Ledger Looking Back 25 Years:

The Whitehall Ledger was awarded 15 first place awards, including one major award for community service, at the Montana Newspaper Association (MNA) annual convention in Livingston Saturday. Ledger editor Jan Anderson individually received 8 first place writing awards and one first place photo award. That placed her not only as the top individual writing winner in Class III weeklies at the MNA Better Newspaper Contest but also as the winner of the most individual first place writing awards from any newspaper of any size in the statewide contest. The contest, judged by journalists from the Hoosier State Press Assoc. in Indiana, compared entries from work published in Montana newspapers throughout 1995. . . .

Harrison area rancher and Montana state legislator Karl Ohs is looking for a chance to ride off into the sunset. But he knows it is not likely to come soon. He has promises to fulfill first. Ohs loped into the national limelight recently – somewhat reluctantly – as a mediator in the standoff near Jordan between the Freemen and law enforcement officials. When he left, he took with him obligations for a truck full of evidence, the praises of the FBI, and a head full of ideas to sort out. When you are in the middle of a tense situation looking for a solution, there isn’t much time to reflect on why things are happening, Ohs told the Whitehall Ledger Monday. After a weekend on his ranch moving cattle and rejoicing that the phone was not ringing off the hook anymore, Ohs came into Whitehall to visit an agricultural service agency and agreed to share his reflections with the Ledger. “It’s important for me to get my life back to normal as quickly as I can,” Ohs said, adding that he gave his word on a number of issues to the Freemen and he would honor his promises. He also said he expects he’ll have to give depositions, testify and make sure evidence entrusted to him is taken care of properly. “A very lengthy article followed and extended into the next week’s paper with his involvement in this situation.”