With the departure of Sen. Max Baucus from the Senate, Montana’s longest serving statewide elected official is Ed Smith. Never heard of him? Well, we have elected him clerk of our Supreme Court five times. Ed served as chief clerk of the Montana House of Representatives three legislative sessions and was then appointed by the legendary House Speaker Tip O’Neill to be chief bill clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also served as president of the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks.

His is a remarkable record that speaks for itself. Ed always does a good job. That’s why he is rarely in the news and always reelected.

I read Rep. Jesse O’Hara’s hit piece calling me an extremist (March 5 Beacon: “Extremists Anoint Themselves Arbiters of the Party”). As soon as we adjourned the 2013 Legislature in April, O’Hara sold his house in Great Falls and moved to Florida. So I was surprised to see O’Hara’s letter, as I hear the only time he leaves his beach chair is to walk to the mail box to collect his teacher pension and state health care benefits. He literally can’t afford to reform the status quo.

I am seeing letters, opinions and discussions going back and forth on the potential impacts of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) Water Compact. One of the latest letters implied that although the current agreement may not be acceptable to all and some may be unhappy, but the compact may be acceptable enough. This […]

“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot do, so well, for themselves – in their separate and individual capacities.” This quote is from Abraham Lincoln, the first president representing the Republican Party. Lincoln goes on to […]

The 1979 Montana Legislature passed legislation requiring the state to negotiate a quantification of the water rights claimed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) as prescribed in the 1855 Hellgate Treaty. The CSKT water compact is the result of the negotiations between the state of Montana, the CSKT and the federal government. This […]

The first few weeks in 2014 have already proven interesting. Starting the year off at 94 cents U.S., the Canadian dollar fell to 89.85 cents on Jan. 23, the lowest in four-and-a-half years. This begs the questions: Has the bottom fallen out of the high Canadian dollar? Has the Flathead Valley’s good luck finally run […]

Innovation is at the heart of the American agriculture success story. As a matter of course, today’s farmers and ranchers must constantly prepare and adapt to get ahead of tomorrow’s challenges. At USDA, we have a long history of fostering research and innovation that help agricultural production thrive. I am pleased that the 2014 Farm […]

A bipartisan election commission led by the chief campaign lawyers for President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney has made recommendations for making elections run more smoothly across the country. Notably, the report presented by this presidential commission urges state and local election officials to achieve a “modern, efficient and responsive” election system that attends to […]

Young Belle Winestine described suffragist Jeanette Rankin as “magnetic,” with an “illuminous quality,” and quoted another observer of the charismatic Rankin as like a “young panther ready to spring.” A century ago this year, Montana women won the right to vote. Two years later, in 1916, with ardent support of Winestine and others like her, […]

In a country where the average CEO makes 354 times what the average worker makes, where we bail out banks, industries, governments, and we allow multi-billion dollar corporations to generate profits and store them in off-shore accounts so they don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes in America, surely we can provide the […]

After long and thoughtful investigation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ compact the county commissioners of Flathead, Lake and Missoula counties have issued letters of support for the CSKT water compact. The compact ties up water out of Hungry Horse for use in Montana. Eleven-thousand acre feet are already allocated to the state for […]

As I close out my mayoral term, I express my sincere appreciation to the residents and taxpayers in the City of Kalispell for your support over the past four years. With your support we accomplished one of the largest fiscal and ideological turnarounds this city has ever seen. With your help we: brought our reserve […]

Wildsight has been engaged with grizzly bear population surveys as well as efforts to assure healthy grizzly bear populations in the region for several decades. While it is true that grizzly bear numbers are recovering in this region, it is a simplistic misrepresentation to suggest that recovery is complete and that a hunt is necessary […]

In politics timing is everything and that certainly appears to be the case with Lt. Governor John Walsh and Congressman Steve Daines. A year from now one of them will likely be a U.S. Senator, something unimaginable a year ago. Back then no one imagined Sen. Max Baucus would announce his retirement, let alone that […]

Polls consistently show Americans wish they could spend less on Christmas gift-giving. Well, a new study suggests their wish could come true, at least among younger people. Researchers who have tracked the attitudes of high school seniors over decades find the Great Recession of 2007-09 has caused a great reversal: These young people of today […]