Missoula News | New West Network

Missoula City News

With a Web site, posters, radio spots and billboards the Missoula Police Department and community partners are campaigning to stop bias, and report it when it occurs.

The effort has its roots in the work of a Missoula Police officer who reached out to the lesbian, gay and bisexual community in Missoula after some gays -- and young men and women perceived to be gay -- were savagely beaten in unprovoked attacks. The officer drew up a form for reporting hate crimes and bias, said Missoula Police Chief Mark Muir.   [more]

Guest Column

U.S. agriculture provides the safest and most abundant food supplies at the lowest prices in the world. As consumers, we are all affected by the farm bills passed by the U.S. Congress every three to five years and signed by the president. They set the policies for production, health, safety, and distribution -- including exports -- of the nation's food supplies.

Farm bills do not just happen. Each takes months of study, discussion, debate and compromise. For the complicated, tiring passage of a farm bill, there are grandstanders like Sen. John McCain and farm policy advocates like Sen. Barack Obama.  [more]

Aircraft was just inspected

Investigators have not found the cause of a Missoula-based firefighting plane crashing Monday near Reno, Nevada, killing all three crew members, two of them from Montana.

The Associated Press' Scott Sonner reports that investigators say the plane -- owned by Neptune Aviation in Missoula -- was just inspected and wasn't even close to its next 100-hour required inspection. The investigators also said there has never been a similar incident with the Lockheed P2V aircraft.

Authorities identified the victims of the crash as 41-year-old Gregory Gonsioroski from Baker Montana, 25-year-old Missoulian Zach VanderGriend and 61-year-old Calvin Gene Wahlstrom from Huntsville, Utah.

Click here for the full AP story. 

Cutbacks at Lee Enterprises newspapers in Montana continue today with six newsroom layoffs at the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton.

The layoffs amounted to three full-time and three part-time positions, although the paper also added a position, hiring John Cramer, a seasoned reporter laid off by the Missoulian last week. In a story on the newspaper's Web site, publisher Kristen Bounds said she intends to make another hire for the newsroom in the coming weeks.   [more]

Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies

Our third annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference, Oct. 23-24 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula, is shaping up to be our biggest and best yet. Economist Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics will again be giving his highly entertaining (and exceptionally accurate) take on trends in the regional real estate market, and this year for the first time he'll be joined by three other eminent economists: Tony Madden of the Federal Reserve Bank, Larry Swanson of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, and David Eacret, the North Idaho Real Estate economist. Rick Holley, CEO of Plum Creek Timber, will also be joining us for a keynote talk. And that's just for starters: you can see the full lineup at www.newwest.net/realestate08.

We also have a much-expanded pre-conference seminar program this year, with continuing education credit for real estate agents, planners, attorneys, and architects.

You can save more than 20% off the regular ticket price if you register by Friday, Sept. 5. Click here for all the details on the event, and as always give us a call at 406-829-1725 if you have any questions. 

LET'S FOCUS ON ISSUES THAT REALLY MATTER

A lot of people are hot and bothered about the Bush administration's proposed rule to allow concealed weapons in national parks, but practically, is this really worth our time and effort?

Yes, it's maddening to tolerate such low-end, election-year politics spurred by the National Rifle Association (NRA), but I say give the gun lobby this hollow victory, so we can spend our time and energy on issues that could really help our national parks instead of worrying about something that's already happening and hasn't caused any problems. [more]

A workshop on the cleanup and reuse of brownfields will be held today, Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Missoula City Council Chambers at 140 W. Pine St. and, in the afternoon, at the Missoula County Courthouse less than a block away at 200 W. Broadway, rooms 201 and 374.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend, including local officials, developers, landowners, bankers, lenders, community leaders, attorneys and consultants as well as the general public or anyone who fits some, all or none of the labels mentioned above. (Registration is $25 and can be done online or in person at 8 a.m. at the Council Chambers.) [more]

Edra Blixseth and the other top owner of the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky have retained an Arizona-based company to manage the private club and complete its long-overdue construction projects, according to an item on PR-inside.com.

Over the past year and more, the Yellowstone Club, the world's only private skiing and golf community, has been in and out of the news, thanks to the public divorce of owners Tim and Edra Blixseth as well as legal battles between owners and Tim Blixseth. Also, the club missed loan payments to creditor Credit Suisse and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Earlier this year, Edra won control of the club and vowed to get its overdue construction back on track and to keep its business out of the public eye. [more]

First Friday Showing

We're very proud to host internationally renowned artist and illustrator Joey DeRuy -- and a whole new body of work -- at the NewWest.Net office in September.

DeRuy's work is colorful and abstract, often inspired by his time in Africa, Hong Kong and Scandanavia. But for this show, opening Sept. 5 at the NewWest.Net office at 415 N. Higgins, DeRuy is focusing soley on Montana, specifically Missoula, where he had his first show at the age of 11 and where he found his early inspiration.

He says he hopes to paint Missoula with the same spark that helped him to the success he's achieved and that "the reason for the show for me was to connect in a way."

"From my first fender bender in a car, job, date, the buildings, streets and alleys," he says, Missoula and Montana have raised him. They "more then raised me. They helped to form me…" [more]