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Opinion

Closing Range

Back to Basics, Please

Like everyone else, I’m glad the Going-to-the-Sun Highway is open and the years of reconstruction are almost over. The crews should be proud of their work. My Dad and I took a spin over Logan Pass a couple of weeks ago, and will punch his Golden Age pass a few more times this year if […]

By Dave Skinner
Business Is Personal

How To Keep Cloud Service Failures From Impacting Your Business

You look at those prices for cloud services and think you’re getting a deal. Fact is, you are. You’re hiring a professional staff to run your systems in a very-high-quality environment and paying little for it. But are you using these cloud services in a way that protects your business? A Forbes analysis of the […]

By Mark Riffey
Letter

Climate Change Puts Our Country at Risk

I’d like to respond to State Sen. Verdell Jackson’s recent thoughts on climate change (July 4 Beacon: “We Do Not Control the Climate”). 1) Mr. Jackson asserts “there is no replicable (verify by reproduction) scientific evidence that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change. It doesn’t exist.” I don’t know whether he’s lying on purpose, […]

By Todd Tanner
Letter

Obamacare Confounds the Health Care System

I appreciated the “health care” reporting by Myers Reece (July 4 Beacon: “Mixed Reactions to Health Care Ruling”). As part of the team who facilitated several preliminary public meetings regarding the so-called, “Obamacare” issue, I was privileged to listen to public officials (including U.S Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, and Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger […]

By Gina Barker
Opinion

What I Want in Montana’s Next Governor

By John Fuller I want Montana’s next governor to energetically, vigorously, even ruthlessly, defend the sovereignty of the state of Montana from the ever-increasing encroachment by the federal Government. From Obamacare to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Government itself has been the biggest obstacle to Montana’s prosperity, welfare and […]

By John Fuller | Joe Carbonari
Guest Column

Individual Mandate is Constitutional, but Obamacare is Still a Bad Idea

During this year’s gubernatorial primary race it was our pleasure to meet with many individuals and small business leaders from across Montana. Time after time, the No. 1 issue that resonated with the citizens of Montana is the fear that overregulation at the state and federal level is a job destroyer! The Patient Protection and […]

By Jim Lynch and Al Olszewski
Uncommon Ground

Replace How?

Tea Partiers are stunned that the Affordable Care Act passed the U.S. Supreme Court’s test of constitutionality. “Well it looks like what was sold on a lie was found constitutional on that lie,” State Auditor candidate Derek Skees wrote in a website release after the court’s judgment. During the 2011 Montana Legislature, Skees unsuccessfully sought […]

By Mike Jopek
Business Is Personal

Did You Train Them To Defend Your Business Or Your Reputation?

“Them”, meaning “your staff”. Are they using your policies and training as a shield to protect your business, or are they using them as tools and leverage to protect your customers and your brand? There’s a big difference between the two. An example is this story involving a repeatedly broken-down U-Haul truck, whose details quickly […]

By Mark Riffey
Like I Was Saying

Everyone’s a Lawyer

Every time a judge hands down a controversial decision, it is parsed by pundits suddenly deemed constitutional scholars when their qualifications for such a title involve little more than having the loudest, and most outrageous, opinion. With the high number of unemployed law school graduates, you would think the networks could afford to stock a […]

By Kellyn Brown
Letter

We are Losing this Battle

Scientists pay attention to a very specific scorecard that most clearly indicates how the battle against man-caused global warming is going. That scorecard is the measured level of CO2 in the background atmosphere. That number is presently 393 parts per million (40 percent higher than the preindustrial era) and is rising at an alarming rate […]

By Eric Grimsrud
Letter

We do not Control the Climate

We have been flooded with global warming and climate change claims stating that the evidence is clear, that the debate is closed, that we must act immediately, etc., but in fact there is no replicable (verify by reproduction) scientific evidence that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change. It doesn’t exist. Studies of a variety […]

By Sen. Verdell Jackson
Guest Column

Forty Years After Watergate

Last month marked 40 years since the Watergate scandal. The anniversary has me remembering a discussion in 1987 with the Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill who, 15 years earlier, had seen the foreboding shadow of the distant Watergate tsunami a full year before it crashed over the nation’s political shoreline. No one who lived […]

By Pat Williams
Closing Range

Cumulative Impacts

Just when it seems federal forest policies hit rock bottom, they get worse. First, we have local eco-warrior Keith Hammer threatening to sue the U.S. Forest Service to stop an organized mountain-bike race (on trails that are mostly open to motorized users, no less) after his efforts to block the Swan Crest 100 foot race. […]

By Dave Skinner
Business Is Personal

How to Cut Down on Refunds

Do you have problems with too many sales turning into refunds? Or almost-sales turning into no-sales? Do your demonstration projects frequently fail to reach the buying stage? Does return-friendly Costco look like a tough return desk negotiator compared to you? Do people frequently add things to their shopping cart while on your website but decide […]

By Mark Riffey