After months of frenetic fundraising and grant writing, the Nurturing Center’s Safe Havens supervised visitation and exchange center is closing, leaving a community and state – already lacking the service – with few options. “It’s devastating for the community,” Jolie Fish, director of Flathead County Family Court Services, said. “There are so many people out […]

HELENA – A federal appeals court has denied the government’s request for another hearing in the case of a Whitefish man who lied to his probation officer about having served in the military and then was ordered by a judge to stand outside a courthouse wearing a sandwich board that said, “I am a liar. […]

It may be off-season for the Alpine Theatre Project, but the lights aren’t out behind the curtain. Just around the corner, the ATP summer season preps to lob three plays at Flathead Valley audiences: The Full Monty, Pete ‘n’ Keely, and Olympia Dukakis in The Other Side of the Island. “This is definitely is our […]

An attorney representing a coalition of building and real estate groups sent a letter recently to Flathead County commissioners claiming the county’s subdivision regulations are fraught with illegal and burdensome parameters. Bill VanCanagan, an attorney from Missoula, requested that the county have a discussion with the concerned groups before the end of April to avoid […]

Good morning and happy national Siblings Day. A coalition of builders and Realtors is challenging Flathead County subdivision regulations as burdensome and, in some cases, illegal. The Nurturing Center’s Safe Havens program, which provides court-ordered supervised visits between parents and children, is closing due to lack of funds, leaving no options for supervised visits in […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Wednesday included the following: 12:54 a.m. Deputies responded to a suspicious activity call at the Rainbow Bar. An intoxicated patron was sitting on the hood of a car. 8:12 a.m. A Swan Retreat resident who travels south for the winter returned home to find the lock […]

HELENA – Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will hold a trophy wildlife auction Saturday in Kalispell and another in Bozeman two weeks later. Non-perishable wildlife parts will be auctioned to the highest bidder. Saturday’s auction at the FWP Region 1 office in Kalispell will include deer, elk and moose antlers, lion hides, and big horn […]

GREAT FALLS – Amtrak ridership in Montana is up for the fifth consecutive year, but the pace of growth has slowed, the Montana Department of Transportation said. The total number of people who got on or off the train at one of the 12 Amtrak stops along the state’s northern tier increased by 1,500 to […]

BISMARCK, N.D. – The government estimates up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology. The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed. An assessment by USGS in 1999 found the Alaska National Wildlife […]

In the mid-1950s, someone hooked up an air compressor to a hose, rammed the air through some plumbing with water running through it and started making artificial snow. Ski resort marketing directors don’t like anything artificial, so they immediately changed the name to man-made snow. But back in those days it was artificial snow no […]

You may think you know your way around Northwest Montana so well that a map is unnecessary. But a new “Geotourism Mapguide” published by National Geographic is almost certain to point out some features and history of this region that will be new to both local historians and tourists visiting for the first time. The […]

The bumpy, twisting, occasionally rutted and seemingly endless road to the White House has taken a detour through Montana, leading Democratic candidates and a former president from Havre south along Interstate 15 to Butte, and west on Interstate 90 to Missoula. Last week presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with former President Bill […]

Water tests are coming back clean along the MT Highway 35 fuel spill. Carey Cooley, spokesperson for Lake County says the cleanup crew dug several test pits to make sure no fuel vapors or free product seeped under their efforts, and into water sources. These are based on field tests. Samples of residential, treated and […]

Business owners: You should be blogging. Nevermind the 21st Century business owners who are all over that thing called Web 2.0 and iTunes and podcasting etc. I suspect you’re already there (you should be). I’m talking about people who own bookstores, plumbing firms, therapy clinics and shoe stores. Likewise, bankers, insurance agents, Realtors, chainsaw artists […]

HELENA – The Republican Party says that Gov. Brian Schweitzer broke ethics laws by running a public service announcement after filing for re-election. The Legislature has banned use of taxpayer money on PSAs from officeholders who are running for election. The GOP complaint was filed Tuesday with the commissioner of political practices. Schweitzer says it […]