Missoulian back issues from December 2008:
Just too good
Dec 01, 2008; ... RAVALLI - Nancy Martin's doughnuts are so famous, so filled with gooey goodness even the devil's heard of them. "People say Nancy is going to hell for her doughnuts," said David Martin, Nancy's husband. The Martins own the Windmill Village, and the small bakery, deli and gift ...
'Living will' for pets lets caretakers know options
Dec 01, 2008; ... It's a pet owner's nightmare: You are out of town, you've left your pet with a friend. Your pet gets sick or has a life-threatening condition. Awful for you, but imagine being the caretaker. MaryEllen Campbell, a lifelong Missoula pet owner and University of Montana professor, ...
Planning firm hears ideas for future of fair
Dec 03, 2008; ... If the Western Montana Fair has lost its luster for some, it hasn't diminished their passion - or their eloquence. George Crandall and Don Arambula are hearing plenty of both Tuesday and Wednesday at the fairgrounds. It's the first of three scheduled visits for the planning firm of ...
Regents not likely to back college
Dec 03, 2008; ... It's certainly not a thumbs up, but it's not exactly an outright "no" either. The Montana Board of Regents will vote Thursday on a recommendation to deny the proposed community college in Ravalli County, a project approved by voters there 19 months ago. However, the ...
Council OKs 5 free hens per household
Dec 05, 2008; ... WHITEFISH - Back when Herbert Hoover promised Americans a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, he could not have guessed that what people really wanted was a chicken in every garage. But that's what Whitefish wanted, and that's what Whitefish got. This week, the City Council ...
Local ripples
Dec 05, 2008; ... As American automakers pleaded Thursday on Capitol Hill for Money from taxpayers, Ford Motor Co. spent some of its own dollars touting the industry's importance in Big Sky Country. "It is such an important economic driver in Missoula," said Gary Bakke, with the Missoula Area Chamber of ...
Entrepreneurial inspiration
Dec 05, 2008; ... Vina Little Owl took center stage Thursday during the American Indian Business Leaders annual fundraising luncheon where she stood - and later danced - as a shining example of how business education and tribal culture can be used for the economic good of the community. "With a new ...
Experts: Turmoil has hit Montana
Dec 05, 2008; ... HELENA - The global recession has already smacked Montana, although the state should fare better than the nation, an economist said Thursday. "We will outperform the United States, but the bad news is we're still going to feel a lot of pain," said Patrick Barkey, director of the ...
Regents reject college
Dec 05, 2008; ... HAMILTON - The fight continues. On Thursday, the phone was barely in its cradle - ending a conference call during which the Montana Board of Regents unanimously voted to deny a proposal to create a community college in the Bitterroot Valley - before Ravalli County supporters began ...
Residential property values soar 55 percent
Dec 06, 2008; ... HELENA - The value of Montana residential property has jumped an average of 55 percent statewide over the past 6-1/2 years, the sate Revenue Department's latest reappraisal numbers show. State Revenue Director Dan Bucks said these reappraisal numbers are nearly final, but need one last ...
Econs roll
Dec 06, 2008; ... The economy is circling the drain. Unemployment is up, holiday sales are down, companies that once fueled the growth of America are now begging the government for a handout. To paraphrase the immortal words of Walter Sobchak in "The Big Lebowski," " ... Dude. Let's go bowling." On ...
Place your ad here - higher education edition
Dec 07, 2008; ... A history instructor prints ads from a burrito joint on his course syllabus. Dodge purchases naming rights to a 20-yard chunk of the Grizzlies' Sprinturf. And nearly every building at the University of Montana has a Coke machine. In the last three decades, colleges and universities have ...
Court rules against health insurers' discretion clauses
Dec 08, 2008; ... HELENA - Health-insurance consumers in Montana won a key court victory last week, as a state judge ruled that Auditor John Morrison has properly prohibited "discretionary clauses" that give insurers broad power to deny coverage. District Judge Tom Honzel of Helena said the clauses ...
Group files suit against tribes' deal on Bison Range
Dec 09, 2008; ... PABLO - The book is not closed on tribal involvement in the management and operation of the National Bison Range. A Washington, D.C., group on Monday filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to nullify an agreement signed in June that would return Confederated Satish and Kootenai tribal ...
Workers, managers agree to pay cuts
Dec 09, 2008; ... TROY - Miners have taken a 10 percent wage cut and management has absorbed a 20 percent salary reduction at Troy Mine, as owners "reduce operating costs in order to survive." So said Carson Rife, vice president of operations for mine owner Revett Minerals. "The price of metals is ...
Analysts forecast $50M drop in revenue
Dec 10, 2008; ... HELENA - Fiscal analysts reported Tuesday that the state's budget picture is getting worse, saying projections could drop by at least $50 million. And Montana lawmakers, preparing to convene next month to draft a budget, are being told that the revenue projection picture could get even ...
Bye to a Jewel
Dec 10, 2008; ... On Thursday at noon, the iconic Stoverud's clock on Higgins Avenue in downtown Missoula will mark the end of an era. Stoverud's, the 63-year-old family owned and operated jewelry store is dosing its doors. On Thursday, the liquidation of its inventory begins. On Tuesday, while ...
Crafts in the cold
Dec 15, 2008; ... Jo Jakupcak put on her holiday shopping finery and bravely trundled into the arctic conditions on Sunday. Her destination: a trio of indoor arts and crafts fairs closely situated to one another along Missoula's North First Street. No matter the wind chill of 37 below zero, ...
Troy Mine warns workers of shutdown
Dec 13, 2008; ... TROY - Managers at Troy Mine are preparing for a complete shutdown, as profits disappear amid plunging metals prices. On Friday, mine ownership issued a 60-day warning to employees, saying that if market conditions do not improve the mine will close on Feb. 12, 2009. "The ...
9 years on, new Safeway opens
Dec 13, 2008; ... Margaret Baldridge may have been a mom in a grocery store, but she seemed as giddy as a kid in a candy store on Thursday night. "I'm really excited," she said with a laugh. "I mean, I'm probably more excited than I should be." Baldridge, with her husband John and their two sons, ...
Roxy to reopen in style
Dec 11, 2008; ... Friday night at the movies is rarely like this. Missoula's Roxy Theater mixes long-ago with up-to-date this Friday in a celebratory reopening of its historic entryway. The party includes a special screening of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and a 1930s costume theme to evoke the ...
Semitool announces temporary shutdown
Dec 11, 2008; ... KALISPELL - Hundreds of Flathead Valley workers are off the job for the holiday season, as the area's third-largest employer shuts down for three weeks. Semitool Inc, which laid off 100 workers in early November, announced the temporary closure this week, citing poor market conditions ...
Regional outlook optimistic for state
Dec 18, 2008; ... Montana doesn't have a lot in common with North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and yet, because of political pressures in 1913, all of these places were grouped into one giant economic region. Collectively, we are called the ...
Print shops prep for possible Griz win
Dec 18, 2008; ... The moment the game clock runs out in the Football Championship Subdivision title game Friday night in Chattanooga, Tenn., Don Cowles will begin a feverish few days of work. Probably. Maybe. Most likely, Griz fans insist. Should the University of Montana prevail over the Richmond ...
Lawsuit seeks removal of berm
Dec 18, 2008; ... Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath filed a lawsuit Wednesday, demanding that Stimson Lumber Co. remove a polluted cooling pond berm along the Blackfoot River in Bonner. The lawsuit, filed in Missoula District Court, claims that the decades-old earthen berm constricts the river's flow ...
Grant could aid Milltown agreement
Dec 23, 2008; ... The ultimate fate of some of the sediments once stranded behind Milltown Dam is still up in the air. But a solution may be creeping closer. As plans to remove the century-old dam moved forward, state and federal officials determined that about 2.6 million cubic yards of the 6 ...
Senator asks Rey not to sign land deal
Dec 19, 2008; ... There's nothing Montana's congressional delegation can do if Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey chooses to sign an agreement secretly negotiated with Plum Creek Timber Co. before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, who has followed the ...
First phase of 'Legacy' project complete
Dec 19, 2008; ... KALISPELL - Nearly 130,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. land changed hands Thursday, the first in what eventually will be the largest conservation land purchase in United States history. Located west of Missoula - in the Fish Creek area of Mineral County - and east of Missoula - in the ...
Power use sets high with cold
Dec 19, 2008; ... KALISPELL - As the mercury has plunged, electricity demand has skyrocketed, hitting record levels in the Northwest. But the power grid has remained stable, thanks to accurate and early warnings of winter weather. "The federal power system is in good shape, so far, to meet ...
Lawmaker prepares for future
Dec 19, 2008; ... In these tumultuous times, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. - who is closing in on the end of his second year in Congress - is sure of one thing. "Things have changed a lot in two years," he said Thursday morning during a meeting with the Missoulian's editorial board. "Life isn't simple ....
Official: Slower, but not too slow
Dec 19, 2008; ... It's not often an economic summit begins with a song, but that's what happened Thursday when community leaders gathered to learn about the Missoula economy and how it fits into the national picture. It didn't take any prompting; rather, just a heartfelt suggestion shouted out from one ...
Pipeline drilling pushes through
Dec 21, 2008; ... MILLTOWN - There's light at the end of the tunnel for a crew drilling a natural gas pipeline deep under the Blackfoot River. After nearly six weeks of trying, Southeast Directional Drilling of Arizona has completed an initial pass through bedrock more than 20 feet below the ...
Health panel zeroes in on primary care
Dec 21, 2008; ... HELENA - A Montana citizen panel chosen by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus to advise him on health care reform has plenty of ideas - and many target a growing problem with the American health care system: not enough primary care doctors. Nearly half of the 47 recommendations by the 30-person ...
Economic storm pummels Flathead
Dec 21, 2008; ... KALISPELL - Mike Welling sat down with his granddaughter not so long ago, and together they wrote a letter to Santa Claus. It wasn't an exceptionally long wish list, but as they wrote the little girl remarked that some friends at school had been told Santa could only bring one gift this ...
Metal plant to close doors
Dec 24, 2008; ... COLUMBIA FALLS - Some 200 employees at Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. will lose their paychecks in 60 days. as the plant closes its doors against a global economic recession. "A lot of people out here are in pretty glum moods today," said CFAC spokesman Haley Beaudry. "This is pretty tough ...
Some on council have lingering concerns over zoning rewrite
Dec 26, 2008; ... The Missoula City Council minority's sharp displeasure with the zoning rewrite could backfire later on. At a recent council meeting, some minority members said they weren't happy with the project to update the city's zoning code. Their complaints focused on rude behavior at a workshop, ...
Sale-savvy shoppers
Dec 27, 2008; ... Retailers lured shoppers back into the stores on Friday with aggressive post-Christmas discounts, hoping to generate some dollars at the back end of a holiday season that hasn't gone so well. Big red signs that read "For Sale" and "New markdowns" decorated the front windows of Coldwater ...
Season's gettings
Dec 14, 2008; ... A crackling bonfire and a hot cup of cocoa greet all who seek a Christmas tree at the Copenhavers family's 12-acre plantation in the heart of Missoula. This is the place for those who don't have time to wander the woods for the perfect specimen, but aren't interested in the grocery ...
Flathead contractor to shut down; 58 jobs lost
Dec 16, 2008; ... KALISPELL - A major Flathead Valley contractor, specializing in dirt work, announced its 58 employees will be laid off in mid-February, the latest jobs lost amid a sagging construction economy. "We are hopeful that the closure is only temporary," said John Shogren, general manager at ...
Sean Kelly's brews up expansion on N. Reserve
Dec 17, 2008; ... When you have a thriving business and great employees, expanding doesn't seem so scary - even in uncertain economic times. Tom Hilley, owner of the downtown Missoula pub Sean Kelly's, has thought about a second location for years. The idea has long simmered, thanks in large part ...
Give unto others
Dec 22, 2008; ... LOLO - Ava Cook is a volunteer's volunteer. She spends every Wednesday at the Missoula Food Bank, where she's stocked the shelves for 15 years. Every other day of the work week, she spends part of her day with elderly women, helping them with shopping and other errands. That program is ...
A little tender care
Dec 29, 2008; ... FRENCHTOWN - It's snowing in Frenchtown. Chunky flakes fall like a billion tiny parachutes outside the windows of the Frenchtown Club while Jimmy Buffett's "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" plays. Tom Erving tends bar as if he's done it for years. He has drinks waiting ...
Sun Road reconstruction still uncertain
Dec 29, 2008; ... WEST GLACIER - For Glacier National Park's most historic and popular alpine route, 2008 is ending amid a tangle of uncertainty. Initially, road builders thought they could reconstruct the aging Going-to-the-Sun Road in about eight years, at a cost of about $140 million. But by early ...
NorthWestern, MDU rates up and down
Dec 31, 2008; ... HELENA - Electric customers of NorthWestern Energy in Montana will see a slight increase in their rates for the new year, courtesy of regulators' decision to accept a new deal from the company on coal-fired power from two eastern Montana plants. And for residential customers of Montana's ...
Bitterroot Resort still has flurry of work ahead
Dec 31, 2008; ... Snow has landed on the ski runs above Tom Maclay's proposed Bitterroot Resort, but a blizzard of paperwork has yet to materialize. Bitterroot National Forest officials still await a collection of financial and technical information on Maclay's plans for skiing and biking on public lands ...