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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!” – Established 1985 – Locally Owned & Independent
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Find the latest updates and information on the COVID-19 pandemic at www.bitterrootstar.com Volume XXXVI, Number 20
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
www.bitterrootstar.com
Bitterroot Star purchased by Deer Lodge publisher
Jesse and Sasha Mullen are the new owners of the Bitterroot Star. Pictured here with their children at their home in Deer Lodge, the couple also owns the Philipsburg Mail and the Silver State Post and the Browsing Bison Bookstore located in Deer Lodge.
Bitterroot Star publishers Michael and Victoria Howell have announced the sale of the Bitterroot Star newspaper to Jesse and Sasha Mullen of Deer Lodge. The Howells have owned and operated the newspaper since they started it in 1985. The Mullens currently own and operate two Montana newspapers, the Philipsburg Mail and the Silver State Post in Deer Lodge. They also own the Browsing Bison Bookstore in Deer Lodge where they live with their children. Jesse has been involved with newspapers since he got his start as a newspaper delivery boy at the Sioux City Journal. He has been an editor and publisher at community newspapers in Montana, Wyoming, Washington State, and Oregon. Prior to returning to Montana two years ago, he was an executive with Civitas Media based in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked closely with journalists across the United
States at Civitas’ more than 100 newspapers. He serves on the Montana Newspaper Association Advertising Services board and is a member of the Deer Lodge Rotary Club. Sasha is a veterinary assistant with Clark Fork Veterinary Clinic and a board member of the Powell County Literacy Program. The couple have a number of horses, dogs and a geriatric mule. In their spare time, Sasha shows horses competitively, and the entire family enjoys camping, cooking, cross-country skiing, reading and volunteer work. The Mullen family are members of the Backcountry Horsemen of Montana and Big Sky Horse Park. They enjoy spending their winter weekends at Discovery Ski Area near Philipsburg. Jesse and Sasha both look forward to becoming a part of the Bitterroot Valley community. Michael Howell said that selling the paper is bittersweet because he and Victoria have spent more than half their lives in devel-
oping and running the paper. “The fact is that Victoria and I are both leaving the newspaper with mixed emotions,” said Michael Howell. “How could we not? It has been an adventure that we could not have dreamed up. Running a local newspaper involves an incredible degree of responsibility towards the whole community and through that we have developed many deep and lasting relationships with many of the people and the businesses that comprise it. We won’t be leaving all that behind.” “I don’t think running a small local newspaper ever made anybody all that wealthy,” said Howell. “It’s too much of a public service. But that service brings in a lot of other rewards that you can’t put a dollar sign on. All the sincere thanks that we have received over the years do count for something after all. They say when you approach those Pearly Gates you have to leave all that See STAR, page 2
Health officials urge people Ellington appointed interim to consider flu vaccination Police Chief for Stevensville By Michael Howell
While COVID-19 statistics dominate the headlines, public health officials are urging people not to ignore the coming flu season and to consider getting a seasonal flu vaccination shot. Although the COVID-19 virus is considered by many to be about like getting a bad cold or the flu, in fact they are very different viruses. One serious difference being the high rate of transmissibility of the COVID-19 virus for various reasons, including the presymptomatic period of contagion and the completely asymptomatic spread of the disease. The flu is a complicated disease caused by a family of influenza viruses. Each year, different variations of influenza circulate and become widespread globally. Flu experts at more than 100 influenza centers around the world
keep track of these different variations, or strains, and go through an intensive research process to identify which strains may be the most common in a given season. This research process leads to the creation of the season’s vaccine, which is intended to protect against common flu strains that winter. But the seasonality of the flu leads to variation in both flu severity and vaccine effectiveness from year to year. According to statistics from the CDC Pneumonia and Influenza Mortality Surveillance, 20132021 [as reported in an article in Healthline by author Betsy Ladyzhets], the flu has caused between 140,000 and 810,000 estimated hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 61,000 estimated deaths each year since 2010. In 2020, experts are particularly concerned that the seasonal flu may become a burden for hospi-
tals, which are already caring for an influx of COVID-19 patients. The flu and COVID-19 also have similar symptoms and can require similar equipment from hospitals and health labs, which makes a double epidemic even more concerning. According to the CDC report, the total flu and pneumonia deaths in Montana, 2013-2020, was 4,170 (400 per 100,000 population). The breakdown is 296 (28 per 100K) deaths due to Flu; and 3,874 (372 per 100K) of Pneumonia caused deaths. During 2013-2020 flu seasons, flu and pneumonia combined caused 6% of all deaths The worst flu season, 20142015, resulted in 657 deaths (63 per 100K) or 6.6% of all deaths in the season. So far this year in Montana,
Stevensville Mayor Brandon Dewey on Monday announced that he has appointed Corporal John Ellington to serve as the interim Chief of Police for the Stevensville Police Department. Ellington will fill the position while the Town searches for a permanent police chief, a position that former Chief James Marble resigned when he took a job with the State of Montana. The Mayor says that he hopes to have a permanent chief appointed by March. Ellington joined SPD in December of 2019, bringing five years of law enforcement experience from the Lakeland, Florida area. Ellington is also a veteran, having served in the U.S. Marine Corps infantry, serving in combat in Afghanistan. In July, Ellington was promoted to Corporal and given supervisory and field train-
See FLU, page 4
See CHIEF, page 3
Ages. It covers the period of Glacial Lake Missoula, which filled the Bitterroot valley up to 6,000 feet deep repeatedly as the ice dam which created it broke repeatedly. It is estimated that the lake filled and then drained catastrophically over 40 times. The lake drained in about three days, creating the largest series of flash floods in the history of the earth and leaving a trail from here down through Idaho, Washington and Oregon to the coast. The trail following this ancient floodway has been monumentalized as a National Historic Trail. Stanley said that the Bitterroot Valley is the hub of three different National Historic Trails, it is on the Ice Age Floods National Historic Trial, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) National Historic Trail and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. She said the museum had already done exhibits
on the Nez Perce Trail and the Lewis and Clark Trail. “This is the prequel to those two,” said Stanley. She said the exhibit tells the whole story of the formation of the glaciers during Pre-Cambrian times. There were no humans occupying the area at the time but the exhibit includes displays about the animals that roamed the area at the time including Saber Tooth Tigers and Wooly Mammoths and even the predecessor of the modern horse. All of which went extinct. Stanley said that while the filling and draining of Glacial Lake Missoula left dramatic marks across the landscape in the Scablands of Washington, signs of it are also visible here in the Bitterroot if you look closely enough. “The evidence is there,” said Stanley. “You just have to look for
John Ellington has been appointed interim Stevensville Police Chief by Mayor Brandon Dewey.
Glaciers in the Bitterroot at Ravalli County Museum By Michael Howell
A new exhibit, “Ice Ace Floods - Glacial Lake Missoula,” will be opening soon at the Ravalli County Museum, focused on the impacts of glaciers and of Glacial Lake Missoula on the Bitterroot valley. Museum Director Tamar Stanley said that glaciers and the flooding events centered around Glacial Lake Missoula have made the area an international travel destination. “People come from all over the world to see glaciers now,” said Stanley, “and this exhibit is telling the backstory of one of the largest glaciers ever, certainly on the North American continent.” The exhibit is chockful of information about glaciers, how they formed and how far the glacier fields extended in North America in the Pre-Cambrian Ice
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See MUSEUM, page 14
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Director of the Ravalli County Museum Tamar Stanley (right) and Assistant Director Nancy Ann Bevins (left) are pictured here with the large “erratic” that is on display in the front yard of the Museum. It is an outdoor installation related to the coming Glacier Exhibit. Stanley says she tells the kids when they are at the rock to look up at the very top of the cupola at the top of the museum building. When the lake was full, she tells them, you could stack seven of these buildings on top of each other before you reached the surface of the lake. Michael Howell photo.
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