Sustenance in Hand

There has been a lot going on lately, bad stuff: a plane crash in Butte on Sunday that killed three families and the pilot of the plane, a terrible fire in Miles City yesterday that involved eight businesses and an entire city block, the earlier gas explosion and fire in Bozeman and the subsequent investigation, the fire in Whitehall the day after the Bozeman thing, good grief. What is happening?!?

At times like this, amidst the furor of a legislative session, a representative finds sustenance wherever she can. On this day, it's a handful of goldfish crackers. It's a nice nod to the snack cracker that got me through college: I remember all-nighters in the Architecture studio at Montana State University, when goldfish crackers and Diet Coke figured prominently in my diet. Funny that they do now, too.

I presented a bill in a Senate committee today and I'll do the same with another this afternoon. House Bill 572, to establish state matching grants for SBIR/STTR grantees, was heard in Senate Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs just before noon. House Bill 480, for non-resident youth upland game bird licenses, will be considered by the Senate Fish, Wildlife, and Parks committee this afternoon. Cross your fingers for passage of both bills.