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, […]

Swank Enterprises secures a big contract to do rehabilitation work on the Many Glacier Hotel. Meanwhile, a squirrel kills the power to much of downtown Kalispell. HIGH PELOSI and OBAMA – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rallies her caucus to pass historic health care legislation, marking a major triumph for President Barack Obama. SWANK ENTERPRISES – […]

Let’s put behind us the recent unseemly and inaccurate charges that Sen. Jon Tester’s bill on timber jobs and wilderness was crafted in secrecy. It’s time to focus on the future and on what the bill will actually accomplish rather than to try to paint some vague conspiracy that best belongs in a pulp fiction […]

Every time a law restoring Second Amendment rights is passed, it is inevitable that a few people will come forward crying that the world as we know it is about to end. Jerry Reckin’s letter (March 3 Beacon: “Guns in Parks Will Change the Ranger Image”) bemoaning the restoration of the right to carry a […]

There is within the United States government an entity called the Government Accountability Office (GAO) with the charge of examining, upon request of Congress, various functions within federal agencies. A request was made by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., asking the GAO to review appeals and litigation filed against U.S. […]

It appears that the city of Kalispell may ban medical marijuana dispensaries because a state law legalizing the businesses conflicts with a federal law and over concerns that catering to potheads may ruin the city’s broad appeal to tourists. These arguments are equally insane. I agree with, and have previously stated, that the medical marijuana […]

Last week, I had the pleasure to speak with this year’s Leadership Flathead (LF) class about business trends and challenges – and discuss strategies to tackle them. If you haven’t participated in Leadership Flathead, you really should try and find a way to do so. If you have employees in leadership positions (or being groomed […]