Author: Evelyn Pyburn

Can’t Fix What’s Not Seen

25 January 2020
Evelyn Pyburn
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By Evelyn Pyburn

One of the greatest travesties of political correctness is the degree to which it cripples productive efforts in addressing serious problems.

It stands in the way of truly and honestly dealing with the very real problems afflicting various minorities, or in dealing with some medical, religious or cultural conflicts, as well as in dealing with political and economic problems.

It is a fact that a problem cannot be addressed until it is accurately identified – no matter where that leads. The survivability of human beings has always been our ability to rationally analyze a situation and identify what needs to be adjusted. The degree to which we fail in that endeavor is to diminish our success at survival. At what point did we begin to sabotage ourselves in that process?

The bullying of politically correct thought is intended to short circuit reality – of being able to accurately identify reality – of zeroing in on the crux of problems.

If the source of a societal, economic or political policy problem stems from something pre-determined as not SUPPOSED to be true, then observers, leaders, academics, politicians, bureaucrats, etc. bend themselves into pretzels trying to avoid seeing it. What that boils down to is that the problem is never addressed and those who suffer from it are condemned to go on suffering so others don’t have to endure the discomfort of disagreeing with those whose admiration they seek – or worse, so they can perpetuate a problem that gives them some kind of political clout.

One of the most immediate examples that comes to mind is the fact that homelessness, unaffordable housing and all the social and economic problems that stem from that, are primarily the result of over regulation. That’s an indisputable fact, challenged by almost no one, and yet it influences absolutely no local or state solutions attempting to “solve” homelessness or the problem of high-cost housing.

For decades and decades, with ever mounting fervor, centralized planners, building coders, municipal administrators, and utopian visionaries have imposed arbitrary and relatively unnecessary costs on development and construction that prohibit lower-cost processes and products, innovations and market alternatives in the realm of housing, unlike almost any other realm of endeavor in our country, except for perhaps education.

Seldom ever has anyone stood to reject the conclusions of the economic studiess – they just ignore them.

For the past 50 years, the observations of analysts   have been promptly relegated to the backwaters of public discussion, academia, politics, and media. Thr evidence does not support the prevailing wisdom that only government – not markets – are capable of shaping the housing market, so the evidence has to be rejected because it does not advance the politically preferred policy of growing bureaucracies and government control.

Besides the availability and cost of housing, over regulation also results in empty storefronts in downtowns across the country, which is most especially true in Billings. This has been a fact made clear to city council and other civic leaders over the past few years, with absolutely no response. Every single over-reaching, arbitrary and capricious regulation imposes costs on maintaining and updating properties. At some point that cost exceeds what the market of a thriving business in the downtown can endure, forcing them to find a less costly location or to not open at all, which leaves no market for property owners to lease or sell. And, that leaves dark, looming empty shells of structures in downtown that only drag down further the value of adjacent properties, creating a downward spiral. Believe it or not, the processs is reversable.

But, so long as leaders and decision makers avert their gaze when it comes to looking at the reality, it will indeed continue to appear that there is no solution but to appeal to government. With market forces curtailed, there will be greater appeal for gargantuan projects, tax funded subsidies, giveaways, and faux economic solutions that in the end will fail.

 With the facts rejected and warnings unheeded, more and more mandates are piled on, crippling the market’s  ability to meet the true needs of consumers. The results are exactly what we see. No solution will be forthcoming until the problem is identified.

Everyone’s Problem, Everyone’s Solution

28 December 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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After work, tonight, take a walk – around your neighborhood or through a nearby park. It’s a simple way to claim your neighborhood and discourage mischief, vagrancy, and crime.

Unused neighborhoods can easily become targets for mischief makers. Vacated or empty areas that become overrun by criminals or vagrants can be reclaimed by citizens simply by using and caring for them. Such responsibility falls to everyone in a community, residential or business.

Some years ago there was a neighborhood park that had been taken over by hoodlums who hung out destroying property, threatening and even attacking lone wayfarers. By the time cops arrived the culprits were gone. Nothing seemed to be resolving the problem, until people in the neighborhood decided to make a statement. Large numbers of them just simply began walking around the park. They spent time visiting and getting acquainted, and in general disrupting the sense of anonymity or invisibility that the vagrants and trouble makers had come to count on. Suddenly it was not an empty unclaimed space, but a neighborhood park which was unconducive to criminal activity.

Such is essentially the bases of the strategy that city leaders are pursuing to improve the level of safety in Billings. It’s an approach that costs very little, if anything; and everyone can play a role.

As one businessman explained, at a public meeting that was hugely attended by concerned citizens, it has been easy and inexpensive for him to make a difference around his place of business – – a place that, at first, he thought was just fine. Taking a critical look at it at night and walking around himself, he realized improvements could be made. He has made changes and can already see a difference.  What he did amounted to little more than cleaning and sprucing up the perimeters and extensively improving lighting. If every property owner did the same, the difference would be dramatic.

But it is more than just business owners. Residents in their neighborhoods can and should do much the same.

Walk around your property during the day and at night, asking yourself what could be done to make it look like someone is aware and what would make it is safer.

Remove any trash, and as much as possible items that create clutter or that seem to say, “no one cares about this place.” And, understand that it isn’t just your property that makes a difference, but that of the entire neighborhood, so pick up the trash at the corner of the block, too.

Keep windows clean and uncluttered  to improve visibility.

Keep weeds cut down, trim shrubbery along fences and around buildings. Remove weeds from planters and perhaps (here’s a novel idea) plant planters with plants. Remember, unattended planters outside of a business, and weeds in boulevards or in corners, convey a message to customers, as well as mischief makers. What message does the exterior of your property convey not just to villains, but maybe prospective customers, as well?

Replace burned out bulbs and if necessary increase outdoor lighting to discourage people seeking an opportunity to obscure themselves, and to allow good visibility for passersby and yourself.

Walk frequently throughout your neighborhood to get acquainted with what is normal, so as to be able to easily spot something that is out-of-place or suspicious.

Get acquainted with your neighbors. Explain to them what you are doing and why. It may encourage others to do the same.

Who knows it may all become an enjoyable experience, and for businesses, it might even improve business.

Take advantage of the Chamber’s offer to have a free Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) assessment done of your property.

There may be more to be achieved by this kind of community engagement than just crime prevention.

Billings Businesses, Property Owners Take Problems Head-on

3 November 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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Even though they hoped it might have been less, about 50 percent of respondents who participated in the Billings Chamber of Commerce’s survey said they have been impacted by the presence and activities of street people, said Daniel Brooks at a townhall style meeting about public safety at the Northern Hotel on Oct. 2. Ten percent said that they have been impacted “a lot,” said Brooks, who is the Chamber’s Business Advocacy Manager.

That so many people believe the problem is impacting their lives and businesses, was undoubtedly the reason that so many attended what was billed as a public safety meeting, sponsored by the Chamber and several downtown businesses, such as Buchanan Capital and the Northern Hotel. Easily some 200 people were in attendance – almost as many as attended a November 2018 meeting, which first broached the issue.

Stories abound throughout the city from citizens about encounters they have had with homeless people, panhandlers, and vagrants on city streets. Some are just “party goers” who see Billings as their “Las Vegas,” pointed out Chief of Police Rich St. John – they are not homeless. But, encounters with them, often leave shoppers and employees and visitors feeling uneasy and vulnerable.

As a case in point, a few days after the townhall meeting, a discussion among department heads in county government unveiled concerns from county employees about being accosted by people on the streets. It most commonly happens during the hours that employees are coming to work or going home, said Justice of the Peace David Carter, in asking county commissioners what could be done about it.

After finding out that most of the incidents are not reported, Sheriff Mike Linder, who was also present, said that that was the most important thing they could do. They need to report each incident to law enforcement.

Discussion continued about placing video cameras at the county’s parking lot.

Knowing that they are being videoed in any given area does discourage vagrants from loitering, said a business man, but there are a lot of other – usually less expensive things that property owners and business people can do that help. Pursuing those things is the primary focus of the strategy of civic leaders in Billings.

Simple things like cleaning up litter, cutting weeds and trimming bushes, cleaning windows and improving lighting are first-line defense that is part of what is called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

Attending the December meeting was a representative of Vantage Point, a Bozeman –based firm, that offers CPTED consulting services.

A number of Billings’ citizens are volunteering to get the training needed to assist property and business owners to assess their sites and develop a plan on what improvements are needed to reduce the risk of crime. Brooks said that he is going to take the training, and others in law enforcement and leadership are doing likewise.

Those in attendance at the town hall meeting were encouraged to seek the help of the trained consultants, which will to be made available at no charge through the Downtown Billings Alliance (DBA).

It was also announced that a $25,000 fund is being established to help property owners to make improvements that will improve customer and employee safety, on a one-to-one match basis, up to $3000.

Sean Lynch, owner of Pub Station, who served on a discussion panel during the public safety meeting, related his experience in improving his property. “First thing you should do is wake up at 2 or 3 am and take a look at your business at that hour. I think you will be surprised.”

Thinking his property was in pretty good shape, Lynch said he was surprised with what he found at that hour. He found things that needed to be improved and having made those relatively inexpensive improvements has made a big difference in pedestrian traffic for his business.

His mid-night visit revealed that three lights were out. After engaging some artists to help spruce up the alley, he realized that there actually needed to be more lighting. “Now,” he said, “people can walk in the alley and feel comfortable.”

The grassroots strategy requires citizens to pursue solutions themselves rather than expecting someone else to “take care of it.” That is in essence the approach the community is taking in pursuing the ideas of CPTED – rather than expecting city or county government or someone else to solve the problem.

As part of individuals assuming more responsibility, Chief St. John pointed out that there are taverns and bars that “over serve.” He warned that it is the server’s responsibility to know when to stop serving an individual.

Lynch supported the Chief’s comments saying, “Every business owner can do better.” He suggested that employees need more training.

Continued St. John, “We need to stop enabling people. It is a very complex problem, but we can manage the problem; we can’t cure it.”

That does not mean however that the city and county aren’t focused on what can be done to improve the situation.

Despite having added 100 beds to the jail, the facility is already over-crowded and more additions will have to be considered in the future, said Sheriff Linder, but he emphatically added that it is not true that people who should be in jail are not being incarcerated. “If they need to be there we will find a place for them,” he said.

Linder compared Billings to Boise, Idaho which added to its jail, “same as we did.” While Billings is generally pushing an inmate population of over 500, Boise typically has over a thousand. “This isn’t Mayberry anymore,” said Linder, “One day we will be the Boise of Montana.”

The City of Billings is closely examining the prospects of putting another safety mill levy before voters in order to increase the number of police officers. For its population Billings is 28 policemen short compared to other cities of the same size, said Chief St. John.

“Enforcement is robust here,” said St. John, “but added resources allows us to do much more.” Just a police presence makes all the difference. “When you make it uncomfortable and undesirable to be in a place, they are going to move on.”

City Administrator Chris Kukulski pointed out that in comparison to other cities, “Billings residents pay the least for services and that is showing up as being the least- safe community. It will cost more money to get us out of the place we are in.”

“We can’t afford to be the least -safe community,” he added.

Manufacturing Makes Mark in Montana

20 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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October 1 is Manufacturing Day!

It’s a day that should bring pause to every community in the state, because almost every community has some kind of manufacturing and manufacturing is a pillar of every economy.

According to three reports recently released by the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center at Montana State University, the state’s manufacturing sector is strong and MMEC is helping manufacturers succeed.

The 2019 State of Montana Manufacturing report, along with survey results of Montana manufacturers, were prepared by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana.

“Manufacturing is doing quite well in Montana right now,” said Paddy Fleming, MMEC’s executive director.

The report analyzes a variety of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to give a comprehensive overview of trends in the state’s manufacturing sector. Highlights from the 2019 report include:

  • Manufacturing accounted for 16.9% of total statewide earnings in 2018, on par with tourism and ahead of mining and farming. The largest share of that, 17.1%, was from the petroleum and coal sector, followed by wood products at 13.2%.
  • There were a total of 1,643 Montana manufacturing establishments last year. Metal fabricators were the largest category at 256. Miscellaneous ranked second with 184, followed by food with 174.
  • Manufacturing supports 25,100 jobs in Montana, or 3.7% of the state’s total. That’s up from 3.2% in 2010. The wood products sector accounted for the most jobs, 3,193 in 2017, a decline of 35.6% since 2007.
  • Roughly 2/3 of Montana manufacturers were small businesses with fewer than five employees.
  • The fastest growing sector over the past decade has been beverages and tobacco, which includes breweries. The number of establishments in that sector has more than doubled, to 132, and breweries alone employed 979 people in 2018.
  • Sectors losing firms include wood, petroleum and oil, paper and primary metal.
  • Montana’s largest export market for manufactured goods is Canada, with $516 million in 2018 exports, followed by China at $90 million.

A second report summarizes the results of the 2019 Montana Manufacturers Survey, which BBER has conducted annually since 1999 to gauge manufacturers’ perspective on their economic performance and their outlook for the following year. Highlights include:

  • 51% of respondents said their gross sales increased over the past year; 30 percent said they were unchanged.
  • 54% said production increased at their business; 26% reported no change.
  • Half of respondents said their profits increased; 27% reported no change.
  • 32% said their number of employees increased; 56% reported no change.
  • 61% said they expected their production to increase during the next year; 33% expected no change.
  • 65% said that they expected their gross sales to increase during the next year; 28 percent expected no change.

The survey also invites Montana manufacturers to rank the issues most affecting their operations. The top-ranking issue, listed by 67% of respondents, was availability of qualified workers, followed by health insurance costs, at 60%.

“The lack of workforce is really concerning,” Fleming said. “We know companies are turning down business because they can’t find people to get the work done.”

That’s one area where Fleming said he hopes more businesses will take advantage of MMEC’s services. “We have a whole program to help companies attract, retain and develop workers,” he said, noting that MMEC business advisers can work with companies to develop worker training modules, craft promotional materials and identify a variety of other workforce solutions.

The third report provides an overview of how manufacturers and the state benefitted from MMEC’s services in 2018. The findings summarize 59 MMEC clients’ responses to a standardized questionnaire. Highlights include:

  • In 2018, MMEC’s work with manufacturers resulted in 421 new and retained jobs, $71.8 million in new and retained sales, $106 million in additional business investment, $8.9 million in avoided cost savings and $2.4 million in additional Montana income tax revenue.
  • Roughly 57 percent of the respondents said they relied exclusively on MMEC as a business service provider.
  • Clients’ return on investment for MMEC service fees was 9.8 to 1.
  • The state’s return on investment for tax dollars supporting MMEC was 7.9 to 1.

Doing Just Fine

20 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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by Evelyn Pyburn

Someone must come to the defense of business following what is but a veiled attack upon decades of how business has been successfully conducted.

It was recently reported that Business Roundtable, a lobbying group composed of people like  Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is changing the definition of the “purpose of a corporation.” Rather than just making a profit for shareholders, they believe a company or corporation or business must be involved in making social change and environmental activism and community improvements.

They state, that the “standard for corporate responsibility…. has changed — and now demands that companies benefit ‘all stakeholders,’ including customers, employees, suppliers, and communities.”

The group of 181 chief executives announced that it has redefined their “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” to include the promotion of “an economy that serves all Americans.”

There is surely a bit of elitism and hubris in this group, to imply that they are the ultimate authorities in defining business and setting acceptable standards, even as they seem to have no understanding or appreciation of the history of business and the long-standing dynamics of business.

Almost all businesses do serve everyone in their realm. That’s the little understood fact about capitalism – about the role of a business in a community. Big or small — selling magazines or automobiles or lending money — like ripples in a pond, in the process of just tending to business, the activities of a business support and improve its community.

Anyone looking at investing in a business that is making decisions based upon wanting to impact community welfare or environmental activism should give such a business a wide berth. The business is almost certain to eventually fail. Not that community and environmental impacts don’t play some role in how a good business functions, but when a business establishes as its goals the changing of society or agitating for environmental goals, those activities defray business resources, as well as diverting the attention of administrators from making a profit. All of which will eventually spell the demise of the business.

A business is a process that functions very much like a machine. It is not meant to have a heart, soul, personality, social conscious, or spiritual calling. Those are human attributes.  A business is a machine structured to function in a very specific way to achieve very specific outcomes. How well it functions to that end is measured in terms of profit.

There are many other mechanisms and organizational structures that have been devised and can be used to pursue societal or environmental goals, which are exactly what many, many businesses and corporations have utilized in the past. They set up foundations or donate to non-profit organizations  that pursue philanthropic goals the company sees as worthwhile. In doing so, the company owner or stockholders do not compromise the process of making a profit, by keep separate the decisions about how they choose to use those profits.

To give them some credit, these business sages do seem to recognize that doing the “right thing” can be the “best thing” for a business.  They state, “Major employers are investing in their workers and communities because they know it is the only way to be successful over the long term.” 

That is true for all businesses, not just “major employers.”

If paying employees well, training them and making them happy working for the business, keeps good employees, then business managers are paying attention to business, and they are doing the “right thing” for the business, and they are more likely to succeed. Just as, to the degree the company functions in an ethical and responsible manner, it will be respected and trusted by their consumers, which again will contribute to the bottom line.

A business almost can’t avoid doing the “right thing” if they hope to be successful, and in so doing they can’t avoid benefiting the community.

So, it is not that these issues do not play a role in the operation of a business, but they must not be the goal of the business. Such expenditures and attention must be justified by how much they benefit the business – you know, how much they contribute to that horrible thing called “making a profit.”

Despite their narrow mission, every well-run business – of any size – delivers many very positive side benefits to the community.  Besides the obvious jobs and livelihoods and products and services they provide, and the taxes they pay and the contributions they give to civic causes – it is through businesses that all new wealth is created, and that advancements in the standard of living are generated.  And,  most amazing, all of these great benefits happen incidentally to the operation of the business.

We do not need to redefine corporations.

The reality is there is nothing that serves human beings, the environment or society more than people tending to business.  They have always been “serving all Americans.”

Catastrophes that Didn’t Happen and Have Been Forgotten

20 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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Modern doomsayers have been predicting climate and environmental disaster since the 1960s. They continue to do so today.

None of the apocalyptic predictions with due dates as of today have come true – but that is never reported, complains the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Failed predictions are never reported upon by a media that enthusiastically reports on anticipated failures of society, markets or institutions. Nor do such failed forecasts cause a moment’s hesitation for media in reporting on the next round of doom and gloom predictions – often claiming instead that it is an absolute certainty because “experts” are making the claim or that it is “settled science.”

It is well worth noting that all of their solutions have always to do with eliminating the free choices of people living in a free society, the curbing of wealth generation, and/or reducing the standard of living for the common folk.

What follows is a collection of notably wild predictions from notable people in government and science.

More than merely spotlighting the failed predictions, this collection shows that the makers of failed apocalyptic predictions often are individuals holding respected positions in government and science.

In 1967 newspaper headlines such as the Salt Lake Tribune forecasted “Dire Famine” by 1975. The prediction came from the much heralded Paul Ehrlich who said “the time of famines is upon us.” It is too late to do anything to avoid the catastrophe, “the population of the United States is already too big, and birth control may have to be accomplished by making it involuntary and by putting sterilizing agents into staple foods and drinking water, and that the Roman Catholic Church should be pressured into going along with routine measures of population control.” He made his predictions at a science symposium at the University of Texas. There was apparently no presentation at a later time to explain why his prediction was so far off base.

The New York Times reported on August 10, 1969 that because of pollution the population was doomed – again the soothsayer was Paul Ehrlich.  Ehrlich said that while his lab at Stanford University was collecting the data to prove the case, he was wasting no time waiting for the evidence. “…by the time we have enough evidence to convince people, you’re dead,” he said. He predicted, “…unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years.”

In 1970, publications like the Boston Globe, were predicting an ice age by 2000, caused by air pollution which would “obliterate the sun” … if population continues to grow and electric power generation continues. This expert was James P. Lodge Jr. who claimed that “the demands for cooling water will boil dry the entire flow of the rivers and streams of continental United States.” He said we would deplete our oxygen supply. Lodge was a scientist at the national center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. Population control, a less wasteful standard of living and a major technological breakthrough  “in the way man consumes resources,” were the only ways to prevent the catastrophe, said Lodge.

Again in 1970, Dr. Ehrlich was predicting that Americans will be subject to water rationing by 1974 and food rationing by 1980. The University of California Extension and the World Affairs Council in Southern California were all buying into Dr. Ehrlich’s credibility, who was of course peddling a book “The Population Bomb.” They touted him as “the hero of the ecology movement.”

A Washington Post Article, July 9, 1971, reported that Dr. S. I. Rasool of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Columbia University predicted that an ice age would be upon us in 50 or 60 years. That’s just a couple years away now, so it will be just in time to counter the perils of global warming about which we are now being warned.

Strangely, the ice age was going to be the consequence of “fine dust, man constantly puts into the atmosphere by fossil fuel-burning” (– essentially the same thing that will bring us global warming). The dust would block out the rays of the sun and drop temperatures by six degrees, he said.

Rasool’s predictions were printed in the publication “Science” and presented at the international Study of Man’s Impact on Climate in Stockholm.  Dr. Gordon F. MacDonald, scientist-member of President Nixon’s three-man Council on Environmental Quality said that the issue was “one of the serious problems” the US and other delegates must address in the next year.  MacDonald called Rasool a “first-rate atmospheric physicist” whose “estimate” is consistent with “estimates I and others have made.” His conclusion was that men must quit using fossil-fuels and switch to nuclear energy.

In December 1972, Brown University’s George J. Kukle at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and R. K. Matthews, Department of Geological Sciences sent the President of the US a letter stating that at a scientific conference, 42 “top American and European investigators” had concluded that “a global deterioration of climate, by order of magnitude larger than any hitherto experience by civilized mankind, is a very real possibility and indeed may be due very soon.” They were talking about a significant cooling of the planet, but conceded that a lack of data prevented “the precise timing” or to what degree mankind was responsible. There appeared to be evidence that the cooling had already started and they urged the president to take “decisive action.”

And so the predictions continued. The Guardian, January 29, 1974, reported that space satellites showed an ice age was coming fast. Scientists were observing that snow and ice cover of the earth had increased by 12 percent during 1967-1972. They said that the earth had reached a “climax of warmth” between 1935 and 1955, “and world average temperatures are now falling.”

Aerosol sprays was the concern that prompted testimony before Congress in 1974, as reported in TIME. The earth appears to be “on the verge of a period of great peril,” said Professor T. M. Donahue of the University of Michigan, in two days of hearings before Congress on whether Freon, the gas used in aerosol sprayers and a coolant in refrigerators and air conditions had been eating away at the ozone layer at the top of the earth’s atmosphere. It may be too late to head off the increase in skin cancer that is sure to come as a result, said one congressman. The destruction of the ozone would reach its peak in 1990, it was predicted. But no such ‘great peril to life’ has yet been observed and the ozone still remains.

Stephen Schneider, climatologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research wrote a book in 1976, called “The Genesis Strategy,” warning that present world food reserves are insufficient to hedge against future famines that would happen as a result of earth cooling. He quoted a University of Wisconsin climatologist as saying that 1930-1960 “was the most abnormal period in a thousand years – abnormally mild.”

And then there was the dire threat of acid rain, a hype that quietly went away once it achieved its aim of scaring Congress into passing the “Clean Air Act.” Newspaper stories in 1980 claimed that acid rain has already wiped out the fish in 10 of Yew York’s Adirondack Mountain lakes. Canada’s environmental agency deputy minister, Raymond Robinson, in a meeting sponsored by the US Environmental Protection agency blamed the problem on electrical plants burning coal.

But, 10 years later, a US Government $537 million study concluded that acid rain was no environmental crisis, which “reduced the scientific uncertainties” about acid rain, and determined that it was a long-term problem that could be addressed by reducing sulfur dioxide emissions.

Cooling of the earth was still a serious problem come 1978 and it wasn’t going away any time soon, said a Jan. 5, 1978 New York Times article, predicting a 30 year trend. German, Japanese and American specialists all concurred in a British journal that temperature data from oceans and air indicated that the northern hemisphere cooled from 1950 to 1975, 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius, but they were uncertain as to why the planet was cooling.

But from 1979 NASA satellite data shows a slight warming trend.

In 1988 drought became the crisis, as experts predicted the hottest year ever. It was declared to be the cause of the “greenhouse effect,” according to James Hansen of NASA. He predicted an increase in heat waves through the rest of the 80s and 90s, but in reality 1988 was the last “really dry year in the midwest” and they have since had record wet years, according to RealClimateScience.com.

In the Lansing State Journal, Hansen warned on Dec. 12, 1988, that during the 1990s Washington DC would experience 85 days a year with temps over 90 degrees rather than what had been the average of 35 days a year – and that the ocean was going to rise one foot to six feet – and the frequency and severity of storms would increase due to the greenhouse effect.

DC’s number of hot days peaked in 1911 and have been declining ever since.

The Maldive Islands nation in the Indian Ocean was predicted in 1988 to be underwater within 30 years, according to The Agence France Press. They are not.

The June 30, 1989, Associated Press reported that “A senior U. N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by 2000. Because of warming, melting polar ice caps will raise the sea level by three feet, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of UN Environmental Protection . One sixth of Bangladesh would be flooded, displacing a fourth of its 90 million people. A fifth of Egypt’s arable land in the Nile Delta would be flooded, cutting off its food supply, according to a joint UNEP and US Environmental Agency prediction.

Shifting climate patterns will bring back the 1930s dust bowl to the US and Canada, said Brown, because of humanity’s use of fossil fuels and burning the rainforest. The world had only ten years to do something about it, according to Brown.

In 1989, New York City’s westside highway that runs along the Hudson River was predicted to be under water by 2019 – and tape would be on windows of buildings because of high winds. Jim Hansen made that prediction to a reporter from Salon.com, who confirmed Hansen was still standing by the prediction in October 2001.

In 2000, it was also predicted that snow falls would be a thing of the pass and children would no longer know what snow is.

In 2002 global warming was predicted to produce famine in ten years. It could only be avoided if humans quit eating meat and fish, according to a report in the Guardian. The Guardian also reported in 2004 that Britain would have a climate more like Siberia by 2020.

In 2008, a NASA scientist predicted that the Arctic would be “ice free” by 2018.

Al Gore echoed the prediction but said the Arctic would be free of ice by 2013. On Dec. 14, 2008, Gore predicted the north polar ice cap would be gone in five years – “inconveniently, it is still there.”

On July 9, 2009, Prince Charles said we had only eight years to save the planet. “The price of capitalism and consumerism is just too high,” he lamented.

The journal Nature claimed in 2013 that the Arctic would be ice free by 2015, because of a “methane catastrophe.”

Based upon the US Department of Energy research, the US Navy predicted in 2013, an ice-free Arctic Ocean by 2016.

In 2014, the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in a joint statement with John Kerry, predicted “climate chaos” in only 500 days. But the planet is standing after much more than 500 days.

Bypass Won’t be Bypass

20 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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The Billings Bypass will not be called the Billings Bypass.

Maybe it will be called the Lockwood-Heights Commerce Park Way.

The Montana Department of Transportation will name the proposed section of highway that will connect Johnson Lane in Lockwood to the Heights near the junction of Highways 312 and 87, west of Main Street. But earlier this year a MDT spokesman said the agency tends not to like naming routes “bypass,” and they encouraged input from the community.

A small delegation from the Lockwood Planning Steering Committee submitted to the county commissioners a list of names that have been put forth for the route. The list highlighted two of the names as the top choices of the committee, “Lockwood Commerce Park Way”  and “Lockwood-Heights Connector.”

After some discussion amongst all those present at the commissioners’ discussion meeting, the name

“Lockwood –Heights Commerce Park Way,” emerged as the preferred name. County Commissioners said they would send a letter to the Department of Transportation recommending that name.

The other names that were suggested by the community were:

  • Unicorn Road
  • Jackalope Highway
  • Don Reed Highway
  • Mel Harris Highway
  • Dan Mortensen Expressway
  • Expressway or Bypass or Connector or Parkway or Way
  • Rim Connector
  • Coulson Connection
  • Lockwood Bypass
  • Lockwood Interchange
  • Eastgate Emerald Hills Highway
  • Great Drive of ’89 Highway
  • 1889 Centennial Expressway
  • Yellowstone Way
  • Calamity Jane Bypass
  • Big Foot Bypass
  • Sasquatch Bypass
  • Freedom Way

Buffalo Block at the Rex Opens

20 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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Buffalo Block Prime Steakhouse at the Rex opened on October 1 as Billings’ newest first class restaurant.

Since the closure of the Rex Restaurant about a year -and -a -half ago, Billings has been closely watching and wondering what would emerge from one of the city’s most popular haunts. When news was announced that the property had been purchased by the Larson Family with the intent of reopening as a first class restaurant, spirits rose about its future, and the remodeling that has been going on over the past year has been closely monitored by the community.

Billings will not be disappointed with what has been done. Completely redesigned, remodeled and equipped, Buffalo Block offers high-end dining in a completely new atmosphere, and yet one that somehow retains a hint of its past; and the character that has always made The Rex distinctive still lingers just below the surface.

With a completely new floor plan, the warm honey-tones of a walnut wood finish, throughout, brings a warmth and comfort. Special attention to detail and décor brings a sense of luxury, augmented by an open state-of-the-art kitchen that literally glows as the heart of the restaurant bustling with activity, the focus of which is the open wood-flame grilling of prime dry -aged beef, the house specialty.

To preserve and retain The Rex on Montana Avenue, and all that its 100-plus year history, has meant to Billings, was the primary goal of Rick and Nicki Larson. Even though they are highly successful business owners, well-known for their business, EBMS, which they founded and built over the last 30-plus years, the only thing they knew about the restaurant business was how much they had enjoyed The Rex in the past, and how much they enjoy good food, good wine and spirits, with the comradery of good friends.

To be able to assure The Rex experience in the future for Billings is in a sense a giving back to the community, far more so than being a business venture. But to make sure the effort is successful they went in search of getting the expertise that will be needed. They found that in the manager and executive chef they hired.

Mitch Fox is the manager of Buffalo Block and Austin Stewart is the executive chef. Both are excited about being part of this new venture and about being in Billings, Montana. And, as far as being on the Larson team, “I feel like I won the lottery,” says Austin.

Although originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Austin comes to Billings by way of Sarasota, Florida. His wife had ties in Billings, having attended Rocky Mountain College and MSU-Billings. As a very experienced steakhouse chef, Austin’s vision for his culinary talents are very much in line with those of Rick Larson.

Buffalo Block features their own aged beef, from filet mignon, ribeye, New York strip, and wood-fired prime rib, as well as lobster tails, king crab legs, scallops, roasted chicken, and short ribs.

All beef is “prime beef” and is dry aged on premises, from 30 to 75 days—an expensive process that while edging up menu prices still squeezes the profit margin, explained Manager Mitch Fox, but noting that only about 3 percent of all processed beef qualifies as “prime” it’s well worth it. They purchase their beef from a Spokane processing company that draws most of its beef from Montana. To buy as much locally as possible is very much a part of their operation, said Mitch, pointing out that most of the refurbishing of the building has been done by local builders and crafts people.

Mitch’s experience comes from the management of restaurants in the ski areas of Colorado, which makes him well adapted for the Montana winters. But, nonetheless he enjoys sunny days and hopes there will still be a few such days yet this fall to allow the partial opening of the patio. Equipped with massive stationary umbrellas with LED lighting and heaters, the odds are good, they will be able to do so.

The completely rebuilt patio area provides seating for 96, which augments interior seating capacity of about 135, which includes about 85 in the formal dining room.

Mitch will be overseeing and training a staff of some 50 people.

A special feature of Buffalo Block will be the offering of 55 lockers which patrons may rent, in which to keep bottles of their favorite wines and spirits. Mitch said that he will go to great lengths to acquire whatever labels patrons want. They want to build Buffalo Block’s list of wines and liquor “into something special,” said Mitch. One of their features will be offer the purchase of customized flights (one ounce samples), as well as offering a hundred  labels on the “by the glass” wine list.

The restaurant hours will be from 11 am to closing. Open six days a week, closed on Sundays.

The Rex was built in 1910, with such notables as Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and Will James having contributed to its historic tale as a hotel, restaurant and bar that catered to the railroad passengers, cowboys and town folk, alike. Business slacked off in the 1960s and by 1975 the building faced almost certain demise, when at the last minute Senia Hart bought the building just to save it. It was brought back as a very popular restaurant and gathering place over the past 30 years by previous owner, Gene Burgad, who contributed to the revitalization of the entire historic district of Montana Avenue. The Rex Hotel building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

What Is It All About?

18 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, growing double dahlias in his garden,  or looking for dinasour eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living his life 24 crowded hours of the day.”

Dr. W. Beran Wolfe

By Evelyn Pyburn

Published Previously, August 1, 1989

(Even more true today.)

Not long ago a noted columnist, who had in mid-life left her career to devote more time to the role of being a mother, was being interveiwed on a radio talk show. She commented that she had, prior to her retirement, been criticized by a fellow columnist for writing too much about her children.

She retorted that he wrote too much about politics. After all, she said, raising children and living is what life is really all about – life is not about politics.

The point is well taken and too much overlooked, as our every waking hour is dominated with news of political battles and wars, Congressional actions, power grabs, charges of misdeeds and counter-charges, and the President’s latest sneeze.

While it’s commonly said that man is a political creature, a fully focused veiw on the breadth of humanity can hardly leave room to concur. despite the high profile of those involved with politics, they are but a pitiful minority. Most people are more interested in their children, their work, and their pasttimes – content to leave their neighbor alone, finding great joy and satisfaction in the daily challenges of living.

Frequently condemned as being apathetic, they most likely are not; at least not about thinga that matter the most to them. The fact that their interests are not shared by the politicians is not surprising considering the nature of politics. If one considers politics as the use of force to manipulate people and events, then indeed, such apathy seems wonderfully wholesome.

While the disruptive activities of politics do impact (usually negatively) the lives of average folks, it is nowhere near as great as the impact (usually positively) from those who create and produce.

Ninety percent of the scientists who ever lived are quietly living right now. What they do and learn will have far more reaching effects in history than the most powerful political body in the world. The knowledge that they are gathering will shape the direction of all human beings in the future – and most especially political creatures, who are wholly dependent upon the rest of society for innovation, as well as material support.

So, to leave in peace those who have nothing better to do than raise children, dahlias and bridges, should be the highest aspiration of civilization. 

Downtown Meeting to Put Public Safety at Forefront

18 October 2019
Evelyn Pyburn
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It’s been a year since Billings business people and property owners packed the house at a public meeting about what can be done to address a growing problem in the city regarding street dwellers, including homeless people, substance abusers, vagrants, and partiers, who overstay their welcome.

Since then, while there have been some steps forward in dealing with the problem, there’s more that must be done, and the Billings Chamber of Commerce has put it on the forefront of programs for the coming year. “Public Safety issues have been identified by our business community as a priority that needs to be addressed. From Downtown to the West End, the Heights and Southside, public safety issues exist throughout Billings,” declares the Chamber.”

“People were appreciative of having been able to connect with each other,” said Daniel Brooks, Business Advocacy Manager for the Chamber. To facilitate continued dialogue and networking, the Chamber is helping to host another public discussion on October 2, from 8 – 10 am at the Northern Hotel. To RSVP go to https://forms.gle/o1vkzVLDgFtesio49.

“To get to know our neighbors is important,” said Mike Nelson, owner /manager of the Northern Hotel, who is one of the business people in downtown Billings leading the charge.

Nelson announced the community meeting at the Big Sky Economic Development (BSED) executive board meeting last week. BSED Executive Director Steve Arveschoug said that BSED wants to be supportive of the effort.

Emphasizing the importance of the initiative, Mike Seppala, Western Security Bank, said that the economic vitality of the downtown depends upon it. “If nothing is done,” he said, the area will be “extremely compromised. People aren’t willing to go downtown already.”

Among the solutions that have been proposed is to increase the presence of police. The city council is currently contemplating an increase in mill levies to provide more public safety funding. But, says Brooks, “a public safety levy is only a part of the solution. Businesses really want to take charge and take some action steps.” The goal is to find ways to empower businesses.

The problem with focusing just on police intervention is that there is no room in the jail. Among other possible solutions is to curb the sale of “single serve” cans of high alcohol content products. “We have talked with a couple of businesses in corridor,” who are willing to make that change, he said.

“Businesses are ready to take responsibility for their neighborhoods by forming business-to-business small groups that watch out for each other, and hold businesses who enable criminal mischief accountable,” reads the announcement sent to members by the Chamber.

Businesses are also ready to make investments in their properties as recommend by the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), which was the focus of last year’s public meeting. certified, creating a deterrence to crime.

The CPTED strategy is that of cleaning up areas, trimming vegetation, improving lighting and improving visual aspects of areas as a means to deter vagrancy or criminal activity in any area.  A number of local leaders, including Brooks, are taking advantage of the CPTED program training to become certified to identify problems and to recommend solutions.