Back in Ninety Eight

G. George Ostrom

The Trailwatcher

"Top News" for 2008 will be reviewed by all media this week.  To provide a break, I'm going back ten years.

The "National News Story of 98" involved Bill Clinton having troubles with an aide. No high-ranking person in Montana came up with anything that exciting.

1. State citizens decided by initiative CI-75 to get rid of all executive and legislative power to levy any new taxes and fees without getting taxpayer approval. CI-75 was written by an attorney who has already created millions of dollars worth of work for his fellow lawyers. New suits are being filled all across Montana.

2. The sale of Montana Power's electric generating plants shocked the state. With deregulation of utilities, Montana's biggest tax payers said, "To hell with it." That old company is so excited about getting out from underneath bureaucratic red tape, they're even thinking about selling a few dams they don't even own.

3. As the price of gold sunk out of sight, the two biggest precious metal mining companies in the state went belly-up …. and the voters outlawed cyanide extraction. Tooth filling will get more expensive.

4. Prices for wheat and livestock fell sharply and blame was laid on subsidized Canadian imports. Highline ranchers picketed the border stations and blocked Canadian trucks, while Senator Baucus flew to Ottawa to plead for fairness. The Over the Hill Gang discussed filling freezers with cheap meat.

5. A century of careless mining and smelting by the Anaconda Company in the Clark's Fork River Basin left a legacy of toxic pollution. Poor Atlantic Richfield bought the Butte-Anaconda properties in the 1970s and wound up being sued for ACM's crimes. They settled this year for 420 million bucks. Governor Racicot appointed a board of ten to figure out how to spend all that loot. I poured myself a snifter of joyful brandy for not owning any ARCO stock.

6. The most expensive contract ever let by the State of Montana was the 400 million dollars to Magellan Health Services to care for mentally ill people under Medicaid. First the state threatened to cancel the contract because of an avalanche of complaints from everybody, then Magellan threatened to quit because the contract "was a money loser." We know who the biggest losers are.

7.  A smelly, loud, and foul-mouthed group of "Freeman" were convicted of bank fraud, mail fraud, armed robbery, and threatening to kill people. The trial was in Billings and a judge sentenced them in March. Same losers as in number 6.

8. Unabomber Theodore Kacynksi who terrorized people across the nation for 18 years and hid out in a Lincoln, Montana shack, agreed to admit killing three men and injuring 29 others if the government wouldn't use capital punishment. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms … plus 30 years. The last thirty years were just in case he lived longer that the average. His heart broken brother wanted to give the million-dollar reward for turning Theodore in, to the victim's families, but circling IRS vultures screeched "No."

9. Cowardly killer Terry Langford, who tortured and murdered an Ovando couple in their home nine years ago, finally met his maker at the state penitentiary in February. The often-inept Director of State Corrections stopped admittance of the woman reporter chosen to represent the radio broadcasters by falsely stating she was trying to smuggle beer and guns into the prison. That reporter was later honored by Montana Broadcasters Association AND the Associated Press as "top professional news broadcaster in Montana."

That was 1998 in The Big Sky County. Happy New Year!