First up, the battle for who supports veterans the most is alive and well here in Montana. Read on:

On March 8, Congressman Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., announced that he was touring Fort Harrison VA Medical Center next week. He was able to get some press about it.
Then, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced that he was touring Fort Harrison VA Medical Center. But, he’s doing it on Saturday. He also scored some media attention out of it with this headline in the Helena Independent Record: “Tester touring Fort Harrison Saturday; Rehberg to follow.”
Tester went one step further in this STORY and used his seat on the Senate Veterans Affairs committee to get a free lunch (and a meeting) with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in Washington, DC. You know what they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
The Western Word (TWW) still believes people who sit on these committees should have worn the uniform at one time in the lives.
I have not seen a report about what Max Baucus will do for Montana veterans. I’m sure something is in the works. Stay tuned.

My second story is about Malmstrom AFB. The base has been in the news recently about a place called Whitmore Ravine. Supposedly, the runoff from the base has caused a ravine to form and wash sediment into the Missouri River (about a mile or so from the base). It is hurting some prime farm land near the base, too.
Some folks say the ravine is caused by the new housing and buildings on the base. They should blame former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, R-Mont., for this as he was the one that caused the building boom on Malmstrom AFB. I doubt they will need to worry about a lot of future construction with him gone, but I digress.
The Air Force will spend around $300,000 to study the problem. TWW wonders why? I remember around March 15, 2006, a story appeared in the Great Falls Tribune that reported the local folks already did a study and found that it would cost around $3.6 million to repair it. It seems like a waste to spend another $300,000 to study it and waste more time.
So who will get the money to fix the problem? Tester? Baucus? Rehberg?
TWW believes many of the folks involved in this issue are pretty much anti-military. Anyway it seems so with some of their remarks. Maybe they want the area to look more like the time when Lewis and Clark came through?

And finally, I did not see THIS on Senator Tester’s schedule, but maybe I missed it. I was looking for an entry like this:

9:00pm: Tunnicliff’s Tavern– drink red beer and eat coleslaw
(Was it organically grown coleslaw?)