http://www.newwest.net/topic/main/C36/L36/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:29:04 MST Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:29:04 MST This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/QZs0HAdQ11k/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/city_of_bozeman_demands_passwords_from_job_applicants/C36/L36/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:32:47 MST Raising privacy and civil liberties issues, job applicants to the city of Bozeman are not only required to list all their social media accounts, but their passwords as well. "Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. The application shows a space for passwords. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/city_of_bozeman_demands_passwords_from_job_applicants/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/dsYlkzDHWdE/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/this_isnt_the_first_recession_nor_the_worst_so_far/C36/L36/ Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:06:03 MST This painful economic cycle may end a 30-year stretch of moderate ups and downs, but it's about average compared to the worst 10 recessions since World War II. That's one lesson immediately apparent after checking out the graphs and statistics on a new Web page on the site of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. "Our main reason wasn't to push any line," explained senior economist Terry Fitzgerald. "But it's important to look at the data and keep things in perspective." http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/this_isnt_the_first_recession_nor_the_worst_so_far/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/ScvRMtsN4-g/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/realty_board_number_of_agents_is_falling_fast/C36/L36/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:33:40 MST It seems not many people want to be real estate agents anymore, and established agents are getting out of the business like never before. About 40 percent fewer new real estate agents received a license from the Montana Board of Realty Regulation in 2008, and about 15 percent of old members didn't renew last year, said Grace Berger, head of the state's regulatory agency. Here are the numbers: Last year about 500 new applicants passed the requirements to become a real estate agent in Montana, down from about 800 in 2007. That year capped about a decade of growth in the number of licensed agents in Montana. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/realty_board_number_of_agents_is_falling_fast/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/9R9F33UzDgU/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/downturn_has_builders_in_bankruptcy_or_just_getting_out/C36/L36/ Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:40:36 MST Small construction companies are seeking bankruptcy protection in Montana like never before, say Montana bankruptcy lawyers. "They're just getting out. Selling everything and going," said James Screnar of Screnar Law Firm in Bozeman whose clients include North American Pipe and Welding of Three Forks. Many of the contractors have filed for Chapter 7s -- which amount to a liquidation -- because they don't see a future, Screnar said. He described scenarios in which developers commissioned work but didn't pay, while contractors and subs ordered materials -- wood or drywall or pipe -- on credit. When the developed couldn't sell the homes, the contractors didn't get paid, either. Many are stuck with the debts to suppliers. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/downturn_has_builders_in_bankruptcy_or_just_getting_out/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/5NrllE9lEls/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/go_back_to_square_one_says_montana_supreme_court_to_rock_creek_mine/C36/L36/ Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:01:41 MST The Montana Supreme Court Thursday handed a victory to those seeking to protect Montana's waterways and dealt a setback to the proposed Rock Creek Mine near Noxon. "Absolutely. This is a victory," said Clark Fork Coalition director Karen Knudsen, about the ruling that voided the Revett Minerals' permit to discharge up to 3.3 million gallons of polluted water per day into the Clark Fork River. A collection of conservation groups had challenged the water quality permit, issued in 2001. The mine has been on the drawing board for more than 30 years. The ruling overturned a previous ruling from district court, which OK'd the Montana Department of Environmental Quality decision to deem the discharge "nonsignificant," thus allowing the mine to avoid a more rigorous "non-degradation analysis." http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/go_back_to_square_one_says_montana_supreme_court_to_rock_creek_mine/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/5qC2_ARt1qY/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/schweitzer_hey_obama_how_about_some_infrastructure/C36/L36/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:14:39 MST Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who was just voted head of the National Governors Association, wants the administration of Barack Obama to help Montana to build an electrical transmission line to deliver electricity produced in the state to markets across the country. "Montana is dead center in the middle of the most important energy corridor on the planet," Schweitzer said. "We're ready, willing and able to lead the country and world in developing energy." But Schweitzer doesn't want the Obama administration to tell him how or where the energy should be developed. Schweitzer and other governors also asked for major investments for roads and bridges and other infrastructure. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/schweitzer_hey_obama_how_about_some_infrastructure/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/3PpIBDfD1Io/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/credit_suisse_prepares_to_continue_legal_fight_for_yellowstone_club/C36/L36/ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:22:20 MST Edra Blixseth will be deposed by Credit Suisse lawyers this Saturday in California as part of the ongoing legal battle over control of the debt-riddled and bankrupt Yellowstone Club near Bozeman. In notices filed late Wednesday, Credit Suisse said it plans to depose Sam Byrne of CrossHarbor Capital Partners, the Boston-based hedge fund that won a struggle to fund the penniless club until the end of April, as well as the club's professional managers and a representative of the leading member group. Edra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the Yellowstone Club on Nov. 10, citing debts of more than $360 million. The club had no money and was on the brink of closure. The largest creditor is a collection of investors led by Credit Suisse, who are owed more than $307 million. Chapter 11 allows a business to remain open while reorganizing its debt. Edra won control of the club in August after a bitter divorce with Tim Blixseth, the club's founder, and the architect of its monumental debt. So far in the proceeding, Tim has been notably absent, although a lawyer representing him recently signed onto the case. When Edra took over the club, its finances were in shambles, its accounts virtually empty. More than $88 million in member deposits had disappeared. Some news outlets have described the Yellowstone Club as the victim of the worldwide financial crunch, but at the bankruptcy hearings it seems the club was a financial train-wreck-in-progress years ago. Member deposits of more than $88 million, for instance, are gone, and one allegation in a previous lawsuit says Tim and Edra Blixseth funneled more than $200 million of the Credit Suisse loan to themselves as profit, spending it on private jets and California mansions. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/credit_suisse_prepares_to_continue_legal_fight_for_yellowstone_club/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/N915fl0D_r8/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/at_an_old_millsite_big_plans_get_put_on_ice/C36/L36/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:09:24 MST A prominent brownfield clean-and-build project in downtown Missoula has been put on hold until the economy picks up. The weed-infested former Champion Mill site just west of Ogren Field, the home of Missoula's minor league baseball team, has long been an example of urban blight and a symbol of the lost glory days of Montana's logging industry. More than two years ago, local developer Kevin Mytty and finance partner Ed Wetherbee teamed with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency and others to clean the land of its minor environmental contaminants -- basically a lot of sawdust -- and transform it into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood with houses, apartments, townhouses and space for commercial and retail tenants. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/at_an_old_millsite_big_plans_get_put_on_ice/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/4OIrV814isE/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/crossharbor_wins_inside_track_in_yellowstone_club_bankruptcy/C36/L36/ Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:17:46 MST A hard-fought struggle for control of the bankrupt Yellowstone Club ended mid-afternoon on Wednesday when a federal bankruptcy judge gave CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based hedge fund, the right to loan the club $20 million while it reorganizes its debt - a process that will likely last until the end of April. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher issued his order after weeks of negotiations and three days of court testimony. The Yellowstone Club filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 10, citing debts of more than $360 million, with about $311 million owed to investors assembled by international bank Credit Suisse. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/crossharbor_wins_inside_track_in_yellowstone_club_bankruptcy/C36/L36/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/businessneweconomy/~3/fEpZ21ssETQ/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/yellowstone_club_returns_to_bankruptcy_court_to_sink_further_into_debt/C36/L36/ Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:11:45 MST As Edra Blixseth and the Yellowstone Club return to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday, the central questions will not revolve around paying the club's debts -- but rather miring the club deeper in red ink. The club's lawyers filed a motion on Monday to ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph B. Kirscher to OK a second emergency loan to keep the club operating while in bankruptcy. Two weeks ago, the club where only the best would do didn't have enough money for propane for heat, or the shuttle to move employees to and from nearby towns, much less enough cash to actually pay those employees, even for one more day. That's when the club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Montana court. Chapter 11 allows a business to remain open while it makes a plan to pay its debts. The filing came in the wake of an ugly divorce between Edra Blixseth and ex-husband Tim, allegations of large-scale financial impropriety and the collapse of the high-end real estate market as well as the credit markets that funded it. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/yellowstone_club_returns_to_bankruptcy_court_to_sink_further_into_debt/C36/L36/