Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Dan Dubuque at The Cottage; Andre Floyd at Blue Canyon; Bad Larrys at Ricciardi’s; Kiniption Fit at Great Northern; Good Wood Trio at Packer’s Roost; Sonny King at Blue Moon; Mobile Beat DJ at Red’s Saturday: Jack Waller Trio at The Cottage; Barrel Stove at The Lodge; […]

BOISE – The Mexican government has appointed diplomat Ricardo Pineda to open a consulate in Boise and serve a growing Hispanic population in Idaho and Montana. Pineda, former deputy consul general for the Mexican consulate in San Diego, opened a temporary office in Boise last month. The office, which now has five employees, will eventually […]

HELENA – Secretary of State Brad Johnson has announced a new service that allows voters to look up their polling places online. Montanans also can use the new Internet service to make sure they’re registered to vote. Johnson says the new service is user-friendly and even shows the location of polling places on Google maps. […]

When Jonathan Parkison was in high school, there were no fewer than 15 punk rock bands regularly performing original music in Evergreen. It was a movement. Over time, it slowed to a crawl until it eventually all but disappeared. But the music never did. In a county with more than 80,000 people, Parkison knows there […]

Good morning and happy birthday to John Lennon. On the Beacon this morning, Myers Reece previews the songwriters’ showcase at Red’s, providing a venue for the valley’s best up and coming singers and songwriters. The timber industry in Western Montana is hanging on despite the toughest market conditions most workers in the industry have ever […]

In a meeting with Plum Creek Timber Co. and U.S. Forest Service officials last week about a controversial road-easement deal, Flathead County commissioners criticized both groups for not being more upfront about their plans and expressed concern about potential unintended consequences the easements could have on the county. “There’s been talk that all this happened […]

When the stock market did whatever it did the last week of September, it inspired me to start getting in shape for skiing, which is now only about 60 days away. With the recent Wall Street gyrations, I have been spending way too much time in front of the television. As a result, I brought […]

GREAT FALLS – The state will offer eight tracts of environmentally sensitive lands along the Rocky Mountain Front in December for oil and gas leasing. One of the parcels sits within the state-managed Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area, which provides winter range for elk and spring and summer habitat for black and grizzly bears. Montana’s Department […]

HELENA – The two major political parties are battling for control of the Montana Legislature as voters prepare to fill all 100 House seats on Nov. 4 and half of the 50 Senate positions. The political makeup of the 2007 Legislature was narrowly divided, with Democrats controlling the Senate 26-24, Republicans prevailing 50-49 in the […]

HELENA – With the Legislature convening in three months, the Legislative Fiscal Division says Montana state government shows a projected general-fund budget surplus approaching $1 billion. The division Wednesday estimated a surplus of $778.6 million for the two-year budget period that ends in mid-2011. However, the division recommends setting aside another $178.5 million for certain […]

Plans for the long-awaited Kalispell bypass took another turn last week when the project’s advisory committee reversed its push to develop sections of the road in their entirety and agreed to consider a scaled-back plan instead. Rather than the proposed four-lane construction, the Technical Advisory Committee decided to entertain plans for an interim two-lane highway […]

9:01 a.m. Fish and Game dealt with a problem bear on Goodrich Road. 9:08 a.m. A West Second Street homeowner in Whitefish called in to report a dead deer on the street. 10:18 a.m. Someone reported the theft of an unspecified amount of dirt from property on Browns Meadow Road. 10:33 a.m. Someone at a […]

SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane, Wash., man who was a key figure in the collapse of a Montana bank has been ordered back to federal prison for another three years. A federal judge revoked John Earl Petersen’s supervised release Wednesday for failing to disclose personal financial transactions after his release from federal prison. Assistant U.S. […]

HELENA – Montana’s 64 state-chartered banks are safe and well-capitalized, according to Annie M. Goodwin, the state commissioner of banking and financial institutions. Goodwin issued a statement Tuesday assuring Montanans that their banks are doing well “despite the challenges that many financial institutions are facing in this current difficult economic climate.” She said Montana banks […]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Barack Obama and John McCain clashed repeatedly over the causes and cures for the worst economic crisis in 80 years Tuesday night in a debate in which Republican McCain called for a sweeping $300 billion program to shield homeowners from mortgage foreclosure. “It’s my proposal. It’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal,” McCain said […]