Year end wrap-ups
Although I went back into the broadcasting business the first of February last year, I did not keep newscast records. The top news story in Montana was generated by over all Mickey Mouse management of the marijuana issue. Nobody needed puffs on a reefer to get dizzy over raids, arrests, legislation and law suits. Washington, D.C., news was similar, only less professional. International developments were too complicated to discuss.
Decided to re-run wrap-up from 1998:
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The hottest "National Story of 98" involved President Bill Clinton "not having sex" with a female White House aide. No high ranking person in Montana came up with anything that exciting.
1. State citizens decided by initiative CI-75 to take away all executive and legislative power to levy new taxes and fees without taxpayer approval. CI-75 was written by an attorney, thus creating millions of dollars in business for fellow lawyers as lawsuits avalanched the courts.
2. The sale of Montana Power's electric-generating plants shocked the public. With deregulation of utilities, Montana's biggest taxpayer said, "To hell with it." That old company was so excited about freedom from bureaucratic red tape, they even offered to sell a few dams they didn't 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 voters outlawed cyanide extraction. Tooth filling costs were expected to rise.
4. Prices for wheat and livestock fell sharply and blame was laid on subsidized Canadian imports. Hi-Line ranchers picketed border stations and blocked Canadian trucks, while Sen. Baucus flew to Ottawa to plead for fairness. Citizens planned to fill freezers with cheap meat.
5. Feds declared, "A century of careless mining and smelting by the Anaconda Company in the Clark's Fork River Basin left a legacy of toxic pollution." Atlantic Richfield had bought the Anaconda properties in the 1970s so were sued for ACM's crimes. They settled with 420 million bucks for clean-up. Gov. Racicot appointed a board of 10 to decide how to spend all the loot. I poured myself two snifters of brandy to celebrate not owning any ARCO stock.
6. The most expensive contract ever let by the State of Montana was the $400 million to Magellan Health Services to care for mentally ill people under Medicaid. First the state threatened to cancel the contract because of many service complaints, then Magellan threatened to quit because the contract was "a money loser." We knew who the losers were.
7. Smelly foul mouthed "Freemen" were convicted of bank fraud, mail fraud, armed robbery and threatening people. The trial was in Billings and a federal judge set the sentencing for March 1999. Same losers as in No. 6.
8. Unabomber Theodore Kacynski, who terrorized people across the nation for 18 years and hid out in a Lincoln, Mont. 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 in case he lived extra long. His brother, who turned him in to feds, wanted to divide up the million dollar reward among victims' families, but circling IRS vultures screeched "No."
9. Cowardly con Terry Langford, who tortured and murdered an Ovando couple in their home nine years ago, finally went to the gas chamber at the state penitentiary in February. The often inept Director of State Corrections stopped admittance of the woman reporter chosen to represent the state's radio broadcasters by falsely claiming she posed a security risk because she kept a gun in her vehicle. The reporter was later honored by both the Montana Broadcasters Association and Associated Press as the "Top Professional News Broadcaster of the Year."
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That was 1998 in the Big Sky Country. Happy New Year 2011.
G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.