Opinion

Business Is Personal

Doing What Must Be Done. Or Not. You Choose.

Change is hard. We often don’t make a change because just thinking about it tends to be unpleasant, never mind the change itself. We’ll think about it and mull it over and consider our options like we do about stopping for gas. We’ll glance at the pump as we pass by and put off the […]

By Mark Riffey
Closing Range

Clip and Save – Again

Well, the tidal wave of stupid political mailings and ads shows no sign of ebbing. The most hateful thing about political adverts is their intent: Not information, but manipulation, which is an extra shame given a Gallup poll I fell across the other day. Gallup found 60 percent of Americans distrust the press. The sad […]

By Dave Skinner
Letter

Obama’s Bad Policies Have Awakened America

I would like to give President Barack Obama a giant “Thank you!” I appreciate the opportunity to do this publicly. Many years ago, as a junior high student, I remember enjoying a song in our music class about loving the United States of America. I remember singing out robustly – I really meant it. I […]

By Carol Cummings
Letter

Denying Bush

Doesn’t it seem odd that Republicans never mention the most recent Republican president, George W. Bush? He is not with Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan on the campaign trail. He did not speak at the Republican convention, nor is there any reference to his administration by his own party. Eight years of a Republican presidency […]

By Jackie Ladner
Opinion

American Foreign Policy

By John Fuller Since the beginning of the Cold War, liberals have wanted to cut the American superpower down to size. In their view, America should submit to the collective wisdom of the EUnichs and the UN. America should end its cowboy, unilateral approach and work harder to get along with diverse peoples. What liberals […]

By John Fuller | Joe Carbonari
Guest Column

More Public Land Means More Money for Schools

As a volunteer board member and fundraising chair of the Whitefish Legacy Partners (WLP), and CEO of the Sportsman & Ski Haus, a corporate sponsor of the Whitefish Trail, I have firsthand knowledge of how projects such as the Whitefish Legacy Lands conservation transactions benefit our schools, our children and the local economy. Don’t be […]

By Mike Gwiazdon
Uncommon Ground

Parks, Roads and Tax Relief

The Flathead deserves more active leaders in the next Montana Legislature who are willing to help build the local business and recreational climate of the valley. In 2009 former Rep. Dee Brown, R-Columbia Falls, proposed a pair of bills in the Legislature with potential consequences for Whitefish residents. Regarding House Bill 329, a state fiscal […]

By MIke Jopek
Business Is Personal

It’s a Bad Time

Over the weekend, I had a brief conversation about a Wall Street Journal article I had posted to Twitter about the average nationwide earnings of a partner in a U.S. law firm. I almost didn’t post the link because I had the feeling it would generate a political conversation. Politics was not the point of […]

By Mark Riffey
Like I Was Saying

Politicking the Bench

Considering the tone of advertisements in Montana’s U.S. Senate race in which candidates Jon Tester and Denny Rehberg are berated as hypocrites, traitors, or worse, it will be interesting to see how future campaigns for the state’s coveted judgeships will be conducted. By interesting, I mean awful. If you own a television, you have seen […]

By Kellyn Brown
Opinion

Free Speech

By John Fuller In dozens of Muslim countries across the world, demonstrations allegedly protesting an American video insulting the prophet Mohammed have taken place. American property is destroyed, American sovereignty breached, American lives lost and President Barack Obama’s administration reaction is to apologize and investigate the filmmaker. In statements of lunacy, the administration is claiming […]

By John Fuller | Joe Carbonari
Letter

What’s at Stake This Election

Have you considered: There are four U.S. Supreme Court justices who are in their mid-70s. In the next four years all four would reach age 80 and one would be 83. Presidents appoint Supreme Court judges so any judges appointed will either be conservative or very liberal. A President Mitt Romney would follow the Constitution […]

By Ginny Reed
Letter

Presidential Economics and Deficits

Please care enough about our country to search for facts. 1. Who are the only U.S. presidents since World War II to double or triple the national debt? 2. Which U.S. president’s policies were projected to create a $5.6 trillion budget surplus by 2011 according to the 2001 Congressional Budget Office? 3. Which vice president […]

By Jackie Gysler
Guest Column

A Good Place to Start

With the opportunity of writing a monthly column for the Flathead Beacon came the challenge of continually figuring out what to write about. I was struggling with where to start when it occurred to me that the same issue comes up for folks trying to understand their electricity consumption: Where to start? To address that […]

By Ross Holter
Business Is Personal

The Price Of A Hug

Recently, a small business owner hugged the President. He wasn’t tackled by the Secret Service, or cuffed and taken to jail. Instead, his business’ Yelp page was inundated with fake reviews from political loyalists from sides of the aisle. Yelp is a social media business rating/review websites. The timely, personal reviews on this site, like […]

By Mark Riffey
Closing Range

No Man in the Island

I’ve been following developments of the Island Unit (Blacktail Mountain) trail system proposal, at least partly for sentimental reasons. We came to the Flathead when my dad was named commander of the 716th Radar Squadron at Lakeside in early 1972, after three years at Malmstrom. Wow, what a great place to be. The best stretch […]

By Dave Skinner