Hogan gets it

Dennis McDonald has been a generous visitor to Jefferson County and to the Basin Community Hall at least twice; his platform reflects Montana's frustration with its collapsed forests.

At a recent get-together in Boulder, Sheila Hogan, the Democratic District 77 House candidate energized those in attendance by reminding the group of the importance of her solidarity with Montana's rich history of extractive industries in brilliant contrast to her lackluster, poorly-informed Republican opponent. She extolled the abilities of Montanans to focus on reclamation by taking full advantage of record metals prices, one of the planks in Dennis McDonald's platform and stressed the importance of education, education, education by touting record enrollments in Montana universities as looking forward instead of bullying the legislature with the tired same-old-same-old doom-and-gloom gnashed by Republicans.

Thank you, Dennis and Sheila for being the voices of optimism!

Democrats=safe food, safe water, safe shelter, safe sex.
Republicans=cheap food, cheap water, cheap shelter, cheap sex.

RCJ prints ip's ice climbing lede

A badly edited copy of one ip economic development initiative appears here.

From Chicks with Picks:

Dawn Glanc was born and raised in Brunswick Ohio. After high school, Dawn realized Ohio was not the place for her. In 1996, she moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota to pursue an Outdoor Education degree from Black Hills State University and to experience the outdoors. It was in the Black Hills that Dawn started to climb both rock and ice. After spending 8 years in the hills, Dawn craved bigger mountains, and in 2004, she moved to Bellingham WA to begin a full time guiding position with the American Alpine Institute.

Dawn has averaged more than 200 days of climbing and guiding each year since then. Climbing and guiding has taken her to mountains in the Northern Cascades, Eastern Sierras, the French Alps, the Fairweather Range and the Alaska Range, as well as Squamish and Bugaboos Provincial Park in Canada. Dawn is pursuing the American Mountain Guide Association certifications. She completed both her Rock Guide certification and the Alpine Aspirant in 2008.

Dawn lives in Ouray each winter to be close to her ice climbing passion; since living in Ouray, she has begun mixed climbing, and this learning curve went quickly. Dawn’s latest accomplishments include winning first place at the 2009 Ouray ice festival.

Build it and they will come.

Graymailers formerly known as Blackwater land dream job

From Al Jazeera English:

Wired.com reports that while neither Xe nor Blackwater appear on the list of eight firms hired for the Worldwide Protective Services contract (a group of contracts combined into one), one of the company's fronts, International Development Solutions LLC (IDS) is on the list.

In total, the contract for all eight companies is worth $10 billion.

Two former Blackwater employees are currently on trial in the US on charges of murdering Afghan civilians and keeping human remains as trophies. The charges stem from a 2009 incident in Kabul.

In 2008, five Blackwater guards were charged in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians, who were shot in Baghdad's al-Nisoor Square in 2007. Those charges were ultimately dismissed.

Another employee of Triple Canopy - another contractor included in the new Worldwide Protective Services contract - was charged with killing at least one Iraqi after he fired into a civilian vehicle for "sport."

In August, Blackwater agreed to pay $42m in fines for weapons export violations.

Schwarzenegger terminates most cannabis arrests

From the Sacramento Bee:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes Proposition 19, which would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state, but he offered a consolation Thursday by signing a bill that would downgrade possession of an ounce or less from a misdemeanor to an infraction.

"Notwithstanding my opposition to Proposition 19, however, I am signing this measure because possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is an infraction in everything but name," Schwarzenegger wrote in a signing message.

"In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket."

This new law is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011 even though Proposition 19 is expected to pass overwhelmingly.

Means launches Thune lawsuit

Coming across CENSORED NEWS is a video of Republic of Lakotah activist, Russell Means, announcing "a pending lawsuit" accusing potential presidential contender, Senator John Thune (R-SD), of a breach in his fiduciary duty as sworn in his oath of office. Mr. Means believes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), part of the US Department of the Interior, is violating Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes within Mr. Thune's full view. View it here.

This on the heels of an ACLU lawsuit seeking evidence of Indian Health Services (IHS) coercion in Pitocin-induced births on the Cheyenne River reservation. IHS is administered through the US Department of Health and Humans Services.

Thune abandoned Native Americans by voting against funding the landmark Cobell Indian trust class action.

As of this post time, nothing has appeared in regional mainstream sources.