Come learn all about agriculture at the new “Ag Sprouts” Building during the 2012 MontanaFair.

Hosted by the Montana Agri-Women, events will feature fun and educational activities to promote crop and animal production for the entire family.

Each day from Noon to 8 p.m. provides an opportunity for kids to enjoy a petting zoo, a daily rodeo, farm toys in sand and grain boxes and animal demonstrations that include a pig, goat, rabbit, chicken, a miniature donkey and horses. The “Ag Sprouts” Building Theater will feature family friendly videos of farmers and ranchers telling their stories of where our food comes from and how it is produced. In addition, horse clinics and heritage presentations will take place throughout the week.

“Learn first-hand how Montana Agri-Women promote and provide reliable information about all aspects of agriculture,” says Maggie Howley, MAW president. “We thank MontanaFair for giving us an opportunity to help continue the agriculture traditions of a county fair and to give urban kids and their parents a positive agricultural experience.”

Make a note of these daily “Ag Sprouts” Building events and times:

Continue reading: Ag Sprouts events added

Here are highlights of the MontanaFair schedule:

Friday, August 10

•8 a.m. 4-H Horse Show, SuperBarn

•1 p.m. Horse Show, Trail Classes, outdoor arena

•6 p.m. 4-H Pocket Pet Show, Grandstand

•6 p.m. Sneak a Peek, with gate cost of $4 and $20 for a wristband

Continue reading: MontanaFair Calendar

In an effort to highlight and respond to the increasing focus on oil, natural gas and coal resources in Montana, as well as the oil play in the Bakken formation in Eastern Montana and western North Dakota, prominent energy industry leaders and businesses will provide a forum for local businesses to develop and exchange information at the first Energy Day at the 2012 MontanaFair.

In partnership with MetraPark, Synergy Station of Billings, Kinetic Marketing Group, Blast Creative, Montana Energy Forum, the Billings Chamber of Commerce and collaborative community partners bring the “Best of Show” agricultural theme typically seen in a traditional fair setting to Energy Day on Aug. 16 in the Heritage Building with a full day of educational exhibits, entertaining events and numerous networking opportunities for local business people to connect with oil industry and energy companies, job seekers and potential employers and workforce developers.

Although Energy Day is formally on Thursday, Aug. 16, the energy focus continues for the duration of the MontanaFair through Saturday, Aug. 18. More than 40 exhibits will be housed inside the classic Heritage Building, while a number of static equipment displays will be featured outside. Oil field companies plan to display various pieces of oil field equipment for fair goers to get a firsthand look.

Energy Day partners have developed a website at www.montanaenergyday.com to keep those interested informed of activities during Energy Days at MontanaFair. Events for business owners include a “Best of Show” competition, speed dating for businesses, and a private pre–Yellowstone River Roundup PRCA rodeo reception. For the public touring the Heritage Building there will be various presentations on various topics of interest such as mineral and water rights and Bakken oil field community impacts. 

For information on Energy Day contact synergystation.com at 696-5433 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Continue reading: 1st Energy Day slated

By ALAN SCULLEY - Last Word Features

Chris Isaak has known for a long time that he wanted to do a CD of his versions of songs by the early rock and roll artists that inspired his own music.

Not only did Isaak want to pay tribute to his musical heroes, he wanted to correct the issues he had with albums by other artists that covered the same early rock era.

“I always thought that most people who played it didn’t do it the way I wanted it done,” Isaak said in a mid-July phone interview. “They either rocked it up too much, didn’t have the right kind of voice for it or something. They just didn’t have the right feel that I wanted, so I was really happy to get to do this.”

Fans are getting to judge Isaak’s vision for a ’50s covers album themselves now that his latest CD, “Beyond the Sun,” is out. But one thing that can’t be debated is that he did things that bring a real authenticity to the album.

For one thing, Isaak and his longtime band made the CD at Sun Studio in Memphis – the very facility where the artists he covered recorded the classic songs that played a huge role in shaping rock and roll.

Continue reading: Chris Isaak follows Sun on album of rock covers

FLASH IN THE PAN

Story and photo - By ARI LEVAUX

@arilevaux

It appears that kale is succeeding where spinach and other green things have consistently failed: in the task of getting swallowed by children. The key is to bake the kale into crispy chips. In kale chip taste tests recently conducted in Montana, it was determined that kids will eagerly turn their mouths green with extra helpings.

The evidence was convincing enough that the food purchaser for Missoula County Public Schools placed a kale order with a local farm, to be delivered for the fall term. Edward Christensen, assistant supervisor of food and nutrition for Missoula schools, says the taste test was the final and most crucial hurdle, but the fact that kale is so healthful and grows so well in his region makes it especially attractive.

“Kale is disease and pest resistant, and cold tolerant,” he says. “It’s the low-hanging fruit of Montana.”

Continue reading: ‘Ninja chips’ of kale healthy, appealing to kids

By JANE WHITE - The Billings Outpost

“Are kids so focused on their handhelds that they miss their surroundings?” asks Lynne Montague, whose recent self-published first book, “Rim Haven,” celebrates the appearances, for almost a decade and a half now, of  Billings’ Rimrocks-dwelling creatures that visit, drink, kill, threaten to kill, eat all the blossoms, sleep and migrate in and out of her backyard.

“It feels like we are all just too computer-conscious,” laments Montague.

On the contrary! Dedicated to close and penetrating observation of her surroundings, Montague is a painter. Blue horses, reminiscent of “Blue Rider” by the great Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky - the Father of Abstract Expressionism - amble across the walls of her home and many canvasses there. An entire bookcase strains to hold countless, heavy, coffee table books on art, artists and how exposure to the arts helps people learn.

An expanse of glass windows showcases the backyard, in which she observes, photographs and records every single sighting of the seven-point buck, his does and fawns, a red fox, a ferocious bobcat and her small litter, red and gray squirrels, several types of hawks, nuthatches, warblers, blue jays, wild turkeys, chickadees, screech owls, sparrows, hummingbirds, waxwings, buntings, wrens, finches, one pheasant and numerous types of butterflies and dragonflies. Through the glass windows, Lynne and her husband, Jay, create a microclimate that invites the fauna of the rims to descend and rest a while. Water is the key.

Continue reading: ‘Rim Haven’ attracts wide variety of animals

Big Sky Economic Development

When starting a business, not many entrepreneurs think to ask themselves questions such as: How good am I at making decisions? Am I prepared if necessary to temporarily lower my standard of living until my business is firmly established? Or how will my business affect my family?

Big Sky Economic Development recently released, for the first time, a New Business Startup Kit – a 28-page resource guide - complete with everything a business needs to get started in Yellowstone County. The new guide asks entrepreneurs business questions and provides a directory of resources needed to get their business established before actually putting ideas into action.

The New Business Startup Kit includes the “The New Business Checklist,” which provides entrepreneurs with a balance of questions that help guide what the business will be, its structure and how it will be funded. Then the kit walks through starting a formal business plan encouraging future business owners to complete a feasibility strategy, determine cash needs, research demographic information, legal aspects, zoning and employer tax responsibilities. The guide goes so far as sharing how to connect to utilities and includes a complete glossary of terms.

“We always encourage entrepreneurs to reach out to resources such as the Small Business Development Center when thinking about launching a business,” said Rebecca Hedegaard, the director of the SBDC housed at Big Sky Economic Development, “but the New Business Startup Kit provides some really great on-the-ground information all in one document.”

Continue reading: Business Kit offered

YONKERS, N.Y. - Billings Clinic was rated the highest scoring hospital in the nation for safety in a recent report by Consumer Reports.

It was the first time Consumer Reports has rated U.S. hospitals for safety, combining six key measures into one composite Rating. Overall, Consumer Reports rates 1,159 hospitals in 44 states in four special regional editions of its August issue and online at www.ConsumerReports.org.

Billings Clinic got the top score in part because it reported very low rates of double CT scans and bloodstream infections.

Mark Rumans, the hospital’s physician-in-chief, said that doctors who practice there are part of an integrated system, which fosters teamwork.

No other Montana hospitals rated either in the top or bottom 10 on Consumer Reports’ list.

Continue reading: Billings Clinic tops for safety

The Billings Chamber of Commerce/Convention and Visitors Bureau has announced its 2012-2013 Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

Greg Kohn of Rocky Mountain College is the new board chairman. He heads the Executive Committee, which also includes:

Karen Fagg of H-B Property Montana, chairman elect and chairman of business advocacy.

Ron Yates of Eide Bailly, treasurer and chairman of the Finance Committee.

David Irion of St. Vincent Healthcare, immediate past chairman.

Continue reading: Chamber board named

University of Montana Bureau - of Business and Economic Research

MISSOULA – Construction of the Otter Creek coal mine would significantly boost Montana jobs, household income and tax revenues as the Asian demand for the resource expands, according to an economic impact study conducted by economists Patrick Barkey and Paul Polzin of The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

According to the report, “The Impact of Otter Creek Coal Development on the Montana Economy,” construction of the Otter Creek mine proposed by Arch Coal, new rail development and related infrastructure represents a total investment approaching $1 billion.

During the permitting and construction phase, the project is expected to create 2,648 construction jobs in Montana in the peak building year, with most new jobs created in Eastern Montana, the study found.

Statewide impacts on income for Montana households during the peak construction year would be similarly substantial, with $103.5 million of new personal income generated. In Eastern Montana total household earnings would increase more than 8 percent.

BBER’s study found that Otter Creek would generate substantial economic impacts during the operations phase as well. About 1,740 new permanent, year-round jobs would be created in the Montana economy while the mine is operating, increasing household income by $125.4 million per year. The overall state population would increase by 2,850 people and the school-aged population by more than 560 students.

Continue reading: Study projects impact of Otter Creek mining