Whitefish High School may soon need a separate building to store its trophies. The school’s main hallway is crowded with awards. The gymnasium’s walls are blanketed with championship banners that hang over the athletic director’s office – the one Jackie Fuller will move into this fall. She knows expectations are high. “I’m just jacked,” Fuller […]

One of the most spectacular and accessible views of the Flathead Valley is from the summit at Lone Pine State Park. “It’s one of the few places you’re really in the woods and still in town,” John Dittman said. Dittman and his wife, Bev, have been hiking the park a couple times a week for […]

Children will have a chance to wet a line at upcoming events just for kids. These fishing days, organized through Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, have been scheduled in northwest Montana to give young anglers an opportunity to fish and participate in fishing-related activities: • June 2, Shady Lane Kids Fishing Day, 9 a.m. to […]

“Stay ‘till May! Stay ‘till May!” That was the drumbeat during a House Republican caucus in the closing days of the 2007 Legislature, which will go down as one of Montana’s most embarrassing. Surely, the majority of legislators played nice during their four-plus months at the Capitol, trying to reach compromise on tax cuts and […]

If you want to go for a walk and see some good art at the same time, get ready for the Kalispell Art Walk June 1. Several downtown Kalispell businesses will have art, food, music and more during this event. Following are the participants. Paint, Metal & Mud Featured Artist Exhibit Opening — Pia Eaves […]

A windswept, snow-covered ridge in the Jewel Basin is a long way from Flathead High School. But for students in the school’s Alpine Club, this is Outdoor Adventure 101. The school’s Alpine Club — and a similar program at the Kalispell Junior High School called the Adventure Club — brings a wide array of outdoor […]

There are 1,679,925 drive-thru coffee shacks in Flathead County. OK, that’s not true, but there are more in this valley than I knew possible. If the amount of cars lined up at the hut near my house in the mornings is any indication of supply and demand, we need a few more. I love coffee […]

The strain on public services caused by the region’s rampant growth was all too obvious at the May meeting of the Flathead City-County 911 Administrative Board, where some members railed against an emergency response system they said was dangerously antiquated, and questioned why the board, in recent months, can’t agree on a solution. At issue […]

Before I get into that, I should introduce myself and this column. I’m Mark Riffey, and among other things, I teach small business owners seven strategies to get more clients, be more productive and be more profitable. You can learn more about me at www.markriffey.com. WARNING: I’m sure I’ll say something that will annoy you […]

Rushing water heralds the changing seasons in Bigfork. Mountain snow pack swells the river; class V rapids test kayakers. But almost 100 years ago logs, not boats, traversed the spring runoff. It’s spring in Bigfork, one year ago. Jack Whitney is sitting in his home with the windows shutting out the roar of the river […]

Their voices are still that of young boys. They squeak when they cheer and holler. But their athletic ability shows they’re becoming something more: young men. These young people stand on the threshold of innocence, that special, magical place where youth sports is still just that. Youth. Sports. They might boot a grounder, drop a […]

Kalispell’s Regional Hazardous Materials Team didn’t have to hold its scheduled drill today. It had the real thing instead. The HazMat team responded this morning to an unknown liquid spillage at the intersection of West Reserve Drive and Whitefish Stage Road. No one was injured. Evergreen Fire Marshal Wayne Evert said the milky liquid was […]

When Whitefish native Joel Rosenberg graduated from the University of Montana with a finance degree in 2003, he couldn’t get so much as an interview for a job at a bank in the Flathead Valley. Even his dad, president of Valley Bank, didn’t think he was qualified. Four years later, though, the local job market […]

Sometimes a green thumb can get you in trouble. Kalispell police officers looking for an armed robbery suspect Tuesday morning instead found 68 marijuana plants growing in an apartment building at 333 College Ave. Armed with a search warrant, officers searched 38-year-old Richard Schmid’s home. There, they allegedly found a hydroponic growing operation, which is […]

With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wading into the issue, Montana has called in the big guns to combat the proposed Cline coalmine project in the headwaters of the Flathead River’s North Fork in British Columbia. At the urging of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Rice pressed the Canadian federal government last month to invoke […]