Tourism surge is good news
Inter Lake editorial
Surely gas prices have something to do with it. But whatever the reason, it's good news that Glacier National Park visitor numbers are significantly higher this year compared to last.
Visitation was up 14 percent for the first six months of the year, and there is no reason to expect that trend not to continue through the remaining busy months of summer in the park.
For years, Montana tourism officials insisted that gas prices had very little influence on visitor travel, but they've conceded that last summer was very different, with unprecedented fuel prices exceeding $4 a gallon surely having an impact on travel in such a large state.
With any luck in the way of a slow fire season and continued fair weather, the tourism rebound will continue.
SEMITOOL, one of Kalispell's biggest and most reliable employers, is teaming up with one of the newest, Zinc Air, to explore what could turn out to be a major opportunity in a new technology.
Zinc Air is working on development of sustainable energy storage devices, in particular something called "electrochemical flow batteries." These large-scale chemical batteries can be used to make alternative energy sources such as wind turbines much more reliable.
Considering how much attention is now focused on alternative energy, this looks like a great opportunity.
IF YOU GOT the message that cell phones are dangerous while driving, it's not thanks to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In a monumental wrong turn, the agency decided not to release hundreds of pages of research on the hazards of drivers using cell phones. The reason? Fear of how Congress would react!
Turns out some members of Congress had warned the agency not to lobby the states, and there was a fear of budget repercussions.
That's a sorry reminder of how things work in Washington, D.C., where potentially life-saving information is valued not as a service to the public, but as political capital to be buttonholed or squandered depending on the effect on careers.
What a sad state of affairs.