Flathead Valley Business: Kalispell, Montana News

Plenty has been written over the last week or so about the Obama campaign's use of technology and social media (much less a zillion other things). There will be more as information about the design of the internals of the campaign are revealed or discovered.

Regardless of your politics, I suggest you read all of it, as there are important examples to use in your small business.

WASHINGTON – The government and the mortgage industry are set to announce the most sweeping effort yet to help troubled homeowners by speeding up the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of the two mortgage finance companies in September, scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. EST. Scheduled to attend were officials from the Treasury Department, Wells Fargo & Co., the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Hope Now, an alliance of mortgage companies organized by the Bush administration last year.

Kalispell City Council members gave a mixed response Monday night to a request by executives for grocery store chain Super 1 Foods to figure out how to erect a sign along Main Street, should the company wish to open a new store in the old Tidyman’s building. While council members expressed a strong desire to have a grocery store open on a large piece of downtown Kalispell property that has been sitting vacant for three years, they were also concerned that changing city sign laws for Super 1 Foods would result in every business owner in town located off of Main Street clamoring for a similar rule change to have a sign on the city’s main thoroughfare.

“If we allow this then we are actually opening up for the entire sign ordinance to go by the wayside,” Councilman Jim Atkinson said. “I think we have to look at the bigger picture and we can’t deny any other signs if we allow this, as far as I’m concerned.”

Semitool Inc. says it is laying off about 100 workers at its plants in Kalispell and Libby.

The firm has about 800 Montana employees including 37 workers in Libby, so the layoffs will affect just under 13 percent of Semitool's Montana work force.

BILLINGS – A spokesman for the Yellowstone Club says the exclusive resort for the super-rich has filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure financing for a planned expansion.

The members-only club in Montana's Gallatin Mountains boasts a private ski hill and golf course and counts Dan Quayle and Bill Gates among its members.

HELENA – Montana's securities commissioner has ordered a Tennessee-based oil and gas development company, accused of defrauding Montana investors, to pay more than $657,000 in fines and restitution.

Montana State Auditor John Morrison, who is also the securities commissioner, on Monday upheld the findings of an administrative hearing examiner who ordered fines of $510,000 and restitution of $147,513.