It’s easy to condemn Whitefish’s ban on drivers using handheld cell phones as just another example of the “nanny state” gone wild. After all, we’re told she’s everywhere these days: telling us what to eat, where to smoke and who to insure. But was the council’s vote a real act of so-called protectionism? I saw […]

Last week following the Boston Bruins’ win over the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, Canadians took to the streets to riot away their disappointment. The images were surreal: smashed storefronts, burned cop cars, dozens of injuries. I mentioned, mostly joking, on my Twitter account: “I always thought Canadians were pacifists,” to which […]

Whether Sen. Jon Tester was genuinely concerned about community banks in his failed proposal to delay the implementation of caps on swipe fees those institutions can charge, expect his opposition to frame it as another Wall Street bailout. Introducing an amendment delaying the caps was a risky move for the freshman Democrat, who faces a […]

Summer recently showed up, if only briefly, on a weekend no less, when the temperature reached 80 degrees. It was warm and comfortable, except that the snowpack hasn’t melted and the riverbanks and dams can’t hold all the runoff if we have a heat wave. The governor has declared a state of emergency and anxiety […]

The Public Service Commission has an important, if often overlooked, job. It’s responsible for regulating everything from Montana’s utilities and private water companies to taxi and phone services. At one point, the 2011 Legislature considered tapping the PSC to oversee the medical marijuana industry. That, thankfully, didn’t happen since the five-member board struggles to hold […]

Hundreds of Flathead Valley Community College students graduated earlier this month and many of them will have a better shot at getting a job than they did two years ago. It was the school’s largest class ever, attributable partly to economic necessity. Many so-called nontraditional students returned to class when the recession swept through the […]

Lawmakers went to Helena to clean up the freewheeling medical marijuana industry, which most agreed had grown too big, too fast, with little oversight. Instead, the legislation they passed is so convoluted it’s unclear what, if anything, it fixes. Some of the new rules took effect over the weekend. And the assumption by the bill’s […]

Late last year, speculation surrounding Columbia Falls Aluminum Company’s reopening ramped up again. It never happened. Instead, five months later CFAC asked for a 95 percent reduction in property taxes, hoping to take advantage of a little-used law that at once requires the plant to be shuttered for six more months and shortchanges a school […]

An interesting thing happened when House Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the so-called “Path to Prosperity” budget plan: Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg didn’t. He was one of just four GOP congressmen to vote against Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., proposal. Why would the reliably conservative Rehberg oppose Ryan’s plan aimed at deficit reduction? The answer […]

The standoff between Kalispell and the firefighters’ union over wages ended in compromise – a surprising resolution to an often-tense negotiating session. Who reaches a “compromise” anymore? That’s so boring. In February, an arbitrator called in to settle a contract dispute between the two sides ruled in favor of the Local 547 chapter of the […]

Last week, the potential for the first federal government shutdown since 1995 gripped Washington, D.C. – and about nobody else. Yes, it would have mattered if a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats had dragged on, but the consequences of that happening were far too high for either party to stomach. The disagreement, of course, stemmed […]

First of all, so I don’t offend anyone who works there, I’m a fan of RadioShack. It’s where I bought the scanner that crackles next to my desk, and I still wander around the shop from time to time pretending I’m smarter than I am. But the company’s opposition to its Hamilton store’s free gun […]

It’s common for municipalities to complain about the U.S. Census, and most often it regards population figures that critics contend are underreported. But in Flathead County, the latest count exceeded my modest expectations. The Census says we grew by 16,457 people since 2000. And, in what I would consider a minor upset, this county still […]

The curious debate over whether the Montana Legislature should pass so-called “nullification” bills has largely focused on whether the federal government is encroaching too far on individual and state rights. But our elected officials continue to prove that their arguments for passing such legislation are at once selective and biased. Those pushing for nullification of […]

Some of our online readers were taken aback by preliminary discussions on the feasibility of building a civic center or arts venue in Kalispell. It didn’t help that our story on the subject was published at about the same time we reported city firefighters may be laid off because an arbitrator ruled that they were […]