Folks who eat the food that Pam and I grow at Purple Frog can all attest that we work hard and pour our heart and soul into our community. It’s that value of hard work and honoring locals, instilled by parents and grandparents, which I bring to Helena. It’s a funny campaign when special interest […]

Good morning and happy birthday to the late, great Bob Kane, creator of Batman. On the Beacon this morning, Christmas preparations are underway at the Conrad Mansion Museum. Whitefish continues its reign as the best Class A golf team in the state. On the Police Blotter, a man was taken home when he couldn’t figure […]

In all sports at every level, coaches preach the importance of developing a winning attitude. The first step is, not surprisingly, winning. But once the victories begin, it’s up to the athletes to harness that success into an overall mentality – not simply a good streak. At Glacier High School, the girls volleyball team believes […]

MISSOULA – A Missoula man charged with stabbing a University of Montana student during a drinking game pleaded not guilty Thursday to attempted deliberate homicide. Collan J. Sheppard, 23, initially faced a charge of assault with a weapon for the Sept. 20 fight that left 19-year-old Jerry B. Stewart with a severed artery. But prosecutors […]

NEW YORK – Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter earnings leaped 31 percent, on better yields and higher fuel surcharges. The Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad earned $695 million, or $2 per share, up from $530 million, or $1.48 per share, in the prior-year period. The 2008 quarter included a tax settlement gain […]

Take a drive or a hike this weekend through the Whitefish Range for the larch is at its peak. Unlike other needled trees, the western larch loses its needles every fall. But before it drops them to carpet snow with gold, it turns them to raging yellow, lighting up slopes like they’re on fire. Pockets […]

The US government’s extraordinary effort to rescue the banking system may have pulled America’s economy back from the brink, but it comes at a cost – helping to push an already bloated deficit up to an estimated $1 trillion for this fiscal year. That would be a record in today’s dollars – and would represent […]

PLAINS – Montana Rail Link says the reopening of tracks closed by a derailment near Plains is expected around 5 p.m. Spokeswoman Lynda Frost says as many as 30 trains are stalled while waiting for the tracks to open. A 19-car train derailed on Wednesday, sending about 37 tons of soybeans into the Clark Fork […]

Small, stooped, with a wry sense of humor, Winfield Emerson Page was one of the early stock market “day traders.” Page was essentially nocturnal. He seemed able to function with very little sleep. He frequently stayed up most of the night to monitor foreign markets, making trades by telephone and telegraph, at all hours, nationally […]

One of the many, many wonderful things about being a reporter in the United States, at this particular moment in history, is that the Beacon e-mail inbox is flooded with all sorts of press releases on a daily basis. But as the election approaches and the economy implodes, those press releases have been arriving from […]

4th graders at Bigfork Elementary are serious about recycling – and they’re urging the rest of the district to follow suit. Last year teacher Darcey Pierce’s 4th grade class started recycling paper, aluminum, and cardboard. They’ve continued the project, and expanded it, but, as Pierce told a recent School Board meeting, they need some help. […]

Flathead Business and Industry Association has recently been the victim of “hogwash” on the part of Rep. Jopek, as a result of our recent endorsement and advocacy on behalf of pro-business candidates in the Flathead. Rep. Jopek’s statements in a recent Beacon editorial about FBIA are as insulting as they are false. On behalf of […]

Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Dan Dubuque at The Cottage; Chuck Pyle at Kandahar Lodge; Southern Comfort at Ricciardi’s; Good Wood at Blue Canyon; Heavy T & The Grooves; Sonny King at Blue Moon; Mobile Beat DJ at Red’s Saturday: John Floridis at The Lodge; Masterworks I at Glacier Symphony and Chorale; […]

WHITEFISH – When you walk up to the front door of Costumes Galore & More, a sign asks you to be careful: The dog might get out. Then another sign directs you to follow the bats to the basement. At that point, if you’re unsure if this is really the valley’s largest Halloween costume distributor, […]

HELENA – The state and a company that wants to lift decades-old logs from the bottom of Flathead Lake, so they can be sold and made into lumber, have agreed to settle a lawsuit over ownership of the logs. The Montana Land Board this week endorsed an agreement declaring that North Shore Development LLC owns […]