For the next couple weeks, the northern nighttime sky holds a visual treat that's well worth seeing, according to Montana State University researcher Joe Shaw.

The comet known as NEOWISE "is pretty spectacular," said Shaw, a sky-viewing enthusiast and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. "It's bigger and brighter than any comet I've seen since the '90s."

Resembling a large star with a glowing tail, NEOWISE is a chunk of icy and sooty rock roughly 3 miles wide that has been wandering the solar system for more than 4 billion years, according to NASA. The tail is a result of illuminated dust and ionized gases that are vaporized from the comet's surface as it nears the sun.

While a recent comet had tail more like a dull "smudge," Shaw said, with NEOWISE "it's a long streak. It's really very pretty."

The next week or so offers prime viewing, and the best time to see NEOWISE against a dark sky is between roughly 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. as the comet rises in the northeastern sky, according to Shaw. Starting this week, viewers can also spot the comet shortly after nightfall as it descends in the northwest.

As the comet continues its journey though the solar system, those times and locations will shift, and an online sky viewing tool like Stellarium can help keep track, Shaw said. In general, NEOWISE will appear increasingly higher in the northwest at nightfall. By early August, it will set around 1 a.m. and not appear later in the night.

Getting away from city lights and using an ordinary pair of binoculars helps the comet to visually "pop," Shaw said.

Shaw, the director of MSU's Optical Technology Center, is something of a connoisseur of optical phenomena in the sky, often alerting the MSU community to the occurrence of rare and interesting cloud formations or the aurora borealis. He is the author of a book about viewing unique optical phenomena from airplanes. As a result of his optics research, he also has an unlikely connection to NEOWISE, which is named for the NASA satellite — called Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer — that first detected the comet in March.

While on sabbatical in 2015, Shaw helped to develop a NEOWISE replacement at the Utah State University Space Dynamics Lab. The purpose of both satellites is to detect asteroids or other space objects that could collide with Earth, using optical technology so sensitive that they can spot the equivalent of a human hair on Earth from the International Space Station, according to Shaw.

Luckily, the NEOWISE comet will stay a safe 64 million miles from Earth. "But is sure is putting on a show," Shaw said.

Since she first set foot on campus in 1983, Ronda Russell has been synonymous with Montana State University student recruitment. That changed last week when MSU’s long-time director of admissions began a phased retirement that will allow the team she trained to take over MSU student recruitment and enrollment duties.

“I always said that I wanted to leave this job when I still love it and when others can be offered the opportunity that (was) once offered me,” Russell said. “There are rising stars lined up in MSU Admissions that are talented and trained. They need this opportunity to grow and shine.”
 
Russell will not just turn on her famous Danskos and walk out the door. She will retain the title of director of admissions and will work part-time for about a year to assist those who succeed her in admissions, as well as to help launch a new student recruitment structure that she and Chris Kearns, MSU’s vice president of student success, helped design. It unites the functions of MSU’s registrar’s office with admissions, all under Kearns’ division.

“Having her around gives us a learning curve instead of a learning catapult,” said Kearns, who said the entire unit will try to “download” what Russell knows in coming months. “She has so much implicit knowledge and expertise that we are trying to use this transition period to take all of that practice and deep knowledge and historical awareness … of what worked and what doesn’t and to carry that over into a system that will hold up across all of the shifts and changes that higher education is navigating through now.”


Kearns said that there could be no better mentor. Under Russell’s management, MSU Admissions has become a force regionally and nationally. MSU’s enrollment has increased by 63% since 1992, when Russell was promoted to direct admissions. In that year, MSU had an enrollment of 10,540 students and was the second-largest university in the state. By contrast, the fall 2019 enrollment at MSU was 16,766. MSU is now the largest Montana university, is one of just 130 institutions nationally to possess a coveted Carnegie very high research activity rating and is frequently listed among the most dynamic public institutions in the country. While a lot of factors came into play for that growth, Russell’s strategic management of MSU Admissions’ procedures and marketing efforts has been key, said MSU President Waded Cruzado.

“Ronda’s insights, work ethic and strategy have been vital to MSU’s recent enrollment history,” Cruzado said. “Add to that her dynamic personality and her competitiveness. Thankfully, Ronda has prepared us well to move into the future.”
 
Russell, who is known for her ability to outwork, out handshake, out charm colleagues who are one-third of her age, is the first to tell you that the success that MSU enjoys today came after years of hard work, and there were many years of static enrollment and even outright disappointment before steady growth.

Russell said the worst period was in 1990s, when the bottom fell out of MSU’s enrollment along with deep budget cuts across campus. Russell had spent about a decade working in admissions at the time, including three years as an admissions counselor at her alma mater, Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. She said in those days admissions was done by mailing and recruitment fairs; the internet was just starting to take hold. But she could see the world, especially the admissions world, was changing.

“I thought then that (MSU) needed to be in charge of our own destiny, and I absolutely knew how to that,” she said. She emphasized personalized, old-fashioned meetings with students and their parents while she moved into the digital age. But her primary goal was to put MSU on the list of all students across the country interested in attending college in the Rocky Mountains.

“I wanted to build a national brand,” Russell said. “Here we were, sitting in Bozeman, with pretty mountains outside every window and Yellowstone a short drive away. I thought, ‘Why don’t we sell that?’”
 
A colleague suggested that, to help tap those potential students, she should seek the guidance of national consultant Bill Royall. She and the late Allen Yarnell, then vice president of student success, received an initial budget of $40,000 to fund the effort. In about 2001, Russell reached out to Royall when MSU’s enrollment was 11,745.

“I told (the administration) that if it didn’t work, I’d just leave,” Russell recalls. “Concurrently, our office kicked into gear. And we have built and built and built since then.”
 
Mike Ouert, the new director of enrollment services and recruitment, was hired as an admissions counselor shortly after his graduation from MSU in 2005. Ouert said that when most people describe Russell, they mention her dynamic personality and indefatigable work ethic. But her sharp analytical mind and tweaks that she made to the MSU admissions process are also critical to the university’s recruiting success.

“In 2008 and 2009 she made some (key) changes and strategic moves,” Ouert said. “And here we are today.”
 
In addition to Ouert’s new title on the admissions side, Russell’s retirement has made Anders Groseth the new associate director of recruitment and Shannon Bangen the assistant director of new student programs. Jen Kayser will be associate director of admissions operations, and Steve Burk and Max Hamberger will work with different aspects of admissions information technology. Dallas Dallman will be the associate director for application evaluation.

Concurrently, Tony Campeau, formerly the MSU registrar, will move to the admissions area in the Strand Union Building as the associate vice president of enrollment management. Kandi Greswell has become the registrar and assistant director of enrollment services in Montana Hall.
 
Campeau thanked Russell for her mentorship and added that her focus and work ethic are unmatched.
 
Kearns calls Russell’s retirement, a “tectonic plate shift” at MSU. But the organizational changes, which he and Russell hammered out together, will allow MSU to face a “new generation of opportunities and challenges in higher education” that include changing demographics and preferences and students who have lived all of their lives as digital citizens.

He said the new admissions structure will allow MSU to “take the best of what we have learned and add new facets of strategy that address the world today.
 
“We are very happy that she is staying around to help us negotiate this transition.”
 
Rolf Groseth, the former MSU administrator who first hired Russell to direct summer orientation 37 years ago, said that as Russell moves to retirement with the vitality to accomplish her longtime goals of adventure travel with her family, she does so with the certainty of her impact on her beloved Montana State.

“She has made such a difference at this university,” he said. “It is that secret sauce -- her exuberance, sense of humor and competitive instinct – that everyone will remember … There really is no one else quite like her.”

The process of writing a brilliant article begins with coming up with a good topic. However, having an ideal title isn’t the only essential requirement here, as other technical details are equally crucial in writing.

Unfortunately, the rise in the number of firms offering “write my essay services” might portray writing a brilliant article as a challenging vice to achieve. But luckily enough, with our top 7 excellent article writing tips, purchasing a paper online might be a thing of the past, as the tips are super easy to follow and understand.

Choose an Exciting Topic
An exciting topic predicts the content of your article. Since a title is the first thing readers see, you should try to make it as enticing and informative as possible. A good title should have words and thoughts that can easily capture the audiences’ attention and make them interested in reading beyond the topic.

Furthermore, choose a title that you are familiar with, as this enables you to do proper research and write faster compared to when you’ve selected a topic you know nothing about. Here, choosing a subject you are interested in also comes in handy, as this keeps you motivated enough to research beyond your comfort zone. In conclusion, a good title should contain:

• Keywords and phrases that make it easier to be located during a keyword search
• The subject and scope of the article
• The questions that the article wishes to answer.

Craft a Strong Introduction
An introduction is a crucial part of your article, as it reveals your main thoughts when writing an essay. The introduction should capture your readers’ attention by arousing curiosity concerning the text.

Therefore, keep it clear, crafty, and concise, as people can be easily turned away by a dull intro. Lastly, given the section’s high importance in article writing, you might want to include some of your well-researched facts here.

Research Extensively
To become a better writer, you have to familiarize yourself with excellent writing. You can achieve this by reading several articles written by authors you admire, and eventually, their word skills will start to develop in your text.

Research equips you with the right knowledge and vocabulary for your article. That way, you will produce a valuable and highly informative article. Additionally, researching a given topic is crucial as it helps you to support your ideas with credible and reliable facts.

Make Your Article Specific, Clear and Creative
Clarity is better than complexity, meaning that brilliant writing ought to be clear and concise. That way, your readers will easily visualize and understand your text. Therefore, to get the best out of your well-researched article, refrain from using big words and multifaceted sentences. Fortunately, this has been found to have an immense impact on improving text readability and making it interesting.

Sentences and Paragraphs Should Remain Short
Anytime you break info into smaller sections, you bolster the brain’s ability to process the data easily. Therefore, that’s the main reason why you ought to keep sentences and paragraphs short. Additionally, short Sentences and subsections are easy to read, and they have an incredible impact on maintaining the readers’ attention.

To avoid confusion, ensure that each sentence has one simple thought. On the other hand, a paragraph should contain a well-stated and perfectly argued idea. It makes it impossible to explain a concept in 1 or 2 sentences. Therefore, keep your paragraphs about 5 sentences long.  

Polish Your Work
Editing your work is one of the most crucial steps that many people ignore. Go through your article, deleting, and correcting anything that does not add value to the text. Avoid rambling due to boredom or loss of focus as this will also make your readers bored and lose interest in your article.

However, many people are anxious or running out of time to submit their articles, which makes them seek professional essay writing and editing services. Fortunately, with the help of unique editing apps such as Grammarly and Hemmingway, an editor can ease article polishing problems.

Other Essential Tips Worth Considering
The points listed above are the most crucial considerations when writing an article. However, the list is non-exhaustive, and here are some additional tips for you:
• Know your audience
• Use active voice
• Focus on text readability

Final Thoughts
Conclusively, with the given tips, article writing should not be a challenge anymore. Applying them, reading other interesting articles, and extensive practice should bolster your chances of excelling and becoming a pro in the writing industry. Finally, make the Internet your best friend.

The boat ramp at Gallatin Forks Fishing Access Site will be closed starting July 13 while Gallatin County oversees the reconstruction of Nixon Bridge on the Gallatin River.
 
The boat ramp portion of the fishing access site will be closed during construction, but recreationists will still have walk-in access to the site’s eastern portion off Yadon Road. The Nixon Bridge takeout and access area will be closed until the project’s completion, which is scheduled for late September.

For alternative put-in and take-out locations, please consult Montana’s Fishing Access Sites Field Guide, available at fwp.mt.gov or at any regional office of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
 
Recreationists may also see intermittent closures of this section of the Gallatin River at various stages of the bridge reconstruction. Closures would occur only in the area of construction and only as necessary in the interest of public safety. A proposal that would allow FWP to temporarily close this portion of the river during construction is currently out for public comment and will be considered by the Montana Fish & Wildlife Commission for final approval at a future public meeting.

Gallatin Forks Fishing Access Site is about two miles north of Manhattan along the Gallatin River.
 
For updates and current information on this project, please consult Gallatin County by visiting gallatin.mt.gov or Stahly Engineering & Associates by visiting seaeng.com.
 

Montana State University Extension educators say it is important for people to understand how titling personal property that is owned in joint tenancy with right of survivorship could have unintended consequences.

MSU Extension family economics specialist Marsha Goetting and Pondera County Extension agent Wendy Wedum said factors like property title laws and intestacy statutes can impact how property is distributed after a person dies.  

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship, according to Montana law, takes priority over a written will. Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship passes to the surviving joint tenant.  

As an example, a man with a child from a prior marriage may want that child to receive a specific mutual fund, and so he indicates that in his will. However, since the mutual fund is owned in joint tenancy with his ex-wife, the joint tenancy takes priority. His wife would receive the mutual fund, not the child.

“This is why it is important for Montanans to know how their real and personal property assets are titled. This includes checking accounts, certificates of deposits, investments and land,” Goetting said.

“Remember, a will only controls the property after the death of the joint tenants,” Wedum added. “For example, if a husband and wife own property in joint tenancy and if the husband writes a will leaving the property to his parents, the will ‘works’ only if his wife is not living. If she is still alive, the property automatically passes to her because of the joint tenancy.”

Goetting said very few Montanans know that, by titling property in joint tenancy with right of survivorship and by not writing a will, their property could pass to unintended heirs. A will could assure that assets do not pass to one set of heirs simply because one person outlived the other by a few hours.

She noted that working with an attorney can provide the appropriate wording to accomplish the will writer’s wishes.

“Make sure the assets you have worked so hard to acquire are distributed according to your wishes instead of Montana law,” Wedum said.

For more information, request the MSU Extension MontGuides “Property Ownership” and “Wills” at www.montana.edu/estateplanning/eppublications.html. For those who do not have computer access, copies are available from county Extension or reservation offices. 

Bozeman, MT – Tuesday, July 7, 2020 over two dozen alcohol licensed establishments in Downtown Bozeman, as well as establishments outside of downtown, banded together in agreement to require front of the house staff to wear facemasks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

Mike Hope, owner of the Rocking R Bar, led the effort working with alcohol licensed businesses to sign onto the agreement.

“We want the community of Bozeman to be a safe place so that our businesses can stay open,” said Mike Hope. “By having nearly every business in downtown Bozeman that serves alcohol join together in support of front of the house staff wearing masks, our customers know that we value them and that we are all in this together as a community.”

“After meeting with staff and speaking with other downtown businesses, we decided that wearing facemasks for the safety of employees and customers is pertinent as cases continue to rise. With ample social distancing between inside and patio seating, sanitizing tables and chairs, we felt it was best for our servers to wear facemasks daily,” said Jim & Mary Pat Harris, Bozeman Spirits Distillery & Union Hall Brewery

“As restaurant operators we want to cut off any type of going backwards or closures. We want to get out in front of this and put our front house staff in masks, so that we are part of the solution,” said Joe Romano, Urban Kitchen & Nina’s Tacos and Tequila.

The following alcohol licensed establishments in Downtown Bozeman have joined onto the agreement that frontline staff wear masks:

Pour House
317 Pub
Rm 1
Bar IX
Open Range Steak House
American Legion
Rocking R Bar
El Camino
Crystal Bar
Copper Whiskey Bar & Restaurant
Main Street Overeasy
Jam!
Cannery Lounge
Burger Bob's
Baucus Pub
Bozeman Spirits Distillery
Union Hall Brewery
Backcountry Burger Bar
Mackenzie River Pizza - Bozeman
Urban Kitchen
Salted Carmel
Nina's
14 North
Shine Beer Sanctuary
Montana Ale Works
Dave's Sushi
Revelry

Additionally, the following establishments outside of downtown have also joined the agreement:
Sidewinders
Tanglewood
Bay Bar & Grill
Cat's Paw
Molly Brown
Club Tavern & Grill
Fiesta Mexicana
Wild Rye Distillery
Scoop Bar
Pizza Campania

 U.S. Highway 20, otherwise known as Targhee Pass Highway has a rear-end crash pattern near Denny Creek Road. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) intends to alleviate this rear-end crash pattern through the Targhee Turn Lanes project by installing a center-turn-lane between Old U.S. 20 and Denny Creek Road, and a left-turn-lane at Denny Creek Road.

MDT’s current project timeline estimates construction beginning between 2023 and 2025. Prior to that time, the project will be under design, with engineers developing construction plans and working with landowners.
 
“Some drivers make sudden turns off of Targhee Pass Highway and others may not notice that a vehicle in front is slowing and turning,” explained Michael Grover, Project Design Engineer for the Montana Department of Transportation. “The addition of the designated turn-lanes should provide drivers with a safer method of turning off the highway and will help prevent rear-end crashes in that area in the future.”

This project is estimated to cost $3 to $4 million, with 90 percent of funding coming from the federal government.  
 
“We focus on projects that increase safety, where costs do not outweigh benefits. That is why we are prioritizing and funding road projects like Targhee Turn Lanes,” Grover said.
 
Public feedback is an important part of any project under design. The Montana Department of Transportation encourages the community to get involved and provide thoughts or suggestions for changes.
 
Those looking for updates or information on the Targhee Pass Highway project are advised to email takami@bigskypublicrelations.com. For questions, contact the project hotline at 406-207-4484 Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Information is also available on the project web page, https://www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/targhee/ and will be continually updated throughout the course of the project.

Alternative accessible formats of this document will be provided upon request. Persons who need an alternative format should contact the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Transportation, 2701 Prospect Avenue, PO Box 201001, Helena, MT 59620. Telephone 406-444-5416 or Montana Relay Service at 711.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks captured a grizzly bear after it got into unsecured attractants at a house and campground near West Yellowstone last week.

The bear reportedly gained access to an unsecured garbage can at a house on Wednesday. Then it made repeated visits to the Rainbow Point Campground, where it got into a cooler, as well as food and garbage in the back of a pickup truck. The bear also toppled a tent and climbed on an occupied vehicle at the campground.

Multiple attempts were made to haze the bear away from the area, but they were unsuccessful. The U.S. Forest Service closed the campground on Friday, and FWP successfully trapped the bear later that evening.

Unsecured attractants, such as food and garbage, can lead to property damage and human safety risks. Relocating and releasing bears that have associated human activity with access to food usually leads to further conflicts as bears often return to the same area where they were captured to look for food. Bears in these situations can’t be rehabilitated, so they often must be euthanized.

However, the 5- to 6-year-old male grizzly bear captured at Rainbow Point last week has been transferred permanently to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. This bear will provide educational opportunities and help the center test new bear-resistant products being developed. This is a rare option because space and opportunities for bears are limited at such facilities.

Residents and recreationists in southwest Montana can help keep bears in the wild by following Forest Service food storage orders, which are in effect every year from March 1 to Dec. 1. These orders require all unattended food, garbage and attractants to be stored in at least one of the following ways:

• In hard-sided vehicles
• In certified bear-resistant containers
• Hung at least 10 feet above the ground and 4 feet away from a tree or pole, out of the reach of wildlife
• Placed within a fenced area that meets the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee regulations for approved bear-resistant products

People who do not comply with these orders can be issued a violation and held civilly liable for any damages that occur from non-compliance. Deliberately feeding wildlife is also illegal in Montana.

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Management authority for grizzlies rests with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, working closely in Montana with FWP, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the Forest Service and Tribal lands. This collaboration happens through the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

Getting SEO friendly content is a massive buzz in the digital marketing environment. It is all everyone that is developing SEO content is talking about. However, it is also a greatly misunderstood concept online. A lot of people do not necessarily get the idea behind the buzz.

So what is SEO? It is a technique of maximizing the effectiveness of your content for the search engines with a view of enabling it to rank higher compared to the others from websites targeting similar search phrases. In layman terms, it is the technical aspect behind what content appears on the first page or last of your browser when you search for a given term. The ranking is a result of search engine optimization (SEO).

How do you achieve the objective of higher SEO ranking? The rule of the game is simple. Come up with content that appealing and readable by the consumers. In this article, we will discuss in detail the aspects that will make your blog article be considered SEO friendly and rank higher.

Understand Your Target Audience
The first rule of writing top quality content is understanding the target audience. They are the individuals who will read the content you are about to prepare. Familiarizing yourself with the audience is a win for you. First, it helps you figure out what it is you want to tell them. In this regard, you will have to ask yourself questions like:

Will it be appealing to them?
Does it match their interests?
What type of information could they be looking for?
What keywords suit these needs?

Once you have the answers to these questions, it will be easier for you to decide what topic to select and what to write. It will also influence the content you write, including your choice of words.

Select an Appropriate Topic
Knowing your target audience makes it simpler for you to select a top of your blog article. A good essay writer will tell you how important it is to have an appropriate topic for your content. It is the headline that attracts your target audience to the content written in the blog.

In article writing, headlines do matter. The catchier it is, the more likely it is to attract more people to read the blog article. As a rule, always remember that the title and meta-description are the results of a search engine search. Therefore, they need to have the right keywords, which are informed by the preferences of your target audience.

Perform a Keyword Search
Performing a keyword search should come after you have determined your target audience and selected your topic. All these are crucial elements that when searching for keywords to use in your blog article. What you need to know is that keywords are an integral part of your search engine rankings. They are the phrases that customers will mainly use when searching for products or information on a given issue.

Writing an article without keywords makes it appear dull and un-competitive. You can forget about the rankings because it will be nowhere near the first pages of the search engines. You can avoid all this by using the right keyword research tools to find the terms that match your topic. Alternatively, you can ask an essay writing service to provide some for you.

Optimize Your Blog Articles Length
Similar to essays, there are rules on the number of words your blog article should achieve for it to be published. Remember, the objective of search engine optimization is to produce an article that is both appealing and readable.

Search engines like Google want their users to enjoy the content, which is both relevant and satisfactory. Therefore, they are shifting to articles that are long enough and have better quality content. To achieve these standards, make sure that your blog article is between 300- 1500 words.

Improve the Blog Article’s Readability
An important rule of writing is that the content you produce should be readable. Your blog article will not be of value if your target audience cannot comprehend what you have written. It is also an essential condition for your article to be ranked.
The rules for improving the readability of your article are simple. Use simple language that is understandable to all. Your choice of vocabulary should be informed by your target audience. Moreover, you have to adhere to the necessary grammatical rules of writing. Also, make use of shorter sentences and paragraphs.

The Bottom Line  
Creation of  SEO friendly blog articles is a process. You get to learn new concepts and rules each day. Following these rules will set you on a path to developing high-quality blog articles. Hopefully, the tips provided in this article will bring you closer to achieving this objective.