Patron Saint
Local businessman Michael Burks says God gave him a fortune, so it's only natural that he spend it spreading the Gospel
Missoula multi-millionaire Michael Burks is intent on promoting a message of faith in Jesus Christ, and doing so on a large scale. It’s part of the reason he’s helping to bring Sarah Palin to Missoula for a Sept. 12 fundraiser to benefit Teen Challenge, and why he recently fought the county over whether or not he could host a Christian rock concert at the fairgrounds. Burks doesn’t covet the spotlight, but he’s finding it hard to avoid while doggedly pushing his beliefs.
This Week
etc.
Cut through all the positive spin around corporate downsizing and the journalism industry looks downright bleak these days.
Mountain High
For many of you, Labor Day weekend means packing up the car, getting out of Dodge, and heading to the nearest vast expanse of wooded land for a weekend of good old fashioned backcountry adventure.
Ryan Creek
Money, it's a gas
Missoula insurance agent and entrepreneur Toby Hansen petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 19, a move he believes will stabilize longstanding legal entanglements that have plagued development near his nearby outdoor concert venue—Ryan Creek Meadows—without endangering the venue itself.
(Info)
Deadly choice
Video exposes state's "poison and plant" program
A small plane swoops down over a high alpine lake, suddenly releasing a huge cloud in its wake.
(Ochenski)
War of the wells
Montanans close to Yellowstone better wake up
Before the drilling rigs arrive in Paradise Valley, Andrea Peacock thinks it's worth considering what it means to live in a gas patch.
(Range)
Critical condition
St. Patrick audit leaves some dependents uninsured
Hank McClain has worked at St. Patrick Hospital since 1974, and the hospital has long provided he and his wife, Mardia Parker, health insurance.
(Up Front)
Rattlesnake
Group proposes restoration plan
A hodgepodge of local residents are joining forces with the U.S. Forest Service to actively manage 13,000 acres of public land across the Marshall Creek, Woods Gulch and Lower Rattlesnake Creek drainages.
(Info)
Back on
Flathead shock jock John Stokes returns to radio
Stokes resumed his usual sociopolitical rants last week on Rense Radio Network, nearly 11 months to the day since the Flathead County Sheriff's Office shut down his Kalispell radio station, KGEZ, in mid-broadcast.
(Up Front)
eBay
Bidding on a PEAS pig
On Monday at about 12:45 p.m., eBay notified Julie Baldridge, a retired social worker in Whitefish using the online auction website for the first time, that she placed the winning bid on a pig—one currently noshing on scraps of food at Missoula's PEAS Farm.
(Info)
Viewfinder
Hundreds of Bob Dylan fans challenged security outside Ogren-Allegiance Park Tuesday night as they scaled railroad trestles, clambered onto dirt piles and snuck around barricades on the Riverfront Trail in hopes of catching sight of the legend’s outdoor concert.
Recently in News
A call for help
Missoula County Search and Rescue is struggling to keep up with a growing number of backcountry adventurers, leaving both officials and hardcore recreationists frustrated.
On June 18, 2010, a collection of hardcore adventurers successfully located the body of Chris Spurgeon, a fellow backcountry enthusiast who had died days earlier in an avalanche. Missoula County Search and Rescue did little to aide in the recovery mission and in some ways may have delayed the overall effort. It serves as just one example of how the volunteer units can no longer keep pace with Missoula’s growing number of extreme recreationists.
Aug 26, 2010
How Safe is Your Food?
The Indy reviewed health inspection reports for more than 225 local establishments to find the answer.
Only 15 percent of the restaurants passed their most recent inspection without receiving at least one critical violation. But that statistic hardly tells the full story.
Aug 19, 2010
2010 Muzzle Awards
The year's 10 worst crimes against the First Amendment
This year’s Muzzle Awards, an annual tradition from the Charlottesville, Va.-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, are steeped in two key points: whatever venue or means or incentive a government provides for expression, it should allow all opinions equal access, and censorship evolves with culture and technology
Aug 12, 2010
Top Commenters
Most Popular
Deep cut
Most Montanans peg Huey Lewis as an out-of-touch carpetbagger here to hoard the Bitterroot for himself. When the pop star called us from a hospital bed asking to tell his side, who were we to say no?
Huey Lewis wants to set the record straight: He’s not a jerk.
(Features) Jun 17, 2009
A call for help
Missoula County Search and Rescue is struggling to keep up with a growing number of backcountry adventurers, leaving both officials and hardcore recreationists frustrated.
On June 18, 2010, a collection of hardcore adventurers successfully located the body of Chris Spurgeon, a fellow backcountry enthusiast who had died days earlier in an avalanche. Missoula County Search and Rescue did little to aide in the recovery mission and in some ways may have delayed the overall effort. It serves as just one example of how the volunteer units can no longer keep pace with Missoula’s growing number of extreme recreationists.
Aug 26, 2010
Pinesdale polygamy fears
Abuse seen as a risk in closed societies
On a sunny weekday afternoon, Pinesdale, an enclave just west of Corvallis, looks only slightly different than any other rural town in the Bitterroot Valley.
(Features) Apr 24, 2008
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