[news]
WEEK IN REVIEW
VIEWFINDER
by Cathrine L. Walters
Wednesday, January 1 When it comes to celebration, city ordinances do not hold sway. Despite laws banning the use of fireworks within city limits, the sky above Missoula fills with pyrotechnics once the clock hits midnight. Happy New Year, you scoundrels!
Thursday, January 2 In a radio interview with Aaron Flint, former congressman Denny Rehberg declares that he is seriously considering a 2014 run to reclaim his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Friday, January 3 Derek Skees, a former Tea Party state legislator who made national news for promoting the nullification of federal laws, announces he will run for the Public Service Commission. Skees aims to replace Bill Gallagher, the chairman who is retiring at the end of the year.
Saturday, January 4 Mark Twain, impersonated by historian Michael Delaney, visits Traveler’s Rest State Park in Lolo to tell a crowd of 105 about his travels through Montana in the early 1860s. The event is part of the park’s Winter Storytelling Series, which will take place every Saturday until late March.
Sunday, January 5 The French Alliance of Missoula, a group of local francophones that hosts films and language camps, presents the animated film Le Chat Du Rabbin at the Missoula Winery. Frenchie Leiritz, president of the club and owner of the winery, says the group hosts films the first Sunday of every month.
Monday, January 6 Missoula resident Michael Burnett calls 911 at 4 a.m. to report that he’s the victim of a drive-by shooting. Police later announce that Burnett fabricated the report after accidentally shooting himself in the knee. Burnett now faces misdemeanor charges and a serious wound to his pride.
Tuesday, January 7 Students, family and friends gather at Garden City Funeral Home for the memorial service of Lisa Ratcliffe, 42, who passed away on New Year’s Day from sudden pancreatitis complications. Ratcliffe was a popular Hellgate High School math teacher, coach and basketball aficionado.
The Missoula City Fire Department conducts an ice-rescue training exercise near the California Street bridge on Jan. 2. Search and rescue team members rescued training officer Matt Kerns and transferred him from a cataraft to the Clark Fork’s bank.
Health care
ACA hits AmeriCorps Liz Higgins serves as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with the Missoula-based Montana Campus Compact, a group that places young do-gooders with community organizations across the state. In December, Higgins says she received an email from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, announcing that her health benefit plan does not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The email said she had three options: return to her parents’ health plan if she is under 26 (which she is not), buy a new plan on the health insurance exchange, or keep her AmeriCorps-sponsored plan and pay a $95 fine. She chose the third option because it’s the most affordable. “I know a lot of members that are kind of worried about what they are going to do because our monthly stipend isn’t very much,” Higgins says. “I think about the VISTA volunteers everyday. To some, the $95 fee is a lot and we get a very small monthly living allowance. … It’s rather unfortunate. It makes me sad.”
[6] Missoula Independent • January 9–January 16, 2014
AmeriCorps members across the state and country are facing a shifting health care landscape because many of the traditional AmeriCorps and VISTA health plans do not meet the ACA’s standards. According to the CNCS, more than 1,300 AmeriCorps members served in Montana as of March 2013. Dean McGovern, executive director of Montana Campus Compact, currently oversees 20 VISTA members in Montana. He worries that the changes will impact volunteer recruitment. “If they are penalized for not being covered in accordance with the law then they will suffer financial burden, which will hurt the current members and disincentivize people from volunteering in the future,” he says. “It will be harder to get people to step up and serve their community and their country if we can’t get them the health care coverage that the new health law dictates.” Along with other AmeriCorps program managers in the state, McGovern says he is petitioning the CNCS to offer a plan to AmeriCorps members that complies with the new health care law. Jimmy Tobias
Wine
Malbec by mail Up until a few months ago, Montana was the only state in the country that required residents to obtain a $50 license for the privilege of ordering wine by mail. The system called for twice-annual reports and tax payments from those connoisseur license holders as well as a $25 annual renewal. According to Steve Swanson, management analyst at Montana’s Liquor Control Division, there were only 173 licensed wine connoisseurs statewide at the end of June. Now, as online shoppers may already have noted, wine can flow to nearly anyone’s front door. The 2013 Montana Legislature approved House Bill 402 last spring, replacing the state’s decade-old wine connoisseur license with a direct shipment endorsement and joining 39 other states in putting the burden of licensing on wineries themselves. “So far, it appears that we’ve approved a little over 340 wineries that have applied for the direct shipment endorsement,” Swanson says. That list includes several in-state wine companies, which were previously excluded from shipping to connoisseur license holders.