By T.J. GILLES - For The Outpost

Montana in general and Yellowstone County in particular were largely shielded from the excesses that brought on the recession, and now that it’s over, they aren’t going to spring back with any dramatic improvements, economists said here Tuesday.

“We think the worst is solidly behind us now,” said Patricj Barkey of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the Bureau’s 35th annual Economic Outlook Seminar.

Nationally, the turn-around seems to have begun this past summer.

“This recovery is going to be different than we had expected because the recession has been different,” Dr. Barkey said to a group of about 150 at Montana State University Billings. “It has been brutal to our asset values; it has wiped out our wealth … . It is, thankfully, over.”

By ADRIAN JAWORT - For The Outpost

George White, the guest speaker sponsored by the Montana Abolition Coalition to End the Death Penalty at Rocky Mountain College’s Fortin Auditorium, greeted the crowd this week as if he were addressing a jury: “Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I am not a lawyer. I am just a man … .”

Charlene and George White, or “Char” as he called her, had two children and were living their piece of the American dream in a town called Enterprise, Ala., in 1985. One night an unexpected phone call interrupted his planned dinner and movie date night, and White begrudgingly agreed to meet a customer at his store to get him a breaker part for a supposed emergency. His wife suggested she go with him to convince the customer they were in a hurry so they could make the movie.

After waiting some five minutes at the store, there was a knock on the door. “We were expecting a grateful customer; instead we were confronted by a man with a gun,” White said.