New West Network

My Page: Robert Struckman

Tough Times for Nonprofits

Leading funders of the nonprofit group Western Progress backed away, prompting the nonpartisan thinktank to close its three offices in Missoula, Denver and Phoenix and lay off all 10 of its employees.

"We ran out of money," said board president Alice Madden.

Former Montana U.S. Rep. Pat Williams, who helped found the group almost two years ago, said, "I don't know what to call it. A reneging? It's a delay in funding of two of our biggest contributors. We had thought we had three years of $500,000 contributions from each of the two big contributors. As of yet, neither has come through on what we thought was a promise." [more]

Montana's former Gov. Judy Martz, a Republican who served from 2001 to 2005, said her tenure in politics offers unique insight into Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

The women's movement is hypocritical, Martz said, because it doesn't celebrate all women, only those who align themselves with it politically. Too often the press ignores policy, favoring gaffes instead. Politics is tough on families. And although the electorate continually asks for authenticity, Martz said, it seems to reward the phonies. [more]

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula came down hard on the Montana Republican Party for its blanket challenge of more than 6,000 registered voters in Democratic-leaning areas.

The challenge had already been abandoned two days ago by the Montana GOP. A spokesman said its effort was to avoid voter fraud, not strip the right to vote from citizens. And Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson had already asked counties to ignore the challenges. So there was no reason for Molloy to grant a request from the Montana Democratic Party and two voters for a temporary restraining order.

And while Molloy didn't hold back in his order (PDF). He called GOP concerns about voter fraud "meritless if not frivolous" because those concerns were limited to "select counties that likely contain concentrations of Democratic voter." [more]

Real Estate

A mass layoff at Moonlight Basin near Big Sky, Montana, has sent a chill through Gallatin Canyon's resort community.

Sources said about 90 employees lost jobs. CEO Lee Poole declined in a written statement to address specifics of the layoffs or how many workers remain.

"Moonlight Basin Ranch and a number of its subsidiary companies have decided to immediately implement temporary layoffs of a portion of its workforce," Poole said in a press release issued late Wednesday afternoon. "We are deeply saddened by this painful but necessary action." [more]

A pair of Missoula County voters and the Montana Democratic Party filed suit in federal court Monday morning to halt broad Republican challenges of newly registered voters, and to keep harshly worded letters about the challenges from being mailed to those challenged voters.

State Republicans challenged more than 6,000 voters last week in a handful of Democratic counties and Democratic-leaning areas. The challenges were made using a private forwarding-address service and notarized by Republican Party employees, the lawsuit alleges.

"I'm a challengee in Silver Bow County!" said Democratic Party official Art Noonan. He's also a state representative from Butte. (The progressive nonprofit Forward Montana, has a new Web site where you can check to see if your registration has been challenged.) [more]

Tomorrow in Chicago, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank president Gary Stern will give an updated version of his speech called "Repercussions from the Financial Shock" in which he argued that banks should be allowed to fail, so managers will learn the harsh lessons only failure can teach.

The text of the new speech at the Council of Institutional Investors won't be made available. Perhaps the subject matter is too close to a critique of the daily money matters rocking the financial world and the world economy. Not that anything should be read into his decision. Stern is a private Fed president. He speaks less than most others, said Minneapolis Fed spokeswoman Patti Lorenzen, and it's fairly standard for him to keep the text of his speeches to himself.

The upshot is that unless you're planning to attend the meeting in Chicago tomorrow, you'll miss the words of this influential and smart guy. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to point you to this story I wrote about Stern's earlier version of this same speech, given in Three Forks in mid-August.

In light of recent events, I might re-write the headline as follows: Fed Reserve Branch Head Says Let Banks Fail.

[more]

Absentee ballots have become a major get-out-the-vote tool for both parties in recent elections, and the practice is changing the way candidates and parties spend money and campaign, reports John S. Adams in the Great Falls Tribune today.

Monday is the first day absentee votes can be cast by mail or at elections offices, where polls will be open until Nov. 4.

The sheer number of early ballots cast has been rising sharply, election by election. [more]

In about a month, an army of volunteers will hike up Mount Sentinel to re-seed about 320 blackened acres with native grasses and plants.

If they can scrape together $22,000 for the seeds.

The University of Montana and the City of Missoula each own about 160 acres of the burn area. Native seeds to sow on the area aren't very expensive, compared to previous years. Estimates had the seeds costing as much as $50,000. But the manager of Missoula's conservation lands says the seeds will only cost about $30,000. Prices are down because the seed yield is up from a wet summer and demand is down from a mild fire season. [more]

More Editorial Cuts, and More and More

Newspapers cuts this week have begun to seriously call into question the continued ability of newspapers to deliver news.

Yesterday the independently owned Spokesman-Review announced plans to cut 27 more newsroom jobs, almost one-quarter of its editorial staff while newsprint prices continue to soar and profits, industry-wide, keep plummeting.

Earlier this week Lee Enterprises flagship paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, cut 18 more jobs, including its primary cops reporter. Over the past few months, the newsroom has been practically gutted by Lee, which remains one of the few profitable newspaper companies. [more]

Housing Down, Fuel and Food Prices Up

Mortgage resets, the rising cost of food and fuel and the slowdown in the housing market have pushed personal bankruptcy filings to nearly double the numbers from two years ago, according to numbers from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte.

In the first nine months of 2008, there were 1,140 new Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings, up from 664 over the same period two years ago.

The most dramatic increase has been in the past few months, especially in September, said Lynn Myers, chief deputy clerk at the state's bankruptcy court.

"We had 25 cases open up in one day," Myers said. "We haven't seen something like that since October in 2005." [more]