the Treasure State’s Book Club. It was a great talk, and you can view it for yourself here.
And with that, this reporter has to hop on the road to get back home for a Thanksgiving celebration of her own. I’m grateful for all of you Beacon readers, who care so deeply about independent local journalism. Wishing a happy holiday to you and yours — plus a few headlines for you before we’re back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
Since 1989, Town Pump Petroleum Seep a Perpetual Problem on Whitefish River
Last month, the Montana DEQ approved another work plan to test new remediation technology; water quality advocates say decades of delays akin to "kicking the can down the road"
Ski Pass Sales Up as Tourism Officials Forecast Strong Winter Spending
Despite economic uncertainty and a drop in Canadian travel, tourism bureau directors are optimistic about the winter season as northwest Montana ski areas remain an affordable attraction
Overall, 10.5% of hunters reported harvesting game in Northwest Montana, almost identical to last year’s rate. The success rate could improve as the rut arrives for white-tailed deer.
Meet Rauser! He’s a 4-year-old German Shepherd mix in search of a new family — and just look how cute he is.
To find out more about Shadow and other pet adoption opportunities at the Humane Society of Northwest Montana go to: www.humanesocietypets.com. To donate to the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, visit the organization’s donation page here.
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