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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
‘The B
ESTATE SALES! Jan 10-12 • Stevensville 1048 Prairie Lane
Jan 24-26 • Hamilton • 105 Bedford www.bluejayestatesales.com • 363-1600
Volume XXXIV, Number 25
Pianist Arthur Kostuk
Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent
Exception may become rule for county sick leave policy
By Michael Howell
Pianist Arthur Kostuk will be teaching a series of evening classes starting January 16 as part of the Lone Rock Adult Education Program.
Sharing a love of music Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Master Competition in the 1980’s and went on to a career as a professional musician and educator, performing in major cities around the country. Kostuk, who lives in Corvallis, will be sharing his passion for music and his abiding interest in how music
By Christin Rzasa
This winter, residents of the Bitterroot Valley have the rare opportunity to experience music through the eyes of an accomplished concert pianist. Arthur Kostuk was awarded first place in the
touches the human soul in a fivepart course – beginning January 16th – offered by the Lone Rock Adult Education program. As a child, Kostuk was naturally driven to explore how things work. When he was 13 See KOSTUK, page 3
NIH scientists make big step towards early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease By Michael Howell
The National Institutes of Health recently announced the publication of a report by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases describing an ultrasensitive test that detects a corrupted protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In their new study, published in Acta Neuropathologica [A.
Kraus, et al. Seeding selectivity and ultrasensitive detection of tau aggregate conformers of Alzheimer disease. Acta Neuropathologica. DOI: 10.1007/ s00401-018-1947-3 (2018).], researchers explain how they adapted a diagnostic test originally developed for prion diseases to detect abnormal clusters of another protein called a tau protein. Like other proteins involved in neurological diseases, tau protein clusters can seed themselves and contribute substantially to the disease processes of Alzheimer’s and CTE. Their latest findings could be a major advance for
Electron micrograph of tau clusters. Photo courtesy of NIAID.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Alzheimer’s diagnostics because the study points to tau seeds as potential biological “markers” for Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. The test is called AD RT-QuIC: Alzheimer’s disease real-time quaking induced conversion. Dr. Byron Caughey, a senior investigator in NIAID’s Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, and his team at Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, first developed a test for detecting the seeding activity of a misfolded protein involved in CreutzfeldtJakob (CJD) and other prion diseases about a decade ago. Since the development of that “real-time quaking induced conversion test” for the protein related to CJD, assays were further developed for all prion diseases in mammals and some effective assays for CJD in humans. Caughey called these further developments a great success story in the diagnosis and development of therapeutics for prion diseases. He said the assays developed are being used in clinical settings to diagnose CJD in humans in many places in the world. Alongside those efforts, his team has also been pursuing a test related to the mis-folding “Alpha Synuclein” protein involved in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. “We are not as far along in using it to diagnose in humans,” said Caughey, “but it is looking good.” He said they were hopeful that the test they have developed See SCIENTISTS, page 3
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January 17, 18 & 19 • 8am - 6pm
The Ravalli County Commissioners decided to grant a variance or make an exception to its sick leave policy last week that Commission Chair Jeff Burrows said would pretty much have to become the rule. It had to do with extending the allowed number of hours of sick leave that an employee may take in the form of direct grants from co-workers within any 12-month period. The county’s current policy restricts the number of hours of sick leave that any employee can take in direct grants in a 12-month period to 160 hours. But this limit came under scrutiny last week when Ravalli County Road Superintendent Dusty McKern asked them to make an exception in his regard. McKern is facing an upcoming surgery for a heart condition that, according to his doctor, could require up to three months for full recovery. He requested that he be allowed to take enough direct grants in sick leave to cover that period. Human Resource Director Robert Jenni told the commission that the total sick leave required to
meet the request would be about 504 hours. He said McKern had about 100 hours banked in sick leave and vacation time. He also stated that under his tenure no one had ever been granted a variance for using over 160 hours in direct grants. An employee accrues approximately a day of sick leave every month. Commissioner Burrows said, “The only issue we have is that by granting that we might as well take the 160-hour limitation out of the policy. What I don’t want to do is sit here and say yes to one person’s disease and no to another person’s disease.” Commissioner Chris Hoffman said he was uneasy as well since it puts the commission and the department head in the position of having to make decisions based on medical judgments they are not qualified to make. Burrows said that he was willing to grant an exception but he was firm that it would mean changing the policy. Hoffman agreed and made a motion to give the variance. Chilcott asked if there was any limit to the variance.
Jenni suggested that one limit might be to set it at the maximum allowed under FMLA which is 12 weeks of absence with job protected leave. This could amount to 480 hours, according to Jenni. The request for an exception was granted with the limit of 480 hours in any 12-month period. Hoffman said he was sorry for dragging the whole discussion out but that it was no small thing for the county to commit to, “and I know it’s an even bigger thing for you,” he told McKern. “I wish you all the best.”
History lecture
“A Darkness Lit by Heroes” will be presented by author Doug Ammons on Thursday, January 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ravalli County Museum, 205 Bedford, Hamilton. Come hear this dramatic storytelling presentation and book signing, with author Doug Ammons. This is the true story of the worst hard rock mining disaster in American history, which killed 168 men in Butte in June 1917. For more information call 363-3338.
Stevi school board chair receives education award
Greg Trangmoe, Stevensville School Board Chair, was recently honored by the Montana School Boards Association (MTSBA) with the Marvin Heintz Award at the Montana Conference of Educational Leadership held in Missoula. The Marvin Heintz Award is bestowed on individual school board trustees who attain the highest level of trustee certification through the MTSBA School Board Academy Program. Trangmoe is highly active in the both local and state education circles. He has served on the Stevensville School Board of Trustees for eight years and has served as Board Chair for the past five years. More recently, Trangmoe has helped organize
Greg Trangmoe summer and after-school programming to teach computer coding and robotics to interested youth of all ages. Trangmoe has written grants for this effort
and has served in a volunteer teaching capacity for the coding program as well. In addition to his elected Stevensville board position, Trangmoe also serves on the Montana School Board Association’s Board of Directors as a Region 6 representative for southwest Montana Trangmoe was recently recognized at the October school board meeting for his efforts by Superintendent Bob Moore. Moore acknowledged that Trangmoe was one of a select few trustees statewide to receive the award and that Trangmoe’s dedication to education and professional learning is appreciated by the Stevensville School District as well as other area schools.
Local history lecture at library The Friends of Fort Owen is sponsoring a free lecture by historian Sally Thompson, “A Strange Story of John Owen and Father De Smet, Spring 1859,” on Thursday, January 10 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the community room at the North Valley Public Library, 208 Main Street, Stevensville. "A Strange Story of John Owen and Father De Smet, Spring 1859" is about two contemporaries, each acting as an agent for the U.S. Government, who escorted “Indian chiefs” from the Bitterroots to Fort Vancouver in April 1859. Their conflicting records of the story provide some interesting details about life at that pivotal time in regional history, while leaving some significant unanswered questions.
Dr. Sally Thompson
Come hear Sally Thompson tell this unusual story through an illustrated PowerPoint program, followed by a lively discussion and refreshments. Thompson has spent over 40 years working with the native tribes of the West. Trained as an anthropologist (PhD, CU, Boulder, 1980), she has worked as an archaeologist, ethnographer, and ethnohistorian. Her main interests
Thursday - Friday - Saturday Auction at 3pm Saturday
are native groups of the region, old maps and Jesuit records from the Rocky Mountain Missions. While director of the Regional Learning Project at the University of Montana (2001-10), she interviewed over 200 elders and educators from 37 tribes and used the results in three documentaries and several classroom DVDs, in addition to three websites. She worked collaboratively with Kootenai and Blackfeet elders on a book about their traditional seasonal rounds through Glacier National Park published in 2015 – “People Before the Park.” A recent article, “John Owen’s Worst Trip,” appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Montana, Magazine of Western History. For more information call Margaret Gorski at 406-5522072.
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