ID theft measure protects us all

In the often-fractious world of the Montana Legislature, it's somewhat unusual to see unanimity.

But the state Senate this week threw its unanimous support behind a bill that heralds good news for consumers.

The Senate voted 49-0 on final passage of a measure that allows consumers to block the use of their credit information. And that lopsided Senate vote followed 97-0 approval by the state House.

The bill would make Montana the first state in the nation to allow victims of identity theft to have credit information frozen within 24 hours of reporting to police. Other people would be able to freeze credit reporting for minimal fees ($3 to each national credit-reporting agency). This will allow citizens to protect their credit even before an ID theft happens.

And people can take this step via regular mail or e-mail.

Given the growing troubles with identity theft, this legislation is a welcome help for consumers. They will be able to prevent new credit from being established in their names - one of the most common schemes used by identity thieves.

This also is one way for people to take some measure of control over their credit reports.

It would appear that it's still a good time to be in the real-estate business in Northwest Montana.

The area's decade-long surge in real-estate sales continued last year, with a whopping $1.2 billion in sales volume, an 11 percent increase.

One sobering number, however, is that the median price for a home sold in 2006 was $235,250 - a 10 percent increase over the year before and not exactly a number that equates to affordability for many people.

That areawide price paled in comparison to scary numbers from places such as Lakeside/Somers (median price $405,000), Bigfork (median price $368,500) and Whitefish ($306,556).

We all got a little wake-up call on Thursday afternoon when Internet service was cut off for much of Northwest Montana and Idaho.

You don't realize how dependent you are on the electronic Web until it suddenly isn't there. While there may not have been major repercussions, there were surely a lot of frustrated people befuddled by blank browser pages and inactive e-mail.

Then again, for some people it probably was liberating. Maybe the lawn got raked, or a good book read.