Keep Kidsports where it is

It's good to see there's interest from developers in finding creative ways to use a portion of school trust lands near the Kidsports complex as a way to ensure that the complex remains where it is.

And the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation deserves credit for giving developers more time to develop proposals for putting about 11 acres of the complex to work, with the lease revenue going to Kidsports so it can afford the lease costs it must pay the state.

It should be a no-brainer that the right kind of commercial development would have a built-in customer base with the thousands of youths and parents that are drawn to the complex through much of the year.

To say that Kidsports is important to the community is a gross understatement. Every possible avenue for protecting it must be explored.

MARIJUANA advocates are surely disappointed with a recent court ruling that said federal drug laws trump Montana's medical marijuana law, but at least they know where they stand.

There is no more fuzzy ambiguity about what is and isn't legal as a result of the smackdown from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, who dismissed a civil lawsuit outright filed by 14 individuals and businesses involved with medical marijuana. Molloy ruled that marijuana providers can be prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act even if they are following state law because of the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause.

The state law makes no difference because the alleged conduct in the case "clearly violates federal law... We are all bound by federal law, like it or not."

That blunt finding should get the attention of marijuana advocates in other states, such as California, that would be affected if Molloy's ruling is upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Users' hopes that state-level medical marijuana statutes can insulate people from federal drug laws are starting to look like a pipe dream.