Optimism has grown this month that the United States may escape a recession. But don’t haul out the ticker tape just yet. The current economic slowdown is unusual – and difficult to read – because the housing market is playing such a central role. Alongside high oil prices and a credit squeeze, a downturn in […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Wednesday included the following: 8:08 a.m. Two stray dogs were hauled off to the shelter after killing four plump chickens. 9:08 a.m. A hysterical Kalispell woman called in after her neighbor threatened to spray Roundup. 10:08 a.m. On Tuesday night an intoxicated man called in from […]

As Kalispell native Katie Maker Martin neared the end of college, she was too busy making plans to pay much notice to the strange bumps on her neck. Martin, who recently performed in the local symphony’s opera Carmen, had been accepted to a prestigious graduate program for vocal performance at the University of Southern California. […]

Preliminary results from exit polls and phone surveys conducted for The Associated Press and television networks in presidential primaries Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota: DEMS ENERGIZED OR DIVIDED? Did the long Democratic primary season leave the party energized or divided? Perhaps appropriately, voters in both states were fairly evenly split on the question. In […]

Who hasn’t either had a plumber hanging out of their sink, or heard about one? You know the stereotype. Some guy’s rear end is hanging out from under your sink, his pants are not quite the right size, and “too much information” is pointed right at you. It’s like looking at a car accident on […]

EUREKA – Six miles off U.S. Highway 93, deep in the Tobacco Valley, a winding country road ends at the Perea house. Inside, 13-year-old Joseph Perea, a recent National Geographic Bee finalist, can usually be found buried in books, reviewing details of Kosovo’s independence, studying the implications of Balochistan’s energy reserves and discussing with his […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Monday included the following: 11:27 a.m. Someone called in after they found a bullet “with the end cut off” at a storage unit. 11:50 a.m. Screw guns and a circular saw were stolen from a construction site in Bigfork. 12:14 p.m. A deputy counseled an excitable […]

HELENA – Barack Obama claimed Montana’s primary Tuesday night, just hours after securing the Democratic presidential nomination in his historic race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama’s victory quickly prompted the state’s five uncommitted superdelegates — including Gov. Brian Schweitzer and U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester — to endorse the Illinois senator. “I want […]

WASHINGTON – A Democratic candidate who said he would not campaign or raise money has unexpectedly won the party’s U.S. House primary in the race to challenge Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg. The unofficial election results, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, showed former Montana House Speaker John Driscoll with 49 percent of the vote. The […]

WASHINGTON – Perennial candidate Bob Kelleher won an upset victory in Montana’s Republican U.S. Senate primary early Wednesday, making a tough race even tougher for the state GOP. Kelleher, an 85-year-old attorney from Butte, will challenge Democrat incumbent Max Baucus in November. Baucus is a five-term U.S. senator who had more than $6 million in […]

Good morning and happy 80th birthday to popular sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She also helps children overcome their hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. Bet you have to click the link to figure that one out. The news is jumping on the Beacon this morning, where we have the results of yesterday’s primary races. Sen. Barack Obama carried Montana […]

Long a staple for take-out in Whitefish, Piggyback Barbecue leapt into new digs—across the street. The unique restaurant known for its succulent pit meats that scent the air north of the viaduct re-opened this week on west side of Wisconsin Avenue. “It’s such as better facility with a larger kitchen,” says owner and pitmaster Clay […]

A couple of weeks ago, I was riding my bike up MacDonald Pass, on four-lane U.S Highway 12, on the shoulder. It was a mid-day, low-traffic time, and even though the left lane was available, a driver purposely hazed me by speeding by with his right wheel on the fog line going at least 80 […]

Two votes, a signature and five minutes were all it took for three years of painstaking delays to subside and for the creation of a trail commemorating long-time Kalispell resident and civic benefactor Louis A. “Sam” Bibler to begin. Last Tuesday, the Flathead County Commission unanimously approved a request for an engineering proposal for a […]

HELENA – The secretary of state says 45 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary, the highest since 1994. Brad Johnson says the figure is an indication of enthusiasm that surrounded the primary that featured a meaningful battle between Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also credited local election […]