A high number of people in the Flathead Valley are protesting their property taxes. I think this tells the government locally that they better start trimming their budgets very quickly because it sounds like a tax shortfall is just around the corner. Local businesses have cut back for over a year while government and school […]

Is the Federal Reserve too secretive? This issue has waxed and waned. It’s reappearing again in Congress because the Fed failed to prevent the financial crisis and the “great recession,” prompting calls for major change at the world’s most powerful central bank. The change with the most backing is a proposal by Rep. Ron Paul […]

Someone mentioned to me privately that if he didn’t know better, he’d think I was trying to put a guilt trip on folks with my column “Waiting, Whining or Working. Your choice”. He went on to say that he figured my point really was that every one who has been used to competing locally has […]

There I was, casting about for a brilliant topic upon which to declaim, finding zilch, zip, nada … a big fat zero. That’s it! Is there any better way to name the past decade? The Gay Nineties, the Roaring Twenties, the Dirty Thirties, the Nifty Fifties. Because they were periods of war and upheaval, the […]

I pass the people standing along side the road praying to end abortion and wondered with all the energy they spend do they support the many women who brought babies into this world they were ill-prepared to raise? The consequences of an unwanted pregnancy are enormous for most women. Few are in the position to […]

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are accused of buying and bartering for votes in order to muster a filibuster-proof majority to pass health care legislation on Christmas Eve. The criticism is warranted in many cases, but not in Libby’s. If you have been following the health care debate, even in passing, you have probably seen […]

Montana State University in Bozeman just hired a new president, Waded Cruzado from New Mexico. The taxpayers will pay $280,000 a year for her expertise, plus housing, car expenses, disability and country club benefits – that’s $135+ an hour. The president of the University of Montana, George Dennison, makes $205,050 ($99 an hour) a year […]

Click the image or use the arrows to see the Beacon’s favorite Stephen Templeton cartoons from 2009.

If you simplify it, competitive behavior has two sides: those who do and those who don’t. As I promised last week, here are some additional thoughts about what “other people do”. While Pittsburgh, Tokyo, Mumbai and Guangzhou were investing in internet and manufacturing infrastructure… Did you think your infrastructure was “good enough”? Did you think […]

Depending on whose definition you use, in less than two weeks, we’ll either begin the last year of the decade or actually end it. Perhaps it’s indicative of the uncertainty of our times that we haven’t yet named it. We can listen to ’80s music and rehash ’90s politics but what numerical term should we […]

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 […]