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 […]

I like the Bill of Rights. Not just the First, the Second, or the Fourteenth, but the whole darn American civil-liberties arsenal. Unlike many of my media colleagues, the Second is my fave over the First. After all, bad people with guns can shut up good people with keyboards pretty darn quick. So, I’ve been […]

If there is one common ground that all Montanans share it is that everyone values wilderness for various reasons. As an avid recreator, I also appreciate the magnificence that is wilderness. I have travelled extensively throughout the West and have noticed the devastating effects that development and mismanagement can have on national forests. Therefore, I […]

The rhetoric in the race for Montana’s congressional seat had already reached laughable levels. But it somehow intensified further after Rehberg Ranch Estates – owned by incumbent Rep. Denny Rehberg and his wife, Jan – filed a lawsuit against the city of Billings alleging that it didn’t do enough to protect the subdivision from a […]

The North Fork of the Flathead River (a.k.a. the Transboundary Flathead) continues to play in the news of late. The news media report that Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester are at odds over how to best protect our river, Glacier Park and Flathead Lake from upstream industrial activity. While a […]

American citizens don’t agree on much, but on this point we are united: liberty. As with other broad ideological concepts, many Americans struggle to articulate a precise definition of liberty. Yet this doesn’t prevent us from holding firm to the belief that liberty is a fundamental right, and that if required, we would die for […]

While the world ponders the tax implications of LeBron James’ move to Miami, the rest of us didn’t even look up. We’re working hard to create our next big thing while others shuffle clipboards. Meanwhile, the economy stumbles forward in some ways, races in others, and limps in still others. Change, both for the better […]

If you clicked this link, congratulations on being a sucker for punishment … or at least a citizen concerned about how our government spends money. Here we go: FWP’s proposal is at: http://fwp.mt.gov/news/publicnotices/notice.html?action=getPublicNotice&id=2426 Several things struck me immediately. First, the FWP commission proposed agenda had the commission scheduled to take 10 minutes to consider giving […]

Over Independence Day weekend, the news hit that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) has decided to “fast track” buying the so-called Spotted Dog ranch near Deer Lodge and turning it into a 38,000-acre Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The money for the buy ($16.6 million) is sourced from Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program (NRDP), funded […]

As a restoration ecology student at the University of Montana, I’ve been following the statewide discussion over forest management issues very closely. I was born and raised in Carson City, Nev., and I’ve been a Wilderness enthusiast all my life. Since 1999, Nevada has successfully protected over 3 million acres of land as Wilderness and […]