If we are serious about tackling climate change, then the solution may be found in building the city of tomorrow to look more like the city of yesterday. As glass and steel towers continue to rise, wood skyscrapers are likely to start sprouting alongside. Multi-story and high-rise wood buildings are already planned or rising in Europe and Canada. They are architecturally distinct, and they are made of the original green building material.

When the president signed the 2014 Farm Bill in February, he directed his administration, working through the White House Rural Council, to lead a new “Made in Rural America” export and investment initiative. This initiative is charged with uniting federal resources to aid rural businesses and leaders to take advantage of new investment opportunities and access new customers and markets.

For more than 60 years, the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association (MOGA) has served as an important voice for the outfitting industry and as a key partner in decisions that effect the management of public land and wildlife resources. We are proud to represent more than 200 member businesses across the state that offer a variety of outfitting and guiding services. Together, these businesses play a vital role in Montana’s tourism economy and help maintain the culture and traditions of ethical sportsmanship.

We see the preservation and protection of critical landscapes and outdoor traditions as extremely important to all user groups. These landscapes and the wildlife habitat they provide are not only critical to our industry but to the very fabric of who we are as Montanans. We recognize that these special places remain with us today because of the hard work and vision of the many people who have come before us.

I wrote an opinion piece published in Montana newspapers nearly nine years ago about a visit I had just returned from to Israel. The topic of that piece is more timely now than it was then.

I was in Israel in 2005 with a delegation invited by the American Israel Friendship League. Our guide was a retired colonel in the Israeli Army with degrees in history and archeology from Hebrew University. We called him Ron. He had performed a similar function a few weeks before for former President Bill Clinton.

President Barack Obama seriously rattled at least one cage with his recent reference to Russia as a “regional power.”

Following the recent Summit on National Security in the Netherlands, the president, responding to a press conference question, said, “Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness.” Although the boldness of that remark seemed out of character for the president, he is correct.

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 […]