Ski swaps…check. Warren Miller flick…check. Ski pass…check. Chairlifts load tested…check. The count down to ski season has begun. This time of year, it’s all about Ullr. Privately, hoards burn boards for him even though fire regulations ban incinerating plastics and fiberglass. Some figure that pitching a snowboard into a fire may spur Ullr to agree […]

As a child growing up during the materialistic 1980s, Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday. How could it compete with Halloween, where I could don batwings and demand pounds of candy? Or Christmas, where I couldn’t force myself to sleep more than two or three hours before vaulting downstairs to open presents? The pilgrims just […]

MISSOULA (AP) – Although seven Montana football players have been in trouble with the law since June, coach Bobby Hauck does not find himself in the same position as former Montana State coach Mike Kramer, who was fired after the arrests of several current and former players. Both UM President George Dennison and athletics director […]

Jerry Reynolds, 28, doesn’t join other locals in complaining about the comings and goings of part-time residents in the valley where he grew up. Instead, he has found a way to accommodate and profit from their presence. In turn, Reynolds’s services may help save those who invest in homes here from thousands of dollars in […]

A week after news broke that he would not seek re-election in 2009, Bigfork lawmaker Bill Jones describes how he feels with a word: “emancipated.” “I’m excited about it, it’s not out of frustration,” he says of his decision to withdraw from the Republican party and focus his efforts during the 2009 Legislature on volunteering […]

HELENA (AP) – Several fire departments to responded to a late-season blaze Monday afternoon near Bowman’s Corner south of Augusta. According to Paul Spengler, disaster and emergency services coordinator for Lewis and Clark County, initial reports said two ranches were evacuated, but further investigation made him believe only the Skunk Creek ranch was — and […]

Sometime this week, a 20-foot container of bicycles should arrive in Beira, Mozambique. It’s crammed with 140 bikes, tools, and parts. “It might also have a few mice,” added Ron Brunk, owner of Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish. Loaded on the Charlotte Maersk, the container has been at sea since September 13 when it left Tacoma, […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Monday and Tuesday morning included the following: 7:43 a.m. A woman was reported after tailgating someone with her headlights on and passing in a no-passing zone. 8:26 a.m. A resident in Lakeside called the Sheriff’s Department because their neighbor keeps driving over their property even though […]

Strong winds downed trees onto power lines Monday night, causing power outages across the Flathead Valley. The storm, with gusting winds up to 50 mph, knocked power out of the Badrock and West Glacier substations, according to a Flathead Electric Cooperative press release, and much of the canyon area remained without power for five hours. […]

Good morning and happy World Kindness Day. In honor of the occasion, I’m going to try not to say anything mean to my co-workers until lunch time today. It may be an early lunch. Coming off of Veterans’ Day, it’s a fairly slow news day thus far. It was a windy night in the Flathead, […]

More or less I moved to Kalispell from Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a little couch-surfing and vagabonding in Missoula in between. I finished college in Buenos Aires, spending hours staring dumbly as loud, hairy professors shouted at me in Lunfardo – the city’s own brand of Italian-laced Spanish – about late 19th-century Argentine political philosophy. […]

Pens are poised to sign with an engineering firm, and the money to pay them is – “in the bank,”— so to speak. Flathead County Commissioners will sign a contract with Morrison-Maierle this week to study Bigfork’s storm water drainage system. They have to start from the beginning; following water flow to see how and […]

When Keith and Kathryn Bassett opened their “fantastic gamble” on St. Patrick’s Day last year, a group of area musicians performed Irish jams for patrons in the newly remodeled building. Now, more than a year later, the same Irish group has missed their Thursday-night gig only twice. The Cottage Inn is thriving and a small […]

There’s just something about swinging an axe that gets Amanda Brandt’s blood flowing. “It’s addicting,” she said. “It really is. It’s totally different than anything I’ve ever done.” When Brandt showed up at the Flathead Valley Community College Loggers’ first practice, the freshman didn’t know what to expect. Her friend Lynae Tripp had talked her […]

The documents read like a bad crime novel. Men and women in uniform from different districts and departments beset with bravado are on the scene. But instead of fighting dastardly criminals, they are supposed to be fighting big fires. There’s the pilot who would rather work the case alone and quickly turns cooperation into a […]