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2006 U.S. Senate Race

Tomorrow's primary has Democratic U.S. Senate candidates John Morrison and Jon Tester scrambling to make their final pushes today. Tester is scheduled to be in Butte, Great Falls and Missoula today and Morrison is making stops in Billings, Bozeman, Columbus and Laurel.

Both were in Billings over the weekend, Tester feeling confident that he's the one to beat Conrad Burns and Morrison reiterating his support of Montana's senior citizens.

Where each candidate is spending election eve might be telling... [more]

Bozoulian | Guest Column by Pete Talbot

I ran into a herd of trial attorneys the other day. No, this isn't a lawyer joke. I was at a local watering hole downtown and we bumped shoulders at the bar. I asked them who they were supporting in the primary election for Senator from Montana.

No comment from the lawyers.

After a couple more cervezas I asked again. Said the lawyers, "anyone who can beat Conrad Burns in November." [more]

New West Book reading!

A reminder: Our esteemed Northern Idaho editor, Joan Opyr, is reading from her novel, "Idaho Code" Tuesday, May 16, (tonight) at Shakespeare and Co. on Third Street. The reading starts at 7 p.m.

The goods: "Idaho Code" is ... "where family therapy comes with a shovel and an alibi. Small town Idaho, where everyone knows your business, is no place for a baby dyke to go looking for love. Especially when murder and homophobia are stalking the streets. For Wilhelmina 'Bil' Hardy, trapped in the coils of her eccentric family and off-the-wall friends, neither the course of true love nor amateur sleuthing runs smoothly. Mistaken identity, misunderstandings and mysteries galore take Bil to places she’s never dreamed of visiting. Idaho Code is a funny book about love, family, and the freedom you can find only in a state that values individuality more than common sense."

The blurb: “"Joan Opyr is the most entertaining new voice in lesbian mystery." --Val McDermid (Joan is still waiting for the review from her 84-year-old grandmother, however.)

Paddling

The Fish Creek put-in was in full circus mode as we pulled off of Highway 12. Colorful boats littered the pavement, spilling onto the sandy spit near the river. About 75 people were milling with the requisite beer in hand, wearing a diverse array of water repellent materials. The sun was shining, a rare occurrence in this moist, cedar-laden watershed, and the excitement was palpable among the boaters as they traded stories of past river carnage.

Welcome to the Wild and Scenic Lochsa River during spring runoff. It's early May, and a special weekend here: The Rendezvous. This annual event brings thrill-seekers from several states to this northern Idaho river, where they play in tiny kayaks and inflatable rafts on a 30-mile stretch of class IV rapids during peak flows. [more]

Montana Waterways

After nearly 20 years of controversy involving trespassing fisherman, protesting politicians, a newspaper publisher, two governors, a famous musician, governmental agencies, a couple of fourth-generation ranchers and an investment mogul, a judge has ruled that the Mitchell Slough in Montana's Bitterroot Valley is not a natural stream and therefore is not open to public access.

The case has been closely watched across the West as a crucial test of the reach of Montana's stream access law, which is among the strongest in the country. The Montana statute, long a bete noire of property-rights advocates but resilient through numerous court challenges, provides that any river or stream in the state is open to public access up to the high-water mark. While landowners are not required to provide right of way across their property, fisherman, floaters and others can freely use the waterways as long as they stay within the banks.

In the Mitchell Slough case, many emphatically believe the 12-mile waterway is a natural channel, manipulated for more than 150 years by irrigators and now owned by wealthy landowners - including rocker Huey Lewis and investment mogul Charles Schwab - who believe it's always been a private fishery. They and others believe it is simply a big ditch, used to convey water to farmland and carry run-off from those fields back to the river. This side maintains the slough has been private and public access was only granted with permission, though many trespassed. [more]

New Westerners

In 1999, Ross Peterson and Chris Bacon were just a couple of skateboarders trying to have fun. Today the two friends are the backbone of one of Missoula’s most successful non-profit organizations, the Missoula Skatepark Association, and are heading up a construction project in downtown Missoula with a price tag of over half a million dollars. Ironically, the pair rarely has time to skateboard anymore.
[more]

Just Don't Call Me Crazy

It’s been ten years since the 81-day showdown in Jordan, Montana, between the FBI and a renegade militia group that called itself the Freemen. The standoff was the longest federal siege in United States history.

In Jordan, the Freemen are remembered for their two-year reign of bullying and aggression, their anti-government rhetoric and the bounty offers for people who crossed them. [more]

Stand By Your Man

At a time when both President Bush and Montana Senator Conrad Burns are facing low poll numbers, Bush reminded a Washington fundraiser audience that Conrad’s the man.

He also displayed confidence in the intelligence levels of Montanans. The Daily Inter Lake quoted Bush as saying that “[Billings farmers] didn’t need a dictionary or a Roget’s Thesaurus to figure out what [Burns] was saying. He’s the kind of person the people of Montana need here.”

And if that isn’t compliment enough for the Montana Senator, how about this one: “I kind of like being on the same platform as Senator Burns, because he makes me sound like Shakespeare.”

Burns, who has been tied to scandalized lobbyist Jack Abramoff, dismisses claims and has said he barely knows the guy.

"Selling out my country, my state, that is beyond my amprehension (sic), ain't no way I'm going to do it."

Maybe the real issue here is education. [more]

Travel

Jim Robbins, a Helena-based writer and friend of New West has returned to Montana from Mongolia where he was on assignment for Conde Nast Traveler. His piece on Mongolia is in the April issue of Traveler but he's offered us a few photos from his trip that show just how much Mongolia is like Montana. Jim's photo above is of a woman watching a horserace in the Dharhat Valley in northern Mongolia, near the Siberian border. [more]

A reporter honored

Jeff Cole, one of the best journalists I ever knew and also one of my best friends, was in many ways the founding spirit of New West. Jeff was the aerospace editor of the Wall Street Journal, and he pursued the news with a level of passion, skill and energy that's rare in any profession. He was also among the most charming, friendly and down-to-earth people people you'd ever want to meet, as comfortable in a corporate boardroom as in a small-town Montana bar. One horrible day five years ago Jeff was killed in a plane crash in Colorado while on assignment, and his friends and colleagues and, especially, his lovely wife Maria have missed him terribly ever since.

Jeff grew up in Darby, and I spent some serious quality time exploring the Montana outback and the Missoula bars with Jeff; it was because of those trips that I ultimately came to settle here, first as a visiting professor at the Journalism School and later as the founder of New West. Maria has finished their log home near Stevensville and settled in - they had only just bought the land when he was killed. A scholarship fund set up by Maria has helped some very talented Montana journalists pursue their dreams. Jeff was incredibly devoted to his profession, and supporting talented young reporters is something he did throughout his career.

Now Maria is aiming to take the Jeff Cole Legacy Fund to the next level and endow a chair at the Journalism School. To that end, she's throwing a "fun-raiser" on Saturday, March 25 at 6:00 P.M. at the Florence building in Missoula. There will be food and drink and music and a few special guests, including Gov. Schweitzer and University President George Dennison. We'll be there and we hope you will too, call Maria at 406-546-3801 for more information.

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