By the time I erect a small fake Christmas tree in the corner of my living room, decorate it and place presents by its plastic trunk, it is almost time to take it down again. So goes the speed with which the holiday season passes. From parties to shopping, from traveling to baking, December sure […]

That’s nationally-known business advisor and author Tom Peters. Give him two minutes. The quote from Friedman is definitely worth it. If you’re reading this in the print edition, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOxxBvmpbZU& to view a short two minute clip. Initially, Peters talks about teenagers when referring to a quote from NY Times writer and author Thomas […]

Last time, I wrote about how Congress’ idiotic “black liquor” tax credits were inadvertently helping keep Montana’s timber industry alive. Well, liquor or not, Smurfit-Stone dropped the other boot, announcing Dec. 14 it will close its Frenchtown pulp mill on New Year’s Eve – goshawful news for those of us who still give a rip […]

Jane Howington has been the manager of Kalispell for about four months, but only lately have we begun to see how she may put her mark on the city. The former Ohioan has become increasingly visible as a new city council is about to be sworn in and a number of controversial issues have come […]

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. […]