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If you want to visualize Missoula’s timber history, ride a bike. Start at Bonner Elementary School and wonder at the massive yellow structure across the street. That was once the world’s largest plywood plant. Behind it was a sawmill. And right across the river was another sawmill. Logs arrived at first by floating down the Blackfoot River. Through the first half of the 20th century, the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. mainly squared them off for mine tunnel timbers, tossing away slabs that today’s mills would turn into 2-by-12s. Bonner Elementary School had a “slab yard” as big as a playground,

Suspect you may have lost track of a 401(k) retirement account or pension benefit? You aren’t alone. As Americans jump from job to job, they are leaving more 401(k)-style accounts and pension benefits with ex-employers. Some lose track of the money, forfeiting a piece of their retirement security. While no one keeps exact tabs on the number of lost retirement accounts, human-resources consulting firm Aon Hewitt estimates that as many as 30% of all pension accounts may ultimately fall into this category—either because a plan can no longer locate former employees who move or change names, or because a participant forgets that

State officials have identified another possible presence of invasive mussels in Montana, this time in the Missouri River south of Townsend. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Wednesday that mussel larvae were confirmed from water samples taken Tuesday in the Missouri River near the York’s Islands Fishing Access Site. FWP officials are searching for mussels to identify if an adult population has already been established. The Missouri River is now the third water body in Montana that is suspected of being infiltrated by aquatic invasive species. Tiber Reservoir in north-central Montana east of Shelby tested positive for the larvae of aquatic mussels, and tests from

U.S. Senator Steve Daines and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox today released the following statement on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) rejection of Montana’s application for an extension on REAL ID compliance: “Montanans have spoken loud and clear: we don’t want REAL ID and we don’t want the federal government infringing on our personal privacy,” Daines stated. “I’m going to work to pursue every legislative fix I can to safeguard Montanans’ civil liberties and personal privacy.” “Montana has emphatically rejected the invasion of personal privacy by requiring sharing of private information with the federal government, and other states, through

 Montana residents won’t be allowed to use their driver’s licenses to access military bases, nuclear power plants and federal facilities starting Jan. 30, and they’ll need another form of identification to board commercial aircraft a year after that, federal officials said Tuesday. Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent Montana Gov. Steve Bullock a letter rejecting the governor’s request to delay implementation of the federal Real ID Act of 2005 The state previously received two one-year extensions, but won’t get a third. There is no evidence that Montana will commit to meeting the requirements of the federal law