I first met Max Baucus in 1973 when he entered the Montana House of Representatives as a freshman member from Missoula. His seat was at the back of the chamber near bright and articulate Dorothy Bradley of Bozeman, the previous session’s only woman and future Democratic candidate for governor. I got to know him well […]

I arrived in Kalispell on April 15, 2007 with a Toyota RAV4 full of my scant belongings. A mistreated Gibson guitar was likely the most valuable item of the bunch, including the car. I was not so much scared as overwhelmed by the weight of it all: I was starting a new job as reporter […]

With Congress pledging to reauthorize a new Farm Bill before the fall deadline, there was plenty of political will to get the $1 trillion per decade spending bills toward floor votes. Last week, the Senate was voting on various floor amendments to the Farm Bill. Senators previously wanted to pass the Farm Bill before this […]

Many of us have something about our business that acts as a barrier that limits what we can do. In many cases, this barrier isn’t real – it’s simply a belief we’ve allowed to infect our mindset. The trouble with this is that if you believe there’s a limit to your business – there is, […]

Have you noticed, lately, just within our own country the number of controversies, sensible and non-sensible hearings on Capitol Hill, protests and outright outrage among “We The People” on things important to our nation’s health? Look at just these: (1) “Citizens United’s” faltering stand on “corporations are people.” Los Angeles just joined 175 other cities […]

It’s true that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has suggested due to overwhelming public outcry they will revisit the walleye suppression issue in Noxon Reservoir, but it has not yet announced a decision to stop attempted eradication. In the interest of accuracy, it truly is speculation as to how walleye were introduced. FWP’s Draft Environmental […]

Earlier this month, I ran Bloomsday in Spokane along with 47,000 other people. While I grew up there, this was my first time participating in the event, and its sheer size is astonishing. But how the city oversees such a huge race, one of the largest in the country, is equally impressive. Spokane is a […]

By John Fuller Which shallow, cold-hearted person issued the orders to abandon the brave Americans fighting for their lives at Benghazi? When an official representative of the sovereignty of the United States is brutally murdered and the brave warriors attempting to save him are abandoned by their government, why did the highest levels of that […]

In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cooperating government entities released their 148-page “Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem [NCDE] Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy” draft for public comments. Your comments will be due Aug. 1. Why bother? Two reasons: Officially, a “strategy” (like that for wolves) needs to be approved prior to “de-listing” grizzly bears […]

Congress is set to debate the Farm Bill, which defines and funds U.S. agricultural policy. The bill will get marked up in the Senate Agricultural Committee and will see floor action this summer. This time, Congress – especially Sen. Max Baucus – a senior Senate Agriculture Committee member, should implement real reforms to the Farm […]

How we talk, write, stand, sit or hold our hands and arms plays a huge part in how effective we are in helping others understand what we have to say, much less keep their attention long enough to finish the message. If they don’t get it all, at best you may as well have said […]

Thanks to the Flathead Beacon for the excellent reporting of the Flathead County Commission meeting at which the Agency on Aging Director Lisa Sheppard’s position was discussed (May 8 Beacon: “Commission Keeps AOA Director as Employee”). It is apparent Commissioner Gary Krueger did not take in account the vital support the AOA provides to the […]

There are presently 2 million incarcerated in U.S. prisons. This is 1/4 of the entire world’s incarcerated. Most of the incarcerated in the U.S. are serving terms for crimes that are drug related. It is odd that laws prohibiting the use and sale of “illegal” drugs were enacted considering the utter failure of the prohibition […]

By John Fuller Republicans in Congress are trying to pass legislation that would permit the private sector to allow employers to grant comp time instead of paying overtime as the public sector has done for many years. Just think about that statement for a minute. How ludicrous is the concept that private sector employers are […]

There’s a story I like to tell about my colleague Myers Reece. It involves how I “discovered” him after he had spent months backpacking through the jungles of South America. How I set him on the straight and narrow by making him my first hire at the Flathead Beacon. Of course, this story is largely […]