HELENA – The surprise Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Bob Kelleher, won’t be allowed to address the 400 delegates at the state GOP convention this week in Missoula. Instead, he’s been offered a side room for an hour to meet with anyone interested. State Republican Chairman Erik Iverson says time for speakers is limited, and it […]

WASHINGTON – Congress enacted a massive $290 billion farm bill for a second time on Wednesday after a clerical error in the first bill threatened delivery of U.S. food aid abroad. The Senate voted 80-14 to override President Bush’s veto of the legislation, more than the two-thirds majority necessary to enact it. Bush vetoed the […]

I was recently invited to Squaw Valley California to give a speech to the American Association of Professional Ski Patrollers. These are the men and women who keep ski resorts running. I talked to them about some of the things I had learned since I taught skiing at Squaw during the winter of 1948-49 when […]

Kendall Carpenter’s philosophy on animal prosthetics is simple. “If someone asks me to do it,” he said, “I’ll do it. There’s no reimbursement for it, except that we’re here to help things.” Carpenter, who runs Glacier Prosthetic Care, Inc., in Kalispell, never entered prosthetics – human or animal – for the money, especially in Montana. […]

Good morning and happy Juneteenth! On this day in 1865, a full two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas received news of their freedom. Our top story today hears from Kalispell’s independent pharmacists who are angry over KRMC opening up a retail pharmacy of its own. Myers Reece profiles […]

While crews load the orange and white gondolas on the Big Mountain Express today, snows still linger on mountain slopes. But Whitefish Mountain Resort is poised to crank the lift into operation Saturday morning for the first day of its summer season. As white snow patches melt from valley-facing slopes, northern bowls still look wintry. […]

In Billings, nudity inquiries have sent city officials into a minor panic. You see, evidence suggests that someone plans to open an adult-oriented business downtown. In response, the council there quickly called a meeting to consider an emergency zoning ordinance. The problem is councilors don’t appear to know what they are zoning against: table settings, […]

A 51-year-old Kalispell man is dead after suffering extensive injuries in a dirt bike accident. Flathead County sheriff’s deputies say Bret Sickmann died before rescue personnel could reach him Wednesday night. The accident happened just before 9:30 p.m. Deputies say Sickmann was riding a dirt bike on a steep trail in a wooded area. Sheriff’s […]

LIBBY – The Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to curtail excessive dust at the former W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine near Libby. The mine is blamed for widespread death and disease in Libby stemming from exposure to toxic asbestos dust. As part of a Superfund cleanup, contractors working for the EPA hauled 50,000 […]

HELENA – Montana is one of 18 states where presidential candidate Barack Obama will be airing a new television advertisement. Presidential candidates rarely campaign in Montana. But Obama’s campaign says it plans to keep going here with the momentum it gained this month with a big primary win over Hillary Rodham Clinton. The ad is […]

An old man regales his grandchildren with tall tales from his days working on the railroad, before the influx of moneyed newcomers. A group of Realtors at an art show criticize the city’s Critical Areas Ordinance. An overworked young newspaper editor struggles to manage her office. Environmentalists sit around a table in the Railway District […]

When two passenger airliners crashed into the World Trade Center Towers, 2008 Bigfork High School graduate Kelsey Smith was just 11 years old. She holds the same memory of the day’s events as most of her peers – sitting with the rest of the sixth-grade class, quietly watching the news for the duration of the […]

Earlier this week, Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone and talked about the new software tools for it. You probably haven’t seen too many iPhones around the Flathead because you currently have to use AT&T for your cell service – which we don’t have here. Despite that, things like programmer-accessible GPS functionality and what looks […]

HELENA – State Auditor John Morrison says an initiative to provide government-funded health coverage for as many as 30,000 uninsured children will be on the November ballot. Morrison led the effort to put Initiative 155 before voters this fall. He says organizers have collected more than enough valid signatures of registered voters to qualify I-155 […]

BISMARCK, N.D. – The Bureau of Land Management says its monthly regional sale of oil and gas leases totaled more than $30.5 million. BLM officials say the sale on Tuesday set a record for leases in North Dakota and Montana. The agency says it eclipsed the record of $13.1 million set in January 2005. BLM […]