Following the 2008 election, I visited a Pachyderm meeting at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell. Despite winning a coveted seat for county commission and a solid showing in local legislatives races, there was reason for concern among Republicans. They were still standing in the wake of what was then determined to be a national […]

Outside of Montana, it has become increasingly common for political candidates to ignore the press and snub editorial boards. And more of them are finding out that there are fewer consequences for instituting a media blackout and “talking directly to the people.” White House correspondent Peter A. Brown wrote a recent column for the Wall […]

We have almost unlimited access to information yet, politically speaking, much of it is meaningless. Voters still know little about their elected officials’ views – especially on the federal level. Meanwhile, candidates have mastered the art of sidestepping questions and dithering on demand. It is perhaps easier for them. Providing “yes” or “no” answers can […]

Despite living in a country that is perhaps more connected than ever before, there are still gross misconceptions about Montana and the rural Mountain West in general. And part of the difficulty in overcoming them is that mainstream pop culture continues to present absurd stereotypes to an impressionable audience of consumers. Last week, a producer […]

Montana’s union leaders should tread lightly when making compensation demands to the governor and Legislature in the months ahead. Already, the private sector has little sympathy for the public one and it will only worsen with more statements like this from Eric Feaver, president of the MEA-MFT: “If unable to make salary a salary gain […]

The argument that gambling is unethical is fast losing to the one that it is necessary to shore up state coffers. On the east coast, where placing bets was limited to Atlantic City and Indian reservations, states are now jockeying for more gamblers’ money by lifting restrictions and encouraging casino development. Montana was in a […]

American Dream Montana recently launched a petition to repeal Flathead County’s growth policy. That gives the pro-property rights group 90 days to gather 5,353 signatures to place the referendum on the 2012 ballot, since the deadline has already passed for the upcoming general election. If successful, it would either change the rulebook county officials use […]

It would be difficult to find a better example of wasted stimulus dollars than those already spent to upgrade the Whitetail Port of Entry northeast of Scobey. Many of our readers have aptly compared it to the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” Let’s take a look at the two projects, shall we, and pore over evidence […]

A recent Kids Count survey found that Montana’s students are dropping out of school at some of the highest rates the country. The numbers are disheartening and just another excuse to analyze the area’s youth and discuss what can be done to keep them in line. When reports like this are released, it’s easy for […]

Like presidents before him, President Barack Obama claimed to have the fanciful goal of moving “beyond partisan politics.” So did former President George W. Bush, who repeated, “I’m a uniter, not a divider” during his campaign for the nation’s highest office. Those hopes, of course, didn’t work out as planned for either of them. I […]

There are two extreme camps at each end of the debate over how the economy will fare in the coming years: one that predicts unemployment rolls rising to 20 percent or higher and another that sees the economy sharply turning a corner over the next several months. The reality, most likely, lies somewhere in between, […]

The rhetoric in the race for Montana’s congressional seat had already reached laughable levels. But it somehow intensified further after Rehberg Ranch Estates – owned by incumbent Rep. Denny Rehberg and his wife, Jan – filed a lawsuit against the city of Billings alleging that it didn’t do enough to protect the subdivision from a […]

One of the hardest things for a newsroom to do is report on itself. Kalispell’s Daily Inter Lake has been in that position since first covering the story of a missing plane that involved two of its reporters. Journalists who weren’t gathering information about their colleagues last week were searching for them along the Flathead […]

It was early 2009 when, following the tragic death of its finance director and departure of its city manager, Whitefish began to get its finances in order. Amid a recession that had hammered budgets elsewhere, the municipality remained quite optimistic. It reported having robust cash reserves and officials there were confident building permits would pick […]

BOZEMAN – The first debate of the campaign season between incumbent Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg and Democratic challenger Dennis McDonald was the first time I have ever seen the two men in the same room. It appears that they don’t much like each other. In front of an audience of 100, about a quarter of […]