The recent news that state lands will generate an unexpected $127 million ($86 million in one-time-only bonus payments from the lease of state lands in the Otter Creek area in eastern Montana, coupled with the Montana Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) owes the state of Montana $41 million for rent […]

Like people, businesses have many different stages of life. Some are newborn babies. Some are venerable old cowboys that at 86 can still take a strong 22 year old and pound the tar out of them. Lots of people are rolling down the runway of a new business right now, almost ready to take off. […]

Jonathan Jenkins repeats at the Colgate Country Showdown. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says PPL owes the state $40 million. HIGH APPLE – The clamor, publicity and demand for new products, in this case the iPad, never ceases to amaze. EMPLOYMENT – The nation posted its largest job gain in three years in March, though unemployment […]

West of Whitefish, state public lands of Spencer Mountain offer world-class outdoor recreation. But better get ready for a tussle to save the existing recreation on Spencer. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation was gracious to host an open house on the proposed timber cut for Spencer. It was good to see outdoors […]

The deadline for legislative candidates to file for office has now passed and the first campaign issue, at least for Republicans running for state office, has emerged: whether to repeal health care reform. A GOP lawmaker told me weeks ago that, if health care reform was made federal law, her party planned on introducing legislation […]

On Thursday, March 25, I listened to a portion of your speech in the Senate in support of ObamaCare. I listened to the speech again on YouTube to confirm what you said was accurately reported. It was. I then retrieved a portion your comments from a Hugh Hewitt’s blog, which is quoted below: Max Baucus […]

Recently, the General Accounting Office (GAO), the non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress, issued a report looking at lawsuits involving all Forest Service fuel reduction projects from 2006 through 2008. The report is available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10337.pdf. According to the report, fuel reduction projects in the Forest Service’s Northern Region – which includes all the national forests […]

Last week we talked about the basics of forming a marketing plan, answering six fundamental questions: what do you do, why should we go with you instead of someone else, what are you doing now, what’s working, who is your ideal customer and where can you find them? As I noted, the answers are going […]

Last week I caught a story in the Edmonton Journal about a new group of grizzly-hating Albertans, “No More Grizzlies.” It was nothing more than a “free media” stunt by the usual suspects, created by Calder Bateman, a big Edmonton public-relations firm for an Alberta green group. Press “coverage” mentioned a Web site with a […]

Domestic oil production increases for the first time since 1991. Meanwhile, conservation groups are taking aim at media mogul Ted Turner. HIGH DOMESTIC OIL – U.S. crude oil production saw its first increase since 1991 due to drilling in North Dakota and the Gulf of Mexico. DUSTIN FROST – The former state director for Rep. […]

Should Montanans be threatened with prosecution for expressing political opinions in an unapproved manner? Helena’s entitled political establishment says yes. While the ability to speak freely about political candidates is one of our nation’s founding principles, for a select few this type of speech is strictly forbidden, regardless of whether the speech is in support […]

Planning Director Jeff Harris’ contract is up for review in front of the Flathead County Commission in June and Kalispell’s ever-churning rumor mill suggests that the governing body has no intention of renewing it. That decision is completely within their right. If commissioners have decided that Harris has performed poorly in his role, voters expect […]

Recent articles in the newspapers have disclosed a new direction that the present Flathead Electric Board is taking the ratepayers of the cooperative. Its willingness to assign our BPA allocation to a West Coast conglomerate should be of great concern to all of us. We must remember that the ‘pool’ of cooperatives in a venture […]

Dr. Doug Pitman’s excellent article titled “Other hazards exist on Big Mountain” noted that excessive speed and poor judgment are significant contributing factors to injury and death on ski hills. On Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 23, I was skiing with two friends down Toni Matt, onto Bench Run, and then down Corkscrew. Without any warning, I […]

Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if one of the farmers in Creston asked, “How can I get a new crop of winter wheat to harvest tomorrow / next week / next month?” Maybe someday the science of farming will allow such a thing, but these days, farmers still have to depend on planting, nourishing, […]