Have you ever been told: “Don’t rassle with pigs – you’ll only get dirty and the pigs love it.” Um, this time I didn’t just rassle, but went swimming – and needed a shower afterwards. The Montana Commission of Political Practices (CPP) has been in the news lately. There was major bickering between Commissioner Dave […]

A couple weeks ago, the Missoulian reported University of Montana’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit (CWRU) landed a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation. The money will enable a team led by UM research associate David Ausband to “study how wolf deaths affect pack stability and population growth.” Good! As a sportsman, I’d […]

I enjoy trains, therefore I keep an eye on railroad doings – such as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Northern Plains Resource Council v. Surface Transportation Board, NPRC v. Surf for short. At issue is the 2007 Surface Transportation Board (Surf Board or STB) approval of the Tongue River Railroad (TRR), about […]

Those hoping for a little sanity in federal public-lands policy got an early Christmas present when Sen. Jon Tester’s wilderness bill, the disingenuously named Forest Jobs and Recreation Act (FJRA), was cut from the trillion-dollar must-pass 2012 omnibus budget. Tester’s bill was quietly shuffled through one Senate committee hearing (on “miscellaneous public lands and forests […]

Am I the only one who gets just a bit humbugged when I hear someone chirp “Season’s Greetings” or see “Happy Holidays” banners strung across Main Street or Central? Or feels like a dinosaur on learning that “Merry Christmas” generates 110 million Google hits, while “Happy Holidays” scores 296 million? How come people who have […]

Most folks expect the race between incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D) and challenger Congressman Denny Rehberg (R) to be as much a nail-biter as the 2006 race between Tester and then-incumbent Conrad Burns. With the Supreme Court taking limits off contributions for “independent expenditures,” 2012 should be the greatest election ever in terms of […]

Flathead Electric is drilling test wells for geothermal down by Hot Springs? Hope they score big, given other exciting co-op news – the implosion of Southern Montana Electric (SME), a partnership of five southern Montana co-ops and Great Falls public utility Electric City Power. At the end of October, after refusing to seat new board […]

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wants our Jesus gone from Big Mountain? Um, I beg to differ. Founded in 1978, FFRF enjoys IRS 501(c)3 tax-exemption, under Category x20 as a “Religion, Spiritual Development (Christian)” organization. FFRF headquarters, a former rectory, is located in a city famous for its progressive civility: Madison, Wis. According to […]

Environmentalists are flogging Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg’s co-sponsorship of Utah fellow-Republican Rob Bishop’s National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, HR 1505. Bishop’s bill, which passed out of committee 26-17 on Oct. 5, is aimed at enabling Homeland Security to reach “operational control” defined in section 2(b) of the Secure Fence Act of 2006: “the […]

Some in our firearms paradise of Montana are upset about a memo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), reminding dealers that pot users can’t own guns. Users of federal “Schedule One” controlled substances, with no “currently accepted medical use” in the U.S., are prima facie felons. While angel-dusters, meth-heads, and legal […]

Is the Solyndra fiasco a “scandal?” Well, a half-billion is chump change compared to the expected $14 billion hit taxpayers will get from the auto bailout – or gosh-knows-what for “saving” Wall Street. Even here in Montana just a few years ago, Sen. Max Baucus gifted the tax-exempt Nature Conservancy and Trust for Public Land […]

It’s an off election year, meaning it’s time for city council elections. After a slow filing start, Kalispell has contests in three of four wards, and Columbia Falls wound up with six candidates for its three slots. These will be “nonpartisan” elections to select folks who will find the best way to fix our potholes, […]

Through the vast gassy clouds of sturm und drang from Washington, DC, comes a glimmer of good news: Twin bills in the Senate and House, both entitled the “Wilderness and Roadless Areas Release Act.” This short-and-sweet legislation, (HR-1581 and S-1087) covers Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management holdings that “have not been designated as […]

What with our long runoff, the Feds re-writing the floodplain, Whitefish agreeing to re-start its vest-pocket hydro plant, Columbia Falls Aluminum Company talks with Bonneville Power, Judge James Redden in Portland slapping down (yet again) agency salmon plans to the glee of Greens, Fort Peck running full bore over the spillway – there’s lots of […]

Have you tuned out the mindless screaming about raising the debt ceiling? Pat yourself on the back for being rationally ignorant, as there’s little we riffraff peons can do to prevent America from joining Greece as a deadbeat nation. Vote? Sure, after 18 more months of porcine pandery? Well, I was about to mute the […]