The first freeze of the growing season finally arrived at the end of September. It feels early but it’s not. It just seems that way given how mild and frost-free this season was on the farm. The hungr...

The road veered right, went down the hill and turned sharply left. We took Whitefish Stage to Birch Grove, driving through the heart of the valley. Fields and barns were visible on the side of the roa...

I extended my hand to shake his. His grip was firm yet gentle. A good shake, I thought to myself. On his left hand he wore a 1990s silver Timex watch complete with a traditional expansion-style stretc...

Montana candidates need more honey and less vinegar this election season

The hives stood tall. Workers added supers to the stack as bees produced more honey over a hot summer. Wildfire smoke seemed to have stalled activity, but fresh rains produced a stream of bees headed ...

I sat down in seat 86 and leaned back. I took a deep breath. I was a local farmer. Grew a lot of garlic and raised poultry. Earlier, the community bought me a suit coat to look the part.  Behind me sa...

A black fox stood in the yard. Motionless, it watched the ground squirrels. I didn’t see it have much luck. Neighbor said he saw the fox with two in the mouth. That was before it was so unbearably hot...

The courage of the younger generation is awe inspiring

The sun was rising. It was another perfect 40-degree July morning. I could hear the birds singing through the open farmhouse window. The day held a lot of promise. Opportunity was vested in the cold m...

I stood at the thrift store looking at the electronic gadget. Decades earlier I’d purchased a used IBM 8088 desktop computer from the print shop that once occupied the same downtown space. I brought t...

Nobody knows what values the big money pumping millions into Montana promotes

A pile of 39 different political mailers sat in the corner after last week’s primary election. Almost all of the gloss was from outside money looking to run Montana. A couple years earlier, out-of-sta...

Leant against the mailbox, he stood on the side of the road. On the pavement and melting fast was a couple inches of freshly fallen, nickel sized hail. In the yard stood a proud Ten Commandments sign,...

The ground was warm. The robins had been chirping for weeks, the sun as hot as a July morning. We knelt in the aisle and transplanted the slips of onions into the row. One by one, we tucked the roots ...

A third glossy mailer just landed in my mailbox from that same shadowy political outfit based in Washington, D.C. According to secret money, their hand-picked golden boy is the absolute best guy to sh...

The real pain of progress is watching Helena rip away our constitutional right to self-govern our own town

Rose and her family have lived in the valley for a half century. She and her family are Bulldogs, born into the local public school system. Rose raised her kids back when Whitefish was a timber and ra...

The Montana royals of democracy decide who runs for office

At over 3,000 towns and cities across the nation, a reported 8 million Americans took to the streets last weekend to exercise their First Amendment rights. There was a large political assembly in Whit...

Republicans who run everything statewide only cater to the political donor class

Three hundred Montanans turned out to hear from the four Democrats campaigning in the June 2 primary, each vying to become the western congressional district nominee. Many folks informed me later how ...

Party bosses seem intent on purging rural Republicans from their own party, replaced by loyalist who pass the ideological purity test

SPLAT! The safe fell from the rope and squashed the dark spy. The light spy looked on with delight, arms crossed, too late to see the lit fuse rapidly burning behind him. POOF! For 26 years the Cuban ...

I know the rent is expensive, but “Have you seen that the Dow is over 50,000?” seems to be the only reaction from the Republican machine running Montana and Washington, D.C. The Dow dipped back below ...

We walked the dogs down to the fishing access. It was February, warm and raining. We’re still waiting for the last big freeze before seeding too much for later farm production. Who knows when the end ...

Seven eagles perched on the skeletal-like limbs of the pines next to the scrap metal pile at the dump. They balanced, unmoving, unscathed by the humans below. They watched and waited. There they sat, ...

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After years of waiting, we know the men of Congress hardly lift a hand to help locals

Years before I was born, a crotchety Grinch made his way into children’s books across America. With his half-sized heart that grew threefold by Christmas, the cranky creature from Mount Crumpet deligh...

Let’s hope next year is cheaper, kinder, and more accessible to the people working ordinary, everyday jobs

The clerk tallied up the groceries and said $320. Cha-ching. I looked at the pile of groceries, shook my head, and slipped a credit card into the pay slot. No use blaming the check-out guy, he’s just ...

After months of pleading from the nation’s agricultural sector, the federal government says farmers and ranchers will get much needed financial aid at the end of the year. Numerous federal policy chan...

For the lucky enough to be rich, the cruelty of Montana’s quickly increasing cost of living won’t much affect the wallet. One of the big East Coast newspapers even wrote that a handful of ultra-rich g...

All across America, in hundreds of local elections, people chose leaders they trust

We keep telling you that everything got too expensive. But it seems you’re only listening to the overpaid consultants. Hopefully last week’s landslide election results opened eyes a bit. People are un...

I looked with shock at the price on the chocolate bar at the grocer. It read $8.49. I swear it was less than five bucks just last month. It’s good chocolate but that’s a big price increase. America’s ...

City Councilor Andy Feury attended Flathead High School along with the late County Commissioner Joe Brenneman. They took American history class together back when school kids read printed newspapers l...

He levered his arm downward as if switching off the power and said to just turn off the internet. I’d asked him how to calm many of the arguments plaguing society. He offered a simple yet fascinating ...

As I made the long drive from the Flathead to the Windy City to chat with statewide Democrats, I noticed the same phenomenon I do every time I travel across this big state; our landscape is incredibly...

"It’s time for a new era, and this is that new chapter," O'Brien said. New vice chair Max Johansen said Democrats "need to be on the attack" to gain ground.

We started the onion harvest, and the rains came. It was a slow gentle shower. The dry clover patches sucked up the water quickly. Within the hour, the rainfall was gone. Moved on. Lasted long enough ...

As Idaho fires poured smoke into the valley, an ashy flavor lingered in my mouth. It tasted familiar, permeated the nose, and caused distress to everyone it touched valley wide. We’ve been through it ...

When dad gave grandma’s Dodge Dart to my younger brother, he told him that D was for drive and R was for reverse. That kind of life advice is easy to remember. Regardless of how dysfunctional politici...

That old-timer looked me square in the eyes and said that I got two ears and one mouth, better use them wisely. The guidance was clear. Listen more. Be upfront and treat locals with respect. Listening...

The Median Montana property tax is $1,465.00, with exact property tax rates varying by location and county.

Nestled between Baltic Avenue and Reading Railroad, thimble landed on Income Tax. Pay back that $200 just refunded for passing GO. Earlier thimble avoided the Luxury Tax square between Boardwalk and P...