There’s a reason so many people are walking around Columbia Falls with a sunburn today. But it’s not because they spent too much time at the Pinewood Park pool, or the waterslides. It’s because they were part of the crowd who spent their morning at the Columbia Falls Junior High football field, celebrating the life […]

Thursday’s weekly Farmers Market in Columbia Falls was a packed house yesterday evening. It was hot, but the Cowgirl Coffee iced drinks and a little shade here and there kept everyone cool. Meanwhile, everything from earrings to earthenware, pizza to plants, and tie dye to turquoise was available to shoppers. Lots of folks came out […]

BOISE, Idaho – Eleven judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it’s improper for judges to act as a panel of scientists when weighing in on U.S. Forest Service timber projects. Timber-industry lobbyists immediately called Wednesday’s ruling against a challenge to a logging project in northern Idaho a “landmark decision,” partly because […]

HELENA – Only two Democratic presidential candidates have carried Montana since 1948, but Barack Obama is betting he can do it in November. With just three electoral votes and a strong reputation as a red state, Montana rarely sees presidential candidates in the summer before a general election. Republicans usually take the state for granted, […]

Montana is under siege. And, no, I don’t mean by a bunch of politicians and their surrogates swarming all over the state pleading for votes. I mean Montana’s forests, both public and private, are being hit extremely hard by beetle infestations. There are different types of beetles such as mountain pine and Douglas fir as […]

Lex Hilliard, the 232-pound former Flathead High School standout and a University of Montana record-holding running back, returns home to Montana for a reprieve this week after more than a month of practice with the Miami Dolphins. He won’t have a break. At the end of July, his entire body of work, 17 years of […]

BUTTE – Gov. Brian Schweitzer enthusiastically welcomed Barack Obama to Montana for a parade and “family” picnic on Friday, and predicted the Democratic presidential candidate will carry the state in November. Obama watched Butte’s Fourth of July parade with his family, before hosting a free picnic for supporters. Obama is making history by waging a […]

The vast majority of unincorporated land in Montana is un-zoned, but in recent years more counties, particularly in the fast-growth areas of western and central Montana, have started a new trend, with many extending planning into the rural areas and some even adopting countywide zoning. But zoning remains a divisive issue in a state where […]

HAVRE – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says people along the Montana Hi-Line want a safe international border, but not at the expense of trade between the U.S. and Canada. Tester says that was a principal message he heard during a three-day border tour that ended Wednesday with a Senate field hearing in Havre on border […]

CUT BANK – The body of a Montana firefighter who was killed when two medical helicopters collided in Arizona over the weekend was returned to Montana on Wednesday. Michael MacDonald, 26, was fighting wildfires with his Browning-based hot shot crew when he was bitten by an insect Friday. He was killed Sunday in the helicopter […]

Good morning, on July 4, the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. On the Beacon this morning, another development in the Lord-of-the-Rings-like saga of the Whitefish planning doughnut, as the county begins to try to take back the doughnut area into its jurisdiction. Myers Reece takes a look at how county zoning is progressing […]

On Fourth of July some years back my dad caught six rattlesnakes, played with them, tossed one at my feet and let them go. It was his way of celebrating independence. He said, “Happy Fourth of July.” I said, “What the hell?” Like other holidays in my family, Independence Day wasn’t traditional. Sure, there were […]

Yesterday from my desk overlooking the water, I was startled by the sound of a big cigarette boat’s throaty engines running wide open. I looked out the window and one with four humongous outboard motors roared by at about 60 mph fewer than 40 feet from my dock. Whenever I see a cigarette-style boat going […]

When Marcos Gamberini learned he had been placed in Bozeman for his high school foreign exchange, the 17-year-old Brazilian had one question: “Montana? Where the hell is Montana? I thought I was supposed to be going to the U.S.” Nine months later, though, Gamberini and 18 other students – many of whom recalled similar initial […]

From turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving to corn beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day, American holidays are the ultimate excuse for guilt-free gluttony. The Fourth of July is no exception, so the Beacon has raided Kitchen Guy Jim Gray’s stash of recipes for a selection of dishes meant to shake up the traditional spread […]