WASHINGTON – The House passed a one-week extension of current farm law Wednesday, hoping to give Congress more time to finish a multibillion-dollar farm bill that is stalled by a dispute over tax breaks. Negotiations on the roughly $280 billion, five-year bill to expand agriculture and nutrition programs are in disarray with lawmakers from the […]

Good morning and happy National High Five Day! In our top story this morning, Keriann Lynch looks at how a recent state Supreme Court ruling confuses Flathead County residents’ attempt to draw up binding neighborhood plans. A Rollins rancher is breeding a special kind of cattle that produces low-fat, low cholesterol beef. W.R. Grace & […]

A twenty-mile conglomerate of trails may shut to motorized use. The Swan Lake and Spotted Bear Ranger Districts are asking for public comment on the potential limited access to the Bruce Creek to Alpine 7 to Napa Point area. The area is in the Southern Swan Crest area, about 9 miles southeast of Bigfork, and […]

HELENA – The Department of Revenue says it is closely watching the housing market to make sure values aren’t dropping as it finishes its statewide reappraisal. Director Dan Bucks says the agency has extended its analysis of home values to include this spring’s real estate season. He says so far the agency has found no […]

HELENA – A state proposal to prohibit water skiing through some narrow areas of a northwestern Montana lake is dead. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission on Thursday rejected a staff proposal to prohibit skiing in narrow areas of Echo Lake. The decision came after a number of lakeside property owners appeared before the […]

The wall in question faces south, toward a parking lot between Main Street and Third Street in Kalispell, on the outside of a building that used to house Mimi’s Bridal shop. A few vague pieces of graffiti have been spray-painted on the wall, alongside a startling image of a man who resembles an insurgent fighter […]

In 1939 a narrow dirt road led west from the almost-abandoned mining town of Ketchum, Idaho. About two miles further an even narrower ski trail had been cut the summer before and wound its way down from the summit of 9,000-foot high Mount Baldy. Just upstream from this point, where the trail meets the valley […]

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Bucks have fired Larry Krystkowiak after his first full season as an NBA head coach. “Larry and I met this morning, and came to the decision that he would not return,” new Bucks manager John Hammond said Thursday. The move has been expected since Larry Harris was dismissed as general manager […]

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said he will visit Montana in the coming weeks to answer questions about closed-door talks between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co. Rey said the talks merely “clarified” shared forest-road easements that date back several decades. But critics – including many Montana county commissioners – worry the easement […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Wednesday included the following: 3:43 p.m. A bad dog on School Addition Road ravaged some chickens. 3:50 p.m. Montana Highway Patrol officers chased down a man who bailed out of a stolen truck. The man escaped on foot but the truck, which was stolen only hours […]

WHITEFISH – When the snow really began to fall on Big Mountain in early December, it fell hard and rarely let up for nearly five months. The snow blanketed a resort that has undergone significant changes as of late, with a new name, new management and new facilities – transitions met with accolades and, in […]

Just in case you weren’t watching last Monday night, the Memphis Tigers lost the 2008 NCAA men’s basketball championship game to the Kansas Jayhawks. (No, this is not the sports section) It was one of the better games of the blowout-ridden finals weekend, ending up 75-68 Kansas, in overtime. Odd thing is, even though it […]

HELENA – The City Council in Fernie, British Columbia, is speaking out against potential coal-bed methane development north of Glacier National Park, development that raised concern in Montana over worry about possible harm to water in the state. In a resolution passed this week, the Fernie City Council said the province should not issue leases […]

Good morning; today is National Stress Awareness Day. It’s a sort of sunny morning in the Flathead and the new Beacons are on the stands. Our top story is an interview with the president of Whitefish Mountain Resort, taking stock of a ski season of heavy snow and high expectations. A driver suffered a broken […]

ROLLINS – Woolly Bully eats well. His diet is natural and protein-rich. And at 2,200 pounds, he has almost no fat but a lot of shaggy hair, which is exactly what rancher Ed Jonas likes. Jonas uses the big Scottish Highland bull, among other bulls, to cross-breed with Italian Piedmontese cattle to create what he […]