The Downtown Kalispell Forward Coalition commissioned a report for the city on parking practices and policy suggestions after residents raised concern over a supposed lack of parking downtown. With 2,410 total spaces downtown, and 406 of those in often underutilized city lots, coalition members anecdotally found that confusing signage, differing time limits, and employees playing “musical cars” in street parking spaces created a “perception of shortage.”

The coalition and the Parking Advisory Board forwarded a list of recommended a number of solutions to the council.

During Monday’s meeting, councilors approved several of the group’s recommendations. Parking fines currently set at $10 per infraction in two-hour limit parking spots will be raised to $20 for the first offense, a second offense will be charged $40 and a third offense within a year will be charged $60. Parking infractions related to safety will be raised from $10 to $50, and the boot fine will increase from $35 to $100.

For city permitted lots, residents will be able to buy a monthly $30 permit to access all city lots instead of applying for permits for specific lots. The Valley Bank Lot will stay included as one of the permitted lots after public comment from Mike Smith with Glacier Bank prompted councilors to postpone turning the lot into public two-hour parking, one of the recommendations by the coalition.

“Given the central location, it is going to be one of those lots that likely has high demand,” City Manager Jarod Nygren said.

Another ordinance councilors approved Monday night is a “rolling rule” that requires motorists to move their vehicle at least 600 feet away from their previous parking spot to avoid a citation in two-hour spaces. Councilors also removed a 30-minute parking space south of the public safety building on Fourth Street East.

“The ticket on the street needs to be high enough that people don’t just say, ‘oh it’s just a cup of coffee,’” Mayor Ryan Hunter said.

Nygren noted there would be a grace period while city officials work with partners like Downtown Forward to help inform the public about the changes.

The Kalispell Police Department oversees parking infractions and citations. In addition to council’s efforts to optimize downtown parking, the department has started the process of purchasing mobile license plate recognition (LPR) software to track parking. Kalispell Police Chief Jordan Venezio said the software would only be used to track parking, which has historically been difficult to enforce.

“We haven’t been able to enforce much in the past,” Nygren added. “Certainly, there’ll be some bumps in the road we may have to address. With the ability to collect data we’ll have the ability to make adjustments if we need to.”

zoe@flatheadbeacon.com

The post City of Kalispell Introduces New Parking Rules appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

4:47 p.m. The downstairs neighbor’s attempt to alert the neighbor about their loud music was unsuccessful.  

11:47 p.m. A man on a scooter was circling the perimeter of a store.

Monday, June 22

12:51 a.m. A fingerless woman was enjoying a vape pen.

7:52 p.m. A couple in the process of divorcing had different opinions surrounding the dog’s euthanasia.

Tuesday, June 30

10:50 a.m. Obscenities were heard from the gazebo.

11:15 a.m. A mom couldn’t get ahold of her middle-aged son.

3:42 p.m. A driver was doing illegal stuff while he was doing other illegal stuff.

6:56 p.m. A pedestrian approached a law enforcement vehicle and told an officer that he wanted to “see all the guys” to remember when “the deep state goes down.”

7:52 p.m. A new resident said she moved to Montana because it’s “supposed to be nicer than California” and requested law enforcement do something about the homeless people instead of pulling people over for “traffic stuff.”

9:43 p.m. Two naked ladies were running up and down the alley.

Wednesday, July 1

7:19 a.m. A brown “poodle-ish thing” was found.

Sunday, July 5

1:42 p.m. The hotel manager was mixing epoxy “wrong,” an act that law enforcement reminded the caller was not a crime.

9:04 p.m. Fireworks were coming from the first house.

11:13 p.m. An alcoholic who recently relapsed wanted to “undo his wrongs” and inquired about a career in law enforcement.

Monday, July 6, 2026

7:56 a.m. A “Breaking Bad meth dealer” trailer was illegally parked.

1:43 p.m. A man awaiting treatment in the emergency room called dispatch and requested an ambulance to treat the “extreme pain” he was experiencing from slicing off just the tip of his finger.

1:54 p.m. A drunk naked lady was vomiting.

4:10 p.m. A caller wanted law enforcement to “get the kids off e-bikes.”

The post June 30: When the Deep State Goes Down appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Lauren Oscilowski, the owner of Spotted Bear Spirits in downtown Whitefish, had that in mind when she received a request to create something unique for the newly opened boutique hotel Larch House. Tapping into the warmth of her own summer memories while also imagining herself on their rooftop bar, she imagined blending Old World tradition with modern ingenuity. 

“It just hit me out of the blue. Huckleberry Limoncello,” Oscilowski said of the bright citrus digestif. “It’s the perfect rooftop pounder.” 

The fusion of the two iconic summer flavors and the throwback to an Italian has already proven to be highly popular.

“We didn’t do any marketing. We didn’t have our sales reps pitching it. Not a thing,” Oscilowski said. “We’ve done that before and a year will go by before people know we have something. This product — we can’t keep up. Everyone is backordering it. Somehow they found it.”

Limoncello is a traditional Italian liqueur made from lemon zest. Chilled and often served after dinner, the sweet digestif is described as hazy or “turbid.” A word I admit I had to reach for my dictionary to comprehend: (of a liquid) cloudy thick or opaque with suspended matter. 

The suspended matter giving Limoncello its foggy appearance is innumerable tiny bubbles of lemon oil. A spontaneous emulsification known as the louche effect induces the fragrant oil to hover in the liquid, scattering light and creating a cloudy appearance in the brilliant lemony beverage.

Each batch of Spotted Bear limoncello requires 20 cases worth of organic lemon peels and an assemblage of friends and family armed with citrus peelers.

“We gather anyone up for peeling: bartenders, friends of bartenders, partners of our bartenders, relatives of our bartenders,” Oscilowski said, describing what sounds like a carpal tunnel-inducing amount of effort. “We’re just like little old Italian women, peeling, peeling and peeling.”

The lemon peels are collected into muslin bags and steeped in vodka. Once the lemon oil has incorporated into the ethanol, they are removed and discarded. The huckleberry flavor is added using real huckleberries, through a technique simply referred to by the Spotted Bear production team as “painful.” A little bit of sweetness is then added, along with enough water to ensure the final product is a consistent 70 proof.

Most American limoncello producers use “natural flavors” to avoid the exhaustive methods Spotted Bear endures. But for the production team at Spotted Bear, adhering to the traditional process ensures a natural tasting product, while the lemon oil itself affixes each bottle with a marker of authentication, called a collarino.

“It’s a ring of oil that will form around the neck of the bottle with time. We have to do a bit of education around that. ‘It’s natural. It means we’re using real lemons,’” Oscilowski said of the context she provides customers. “The Italians pride themselves on it. ”

The Spotted Bear Huckleberry Limoncello is a vibrant cloud of tiny lemon oil droplets floating in a purple huckleberry blush. Visually, it’s a liquid manifestation of summer memories; a miasma of summer recollections — those moments whose specific details may remain murky in our minds, even as their spirit returns crystal and bright. Tiny droplets of sunshine, languidly dangling in a cloud of memories. 

Whether or not you can find it on the shelves, the popular new liqueur will be available all summer in the Spotted Bear tasting room, showcased in the summery Lemon Drop cocktail. Equal parts limoncello, vodka, simple syrup and organic lemon juice, the Spotted Bear Lemon Drop is a tart, jammy, saccharine explosion of flavor. The citrus and syrupy berry notes lightly dance across the palate like a catchy little melody, or a laconically plucked guitar riff. The finish sweeps past like a breezy chorus of “oohs” and “aahs.” 

This summer will be imperfect, just like those before it and those yet to come. Each ephemeral scene will be weighed down in its own way with the burdens of the present. But while passing through the brief window of the season, it’s important to remember that, one day, all the memories important enough to remain with us will be engulfed in a vaporous phosphorescence; chilled in a foggy bottle, luminescent, and ready to be shared and savored. 

Pub Facts

Limoncello:  

Limoncello was invented 100 years ago in Southern Italy, though the exact origin is disputed — either Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri, or maybe Sicily.

Traditionally, limoncello is made from the zest of Sorrento lemons.

Lemon Drop Cocktail: 

The Lemon Drop, a distant cousin to the Brandy Crusta, was invented in the 1970s by Norman Jay Hobday, founder and proprietor of Henry’s Africa, one of the original Fern bars in San Francisco. 

Traditional Recipe:

2 oz. Vodka

½ oz. Cointreau or Dry Curacao

1 oz. Simple Syrup

1 oz. Lemon Juice

Garnish: Sugared Rim

The post When Life Gives You Lemons  appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Over the past generation, however, a group of Blackfoot people from the Blood Reserve in Canada and the Blackfeet Nation in Montana worked to bring the buffalo back. 

After a generation of collective, grassroots efforts to rehabilitate the bison and rewild their ancestral lands, tribal leaders released a herd of the bison at Chief Mountain on the east side of Glacier National Park, on the Blackfeet Reservation. 

The story of those efforts takes place in the Emmy-nominated film “Bring Them Home,” written and directed by Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick, whose other films include “Our Last Refuge,” about protecting the Blackfeet’s sacred Badger-Two Medicine from oil and gas development. Golden Globe Award winning actress Lily Gladstone narrated and helped produce the bison documentary. 

“Bring Them Home” received two Emmy nominations for documentaries in the 47th News and Documentary Emmy Awards, Outstanding Music Composition and Outstanding Writing. The film also won a slew of film festival awards, including the Big Sky Award at the Big Sky International Film Festival in 2024. 

The idea for the film came to Glick with a simple premise: after connecting with the Blackfeet Buffalo Program while working on Our Last Refuge, Glick found himself wanting to spend more time around the big mammals. 

“This was something that originally came out of my desire just to spend time with bison ––that was the gist of it,” Glick said. 

The desire led him to develop two film projects about the Blackfeet buffalo drive, including the 2019 short film “Iniskim,” about a young Blackfeet girl’s recovery from past trauma intertwined with her reconnection to buffalo. The film shoot of the buffalo drive also became the first footage for what would become “Bring Them Home.” 

In search of Blackfeet directors to collaborate with on the film, Glick found Ivan and Ivy MacDonald. By that time, Gladstone was already involved in the film and Glick had established relationships within the Blackfeet community. The brother-and-sister filmmakers grew up on the reservation where they fell in love with film, each eventually finding their own way into the industry. The two have also collaborated on the films “When They Were Here,” about Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in Montana, and “Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible,” about women training in light of the MMIP crisis, which won an Emmy in 2021.

“Ivy and I grew up pretty culturally connected and so we know the importance of bison spiritually, culturally, ceremonially,” Ivan MacDonald said. “So, it was kind of exciting to be able to tell this story for all of those kinds of things –– not just in these kind of keystone species, ecological, environmental, biodiversity ways that really make it so unique –– but this kind of cultural reconnection that also happens with bison when they’re brought back to the land and the environment.” 

The Blackfoot people lived with the bison, known as iinnii, for millennia. Viewed as a relative, the buffalo has cultural significance for ceremonies and supported their survival before the population was decimated. 

To unwind the history for the documentary, Glick and Ivan, along with two researchers, dug into archives, combing through public information on the U.S. government’s extermination campaign, including quotes from U.S. generals and historical images of piles of buffalo skulls. Unearthing the Blackfeet people’s side of the story, however, required hours of conversations with community members. 

“We just had these random conversations with different people, and they would point to a different thread,” Glick said. “As we learned about certain things, as we interviewed people, we would always ask if they had photos of this or videos of that … it took quite a while to find it all.” 

In the 20th century, the idea of bringing back the bison slowly began to percolate among members of the Blood Tribe (also known as the Kanai Nation), and members of the Blackfeet Nation — two of the four tribal nations that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy that spans across Alberta and northwestern Montana. 

Blackfeet tribal leaders made several attempts to bring back the bison onto tribal lands beginning in 1979, securing a herd from Yellowstone National Park and turning them loose before eventually selling most of the animals after widespread community complaints. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council acquired a second herd in the late 1990s, using more oversight and management practices similar to those used with cattle. Still, complaints arose and, less than 10 years later, a new tribal council sold the herd. 

Up north among the Blood Tribe, discussions began to take place around the significance of buffalo to tribal members and Native identity. Inspired by the so-called “buffalo dialogues,” Blackfeet tribal members created the Iinnii Initiative to begin outreach and education. Members of the Wildlife Conservation Society from New York City reached out, interested in bringing bison back to the American prairie for the ecological role that bison play as a keystone species in shaping the landscape. 

With that, a third attempt to bring buffalo back to their ancestral homelands began to take shape with the creation of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program led by Ervin Carlson, a rancher who managed the Tribe’s cattle business. 

“To me, what drew me in with the buffalo wasn’t looking at them as a commodity,” Carlson says in the film. “I realized that the things we had to go through as Indian people, them buffalo had to go through the same thing … Daily, it’s a continual fight for them; daily, it’s a continual fight for our people. So, that’s what makes me have that passion of the fight for my way of life and my people and for them animals to be a part of that, too.” 

Blackfeet tribal leaders set their sights on a herd in Elk Island National Park, in Canada, where the animals’ ancestral roots can be traced back to the buffalo who originally roamed the Blackfeet tribal lands. In 2017, the Blackfeet brought calves from the original herd back to the reservation. 

The journey to rewilding the bison was far from over, however. Seven years would pass while tribal council faced various other pressing issues on the reservation. Meanwhile, members of the buffalo program drove the bison back and forth between their two seasonal parcels of land — biannual journeys that produced awe in the documentarians as the story unfolded before them. 

The film footage shows herds of bison thundering across grasslands with snow-latticed mountain peaks behind them. In one scene, a buffalo bluff-charges someone herding the bison, warning the human they came too close.

“A big thing for this was just that this project, there was just this dynamic energy with it that was kind of indescribable,” Ivan MacDonald said. “I remember the first time we filmed the bison and filmed the drive … a lot of those aspects were really, really incredible. 

“Just connecting with these animals that I knew were important growing up, kind of hearing them but not seeing them, I think that was really important,” he continued. “That was the most powerful part of the film for me, was just reconnecting on that physical level.” 

As the drives continued, so too did the education within the community –– through the drives, the Iinnii Initiative, tribal leadership meetings, ceremonies, and community celebrations. The documentary crew began to settle on final edits of a draft. 

“As a filmmaker, it was a little stressful in between that time, not really knowing what the ending was going to look like but knowing what we wanted, but what the universe wasn’t having at the moment,” Ivy MacDonald said. “And then it just kind of worked out perfectly.”

Finally, the tribal council voted in 2023 to retire all cattle leases for the land at Chief Mountain –– a sacred place on Blackfeet tribal lands bordering Canada and Glacier National Park. There, the buffalo would once again roam freely. 

“I got this feeling, kind of a choked-up feeling just seeing them out there … back to where they belong,” Carlson says in the film while watching the release.  

The crew filmed the rewilding and spliced the new footage into the documentary. Over the coming years, they showed the film at various festivals and screenings, including on the Blackfeet Reservation. 

“For me, kind of the most impactful moment of the film was showing it in Browning,” Ivy MacDonald said. 

A throng of Blackfeet community members gathered to see the cinematic culmination of years of efforts to release bison on their ancestral land. Ivy MacDonald led her grandma and aunt to seats in the front row, and they listened as Gladstone spoke to the crowd before watching the film. 

“It was such a beautiful moment,” Ivy MacDonald said. “You saw all the happiness, the joy, the sadness, every single emotion you could possibly think of was in that arbor, and it ended so beautifully –– where people were proud to come from such a deep, rich, strong, beautiful history … I think this project, too, has made me a stronger Blackfeet woman and in so many different ways, a better filmmaker.”  

The post ‘Bring Them Home’ Blackfeet Bison Documentary Honored with Emmy Nominations appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) speaking on the floor of the Senate, corroborated by several articles in the New York Times and the New Yorker, said, “Over the last year and a half, our president Donald Trump, has turned the White House into a 24/7 corruption operation.” His self-enrichment has become normalized. The public hardly bats an eye. No one is stopping him including the Supreme Court which continues to expand his power and immunity. Trump’s net worth has surged dramatically since the start of his second term, more than doubling from roughly $3.9 billion in 2024 to approximately $7.3 billion. 

Every president since Ronald Reagan has put their assets in a blind trust managed by independent trustees or sold their stock and other business interests to eliminate potential conflicts of interest. Trump has done neither. HIs most recent federal financial disclosure reveals more than 3,700 stock trades for tens of millions of dollars. In early January, the president’s account purchased $500,000 to $1 million worth of Nvidia stock a week before his commerce officials approved the sale of previously restricted Nvidia chips to China. He also purchased shares in Dell, and then talked about what a great company it is during a White House press session. Later Dell secured a lucrative government contract. Donald’s stocks soared. He makes millions when having the power to affect a stock’s price knowing when it will happen before anyone else does. For any other individual these actions would be prosecuted as flagrant insider trading. 

Trump also uses his presidency to enrich his family. Don Jr. and Eric Trump met with foreign leaders from Serbia, Hungary, the UK, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Somaliland, Kazakhstan, and Israel to make deals. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Trump Organization in 2024 earned at least $87 million through international projects with 22 Trump-branded development projects currently in the works. Lucrative federal contracts have directly enriched his sons. Recent investigative reports show that Donald Trump Jr. invested heavily in Vulcan Elements, a small rare earth mineral startup company, shortly before Trump’s Department of Defense loaned the company $620 million and gave them a large contract. Vulcan Elements was worth $200 million before these deals, but after receiving the pentagon contract, the company’s net worth jumped to $2 billion giving Don Jr. a tenfold increase in his investment. His 2025 financial disclosure also indicates the Trump family gained $1.4 billion from their shady cryptocurrency businesses.

Trump has also raised millions by blatantly offering pardons to convicted criminals in exchange for large donations to his political PAC along with the $400 million Boeing 747 luxury liner given to Trump by Quatar. Finally, the Trump Store has launched at least 622 products (sneakers, fragrances, Bibles, watches, mugs, meme coins, etc.) generating $8.8 million in 2024 alone. Trump makes merchandising the presidency seem normal. As President Truman said, “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician and I’ll show you a crook.”

The real question is why “we the people” aren’t outraged about this blatant corruption. This is not the selfless leadership our founders envisioned. It is time to vote for congressional representatives willing to truly drain the swamp. 

Carol & John Santa
Kalispell

The post Presidential Corruption appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Bull trout in the Swan River basin, specifically, represent a key indicator of the species’ health and distribution in the upper Columbia River basin, largely due to the ecosystem’s interconnected web of cold water habitats and its robust population sizes.

Bull trout spend much of their lives in Swan Lake, but they hatch in mountain streams throughout the watershed before moving to the lake for adulthood. For years, biologists have counted bull trout redds to estimate how different streams contribute to the overall population.

In the past decade, however, adult bull trout abundance in the Swan has dropped by approximately 90%, a precipitous decline that state fisheries biologists have tracked by counting bull trout redds, or spawning nests. Using these annual monitoring reports and field surveys, they can infer metapopulation data and draw conclusions about the health of a drainage-specific population, as well as about how those constituents support the overall population.

But what if redd counts alone aren’t capturing the complete picture?

That’s the question that state fisheries biologist Sam Bourret posed recently. Reasoning that there were more factors contributing to a population’s ecological health than evidence of spawning success alone, Bourret decided to zoom in on the drainage-specific demographic dynamics of bull trout among the individual spawning tributaries in the Swan River basin.

Bourret, who works for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) as a fisheries biologist in Region 1, said the objective is to provide resource managers with the tools and information to prioritize effective mitigation strategies and guide the species to recovery. The new study is unique because it gives resource managers a better understanding of where bull trout in the Swan River basin originate, and which streams are most important to the species’ future.

“Everyone assumes that redd counts are the Holy Grail of assessing ecological health, but in the end we know there are a lot of things that happen between when a fish lays a redd down to when it spawns again,” Bourret said. “The hypothesis is that more redds equals more fish, but in reality it’s more nuanced than that.”

The study, “Estimates of Spawning Stream Contributions to an Imperiled Bull Trout Metapopulation Utilizing Otolith Geochemistry and Redd Counts,” uses decades of bull trout spawning data and new research methods to see which streams produce the most bull trout in Swan Lake, which is an important waterbody for the threatened native trout. Along with the monitoring research, FWP operates a lake trout suppression program to limit predation of bull trout by nonnative species in Swan Lake.

To that end, local agency administrators were supportive of Bourret’s work to analyze the finer-grained details of bull trout spawning stream contributions.

“We continue working hard to ensure bull trout persevere in the Swan Lake system,” FWP Region 1 Supervisor Amber Steed said. “Sam’s research is an important piece of that effort.”

Bourret’s new study builds on that work by employing microchemical analysis. By analyzing small, bone-like calcium carbonate structures located in a fish’s inner ear, he can trace individual fish back to the streams where they hatched. The bone, called an otolith, acquires a new ring every day of the fish’s life, much like a tree’s concentric growth rings. All fish have them, and for decades scientists have counted the bands of the bone to determine the age of a fish, as well as to estimate population growth.

The bone also contains a record of its migration pathways — a kind of geochemical diary of where the fish swims on a given day, which can be used to map the entire life history of a fish within a lake or river network. As the otoliths grow, they record the unique mix of naturally occurring minerals found in the water where the fish first hatched.

Using otoliths collected from bull trout that were unintentionally caught during ongoing lake trout suppression efforts in Swan Lake, Bourret discovered that some streams in the Swan produce more surviving bull trout than redd counts alone would suggest, while others contribute fewer fish despite similar spawning activity.

“We’re not going to depart from using redd counts, but this is an interesting tidbit that tells you that redd counts don’t tell you the whole picture,” Bouret said. “And when you’re working with an extremely imperiled population like bull trout in the Swan, we need to look at all the nuances if we hope to improve their ecological health. If redd counts are checking your oil, this otolith microchemical comparison is like going under the hood and really taking a more detailed look at the engine and all its parts. Because if the engine dies, if the population crashes, we’ll be out of options.”

The findings give fisheries biologists a clearer picture of which streams are making the biggest contributions to the Swan Lake bull trout population. That information, while often bleak, will help guide future habitat restoration, monitoring efforts and conservation work where it can have the greatest benefit.

The study demonstrates how combining long-term monitoring with new research tools can help biologists make more informed decisions about where to focus conservation efforts and improve the outlook for one of Montana’s iconic native fish.

“Protecting the right tributaries today can help to ensure that future generations continue to see bull trout in the Swan River system,” Bourret said.

tscott@flatheadbeacon.com

The post Bull Trout Spawning Study Could Aid in Recovery of Imperiled Swan River Basin Population appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

That bothers some very powerful people. And they are doing everything they can to stop you.

Don’t be surprised. This has been going on for a hundred years.

Special interests and those who benefit from corrupt political spending don’t give up quietly. The Montana Chamber and those they purport to represent have made that clear. Their opposition campaign is a textbook political playbook — misinformation, gaslighting, and the construction of straw men designed to protect the very actors our initiative targets.

Here is what that playbook has looked like so far:

• Legal obstruction — They sued the state to block signature collection. The courts rejected it.
• Signature withdrawal campaigns — They tried to convince Montanans who signed the petition that they didn’t understand what they were signing. They did.
• Small business scare tactics — Their current messaging claims I-194 will silence small business owners. It will not.

The Small Business Lie

Let me be direct: The Montana Plan does not target small business owners. It levels the playing field between your neighbor’s hardware store and a multinational corporation with unlimited anonymous cash.

Under I-194, business owners retain the full right to write personal checks in support of local candidates and issues. Businesses may continue to educate the public and advocate for their industry on relevant issues, before and after any election. What changes is this: corporations will no longer be permitted to spend money to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues. That’s it. That is the measure. Simple. Clear. 

The Dark Money Distortion

Here’s the one that genuinely surprises me: our opponents have called The Montana Plan itself “dark money.” I’ll let that sink in. While other initiatives are spending MILLIONS, and millions of anonymous dark money was just spent in our primary, they are calling 13K American and Montana small donors ‘dark’ for giving an average of $25 bucks. Shameful.

The Transparent Election Initiative voluntarily discloses its individual donors. Every contributor to the I-194 ballot issue committee is publicly reported. We challenge our opponents to match that level of transparency. They won’t.

And on the subject of billionaires – yes, our opponents warn that billionaires will start spending in Montana elections if I-194 passes. You and I both know the truth: billionaires already spend in Montana elections. They just do it anonymously. The Montana Plan I-194 would ensure that every dollar flowing into a Montana political campaign, whether it’s from your neighbor down the street or a hedge fund manager in New York City, is fully and publicly disclosed. 

The billionaire from New York doesn’t want his or her name attached to the deeply negative, divisive ads we see every election cycle. That’s the whole point of dark money. I-194 ends that.

If the Montana Chamber is genuinely concerned about outside billionaire influence in our elections, I extend a public invitation right now: join us. Help pass The Montana Plan I-194 and let Montanans decide. Then we’ll pass the Maine proposal to limit superPAC spending. The fact that they won’t tell you everything about whose interests they are actually protecting.

Thank You, Montana

For a moment, I want to set the opposition aside and speak directly to you.

Thank you.

You proved in 2026 that an all-volunteer signature gathering effort is still possible. You proved that Montanans still have the grit, fierce independence, and the civic determination to build something from the ground up, without corporate dollars, without dark money, and without a political machine telling you what to do.

That is Montana. That has always been Montana.

Our state has a proud history of standing up to concentrated power — from the Copper Kings to today’s anonymous billionaires. I-194 is the next chapter in that story. It returns our elections to individual citizens — your voice, your name, your vote.

The Montana Plan is not complicated. Corporations cannot spend money to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues. Only individuals can. That’s the whole measure. If you believe elections should be decided by people and not by artificial persons and billionaires hiding their identities, then I-194 is your initiative.

Montana has always led. Let’s lead again.

Jeff Mangan is the Founder of the Transparent Election Initiative (TEI) and the lead proponent of I-194, The Montana Plan. Mangan served as Montana’s 12^th Commissioner of Political Practices from 2017-2023.

The post They’re Scared of You, Montana appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Brian Campbell, a field representative for Monson Fruit Company based in Washington and a cherry farmer on Finley Point, said a late-April cold front hovering around 30 degrees Fahrenheit froze some crops that dipped below freezing, while other orchards stayed above that threshold and were not impacted.

Flower bud-opening rates in some orchards ranged from 25% to 50% when temperatures in those locations dropped to 26 degrees, which made them vulnerable to the elements and resulted in a partial crop loss for some producers.

“The variation of four degrees is super crucial,” Campbell said. “There’s a 90% cull at 26 degrees and a 10% cull at 28 degrees. It varied from orchard to orchard and tree varieties make a difference.”

Lapin, Sweethearts and Rainiers make up most cherry varieties in the 86 orchards that are part of the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers cooperative, each of which has its own unique flavor and different climate tolerances.

The varieties typically tolerate Montana’s cold climate compared to other species in the Pacific Northwest that are meant for hotter temperatures. Some producers still have decades-old Lambert trees on their properties, which were historically cold-tolerant but weren’t as lucrative because the cherries lose their firmness after a few days on a shipping truck.

Campbell described Lapins as a dark, sweet “work horse,” representing a hardy cherry that’s less prone to splitting — another challenge producers are facing this year after recent prolonged rain.

An overabundance of moisture during certain cherry stages can infiltrate the skin’s permeable membrane, absorbing the water and causing the skin to expand and split.

Small splits don’t have a dramatic impact on the cherry crop, Campbell said, but the openings speed up the rotting process.

Despite the environmental factors that resulted in a mediocre crop this year, this summer’s harvest is dramatically better than two years ago when sharp temperature swings in January caused a near-total crop loss.

Above freezing temperatures followed by an Arctic front that dropped temperatures close to 60 degrees within a few days killed the cherry buds and even some trees.

After the 2024 loss, Campbell said the cherry trees overcompensated the following year in a process called stress-induced flowering, over producing low-quality fruit.

“It’s nature’s way of compensating so they just spit out a ton of blooms — what we call a snowball bloom,” Campbell said. “Everything is just totally white, and we had really good pollination and just had a gazillion cherries.”

But that oversupply also followed Washington’s overproducing trends, leading to a drop in demand and a dip in pricing.

“The market was really bad last year because we had an overabundance of small cherries,” Campbell said.

But this year, a scant supply from Washington will trigger a high demand for Flathead cherries and a spike in prices.

While roughly two-thirds of Flathead Lake Cherry Growers cooperative harvests are sent to Washington for packaging and distribution, the remaining fruit will be on stands along the east shore starting in mid-July.

“I think the majority of stands will open July 15,” Campbell said.

maggie@flatheadbeacon.com

The post Flathead Cherry Producers Say Harvests are ‘Hit or Miss’ this Summer appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

Where: 163 Crestview Dr.   

Price: $799,900

What: Five-bedroom, five-bath home

Square Feet: 2,684

This home has filtered views of Flathead Lake and an expansive floor plan, vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. It also features a chef’s kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances. Outside is a massive deck overlooking a level lawn and fully fenced backyard. Performance Real Estate

MLS Number: 30067100

Lakeside

Where: 203 Rimini Rd.             

Price: $799,000

What: Four-bedroom, three-bath home

Square Feet: 2,793

This home is perched on a private 1-acres homesite overlooking Flathead Lake and has sweeping lake views. It features a large primary suite and fully remodeled additional dwelling unit with a private entrance and parking. Outside is an expansive deck that offers a stunning setting for entertaining. eXp Realty

MLS Number: 30070893

Columbia Falls

Where: 1924 Rapids Ave.   

Price: $820,000

What: Four-bedroom, three-bath home

Square Feet: 2,002

This thoughtfully designed ranch home in River Terrace Estates has an open concept living area and sits 0.67 acres. It has contemporary finishes, vaulted ceiling and striking architectural windows with expansive views of the Columbia Mountain Range. Outside is a beautifully landscaped yard and nearby community walking trail. Performance Real Estate

MLS Number: 30072082

Whitefish

Where: 435 Dakota Ave.           

Price: $799,900

What: One-bedroom, one-bath home

Square Feet: 728

This home sits on a 3/4-acre lot just minutes from Whitefish City Beach. The property is zoned for single-family, duplex, or accessory dwelling unit. The property includes a small cabin of minimal value that has been winterized since 2024, along with a detached two-car garage. RE/MAX Rocky Mountain Real Estate   

MLS Number: 30067082

Romy Caro, an agent with PureWest Real Estate, has been a Realtor since 2004. Her experience includes sales in residential, land, waterfront, vacation and recreational properties. Whether you are ready now or just thinking about making some real estate decisions, contact Romy at romy@purewestmt.com.

The post Floor Space: What You Can Buy for About $800,000 appeared first on Flathead Beacon.

While these are all strong indicators we’re headed toward another beautiful summer in the Flathead, it also means professional baseball in the valley is right around the corner — and for the Coopman family, it means counting down the days until they host yet another young Glacier Range Riders player. 

On the eve of the player’s May arrival at the family’s Lakeside home, Meredith, the matriarch of the Coopman clan, fired off a text containing a very important question for their soon-to-be roommate, who is the eighth player the family has hosted for the ball club. 

“What kind of groceries do you want?”

Part of the Pioneer Baseball League, the Glacier Range Riders debuted in the Flathead Valley in the summer of 2022 and, in the five seasons since, the organization has worked to integrate itself — and baseball — into the community beyond its home at Glacier Bank Park on McDermott Lane in Kalispell.

The Range Riders’ host family program has offered one way of doing so through a necessary, yet mutually beneficial, arrangement. 

To align with Major League Baseball (MLB) standards, the Range Riders must provide players with suitable housing. To do this, the organization turns to families in the valley who graciously open up their homes to members of the team.

Athletes hailing from New York to California come to play for the Range Riders, meaning the organization relies on families with a spare room or two to offer a comfortable space and welcoming environment for its more than 30-man roster throughout the season.

While the main requirement is to offer a pleasant living experience for the players, many families “go above and beyond,” often hosting team meals and showing the out-of-towners all the natural beauty the Flathead has to offer in the summer. 

“Over the past four years, it’s been awesome to see the relationships develop between host families and the players and staff members,” said Team Services Manager Josh Nichols, who manages the host family program. “I think the coolest part is seeing all the host families in the stands each night cheering on their player all summer long.” 

Few host families embody going the extra mile (or in this case, base) more than Meredith and Cory Coopman, and their teenage sons Eli and Easton.

The Coopmans were introduced to the Range Riders even before the first bat was swung or first bratwurst was served in 2022, learning of the organization through a personal connection with assistant coach and baseball veteran Stu Pederson. Being the “big baseball family” that they are, the Coopmans decided they wanted to get involved beyond just repping the olive green and red club colors. 

“We knew one of the coaches, and just got introduced to the organization, and we were like, ‘Hey, why not try this out and see,’” Cory Coopman said.

Next thing the family knew, a fresh college grad with big league dreams was on his way to the valley — his summer mailing address set to be the Coopmans’ home along Flathead Lake. 

Even five years later, Meredith Coopman can still remember her family’s nerves ahead of the big homecoming, especially for her young sons, who were scared to even venture off the school bus that day, she said.

“We were really nervous going into it, and when we came home, we saw this little white Toyota Camry,” her oldest son, Eli, said. “It was a rental car, which actually a couple days later his dad drove down his big truck, but we’re just like, ‘oh, he drives a Camry.’”

“We were super nervous; I mean, we still are. Every year, we’re always super anxious to find out who we have. I usually, right away after we find out their name, I look them up on Instagram.”

The good news for the young Coopmans, however, was that they certainly weren’t the only ones with some nerves about their new living arrangement.

Roughly 1,600 miles away, Logan VanWey, who now plays for the Houston Astros, was preparing to head to Kalispell — the furthest he had ever lived away from home — after finishing his college career at Division II Missouri Southern State University.

“There’s a lot of emotions,” VanWey said. “I was just doing a tryout. I thought I was on the team. I didn’t know I was driving all the way up to do a tryout. So, I was driving up for that; you’re 26 hours away from friends and family. It’s a little bit of an uncomfortable environment, but I got in. I got my host parents and from day one, I couldn’t say enough good things about them.” 

Roy Robles, who stayed with the Coopmans in 2023, has played baseball his whole life, staying with multiple host families over the course of his career. No matter how many times he’s done it, the first time meeting a host family is always filled with nerves, he said. 

“You don’t know what to expect because it’s something new, so the very first day that I made it through spring training with the Glacier Range Riders, I was told that I was going to the Coopman house,” Robles said. “I met Cory and automatically, I could just tell that they were great people. He made me feel very comfortable.”

Robles said he’ll never forget his first time meeting all the Coopmans — a memory also earmarked as a favorite by the family. 

“I met Cory in the driveway of their house,” Robles said. “He set me up in my bedroom and made me feel at home. They all came home. We went and saw Easton play some baseball and we went out to dinner. 

“I felt like when I first met them, I’d known them my whole life. It’s been like that the whole time I stayed with them. I just feel like they brought me in as family.”

Becoming part of the family is a common thread tying together both the Coopmans and players whom they’ve hosted, from Sunday dinners after afternoon game days to days spent out on Flathead Lake.

“We’ve got a family chat, and we have a chat with the player, and when they’re staying, we pretty much never text in the family chat because they’re part of the family,” Eli Coopman said.

For the Coopmans, being a host family is about much more than providing room and board. 

“It’s not just a place for them to stay; they become part of the family,” Cory Coopman said. “We establish long-term relationships. We were invited to Roy’s wedding, and they all talk about coming back and visiting.” 

“There’s been times where Meredith would stay up for them to get home to make sure they were okay,” he said.

“I’m like, you’re my kid now,” Meredith Coopman added with a laugh.

Bringing in players as family has also resulted in an ever-growing group of older brothers for Eli, Easton and their friends, as Range Riders players would often help at their baseball practices or come to watch games, the Coopmans said. 

“It’s just exciting every year waiting to see who your player is, then once you finally meet him, just seeing how you bond throughout the year; I think that’s really unexpected,” Eli Coopman said. “I just kind of expected an older kid, kind of just cocky and neglects us a little bit because we’re younger high school kids. But honestly, they just treat us like we’re one of their friends, and I think the most unexpected thing is just the brotherhood you get from it.”

With the players often hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from family of their own, the feeling of a brotherhood is mutual.

“I have three younger sisters, so being able to live with the two boys was fun for me,” John “JT” Mabry, the Coopman’s most recent house guest, said. “They were like little brothers that I didn’t have and it was fun.”

From fishing on kayaks at the lake to late nights playing Fortnite or Rocket League, their little brothers for the summer often offered a fun outlet to balance the grind of a nearly 100-game season.

“[Easton’s] a freaking savage playing PlayStation,” Robles said laughing to himself. “I stayed in the basement, so they’d come down there and play and I’d pop over there and play with them. We still play to this day, which is cool.”

While the players may be another brother for the young Coopmans to have fun with over the summer, the experience of living with a professional baseball player also provides an invaluable opportunity of seeing what it takes to chase your dreams, Cory Coopman said.

“Our takeaway from having the guys staying with us is that the boys saw what it takes,” Cory Coopman said. “Life isn’t handed to you. You have to go and get what you want, and you have to go work for your dreams.

“The boys that have stayed with us, they’re all hardworking, dedicated kids that are focused and they’re putting in the work. So whether it’s baseball or whatever they do in life, it was good to see them as examples or role models.”

The Range Riders players have also been a resource and have offered a direct line of communication for Eli Coopman, who recently committed to play both collegiate baseball and football.

“After Logan got the call-up, I was struggling … with something about my pitching, and I just texted him, and I asked him for some advice,” Eli Coopman said. “I sent him videos, and he helped me with some stuff. It’s just cool you can literally have a professional baseball player in your house and you can just go ask.”

And while the players have become a crucial presence in Eli’s athletic career, the Coopman family has also been able to return the favor, their former players said. 

“Host families are huge,” Mabry said. “Not that it makes or breaks your summer, but it does have a huge impact on you when you have a good host family. It makes everything a lot easier, so I got really lucky with the Coopmans. They’re great people and they’ve been doing it for a long time, so they know how to make you feel at home.”

Having a good host family experience is especially helpful when navigating in the day-to-day grind of constantly “competing for a job,” with Robles saying it’s always nice to see a familiar face in the stands when family from back home can’t make it to a game. 

“[The Coopmans] are very busy,” Robles said. “They work their butts off for what they do for their job. They come home, they take their boys to their sporting events and then when they have time, they’d make it to my games … and they still had dinner sitting there waiting for me.”

“Anything that I needed, they made it so easy,” he added. “All I had to worry about was getting to the field on time and then … getting back safe. That was it.”

Being another support system for players in these vulnerable, intense times makes it that much more satisfying seeing them make it to the next level — something the Coopmans got to witness in their first year as a host family with Logan VanWey. 

VanWey made nine appearances for the Range Riders in 2022 before signing as an undrafted free agent with the Houston Astros. VanWey’s season that summer finished in the Florida Complex League, followed by stints in Asheville, North Carolina; Corpus Christi, Texas; and then Sugar Land, Texas, where he played the entirety of 2024 with the Houston Astros Triple A affiliate Sugar Land Space Cowboys.

In April 2025, VanWey made his MLB debut against the Los Angeles Angels, facing seven batters across two innings, retiring six of them and giving up no hits and no runs on 24 pitches. He was just the second Pioneer Baseball League player to make an MLB appearance since the restructuring of the league to an MLB Partner League in 2020.

“The day he got moved to the big leagues, they showed him pitching on TV, and then they pan over to his parents and his girlfriend that are in the stands, and they’re all crying,” Cory Coopman said. “We’re even getting emotional, right? Because you’re bonded to this kid. And then our family knew his family, too, because they had come up and visited, and it was cool to see, like, they did it. He did it. The dream came true.”

Despite the short stint with the Coopmans, VanWey continues to keep in touch with the Coopmans, still talking with the family once or twice a month. During the summer when he made the move to the minor league in Florida, VanWey invited the Coopmans out to watch spring training games and tour the facilities. 

“Just them getting to see the facility that I had told them about … it’s just a really cool place to get to spend a spring training, and them getting to see that I thought was awesome, especially them being a part of my journey,” VanWey said. “Starting off, I’m out of college and it’s all on you now. You gotta do what you gotta do to create your own path to the big leagues and they’re a big part of that.”

But whether the players make it to the MLB or their playing career comes to a close in a Range Riders uniform, each one has walked away with a lifelong connection to the Coopmans and the Flathead Valley. 

“For me, it’s the after-the-fact stuff,” Meredith Coopman said. “After they’ve left, they keep in touch and wish us happy Mother’s Day and happy Father’s Day, and invite us to weddings, and check in.” 

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