Members of the Flathead Hotshots firefighting crew say their emergency training helped them keep calm, after two crew members were struck by lightning last week. The crew was conducting a prescribed burn southwest of Whitefish last Thursday when a storm rolled in. The supervisor told them to start hiking out the quarter mile to where […]

Good morning; today is the anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy. On the Beacon this morning, Flathead High parents are complaining that the scheduling of certain classes puts their kids at a disadvantage, and favors students at Glacier High. High gas prices are forcing auto dealers throughout the valley to adapt to a […]

Empty storefronts. Housing foreclosures. Skyrocketing gas prices. We are living with the constant reminder of economic uncertainty on a daily basis. Couple this with a geographic area that has yet to reach the critical mass needed to effectively sustain itself economically independent of transient consumers, and the following question must be raised, “What is driving […]

WHITEFISH – You’d be surprised by what Jan Shanahan sees when she looks at a quilt. She sees flow and balance, woven stories and forgotten art forms. She sees their origins. And with some quilts, she sees a worthy candidate for her new online artisan business, Quilt Keeper. Shanahan launched her Web site, www.quiltkeeper.com, this […]

HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Republican challenger Roy Brown are scheduled to speak this weekend at the Montana Public Employees Association annual convention in Butte. Schweitzer was scheduled to speak at the MPEA banquet Friday night. Brown, of Billings, is also scheduled to address the convention, which runs Friday and Saturday at the Copper […]

Searching for the perfect Father’s Day Gift? Then look no further. This is it. You could spend every waking moment of the rest of your life scouring the remote corners of the globe and you will never find a better Father’s Day gift than this. Seriously, don’t bother with anything else. Whatever you may be […]

Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Silver’s Platter at The Cottage; Badwater Bill at Scotty’s; The Bad Larrys at Blue Canyon; DJ Q at Finish Line; Big Daddy and the Blue Notes at Rocky Mountain Roadhouse; Smart Alex at Great Northern; Sonny King at Blue Moon; Mobile Beat DJ at Red’s Saturday: Bob […]

After more than 50 years of economic ups and downs, employees at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company are bracing for another possible round of layoffs. But company representatives and economists say, just by keeping the doors open at all, the plant is doing better than most. On May 21, the company gave a 60-day notice […]

HELENA – This week’s spotlight may have been on the presidential primary in Montana — but it was two fringe candidates who stole the show by nabbing major party nominations for Congress. The biggest shock? The 85-year-old Republican U.S. Senate candidate who has run for political office at least 16 times for three different parties […]

I’m not sure if you know about this program, but it is a good one! It’s available and it can help you get into that new house, or make it more attractive for someone to buy your house. The Federal Housing Administration, (FHA) has increased its loan limits in Flathead County to $301,250, from a […]

Good morning; today is the birthday of economists Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. On the Beacon today, the employees at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company are bracing for layoffs as production will be cut back by two-thirds. A federal judge has banned extended season snowmobiling in the Flathead National Forest. After three years of […]

Derek Keller and Adam Olson have one more shot at an American Legion baseball state championship run. With the Kalispell Lakers entering their conference schedule, that run begins now. Keller and Olson, the Lakers’ 19-year-old captains, are in their final year of eligibility for American Legion baseball. Olson, a burly third baseman and pitcher, said […]

This is not what the state GOP needs, or wants. An ultra-conservative lawmaker fielding candidates to run against his own party members who he deems too moderate. It’s called the “Liberty Project,” and it succeeded in ousting a handful of incumbent Republicans in the recent primary. It also succeeded in infiltrating a few small-town elections […]

Gas prices continued their ominous ascent last week, breaking records with a gallon of regular unleaded fuel costing $3.84 on average in Montana, and a gallon of diesel costing a jaw-dropping $4.57. Nationwide summer travel is expected to decrease for the first time in a decade, with a trifecta of anxiety causing Americans to re-evaluate […]

I live on an island that takes as long to get to from Seattle in a car and a ferryboat as it does to get to Chicago in a 737. I live there for a lot of reasons – one of which is the interesting people I meet on the ferryboat. On the ferryboat are […]