Unless Congress acts the existing Farm Bill sunsets this fall. If Congress refuses to pass a new Farm Bill, elected leaders essentially eliminate food stamps – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – for millions of Americans right before the general election in November. That is just silly. The Republican-controlled U.S. House may want to eliminate SNAP. […]

“Justice” has long been a core value and the legal backbone of American society. Its tenets are woven into the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents protect our natural rights of liberty and property, guarantees a number of personal freedoms, and limits the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings. However, to […]

The easy question sometimes plays the role of the hardest question. We’ll see… What system (paper, software, methodology, whatever) do you use to manage ToDos, Goals and Priorities on an annual, monthly, weekly and daily basis? That question is part of a critical “intake” interview for new customers because managers, CEOs and company officers usually […]

Political advertisements don’t have to be true. That’s what I gather from a ruling issued last month by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell. And corporations can spend as much as they want on third-party efforts as long as they aren’t coordinating with political candidates, but no one is interested in determining whether that is […]

I am just as interested in national security as the next guy. By the next guy I am referring to Mr. Cory Swanson. Mr. Swanson’s guest column in the May 23 Beacon, “Security Bill Needed to Protect Northern Border,” was long on praising Congressman Denny Rehberg but short on details of HR1505, the bill Mr. […]

I read recently where Kalispell’s mayor and city council could not come to a decision on the city airport, so they are going to “let the voters decide.” So, what do we get to decide? Whether we pay for the improvements to the airport with taxes taken directly from our wallets by the mayor and […]

Your May 23 issue contained two back-to-back articles about national parks written by the same reporter. They should have been linked or blended, for they demonstrate a perfect example of the Christmas tree approach politicians take in federal spending policy. The first article describes Glacier National Park officials’ concerns about insufficient funding for the park’s […]

If I had a dime for every time someone got on my case because my blog (much less my business) has no logo, I’d have a lot of dimes. It isn’t because I don’t want one. It’s that logo selection is TOUGH. Selecting a logo isn’t like deciding what kind of salad dressing to have. […]

Last week, I got to do one of my favorite things: Road Trip, to one of my favorite parts of Montana. The weather was, um, sideways. Going east, I set a personal best for fuel mileage. The wind was blowing so hard, the grass was whipping, not waving. It wasn’t long before I relearned three […]

Dave Skinner allies himself with dubious reasons as to why gay marriage should not be legal (May 23 Beacon: “Out of the Closet”). Many opponents of emancipation and women’s suffrage also claimed that their opposition was not based on any racism or sexism or on wishing to disenfranchise those people, but rather on “reason” such […]

There are some citizens who are disappointed that the Kalispell City Council did not make a final decision on the Kalispell City Airport on May 21. I am also disappointed, even though I made the motion to put to the vote of the citizens of Kalispell a referendum on the November general election ballot that […]

Why in the world would anyone want to go through all the hassle of having a custom home built? Wouldn’t it be much easier to just go buy a new or older existing home and avoid all the headaches of picking everything out while waiting most of a year to move in? Well, yeah – […]

Of all the nutty ideas floating around these parts of late — procuring an aircraft carrier (Wyoming), pets as wolf bait (Idaho) and Yellowstone bison as bio-terrorists (Montana) — none compare to Utah on the incredulity meter. Seems the Beehive State is abuzz about an effort to put a fresh coat of paint on a […]

Is your business in trouble? Do things seem desperate? Or are you simply in a stagnant funk? What are you doing about it? Are you paralyzed in fear and/or over analyzing everything and as a result, taking action on nothing? Here are a few things to think about that might help give your mindset, energy […]

Voter fatigue will soon take a strangle hold upon the electorate. With busloads of corporate and secret campaign cash being poured into Montana, citizens will simply tune out. Most statewide and national races will poll 46 percent to 46 percent from now until October. And then the 8 percent of undecided voters will choose the […]