Missoula News

The New Old-Media

The deal announced Monday between Yahoo and a group of newspaper chains to share local classifieds – and, eventually, editorial and advertising services - makes all the sense in the world, on the face of it. Yahoo gets local content, and an entrée into local markets. The newspapers get Yahoo's online tools, and access to its massive national customer base. Whether these entities can actually work together effectively is very much an open question, but you can't fault the logic.

You can, however, fault the lack of ambition. 

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Bye Bye, Big Sky

Airline rumors floating around the Flathead the last couple of days have proven to be true: as of August 5 Big Sky Airlines will discontinue its service to Kalispell, Great Falls and Spokane.

Currently Big Sky's route through Montana is as follows: Billings to Helena, Helena to Great Falls, Great Falls to Kalispell, Kalispell to Spokane. I spoke with Big Sky President Fred Deleeuw this morning, who confirmed that August 4 will be the last service day for that route.

 

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Missoula Media Grok

There's just so much news to keep up with today. The highlights:

Come November, we'll all be voting on an $10 million open space bond for Missoula County. As Mea Andrews reports for the Missoulian today, County Comissioners made it official last night in a formal public meeting. For more background on this issue, read Greg Lemon's report for New West on open space from this winter. It's a good overview of what the county bond means versus what the city wants to do to expand the open space we've got now.

Missoula County Attorney Fred VanValkenburg will take the lead on deciding whether to file criminal charges against the two fomer University of Montana employees at the center of the Inland Northwest Space Alliance scandal. As the AP reports, the state attorney general office's cheif ciminal counsel has handed the case over to VanValkenburg. Earlier this month, a Legislative Audit report concluded that the two former employees, George Bailey and Lloyd Chesnut may have violated state ethics laws involving conflict of interest and nepotism in the creation and their work with the Alliance -- a spinoff company of UM's Northern Rockies Center for Space Privatization.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer says his tax rebate -- $400 to 250,000 homeowner in Montana -- is the largest rebate in state history. As Chuck Johnson reports for Lee Newspapers, the legislature will have to sign off on the rebates -- which will come from the projected state surplus of $525 million. 

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Blogvertorial

The Bitterroot Team aspires to build a family-friendly recreation venue that is accessible to and benefits all members of the Missoula and Bitterroot Valley communities. Bitterroot Resort is designed to be a year-round recreation destination with alpine, snowboard and cross-country ski venues, signature golf, fly-fishing, mountain biking, ice skating and other amenities existing alongside a four-season resort village and residential community.

Bitterroot Resort has recently submitted a special use permit application to the forest service requesting 1,680 acres of federal land, adjacent to the Maclay Ranch in the northern Bitterroot Valley, be designated as part of a destination ski resort. This proposal represents only a small portion of the envisioned 12,800 acres of potential skiable terrain on Lolo Peak and Carlton Ridge.

Show your support and sign the Bitterroot Petition online. 

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NPR Reports

Tonight on NPR's Montana Evening Edition, Whitefish, Montana's painfully high (or beautifully high, if you're selling) real estate market will be featured. MTPR's website gives a pre-cap of tonight's report:

"What was once an ordinary working class town now offers some of the most expensive real estate in Montana. In our continuing series on poverty in the state, reporter Kevin Maki visits Whitefish, a community where affordable housing is frequently out of reach - even for many of her long time residents."

The real eastate market has been on fire here for a number of years. A February Daily Inter Lake article reported that more than a billion dollars in commercial and residential property changed hands here last year, fueled by factors like population growth, investment buying and limited land supply. That was a 25% increase from just 2004.

I also read the other day that Northwest Montana houses 25% of the state's realtors. My hairspray, power-skirt-suit and Bluetooth earpiece phobias aside, that's an overwhelming statistic.  

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Political Dynamite

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is gathering heat for the part of his regular alternative energy stump speech in which he referrs to "sheikhs, dictators, rats and crooks" in oil-producing countries.

It's no surprise that someone would eventually take offense and as Mike Dennison reports for Lee Newspapers today, it's happened. John Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, D.C., tells Dennison that it's all part of a trend to make Arabs the scapegoats as energy prices soar.

The surprising part is Schweitzer's response to the criticism. He says his comments are in no way directed at Arabs. Instead, he says he's referring to dictators in general. But, he says, "If they're not supportive of our way of life, if they're a direct threat to our children or our grandchildren having a better chance at life than we do, then I'm not supporting them." He's also quoted as saying the United States should make friends with those who support our "way of life and our values."

Huh?