Each year, before walking across a stage for a handshake and a diploma, graduates sit quietly as their top-performing classmates give them a pep talk. Then it’s the commencement speaker’s turn to tell the students the best way to follow their dreams, conquer their goals and live their lives to the fullest. While well intentioned, […]

It’s construction season in Montana and, while at times maddening, it’s at once a welcome sight. As the nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble, our state is spending $372 million building and repairing roads and bridges through the fall – a hefty and much-needed sum. With the collapse of the Interstate 5 bridge crossing the Skagit […]

Earlier this month, I ran Bloomsday in Spokane along with 47,000 other people. While I grew up there, this was my first time participating in the event, and its sheer size is astonishing. But how the city oversees such a huge race, one of the largest in the country, is equally impressive. Spokane is a […]

There’s a story I like to tell about my colleague Myers Reece. It involves how I “discovered” him after he had spent months backpacking through the jungles of South America. How I set him on the straight and narrow by making him my first hire at the Flathead Beacon. Of course, this story is largely […]

It’s difficult to understand the actions of the Flathead County commissioners in regard to the Agency on Aging, which also makes it easy to speculate. And that speculation has run rampant following two recent tense commission meetings. At the first, Commissioners Pam Holmquist and Gary Krueger voted to halt a grant process for a new […]

It should be a lawmaker’s easiest task, pressing the correct button that indicates which way they want to vote on a procedure or piece of legislation, “yea” or “nay.” But that’s not always the case as evidenced by Great Falls Democrat Rep. Tom Jacobson’s vote that may have sunk Medicaid expansion in Montana and which […]

In the days following the Boston Marathon bombing, I read several well-written stories about why amateur runners train for hours each week to prepare for grueling races. Why suffer for so long for so little recognition? It’s a good question, and reminded me of a phone call my dad made to me more than 10 […]

When President Barack Obama revealed his latest budget last week, it was greeted with a lukewarm reception from fellow Democrat and Montana’s longtime Sen. Max Baucus, who said he was “disappointed” in some of the entitlement cuts. Meanwhile, the U.S. debt continues to rise, although at a slower pace than previous years, and is nearing […]

When the Beacon conducted an unscientific poll that asked our online readers if the effects of sequestration were being overhyped, 80 percent of the 225 voters who responded said “yes.” That may be a small sampling but it also reflects the majority of opinions I’ve received in letters and emails. That is, federal agencies and […]

It’s always interesting to see what stories coming out of the Montana Legislature make the wires, become national news stories and draw chuckles or derision or both. The latest item to surface in metro newspapers is about legislation proposed by Kalispell Republican Rep. Steve Lavin, which would allow residents here to salvage big game killed […]

Last month, a legislative subcommittee approved a $28 million increase in spending on higher education, which will effectively freeze tuition for in-state students through 2015 if Montana’s universities and colleges meet certain performance standards. That’s a decent tradeoff, especially as student loan debt begins to resemble a bubble. The amount of money students borrow to […]

It’s true. We have been down this road before. A developer or organization proposes a performing arts, convention or town center in the Flathead Valley. And those plans either stall or are scrapped entirely. In 2008, the Kalispell City Council approved the largest development in the history of Flathead County. Glacier Town Center would have […]

Last week the Democratic-leaning firm, Public Policy Polling, released a survey of potential matchups in Montana’s 2014 U.S. Senate race. Right now, one Republican has declared he is running and another has said he is considering running for the seat currently held by Sen. Max Baucus. But PPP also polled hypothetical matchups, which were far […]

I envy the architects and engineers who are asked to produce renderings of what the future could look like, especially when they are allowed the freedom to present their vision with few limitations. Especially when they go big. Often these drawings of new landscapes and grand structures are altogether improbable. The Kalispell Core Area Revitalization […]

In 1947, Montana officials enacted a quota system that allowed one tavern with a liquor license for every 1,500 people. I wish I could travel back in time and tell them what a dumb idea that was. Since their implementation, the state’s alcohol rules have been unfair. For one, established taverns were grandfathered in, so […]