My Page: Grant Rhodes
missoula ducks downturn (mostly)
New Missoula Housing Report Paints “Mixed Picture”
There's good news and bad news for potential home buyers in Missoula, according the 2008 Missoula Housing Report: While the national real estate downturn has affected Missoula, it hasn't been hit nearly as hard as other parts of the country.
The report, compiled by the Missoula Organization of Realtors and its Housing Report Coordinating Committee, was presented to the public Monday morning at the Double Tree Hotel.
Committee member George Masnick, who has been affiliated with the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard for 30 years, called the report a "mixed picture" -- the national housing crisis has been slow in hitting the Mountain West and Missoula in particular. Last year the number of homes sold in the city decreased for the first time since 2002, but it was still the third-highest total ever.
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new west news brief
Ron Paul Plans Missoula Rally
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is holding a campaign rally Monday, April 21, at the University of Montana in Missoula
According to his campaign, Paul will speak at the University Center Ballroom at 7:30 p.m.
Paul, a Texas Congressman who gained cult popularity with his anti-war rhetoric during the Republican primaries, won Missoula County's republican caucus over two months ago on Super Tuesday.
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climate change
Study: American West Warming Faster than Rest of Planet
Is it hotter in here, or is it just the American West? According to a new climate study by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. West is getting warmer at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world.
"Global warming is hitting the West hard," Theo Spencer of the NRDC said in a statement. "It is already taking an economic toll on the region's tourism, recreation, skiing, hunting and fishing activities."
In the 11-state Western region the average temperature has risen 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit over the last five years, while the global average has been 1.0 degrees, according to the study. Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and Montana are feeling it the most with rises more than two degrees higher than the rest of the planet.
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a posthumous presidential address
Mining Law Reform Movement Summons Ulysses S. Grant
No, you weren't caught in a time warp Wednesday morning if you drove past the Missoula County Courthouse. That was Ulysses S. Grant speaking behind the podium. As part of a campaign called "Farewell to 1872," the eighteenth president of the United States (or at least a very convincing look-alike) was in the Garden City to speak about reform of the Mining Law of 1872, which he passed himself, 136 years ago.
The speech was organized by the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining, and Missoula was the first stop in the former president's four-city tour. With wife Julia standing by his side, the president formally bid farewell to the law by reading from and signing a proclamation. The law, which was passed seventeen years before Montana became a state, gives mining of gold, uranium and other hardrock metals priority over other land uses on most public lands regardless of the environmental impact the mining may have.
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Tickets to Adams Center Show Go on Sale March 18
Wilco to Play Missoula May 5
Wilco, the band Rolling Stone once referred to as "one of America's most consistently interesting bands," will be playing in Missoula this spring, UM Productions has announced.
The Chicago-based band will play at the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus on May 5. It will be Wilco's third appearance in the Garden City.
Tickets for students and faculty of the University go on sale Tuesday, March 18 at 10 a.m. in the Adams Center and at The Source. Tickets will cost $24 plus fees with a valid Griz Card. Tickets will available to the general public beginning Friday, March 21 at 8:30 a.m. and will be sold at all GrizTix locations.
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