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From the New West blog: Economy

September 2008
Montana, 4.6%
Idaho, 5%
Colorado, 5.2%

October 2008
Idaho, 5.4%
Labor statistics show the eighth consecutive rise in unemployment, with six rural counties at over ten percent each. Double digits haven’t been seen since 1999. Also significant: every city, labor market area and county in Idaho saw a rise in unemployment in October as compared with October 2007.

Montana
The state will release its numbers on November 21. But state economist Barbara Wagner told New West this morning that Montana is “following the same trend as Idaho,” though she noted that the timber industry is hitting Idaho harder. State Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly called Montana's September rate "well within normal."

Colorado
The state will release its numbers this week, but trends in retail sales – down over $600 million last month – may be one indicator.

[more]

New West Book Review

Effigy
By Alissa York
St. Martin's Press, 342 pages, $25.95

Effigy, Alissa York's fascinating, accomplished new novel set largely in Utah territory in 1867, transports the reader to Mormon ranch where the four wives of Erastus Hammer pursue their separate destinies within the strictures placed on them by their marriages and their society. York lives in Toronto, and Effigy was a finalist for last year's Giller Prize in Canada. It's easy to see why—Effigy is written in convincing, image-rich prose and features a singular cast of characters who interact in complex and surprising ways.

The first wife of Erastus Hammer, Ursula, is a formidable presence overseeing and disapproving of much that goes on at the ranch. She is the only wife who behaves outwardly as one might expect of a Mormon pioneer woman—spending her time cooking, cleaning, and raising children—yet she is far from a simple figure. Through lucid flashbacks, we learn that as a young woman in Nauvoo, Illinois, she developed a desperate crush on Joseph Smith, who founded the Mormon religion. Devastated by his death at the hands of a mob in 1844, she collected a lock of Smith's hair, which she keeps in a ring and occasionally allows her children to touch, with appropriate reverence. [more]

MICROBREW MONTANA

When you go into the Kettle House taproom, which is tucked away on a hard-to-find side street in mid-town Missoula, you find something you see at most Montana microbreweries--a crowd of local folks enjoying good beer and good conversation in their adopted neighborhood pub where it's always "Hoppy Hour." But when you peak into the back room or decide to buy some tasty Kettle House brew at the grocery store, you see something you don't see at or from any other Montana microbrewery, beer cans.

Because Kettle House is the only little Montana brewery that cans. [more]

FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

If you've been following the Cooper Firearms story (202 comments so far), you might be wondering who was telling the truth. Did Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse cancel orders following the controversy, as I originally reported--or not, as the representatives of the mega-retailers claim.

Well, I finally tracked down Dan Cooper this morning, and we had a little chat--and the answer is: Everybody is telling the truth. [more]

NO CANCELED ORDERS

My special Wild Bill column on Monday covered the statements and campaign contributions made Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms in support of President-elect Barack Obama. As his statements caused a firestorm of criticism from his customers on gun websites and blogs, Cooper resigned from the company and said he was worried about the future of his company because two of his biggest retail accounts, Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse, had canceled their orders.

Which turned out to not be true. [more]

PERFECT PLACE FOR BLUE TIDE TO QUICKLY MAKE ITS MARK

On January 5, 2001, with George W. Bush's moving van parked at the back door of the White House, President Bill Clinton signed his now-infamous Roadless Rule. With a stroke of his pen and without the approval of Congress, Clinton protected almost one-third of our national forests, 58.5 million acres, from road building.

The incoming Bush administration immediately reversed the rule, but a judge rapidly reversed the reversal. Ever since, the Roadless Rule has been a tennis ball, back and forth, on and off, mired in a ridiculous succession of administrative rules and court cases, making it hard to decide who's ahead in the game. As I write this, to emphasize the folly, two judges have made opposing rulings, one spiking the Roadless Rule, one re-affirming its validity.

So I say, let's end the tennis match and make the Roadless Rule the law of the land. [more]

Montana Election 2008

A day after Gov. Brian Schweitzer won a second term, and unofficial results showed Democratic candidates sweeping all but one statewide office, Republicans still cheered victories in the state House and Senate.

"Did we fail? Of course not." said Schweitzer. The Republican wins were not decisive. Republicans control the Senate with a 27-23 margin, and the House appears split 50-50.

For the first time since 1948, one party holds all of Montana's Land Board offices -- which include the governor's office, the secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction. The Land Board makes decisions on oil leases and logging on state land. [more]

Montana Election 2008

Late on election night, Montana voters -- who historically have shown themselves to be inveterate ticket-splitters -- seemed to have handed resounding victories to Democrats, especially as the results of statewide candidates were tallied.

But the slower count on the legislative districts have given Tuesday's late night tale another twist. It seems the GOP has recaptured control of the Montana Senate, with a 27-23 majority, and will likely be deadlocked with Democrats in the House, tied at 50-50. The party that controls the House gets to set the agenda in this winter's legislative session. As for the Senate, all of the governor's appointments to department heads, boards and commissions get approval there.

"First of all, to have John McCain win, with very little presence, shows Montana is still, philosophically, a center-right state. We just haven't done a good job of winning elections recently," said state Republican chairman Erik Iverson. "The Democrats had every single structural advantage -- four times the money. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate set up shop in the state, with all these offices, and for seven or eight months raided all this money, put in all this structure. What we've learned is something we've known for a long time, Montanans are ticket-splitters. You had people voting for Denny Rehberg and Barack Obama, for John McCain and Brian Schweitzer."

[more]

A few Western Montana races and measures on Tuesday's ballots were, when boiled down, all about growth -- how (if at all) to plan for it and protect land from it.

On the whole, proponents of growth management didn't have a good night.

In Ravalli County, voters repealed the Growth Policy, thereby blocking any planning and zoning regulations, and reelected Republican County Commissioner Greg Chilcott over John Meakin, a pro-streamside setback, pro-Growth Policy, pro-zoning Democrat.

In Flathead County, voters shot down a $10 million open space bond, and voted overwhelmingly in favor of pro-development, self-described property rights champion County Commissioner-elect Jim Dupont. [more]

Staples in Ballots are no good

Update: Gallatin County completed counting the remaining 10 precincts at 5:30pm. Obama won with 23,984 votes over McCain with 22,375 votes. Click more for complete Gallatin County results.

Gallatin County is still processing ballots through the counting machines, with over 15,000 ballots left and are not expecting to finish until late this afternoon.

The clincher is that over 21,000 of the absentee ballots returned were pocked with staples marks and could not be processed by the automated reader. All unreadable ballots were then presented to a 3-person board that recreates a duplicate ballot for scanning. Another setback was the courthouse still had a line of 150 people when the polls closed at 8pm.

These 10 remaining of the 36 Gallatin County precincts are the only ones in the state not counted. Some of the statewide close elections may hinge on Gallatin County's results, such as Secretary of State that currently holds a 2,000 vote difference. [more]

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