I am writing to say how upset and disappointed I am that the Whitefish City Council has voted to award the “streetscaping” contract before the test period ran out. While everyone agrees the basic infrastructure downtown is in need of repair, to re-make Whitefish in the image of the latest and trendiest urban design is […]

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called the individual American states the “Laboratories of Democracy.” Changes in government policy do not come about because a light bulb went off in some Federal bureaucrat’s head; they begin much further down the food chain and occur because there is both a need and a group of citizens […]

While the debate about health care rages on, many people who are without proper coverage are in that position because of being out of a job. We absolutely need to be making smart decisions about reforming health care, but we cannot forget about fixing our economy on a fundamental level so that a crisis like […]

Those of you who know my backstory know that I was trained as a programmer and that I worked in the software industry for 17 years before coming to my senses. IE: before owning my own software company. A real one, not those other ones. So much for that coming to my senses thing. This […]

Lost deep in Labor Day’s news dead zone was the midnight resignation of Van Jones, President Obama’s “czar” for green jobs. The handsome, articulate, Yale-educated Jones was named by Time magazine as an “Environmental Hero” in 2008, a star. His task: To bring urban minorities into the mostly-rich-and-white Green movement, which has historically ignored ghetto […]

The argument that Congressman Denny Rehberg was to blame for the boating accident that seriously injured him and four others began long before investigators towed the vessel off the rocks it collided with. And while much of the criticism has merit, the majority of it doesn’t. A quick refresher, for those of you who have […]

I am a native Montanan who has recently returned home. I am pleased to see that Montana has stayed true to her roots, but also have noticed those roots are slowly being invaded. A perfect example is the Sept. 2 Beacon guest column titled, “A Fiscal Conservative Looking for Candidates.” The author states that he […]

Our nation is involved in one of the most important debates in a long time. The issue of having affordable, quality health care for all Americans has the attention of our representatives in Washington, D.C., and they appear ready to move on some big reforms before the end of the year. In the rush to […]

Why the Republican Party feels so strongly against the concept of welfare for American citizens has always confounded me. Ever since early childhood I noticed the phenomenon of Republicans spending gazillions of dollars on foreign aid to other nations, annually, while they fought with every ounce of their strength against the Democrats who wanted to […]

Ever messed up a bid? One of the hardest things to do accurately is bid a sizable time and materials-based project. If you’re in the software business, you know all the reasons. Oddly enough, the reasons aren’t much different from industry to industry. Stuff changes. Requirements aren’t necessarily what they really are. Features get added, […]

Politicians who didn’t hold town halls last month had a variety of excuses as to why not. And those offered by Montana Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus were just as weak as any of their congressional colleagues. Baucus said he was listening to Montanans’ concerns while visiting public places across the state – […]

I support a public health insurance plan. Our current for-profit insurance options create great inequities in the delivery of quality of care. One insurance company may provide benefits that another will not; one may have different limitations on things such as pre-existing conditions, out-of-pocket expenses, or types of providers covered. The COBRA plan was created […]

This is an open letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer: I have been, in general, happy with your service as governor. Of course, it would be impossible for all of your actions or stances to be agreed with by the citizens and example of that is on clean coal and carbon sequestration. These are policy decisions […]

I have always been a fiscal conservative and a social progressive looking for the candidates from either party that best fit the type of leadership needed at any time. As a social progressive, I believe in investing in the continuous improvement of civilization and, as a fiscal conservative, I believe that the ensuing bills should […]

Everyone just loves performance evaluations – whether they have to give or receive them. Employees tend to find them annoying because they’re often a useless exercise of “well, you’re doing ok, see you in 6 months or a year or whatever”. Sometimes you’ll hear that you need to improve something, but more often than not […]