Winston Churchill said, “There is nothing wrong with change, as long as it’s in the right direction.” This past summer Congress embarked on an effort to change the way health insurance companies operate and make improvements in our nation’s health care system. As Montana’s insurance commissioner, I believe this effort is a fundamental change in […]

A combination of recent events has had me thinking more about the expectations we have for ourselves, our kids, our employees and holy moly, even our politicians. First, Jim Rohn passed away a few weeks ago. That loss got it started. Jim talked a lot about expectations and how delivery of them is on one […]

Imagine going to the gas station to fill up your car. You fill your tank but there is nothing on the pump to tell you the price per gallon or how many gallons you put in your tank. Instead of paying right there, you drive away and the oil company sends you a bill at […]

Problems with Montana’s medical marijuana law will only escalate from here. What’s odd is that it took five years from the time voters overwhelmingly approved legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes to reach this point. In Whitefish, after people began approaching the planning director about “caregivers” opening medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits, the first […]

Ever see the pilots in an airliner reading checklists or looking over what seems like mundane items? We expect two wings and the proper number of engines to be present. Pilots have a checklist. Despite having thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of hours of flying experience, pilots can’t afford to forget what might seem […]

Ever heard of black liquor? No, not Jaegermeister. Black liquor is a byproduct of the paper making process. In a nutshell, trees are made mostly of cellulose and lignin. To separate cellulose (for paper) from lignin, paper mills cook the wood in a caustic-soda potion. The liquid left over is called “black liquor.” Lignin, a […]

Local protests against reappraisals have grown louder in recent weeks, while the way in which the formula for deciding these disputed property taxes came to be is all but forgotten. Every six years, Montana’s citizen Legislature is charged with coming up with a plan that determines how much the state collects from its citizens owning […]

On Nov. 9, the Clean Energy Jobs American Power Act (S. 1733) passed through an important committee in the Senate – moving us closer to setting our country on a path to a cleaner energy future. This is the first substantial effort toward a new energy plan since Jimmy Carter urged the American public to […]

Recently I received an email from a friend that asked a simple question: “We’re looking for ways to get the word out nationally on (our stuff). When you Google (keywords that they think are important), nothing about (our stuff) comes up. Do you have some suggestions?” Sometimes a one sentence question with a two sentence […]

President Barack Obama’s staff may want to rethink focusing on Montana in 2012. The president’s national targeting director Ken Strasma told the blog fivethirtyeight.com in August that he viewed our state as the “no. 1 pick to flip” from red to blue in the next presidential election. But according to an MSU-Billings poll released last […]

While the U.S. Senate considers a “cap-and-trade” bill that includes creation of a new federal bureaucracy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Montana Petroleum Association (MPA) is becoming more concerned about the toll such a plan would take on our industry and on Montana consumers. The Senate bill, modeled after one that passed the U.S. […]

I don’t mean the Chinese New Year, the Jewish New Year or the new Federal fiscal year. I’m talking about the regular old New Year that happens on January first. Business-wise, are you ready for it? Or will you start getting ready for it on January second? If your business is struggling, I suggest you […]

Last summer, I met Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) Kalispell Unit forester Brent Kallander at the Whitefish rifle range. He was inventorying the ground where the range is located, the Spencer block of state forest southwest of Whitefish. Job No. 1 for DNRC is managing state trust lands for long-term revenues to support education, […]

Montana’s tax collections are down. The Short-Term Investment Pool program is offering such weak returns that counties are pulling out their money. And the state’s pension system has lost nearly 21 percent of its value since last year and, at its current rate, will be more than $2 billion in the hole in 30 years. […]

Energy. It is the lifeblood of the American economy. For this reason, it is no surprise that energy policy discussions receive a great deal of attention. Done wrong, energy policy can significantly harm the economy. That is a real concern as the U.S. Congress and individual states debate legislation that aims to address climate change […]