Latest news with #Esp
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
PGA Championship 2025 tee times: Round three schedule featuring McIlroy, DeChambeau, Scheffler and Fitzpatrick
It's moving day at the PGA Championship today as the main contenders battle to put themselves prime position for a tilt at the Wanamaker Trophy come Sunday. Rory McIlroy (+1) will be out on the course far earlier than he would have hoped after only just making the cut, and needs one of the rounds of his life to give himself any shot at victory. Bryson DeChambeau (-3), Max Homa (-5), Scottie Scheffler (-5) and Matt Fitzpatrick (-6) are all well placed at the start of the weekend as they chase surprise 36-hole leader Jhonattan Vegas. Here are today's PGA Championship tee times (all times BST; USA unless specified): FOLLOW LIVE: PGA Championship leaderboard and latest scores as Rory McIlroy begins third round at Quail Hollow 1315 Max Greyserman, Sam Burns 1325 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele 1335 Michael Kim, Chris Kirk 1345 David Puig (Esp), Bud Cauley 1355 Elvis Smylie (Aus), Kevin Yu (Tpe) 1405 Sergio Garcia (Esp), Brian Harman 1415 Justin Lower, Tom Kim (Kor) 1425 Thorbjorn Olesen (Dan), Maverick McNealy 1435 Stephan Jaegar (Ger), Rasmus Hojgaard (Dan) 1445 Nico Echavarria (Col), Harris English 1455 Brian Campbell, Taylor Moore 1515 Cameron Young, Daniel Berger 1525 Byeong Hun An (Kor), Collin Morikawa 1535 Harry Hall (Eng), Austin Eckroat 1545 Corey Conners (Can), Nicolai Hojgaard (Dan) 1555 Beau Hossler, Luke Donald (Eng) 1605 Matt Wallace (Eng), Tom McKibbin (NIrl) 1615 Wyndham Clark, Rafael Campos (Pue) 1625 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 1635 Marco Penge (Eng), Lucas Glover 1645 Jon Rahm (Esp), Keegan Bradley 1655 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 1715 Adam Scott (Aus), Joe Highsmith 1725 Eric Cole, Cam Davis (Aus) 1735 Tony Finau, Ben Griffin 1745 Alex Noren (Swe), Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn) 1755 Richard Bland (Eng), Davis Riley 1805 Taylor Pendrith (Can), Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 1815 JJ Spaun, Aaron Rai (Eng) 1825 Ryan Gerard, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 1835 Sam Stevens, Denny McCarthy 1845 JT Poston, Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 1905 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Alex Smalley 1915 Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 1925 Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler 1935 Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng), Si Woo Kim (Kor) 1945 Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislators give tearful goodbyes, reflect on service, pass the ‘dean' torch
Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, asks Sen. Denise Hayman, D-Bozeman, to join him in making a sine die motion. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan) Sen. John Esp said he heard about a good trick to stop from getting emotional, as some senators and representatives delivered goodbye speeches on the final day of the 2025 Montana Legislature. 'If you clench your butt cheeks together, they will help with that problem,' said Esp, a Republican from Big Timber. In the House, Rep. Mary Caferro shared in feeling emotional, saying she was grateful to the people who sent her to the Capitol, as she ran 13 times, and in four primaries. 'I've been offered hot tea on cold days and cold beer on warm days,' Caffero said. 'People say, 'What are you most proud of?' and I say, 'The people I represent.' Wednesday, Esp, the 'Dean of the Senate,' and Caferro, vice chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee, joined other termed-out legislators to give goodbye speeches on the Senate and House floors. They thanked spouses, children, other family members, friends, constituents, and their colleagues at the Capitol. Esp did so as he learned the clenching trick 'ain't working,' but after 16 years of service, he had learned what was important. 'I'm convinced it's the relationships we take home with us when we leave here,' Esp said. At least in the Senate, the comments infused a warm tone in the chamber that was sometimes rare, and where divisive sentiments returned soon after, when a couple of Republicans characterized the session as a 'failure.' The work is by nature political, but Esp's parting advice to legislators who would continue the job in the future, the 'young guns,' as Sen. Susan Webber described, was to support each other. 'Give each other grace. Hold each other up,' Esp said. In the House, several legislators also said their goodbyes, and it included some singing. Rep. Neil Duram, R-Eureka, sang during his final speech on the House floor, a song from Jack Gladstone, a noted Montanan musician. He said the song was better shared around a campfire or bedtime for his children, but he sang, and he sang beautifully. 'Maybe I didn't show it,' Duram said. 'But I've always been overwhelmed with the talent in this room.' Leadership in the House thanked their long-time members, bringing several representatives to tears. In the Senate, Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, asked that the 'dean' torch, an honorary title given to the longest serving member, be passed to Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, a lawmaker of 13 sessions, and President Matt Regier greeted him as such. 'Welcome, Dean Windy Boy,' said Regier, R-Kalispell. Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, the highest-ranking elected Democrat in Montana, said he brought values to the work that he had learned from his parents and applied the ones he learned in Ovando as a young man working outside many years ago. He said Montanans care about land, water and critters, and they care about each other. 'They care about their friends and neighbors and communities, and they're always there for them,' said Flowers, D-Bozeman. 'In simple terms, what that taught me is that Montanans take care of each other.' In a gesture he returned, Flowers gave a tie to Republican Sen. Russ Tempel, of Chester, another outgoing senator, a tie Flowers said he had bought for his wife's memorial. Flowers said once he had complimented Tempel's tie, and Tempel had loosened it and handed it over to him. Flowers wore that tie Wednesday. Webber, a Democrat from Browning, said her service had been 'exhilarating' and 'exasperating,' and always a mystery that turned out well in the end. On the final day, Webber extended an invitation to every senator with whom she'd served in the session to her lake cabin, and she warned everyone who might visit about Native American hospitality, or 'protocol.' 'As an Indian person, be prepared to be fed,' Webber said.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate pushes $250M bill for new women's prison, $6M bill for closed sawmills
The Montana Women's Prison in BIllings (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan). The tension about property taxes is filtering into debates about other bills including a proposal to spend $250 million on a new women's prison and another bill to allocate $6 million for sawmill revitalization. Both proposals, however, advanced this week. House Bill 833 would set aside money for a new prison, and in an interview Wednesday, sponsor and Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, said the women's prison in Billings is well over capacity. It houses 240 people, but he said Montana needs beds for at least 400, possibly 500. 'Unlike the men, we have no place to put them out of state,' he said, referring to a contract with CoreCivic that sends male inmates to prisons in Arizona and Mississippi. Fitzpatrick said the bill includes a study the Department of Corrections will lead to determine a new location for a women's prison — not excluding Billings or Deer Lodge, where the men's prison is located, but not favoring them either, he said. 'It could be anywhere,' Fitzpatrick said. He anticipates that study should be complete by the end of the calendar year, and a groundbreaking could take place in roughly a year. He said the current women's prison likely would be eventually repurposed by the state. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, said the female population with the Department of Corrections has been rising faster than the male population, and just one 'relatively small' facility houses women in the state. 'There's no option to contract with others for this population,' Esp said. Esp said the waiting list for the women's prison in Billings has about 85 people, and the facility is probably eight to 10 people over capacity. 'And they don't turn over very fast,' Esp said. The bill would allow the state to build a new facility, or a private contractor to do so and sell or lease it back to the state, Esp said. Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, said he acknowledged the problem, but he had a hard time spending so much money with property taxes yet to be resolved. 'We're going to spend $250 million on prisons before we figure out what we're going to do with property taxes,' said Trebas, who voted against the bill. On a final 46-4 vote Wednesday, the Senate approved HB 833, including with support from all Billings legislators. The bill earlier passed the House 86-12, also with support from Billings legislators. It is included in the governor's budget. Later the same day, the Senate also advanced a major property tax bill, House Bill 231, and the House advanced another one, Senate Bill 542, but both proposals still need to clear multiple votes to pass. The Senate also approved House Bill 876, the Sawmill Revitalization Act, sponsored by Rep. Fitzpatrick and Rep. Connie Keogh, D-Missoula. It passed 29-21 on Wednesday, and also raised questions about property tax bills. The bill sets aside $6 million for loans with interest rates of a maximum 4% 'to parties with the capacity to revitalize a closed sawmill and return it to commercial operation.' Originally, the bill had given priority to sawmills that had closed in the 12 months before Jan. 1, 2025. In March 2024, Pyramid Mountain Lumber announced it would close its Seeley Lake mill. In the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, however, Esp proposed an amendment to strike that limitation, and the committee approved it. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, said in the 1970s, Montana had more than 50 operating mills, and it now has just five major ones. In the last three years, mills closed in St. Regis and Seeley Lake, and Cuffe said the closures represent 'major lost economic activity.' Sen. Becky Beard, however, said the mill in Seeley Lake is pretty much dismantled, and it would take at least $40 million to get it up and running again, not just $6 million. 'There is not really anything left there except the shells of the buildings where the machinery was housed,' said Beard, R-Elliston, who voted against it. Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, said Montana has the lumber for the Seeley Lake mill, but it needs staffing, and the bill would help. 'We have people ready to come and do the work in Montana to get these facilities up and running. I think that's a great thing for us,' Morigeau said. Sen. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, said the state sells roughly 60 million board feet of lumber a year, and the mill is located close to state trust land timber. He said every mile needed to move a log to a sawmill makes the lumber worth less to the state. 'This mill is located in a strategic location for the taxpayers of the state of Montana,' Curdy said. But Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, said the $6 million shouldn't be spent that way. Regier said he supports the industry and remembers seeing homemade signs in the Flathead in the 1990s that said, 'This Family Supported by the Timber Industry.' At the time, however, he said that industry supported itself. 'We're spending taxpayer dollars to do what loggers did in the '90s,' Regier said. Sen. Barry Usher, R-Billings, said even as the Senate tried to help a sawmill, it was contemplating a bill that would hurt commercial businesses. He pointed to HB 231, which aims to support residential property taxpayers, but passes on increases to other groups, including commercial property taxpayers, he said. Usher said he was told many people were lined up to try to help revitalize the sawmill at Seeley Lake, and he had a question: 'Were they advised in advance that if House Bill 231 passes, that their commercial property taxes are going up?'
