Opinion
Gazette opinion: Citizens, court can win with civil ordinance
On days that Billings Municipal Court is in session, there's not nearly enough room for everyone to sit down. The crowd of defendants, companions and attorneys fills the cramped hallway outside the second-floor courtroom, which doubles as the City Council chambers. The court's customers o…
Nov 09, 2009 | 12:10 am | Loading…
Gazette opinion: Best strategies for cutting prescription addictions
Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock has invited prevention, treatment and law enforcement leaders to a drug abuse summit in Helena on Nov. 17. The focus isn't methamphetamine; it's not cocaine. It's a type of substance abuse that "kind of snuck up on us," Bullock said: prescription pai…
Nov 08, 2009 | 12:15 am | Loading…
Guest opinion: AARP backs health policy change that’s good for America’s seniors
WASHINGTON - AARP, the gargantuan public interest group that has defended and expanded seniors' benefits for 50 years, suddenly finds itself under attack by the vociferous voices of the far right.
Nov 08, 2009 | 12:10 am | Loading…
Guest opinion: Organization abandons seniors to support health insurance reforms
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Clearly something must be up with AARP.
Nov 08, 2009 | 12:10 am | Loading…
Gazette opinion: Ups & Downs
Ups and Downs gives a quick take on news of the week.
Nov 08, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
Guest opinion: Sensible response needed to climate change
A Montanan usually takes a practical approach. We study a problem, figure out how to solve it, and then do it. That's how I was taught. My Montana roots go back to the 1870s, followed by a long line of tough, practical, conservative Montanans. As a geologist I followed the mold, working i…
Nov 07, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
Columnists
Republican family feud can influence elections
Republicans won big victories in New
Nov 09, 2009 | 12:05 am | Loading…
Ellen Goodman: Only terrible options for Afghan women
BOSTON - It's been 11 years since I looked through a photo album smuggled out of Afghanistan by a brave young woman. "This is a doctor," she said, pointing to one picture. "This is a teacher." It was impossible to tell one woman from another under the burqas enforced by their Taliban rulers.
Nov 06, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
George Will: Getting to know our stranger in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON - Actress Cate Blanchett, who has played Queen Elizabeth I, is performing here, portraying someone less than regal - flurried, anxious Blanche DuBois, in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." If Obama administration officials involved in formulating Afghanistan policy…
Nov 05, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
E.J. Dionne: Both parties will be spinning new health care reform law
WASHINGTON - The next health care fight has already started. It's the battle to define the bill that President Obama will eventually sign as a victory for consumers, taxpayers and the common good.
Nov 04, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
Robert J. Samuelson: Rich nations up against walls of debt
WASHINGTON - The idea that the government of a major advanced country would default on its debt - that is, tell lenders that it won't repay them all they're owed - was, until recently, a preposterous proposition. Argentina and Russia have stiffed their creditors, but surely the likes of t…
Nov 04, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
Kerlikowske gets dose of realism in drug war
WASHINGTON - During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" - sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned …
Nov 01, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
Robert J. Samuelson: ‘Public plan’: delusion in health care debate
WASHINGTON - In the health care debate, the "public plan" is all things to all people. For supporters, it would discipline greedy private insurers and make health coverage affordable. For detractors, it's a way station on the path to a single-payer insurance system of government-run healt…
Oct 28, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
David Broder: Economic recovery must include fiscal responsibility
WASHINGTON - When I wrote a few days ago about the growing nervousness of moderate Senate Democrats over the approaching vote to raise the federal debt limit, I had no idea how quickly evidence of that shift in the political winds would appear.
Oct 28, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
War on Fox News diminishes White House
Presidents usually turn to their secretaries of state for foreign-policy advice. But Barack Obama must have been channeling Hillary Clinton when he decided to attack Fox News.
Oct 26, 2009 | 12:05 am | Loading…
Ellen Goodman: A $250 moment: Why transfer $13 billion more to seniors?
BOSTON - This story begins, as do so many dramas, at the box office. We are standing in line, three generations defined by a three-tier price structure: senior, adult, child.
Oct 23, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
