The United States Postal Service wants to close many of its doors and, if it does, few places will be impacted as much as Montana. On the list released in July of 3,753 post office branches that may be shuttered, 85 of them were located in our state. That’s about 2.3 percent of USPS’ target […]

Don’t compare the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street protesters. Don’t do it. They are nothing alike. That’s what I’m told, although the effort of one to distance itself from the other seems strange as it persists anyway. For one, we’re told, the Tea Party supports capitalism and Occupy Wall Street supports anarchism. The Tea […]

There’s nothing worse than being labeled a land-grabber. Just ask President Barack Obama’s administration. When a Department of the Interior memo surfaced that listed 14 sites, including 2.5 million acres in Montana, under consideration for new national monuments, the outcry was immediate. Land-grabber! Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tried to squash the controversy. He said nothing […]

The federal government says it will deny Second Amendment rights to about 26,000 Montanans. Some people are upset about it, but that probably won’t last long. After all, these lost freedoms only apply to medical marijuana cardholders. Last week, one of our readers, a volunteer on several local boards, stopped by our office in Kalispell. […]

When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, campaigning in Iowa last month, was pressed by a heckler to raise corporate tax rates, he responded that “corporations are people, my friend.” The crowd of supporters cheered. Whether you agree with him, the high court already essentially did. In early 2010, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled […]

The Kalispell Center Mall turned 25 recently and, considering the times, that’s quite an accomplishment. Recent years have been rough on malls coast to coast, as consumers’ buying habits have changed and developers and merchants have increasingly embraced “lifestyle centers,” code words for open-air malls often set in the suburbs. We almost had one of […]

Few were surprised when Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock entered the contest to be Montana’s next governor. Still, his announcement assured that our gubernatorial race will be one of the most closely watched, and competitive, in the country. Politico’s David Cantanese wrote, “Bullock’s entry was widely anticipated for months and is likely the Democrats’ best […]

For almost three years, since the economy tumbled and layoffs spread across the Flathead Valley, you have read a series of bleak headlines here and elsewhere. There were false starts, and perhaps this is another one. But signs that the local job picture may be brightening locally is, for a change, worth talking about. True, […]

A narrative is emerging from Montana’s 2012 U.S. Senate race that contrasts with the last general election when dozens of new lawmakers were swept into office riding a wave of Tea Party support. Instead, the early plotline for this contest pitting incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester against Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg is focused on the […]

Montana’s U.S. delegation responded with a series of predictable prepared statements following Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the credit rating of long-term U.S. debt. Glaringly missing from those responses were the politicians’ opinions of a ratings agency whose own approval rating deserves to be as bad as that of Congress. That’s not to say […]

The federal government has a public relations problem. And while much of this is unavoidable, equal parts can be blamed on its failure to explain complex policy and its knack for responding to legitimate questions with an air of indifference. Let’s look at the proposed floodplain update in Evergreen. Recently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency […]

In February of 2007, when I was beginning to round up a small staff to launch this newspaper, I met Dan Testa at a coffee shop in Missoula. The interview was short. The job was his. And we headed next door to Charlie B’s to toast our new venture, which would later be called the […]

State unemployment numbers were released last week and – guess what? – Flathead County’s is exactly the same as it was one year ago. The non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate in June was once again 11.4 percent. Meanwhile, as places like Northwest Montana tread water, Washington is doing its best to make things worse. Before now, […]

The environmental activists who barged into Montana’s capitol last week to chant, dance and chain themselves together did little to persuade anyone to join their cause. In fact, they quite likely accomplished the opposite. Protests like these – a cocktail of theatrics, trespassing and often vandalism – largely make the opposition look like a joke. […]

President Barack Obama had apparently planned a trip to Whitefish last weekend. His near visit was news around town and local law enforcement for weeks had been preparing for his arrival. The president canceled, of course, after the debate over the debt ceiling ended how things in Washington do – with more debate. There are […]