The term “public interest” is tossed around a lot and we should think about what it means. Groups sue to stop the construction of a generating plant, transmission line, highway project, or a timber sale and say that the lawsuit is being brought because of “public interest.” This greatly bothers me because I have not […]

Recently there was a bit of a fuss about United kicking people off an overweight plane based on the fare they paid. Since then, there were a number of discussions/suggestions on how to choose which passengers to remove in order to get the plane to flyable weight: By passenger weight By ticket purchase date By […]

An arbitrary ruling in California caused a referendum, initiated by millions of people to be dismantled; that is, a law forbidding men to marry other men was outlawed. Out of nowhere, a ruling by the Federal government overturned that referendum against the electorate of California last week, executed solely by one judge, supposedly uninfluenced by […]

A recent Kids Count survey found that Montana’s students are dropping out of school at some of the highest rates the country. The numbers are disheartening and just another excuse to analyze the area’s youth and discuss what can be done to keep them in line. When reports like this are released, it’s easy for […]

Here we go again: Politicians pandering for votes to save their jobs. Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have cut a deal with our British Columbia neighbors to stop coal mining in the Flathead river drainage of British Columbia. Guess who will pay the ransom? That’s right, the taxpayers of Montana! […]

I recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus as well as with the staff of the Department of Energy, White House Budget Office, and several House and Senate members from other states. Why? Because that’s where the money is. Your money. With the full support of the […]

Last week, we talked about selling air and getting that marketing slot machine cranked up so it works like your favorite ATM. One of the ways that you can take another step up the ladder is to keep an eye open for all the little things you can do to ensure that someone comes back […]

So my friend Wild Bill Schneider is calling on President Barack Obama to throw a “few local ranchers” under the bus “to pay back the millions of environmentalists who voted for him” by declaring a “Grasslands National Monument” in northeast Montana? Wow. If Bill ever tries to introduce himself to one of those ranchers, I’d […]

Like presidents before him, President Barack Obama claimed to have the fanciful goal of moving “beyond partisan politics.” So did former President George W. Bush, who repeated, “I’m a uniter, not a divider” during his campaign for the nation’s highest office. Those hopes, of course, didn’t work out as planned for either of them. I […]

We need energy that’s clean and safe. The disaster in the Gulf forces us to face the fact that oil is neither clean nor safe. It’s time for Congress to pass energy policy that significantly reforms offshore oil drilling while transitioning America to a clean energy policy I learned a lot about offshore oil drilling […]

My website has a survey used to gauge people’s concerns about their business. It’s important to ask because what I *think* might be top-of-mind for them might not be at all – and that’s especially true when readers are from all over the world, much less all over the valley. The current survey asks “What’s […]

There are two extreme camps at each end of the debate over how the economy will fare in the coming years: one that predicts unemployment rolls rising to 20 percent or higher and another that sees the economy sharply turning a corner over the next several months. The reality, most likely, lies somewhere in between, […]

In the early 1990s, Kila School celebrated its centennial. As part of that celebration, the upper grade students began interviewing Kila School graduates. These interviews provided a window to see what life was like before, during, and after The Great Depression, and to learn how these families survived. In one interview, the respondent told about […]

The U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., is where selected lieutenant colonels and colonels go to prepare to become generals. Eisenhower, Schwartzkopf and Petraeus all attended the War College. It was a wonderful honor to be invited to sit in with the War College class of 2010 last month, in its final week of […]

It’s been said that there are only three ways to increase your business’ revenue: sell more to your existing customers, increase the size of each sale to your customers and of course…sell to more customers. Many businesses focus on the last method and darned near ignore the other two. 
 But not Norma’s. The night […]