Flathead Valley Business: Kalispell, Montana News

Like many investors in a shaky economy, Flathead County is always looking for the best deal for its money. So when interest rates plummeted for the state’s Short-term Investment Pool program, the county pulled its share out.

County Treasurer Adele Krantz said the county had upwards of $35 million in the STIP program at the beginning of the year. The program is a statewide money pool where government agencies must keep their surplus money and cities and counties may invest their surpluses. It is overseen by the State Board of Investments.

There is a move across the country to encourage renewable electrical power and several bills are moving through Congress mandating its usage. While many loudly shout about the positive use of alternative and renewable energy along with the need for America to be independent of foreign oil, they also do all they can to roadblock using wood to create biomass power. The opposition puzzles me and at some point those folks need a serious rethinking of what biomass power means to the future of Montana and the nation’s energy supply.

WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.

Nearly 16 million people can't find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are scrambling to secure enough support to pass President Barack Obama's historic health overhaul initiative, working to soothe last-minute concerns from rank-and-file Democrats ahead of a make-or-break vote.

Voting is set for Saturday on the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that embraces Obama's goals of extending health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and putting tough new restrictions on insurance companies.

BOZEMAN – The owner of a downtown Bozeman bar has filed the seventh lawsuit against NorthWestern Energy over a deadly March 5 natural gas explosion.

Ralph Ferraro's Rocking R Bar was heavily damaged by the blast and ensuing fire that destroyed half a city block. He filed the lawsuit in Gallatin County District Court on Wednesday, alleging the utility company and Leonard Leveaux, NorthWestern's manager of gas system integrity, knew or should have known that pipes in the downtown area were old and susceptible to cracking.

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats sidestepped a Republican boycott Thursday, pushing a climate bill out of committee in an early step on a long and contentious road to passage.

Other committees still must weigh-in on the measure, but the partisan antics early on threatened to cast a pall over the bill — one of President Barack Obama's top priorities — as it makes its way to the Senate floor and as nations prepare to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month to hammer out a new international treaty to slow climate change.

HELENA – Montana tax collections through the first four months of the budget year are $92.8 million, or 22 percent, less than a year ago, according to a new legislative report.

Terry Johnson of the Legislative Fiscal Division said taking into account potential revenue shortfalls from individual and corporate income taxes and potential higher oil and gas production taxes, the state's general fund revenues for the fiscal year could be anywhere from $51 million to $129 million less than lawmakers forecast.

NEW YORK – Consumers, enticed by cooler weather, early holiday discounts and an improving economy, spent a little more in October, handing the retail industry its second consecutive monthly sales gain after more than a year of declines.

Even affluent shoppers, who had been tight with their purses since the financial meltdown ballooned last year, spent more for designer duds.