Bob McGuire

Stop the cuts. Raise the wage. Fund the future. That was the message people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or I/DD, family members, elected officials and other advocates from Long Island had for the state government when they gathered for a rally in Commack last month to sound the alarm about the workforce emergency facing the I/DD services sector. This crisis has been building for more than a decade, but it has worsened exponentially since the pandemic.

BILLINGS — It is New Year's Eve in Billings, Montana and the weather is so nice you can see 70 miles, all the way to the Red Lodge ski runs in the Beartooth Mountains. In fact, here in Billings, in the early afternoon we had 45 degrees with mostly sunny skies and a Southwest wind at 18 mph, which gave us a wind chill factor that feels like 37 degrees. Around the rest of the state, we see a lot of 30s in Western Montana, but look at all the 40s, back here East of the divide.

BILLINGS — It certainly is a beautiful day in our neighborhood. Here in Billings we have mostly sunny skies and the temperature right around 41 degrees with winds out of the Southwest, at 20 mph. Around the rest of the state our current temps are into the 20s and 30s out in the West and the same thing in the East, but right around Great Falls and Billings temps are actually up in the 40s.