Tate Tatom Wins a Third State Title

In March, 2013 we played our first round of golf for the year with a young man from Big Sky by the name of Tate Tatom.  Big Sky is known for its skiing. The New York Times refers to Big Sky as "the biggest place you've never skied." Big Sky refers to Big Sky as the "Biggest Skiing in America," period. They even trademarked it.

Welcome to the Biggest Skiing in America® 5,500 acres of unforgettable ski terrain,

400 inches of annual snowfall sweeping panoramic mountain views, no lift lines, one ski pass. Combine that with Lone Mountain Ranch, the number one Nordic Center in North America with over 80 kilometers of groomed ski trails, and you have a ski mecca.

If Tate Tatom was grooming himself to compete for a slot on the U.S. Ski Team that would be notable, but no great surprise. But that Tate is breaking out as the best young golfer in Montana, that is really something.

Yesterday, Tatom led the Lone Peak High School golf team to its second consecutive Montana Class C state championship and won his third consecutive individual title as a junior.

The Big Horns vaulted from runners-up in 2012 to state champions last spring in just their second season as a varsity program. Their stay at the top is assured for at least another year: The Big Horns shaved 13 strokes off their Day 1 tally at Seeley Swan’s Double Arrow Golf Course, and on the strength of three All-State individual performances coasted to another title.

Steady Tate Tatom led the way once more. The talented junior, who won every event he entered during the regular season, was two shots off the pace Tuesday but shook off some reservations on the greens to climb the leaderboard with a tournament-best, 1-under-par 71. He clinched medalist honors for the third consecutive season with a two-day total of 145, nine better than Seeley Swan’s Micah Nicholas and Chinook’s Lane Seymour.

“Tuesday was fresh in their memory, and they were very prepared to go out and try to take care of business,” King said. “Fortunately, it worked out.“This is such a source of pride for the school, a young school. The team is really proud of the fact that they can kind of step up and be the athletic leader for not only other teams, but for kids coming up; they want to create a legacy for golf even though it is in a very unlikely place to have a good team.”

Just how unlikely is it?  Look at today's early evening webcam picture of Mountain Village at the base of Lone Peak mountain in Big Sky. 

That white stuff down the mountain and across the rooftops -- that's snow.

Big Sky golf course, home of Tate Tatom's Lone Peak High School golf team, is located a few miles further down the mountain.  It boasts:

Combine classic links-style golf and the stunning natural beauty of Big Sky country to witness a golf experience like no other: the award winning, scenic 18 hole par 72 golf course at Big Sky Resort. The Arnold Palmer course is 6,500 feet above sea level, offering longer drives and spectacular views.

Winding along the wildlife-rich banks of the West Fork of the scenic Gallatin River, you tee up with beaver, deer and moose as your gallery. 

Big Sky golf course is opening the season for play tomorrow (May 23, 2014), two days after the high school golf season came to an end.

No course, no problem -- they have a barn.

April 3, 2014 Posted by TALLEN in LOCAL, SPORTS, YOUTH

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Big Horn golf swinging for another successful season

By Tyler Allen Explore Big Sky Associate Editor

BIG SKY – Snow may still blanket its home course fairways, but the Lone Peak High School boys’ golf team has begun its title defense in earnest. The Big Horns won last year’s Class C state championship in the program’s second year of existence, while the girls hope to improve on last season’s encouraging results.

Without a single outdoor practice, the team traveled to Missoula for their first competition April 3-4 at the Loyola Sacred Heart Invitational, after EBS went to press April 2. Formal preparation for the season began March 19 as the team began hitting balls into the net and practicing their putts on AstroTurf, in a barn in Beaver Creek West.

“We’d love to be outside but it’s just not an option,” Head Coach Mike King said of the wintry conditions in Big Sky. “[It’ll] probably be a month until we see grass on our course. It’s a challenge, typically we’re ending the season about the time our course is opening.”

Tate Tatom won in Townsend and Missoula.

LPHS golfers off to promising start

By Tyler Allen Explore Big Sky Associate Editor

TOWNSEND, MISSOULA – Last year’s Class C individual state champ Tate Tatom is off to a hot start to the 2014 golf season.

The Lone Peak High School junior finished first at the Old Baldy Golf Course in Townsend on April 15, shooting a 3-over-par 75. This was his second win in as many events, taking the individual title at the Loyola Sacred Heart Invitational April 3 and 4.

The LPHS boys didn't have enough players to compete as a team in Townsend, but the girls took home their second third-place finish of the season, behind Townsend and Three Forks. The boys’ teams from Townsend, Manhattan and Three Forks finished first through third, respectively.

“The golf course was playing very difficult due to the greens being very dry and fast,” LPHS Head Coach Mike King said of the conditions at Old Baldy. “Combined with the fact that the greens are all really small and crowned at the edges, it made hitting [them] difficult. Throw in temps in the mid-40s with clouds and 25-mph winds… scoring conditions were quite challenging.”

At the Loyola Sacred Heart Invitational in Missoula – played at Larchmont Golf Course and Missoula Country Club – the Big Horn boys finished in second place out of 10 teams, 17 shots ahead of third place Thompson Falls.

Lone Peak was sitting atop the leaderboard after the first round, three strokes ahead of perennial powerhouse and host Loyola Sacred Heart. But Loyola took advantage of their home course and charged back in the second round, cruising to a 30-shot team win.

Tatom shot a 4-under-par 68 to take a sizeable 10-shot lead after day one. He followed that up with an even-par 71 second round to win the individual title by 14 shots. Tatom was joined by Trevor House, Griffin House and Charlie Johnson in the second-place team effort.

Tatom waited out a morning snowfall to rout the field at my home course Cottonwood Hills.

LPHS boys’ golf win Cottonwood event, girls finish fourth

By Tyler Allen Explore Big Sky Associate Editor

FOUR CORNERS – The Lone Peak High School boys’ golf team battled through cold and wind on April 29 during the Manhattan Christian Invitational at Cottonwood Hills Golf Course to finish with an overall victory. The LPHS girls had the best Class C team score and ended up fourth overall.

“The [weather] made for tough scoring conditions,” head coach Mike King said. “Everyone was wearing several layers of clothing.”

The Big Horns are getting used to tough golfing conditions this season. Their home turf – Big Sky Resort’s golf course – has been unplayable so far, but they’ve excelled in the cold.

Junior Tate Tatom continues to roll, with a third consecutive individual first place finish to start the season. Tatom shot a 1-over-par 73 to win by four shots, while Junior Trevor House shot a 79 to end up fourth.

Tatom won again at Ennis and Three Forks.

May 16, 2014 Posted by TALLEN in LOCAL, SPORTS, YOUTH

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LPHS golfers streaking into state tourney

By Tyler Allen Explore Big Sky Associate Editor

The Lone Peak High School golf teams hope to ride the momentum of a strong season into the state championships May 21-22 at Double Arrow Golf Course in Seeley Lake. The tournament is a chance for the boys to defend last year’s Class C title, and an opportunity for the girls to make a splash on the big stage.

Aside from a second-place finish at the Loyola Sacred Heart Invitational, the boys have won every official event at which they’ve had a full squad in 2014. Tate Tatom continued his torrid pace with individual victories at Ennis on May 3 and the Three Forks Invitational on May 8.

The LPHS girls notched a fourth-place finish at Three Forks, and head coach Mike King thinks they’re playing well enough to be in the top flight at states.

On Monday, May 12 the teams had a chance to scout Double Arrow after a scheduled event was cancelled there May 6. Having been hammered by heavy winter and spring snow, it’s playing a lot like the links in Big Sky, according to King.

Going into the season, the Long Peak High School golf coach was prescient. He nailed it.

Posted: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 11:54 pm

A word of caution for the rest of the state: King is convinced Tatom, who is already being courted by colleges across the country — Air Force, Michigan and Harvard, among others — has substantially improved his game.

“He added 15 pounds of muscle; he’s bigger, stronger, and is hitting the ball straighter and farther,” King said. “I watched him inside hitting balls and on a simulator — it’s really about as close as you can get to seeing what balls are doing — and his consistency right now is much better than it was last year. I have to keep reminding myself he’s just a junior, … but I would be very surprised if he didn’t finish first in every event that he played in and repeated as state champion.

We will continue to watch this golfer grow, though I have heard a rumor that he may be headed down to Texas to refine his game and solidify an opportunity to play in a Division 1 college program.  Time will tell.






The Class C State Champion Big Horns last year in Ennis. From left to right: Trevor House, Griffin House, individual champ Tate Tatom, Quinn House and Charlie Johnson. PHOTO BY MIKE KING, explorebig\sky.

Abraham Lincoln Lives On

At a New York press club dinner,

[New York Times television reporter] Carter asked if [CNN}, which has been criticized for its oversight of climate change, might devote more live airtime to the subject. 

"Climate change is one of those stories that deserves more attention, that we all talk about," [CNN President] Zucker said, "but we haven't figured out how to engage the audience in that story in a meaningful way. When we do do those stories, there does tend to be a tremendous amount of lack of interest on the audience's part."

Which proves Abraham Lincoln right once again.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

It is good that some things never change.

We the Workers!

There was a time, twenty years or so back, that I thought the soon to be Democratic dean of the House of Representatives, Charlie Rangel, was a reasonable fellow. Forgive me if I cannot remember why. But then I came across the following information.

Defending himself from primary challengers attacking his pro-union credentials, Congressman Rangel has put some interesting spin on the origins of the United States Constitution.

“I challenge any union member, if they have to ask: Who doesn’t just vote right? Who has fought with unions on picket lines in Alabama and Mississippi? Who has been there not because I love unions and living wages–I can say in my heart if it wasn’t for labor unions there would be no damn Constitution, they built the middle class, they built America,” he railed.
Read more at http://observer.com/2014/05/charlie-rangel-reflects-on-a-race-not-going-his-way/#ixzz32DAinPPL

No damn Constitution? 

That made me reflect back on James Madison, father of the Constitution and, now we learn, architect of the United States labor movement. That has a nice ring to it. So I looked it up, using family photos from an excursion to James Madison's Montpelier estate -- sure enough I found proof all around.

There we found the bronze statutes of James and Dolly Madison, gazing on their copy of the Manifesto.

At the high point on the grounds, there was Montpelier mansion -- the house that labor built.

And down the path there was the garden gazebo, where Labor Day picnics have been held the first Monday in September in remembrance ever since Jim and Dolly passed on.

To preserve historic Montpelier for posterity, and the role it played in the labor union movement, it was purchased by labor leader William duPont in 1901, and then transferred to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by his daughter Marion duPont Scott.

To support Congressman Rangel and contribute to the preservation and restoration of this iconic labor union history resource click here.

Thanks to everybody and good luck to all.

US Constitution -- James Madison's paean to "We the Workers"

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

May 17, 2014

(Click to enlarge)

Local scenes on Saturday May 17, 2014.

Smokey the Bear beseeches "Help Prevent Wildfires" looking up Bridger Canyon.

The Gallitan Range in the distance looking down Bridger Canyon.

Almost wondering why Bridger Bowl is closed for the season.

Snowpack is still in down to the base.

Looking across Bridger Canyon.

Looking up Bridger Bowl.

Looking across the parking lot at Cottonwood Hills.

NASA Loses It

Now that NASA is losing funding and support to do what it was originally created to do, i.e., send people into space, and is re-purposing itself to justify its continued existence, the bureaucracy is getting our attention by warning us that glaciers flow!  That's startling news. Here I always thought those moraines and glacial deposits were created by Martians. So you all are inevitably gonna drown in 5, 10 or 20 feet of water. Pick a number, any number. It's in the fix. 

As a next step, NASA investigators will report
on the role glaciers play in carving mountain valleys. 

These guys keep on making one discovery on top of another. Just to think, it was only a few years ago that they concentrated their intellectual firepower into a 14 person commission which figured out that rubber becomes brittle at low temperatures. NASA has tremendous insight and powers of observation. Whenever I plan anything I say, "What would NASA do?"

But the dire deed is not going to happen to us up here in Bozeman. We are a safe, dry 4,820 feet above sea level (4,984 feet at the end of the valley, here at Along the Gradyent). And from our perspective, east, west, north and south it's not water, water everywhere. No, whichever way you look there is snow up the mountains all around. We got the Bridgers, the Gallitans, the Madisons, the Tobacco Roots, the Elkhorns and the Big Belts. Our glaciers have already retreated. Move off the barrier islands, and away from sea, pond and lake shores and river banks. Abandon the Pacific and Atlantic, the Great Lakes, the Mississppi and the Missouri rivers and leave that wretched city along the Potomac. Dump Florida, forget about Louisiana, the Carolinas and Manhattan. LA, you are toast. Come on up! Our Chamber of Commerce welcomes you. Avoid Armageddon -- now!

Timber!!!!

The rimrock formation above Billings has couple less rocks after today.

Post by Billings Police Department.

Graduation Speak

Man, it is a good thing the Rutgers University pseudo intelligentsia prevented Condeleezza Rice from speaking to its graduates. Looking at her record, range of commitment and accomplishment and advisory service, it is unimaginable that Dr. Rice would have had anything useful to say to the young men and women receiving their diplomas. There is no way she could have topped Snooki or your standard Democratic political hack who is welcome at universities everywhere. Note:  When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin thirty-nine years previous, the commencement speaker was Democratic Lieutenant Governor Martin Schreiber, who continues to this day his very long and distinguished career as a corporate lobbyist. Good luck to all.

Lila Barton with her mentor and academic advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

Liberal Flight

People cast ballots with their fingers and hands. But their ultimate vote is with their feet.

There are states in this country that are magnets.  They attract. There are other states that repel. Let's look across this great country of ours and look at the real election returns, net moves in and out -- and compare those returns to ballot box voting.

Over the last decade the state that people most wanted to go to was Texas, followed in order by Florida, then North Carolina, New Mexico and Georgia.  These are states with right leaning to moderate political tilts. You need to go all the way down to Washington (number 9) and Oregon (number 11) to find states with a dramatic leftward tilt that actually attract net positive migration.

On the other hand, the top three out-migration states are New York, California and Illinois. These states were landslide supporters of Barack Obama in the last presidential election,  Their representation in Congress tilts Democratic almost 3 to 1.  Yet these are states that people do not want to stay. Abandonment is the rule in liberal America, not the exception.

The liberal out-migration slant runs through the top ten (or perhaps more properly, bottom ten) with the exception of Louisiana. Louisiana's out migration occurred in the two years after Hurricane Katrina.  It was caused by nature (despite what megalomaniacs like Al Gore tell you), not by man. If it were not for Katina, Rhode Island, despite its tiny size, would have slipped into the top ten out migrators, and there would have have been a left leaning clean sweep.

I would not advise the citizens of Oregon and Washington states to feel smug and secure. They've been blessed with some extraordinary geographical advantages and have fed off of entrepreneurial success stories that are now decades old and running their course. Liberal political programs are step-by-step, bit-by-bit, destroying economic incentive and opportunity in the Pacific northwest, as elsewhere.  It is just a matter of time.

Good luck to all.

Evolution in the 21st Century

Lockdown on Montana State University Campus

Earlier this week, Montana State University officials ordered a campus wide lock down and surged campus and city police to investigate sites on campus because two men were spied carrying a rifle (don't ask me how many it takes to screw in a light bulb).

BOZEMAN (AP) - Montana State University police are searching buildings and telling people to stay inside after receiving a report of two men carrying a rifle on campus. 

An alert sent out by the university Wednesday morning says police received a report the men were crossing 11th Avenue in Bozeman and heading toward the center of the Centennial Mall. 

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports one man is wearing a hunter's orange hoodie and the other a green or gray jacket and a baseball hat.

Aerial view of Montana State University campus.

Interesting descriptions -- they apply to maybe two out of three guys around here and one out of three gals.  The campus meanders in and around town. There is no obvious border. But shut your doors. Lock up the women and children.

Officers are searching buildings and have advised students, faculty and staff on campus to stay inside and lock their doors.

Pull in the usual suspects.

The two men were sighted at about 8:20 a.m., and an alert was sent to students and faculty at approximately 9 a.m. A campus-wide search by police turned up no suspects, and a traffic stop of a vehicle with passengers matching the descriptions of the suspects turned up no evidence.

Here are the rules.

Currently, firearms are allowed on the Montana State campus, though under the conditions that the firearms be used for hunting or sporting purposes, that guns be locked in designated storage areas—they're not allowed in residence halls—and that they never appear on campus or in academic and common areas. In 2013, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed a bill that would have allowed guns on all Montana's public college and university campuses.

The intellectuals who run the university and the geeky Democratic governor are soooooo smart. You can have a rifle, you can use it, but it must be stored, secured and cannot be seen. Then the smart people reported.

Ellig says two men matching the description were briefly detained, but they were released after their car was searched. 

Students are allowed to keep firearms in locked facilities.

Ellig says officials believe a student may have retrieved a rifle while moving out for the end of the school year.

Since we moved to Bozeman a couple years back I would guesstimate I've seen someone walking around with a rifle something like a hundred times. This is probably the safest place I have ever lived.

The most dangerous weapons in Montana are a dude barreling too fast around a corner in a Ford F-150 pickup truck or a gal running a stop sign in her Subaru. Look it up. Good luck to all.

A crushed gray Subaru sits at the scene of a fatal car accident on the intersection of East Valley Center Road and Frontage Road near Bozeman on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

BOZEMAN - A Bozeman woman is dead after a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of Stucky and Cottonwood roads Monday morning.

The 44-year-old woman was traveling westbound on Stucky Road at around 7:30 a.m. when she failed to stop at the stop sign at the intersection of Cottonwood Road, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Glen Barcus said. The woman, who was driving a Subaru wagon, pulled in front of a pickup truck that was heading northbound on Cottonwood Road. The driver of the pickup truck, a 29-year-old Bozeman man, swerved to avoid the Subaru but was unable to miss it and the car was T-boned, Barcus said. March 13, 2013, KBZK TV.

Real Climate Change at Work

Most of you probably never heard of Devil's Lake, North Dakota, but it has probably experienced more climate change than anywhere else in this country. Climate change is normal. Stability is not.

The town experienced incredible extreme hot and cold -- during the Great Depression.

The Daily Messenger (Canandaiguany, New York),
July 6, 1936

Records in Weather

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A dizzying succession of phenomenal weather -- most of it bad -- has made the past 12 months one of the most remarkable periods on the weather bureau's books. 

In one part or the country of another weather men have recorded the coldest Winter -- the hottest Summer -- the worst floods -- the most devastating dust storms and the most severe tornadoes and hurricanes in history. 

The Central and Eastern portions of the country recorded the extremes in low temperatures during the Winter of 1935-36. 

"At Devil's Lake, N D, bureau officials said, "there was established a Winter - a temperature record that probably has no parallel in the weather history of this country for a first-order weather station. The temperature went below freezing on November 27 and did not rise to the freezing point until March 1, a period of 96 days." 

The average temperature for January and February at Devil's Lake was 13 degrees below zero. 

It is the same region where record heat is no being recorded. Within the past week, a report of 112 degrees was received from Devil's Lake. Kennebec, S D, reported a maximum of 119 degrees.

That was in 1936, long before the recent few hundredths percent carbon dioxide increase addition to the atmosphere that supposedly will cause extreme weather, floods, droughts, pestilence, disease and famine nation and worldwide.

Devil's Lake, North Dakota is called Devil's Lake because it is on the shores of Devil's Lake, at least it is once again. Devil's lake is approximately 330 square miles -- about two thirds the size of Lake Tahoe.

During three generations (my, my parents and my grandparent's lifetimes) first the lake level dropped 40 feet. Then it rose 50 feet. Here is a graph which covers most of that time frame.

Glacier Bancorp Annual Shareholders Meeting

Last week we drove up to Kalispell to attend the annual shareholders meeting of Glacier Bancorp (GBCI). Glacier is a holding company of community banks, headquartered up the Flathead Valley, a gateway to Glacier National Park and hence the name.  It is one of our largest stock holdings, a conservatively and well managed company that unlike most all the rest of the banking industry did not accept TARP money from Uncle Sam and never suspended, did not even cut, its dividend during the financial crisis.

We previously blogged on how we came to invest in Glacier in the first place, and commented on some of its stock price meanderings earlier this year.

For some, the most interesting part of the trip likely may be the scenic photos I took on the way up.  I took a less traveled route after cutting up to Helena, from whence I drove on US 12 over the continental divide at McDonald Pass, followed the historic Old Mullan Trail down the valley before cutting north on SRs 141 and 200 before turning off through heavily wooded landscape and scenic lake vistas (many of which were still partially frozen) along SR 83. On the way home, I traversed the southern edge of Glacier NP across to Shelby and then down south through Great Falls and Helena. Here are some of the views.

Pasture and mountains (click to enlarge).

Campaign Ad: No Drones 'R Us in Montana

Campaign ad of the year!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

The French almost never get it right.

Accenture Comes Through For Healthcare.gov!

Accenture has come through -- with respect to our predictions I mean. It's a racket.

Barack Obama taking direction from health care industry
CEO's at the White House, Washington, DC.

When the Obama administration pushed through a no-bid contract award to put Accenture on the Obamacare contract, replacing the original Healthcare.gov IT contracter, CGI, we said this is how contract selection works -- contacts and influence, no merit.

In my experience, Accenture is one of the two or three most expensive of the gang of Beltway bandits. The firm hires former federal officials who worm their way back into agencies to roam the halls and glad hand, cajole and manipulate (or worse) contract awards from their former colleagues and subordinates. I saw it first hand when I worked at Postal Service Headquarters in DC, where Accenture's inside marketing lead was a former Deputy Postmaster General, the number two man in the agency (his masked, last nameless, LinkedIn profile is here), who had at one time or another been chief operating officer, chief financial officer and head of employee and labor relations. You or I would get an armed escort out of the building if we roamed around the grounds and into and out of offices the way that guy did, but among the portals of official Washington, DC he is courted with open arms.

As for what work the successor contract required, we noted that Accenture was being hired to confront and resolve back end/back office web site difficulties. Large parts of the platform had never been built.

Healthcare.gov does not track payments or allow the government
to calculate its subsidy payments accurately.

The back (financial) end of the website is not built, so the government not only doesn't know how many people have actually purchased insurance, it also cannot determine how much of your taxpayer subsidy money to forward to health insurance companies. Change management (like if you have a baby to add to a policy), opt out and cancellation processes are also not implemented. As the website stands now, you can sign up but cannot get out. I can't wait until we hear the stories about poor penniless survivors forced to continue to pay for a deceased loved one's health insurance. It's gonna happen.

The government said it was bringing in Accenture on a non-competitive basis because it wanted to be sure the work got done the right way, right now. Looking at Accenture's business model and track record, nuts to that we said.

Supposedly the new contractor will timely rectify website failures. But if you really think there will be something materially different or significantly improved now that Accenture will be managing the website code writing exercise, you may want to think again.

So to our surprise shock and dismay, here is the headline months later.

Price Tag for Healthcare.gov Repairs Jumps to $121 Million; 'Back End' Still a Mess

It can be embarrassing -- to be so right.

After shelling out $677 million to build the federal health care website, the government will spend an additional $121 million in 2014 to repair it—$30 million more than previously estimated—the Washington Times reported last night. This comes just as the Obama administration is starting the hunt for next year’s diverse group of contractors.

CGI Federal, the original lead contractor awarded $93.7 million, was replaced by Accenture this past January. Accenture received an initial payment of $45 million—an amount that was supposed to double by year’s end, according to the Washington Post. But yesterday, Accenture Federal Services announced their final agreement of $121 million for work through January 10, 2015.

Accenture is outstanding at doing one thing and one thing only -- collecting outrageous sums of money.

All that work that had to get done -- well, it did not.

This year, Accenture is tasked with repairs and additions such as “enhancing the back-end capabilities to improve user payments,” according to the Washington Times. The Hill reported in January that the “back end” had to be operational by mid-March, or “disaster” would ensue and the whole law could be “jeopardized.” In fact, that was the main reason Accenture was brought on board so hastily without a full bidding process, The Hill noted. 

But last Friday, Politico stated that the back end might not be completed by the summer, detailing what it called an “overlooked chapter” of Obamacare: 

Obama administration officials originally intended to have the major back-end components of HealthCare.gov working by the website’s launch in October….

The deadline for completing those pieces gave way to January and then to mid-March. Senior officials said early last month that they hoped to have the entire system ready by the summer. Now, even summer appears to be a question mark.

The government is clueless on what is going on with Obamacare financially. It is wasting money left and right. Pay no attention. Carry on. Good luck to all.

Obama Uses His Pen -- To Eliminate Jobs

Barack Obama wags his pen -- the dude is in charge!

When Congress wouldn't salute smartly and go along, Barack Obama used his pen to establish a new federal minimum wage for work on government and government sponsored or regulated contracts. He ratcheted minimum pay from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. That is a 39 percent increase, which anyone who has even passing knowledge of basic economics or business finance knows, will make many operations that are dependent on low wage, unskilled labor unprofitable, put them out of business and inhibit new business growth altogether.

Sure enough, when Dear President's penmanship wrought and wrote down into military bases, their eateries, one after another, began to close down. In late March it was reported:

Six restaurants located on military installations, including three McDonald’s outlets and two name-brand eateries, have closed recently or are planning to shortly, with new minimum wage requirements for workers on federal contracts believed to have played a role in the decisions.

Last week McDonald’s restaurants closed at Naval Weapons Station Charleston, S.C., and at Naval Support Activity, Bethesda, Md.; a third McDonald’s will close next week at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Wash. A fourth restaurant, I Love Country, has notified Navy Exchange Service Command that it will close next week at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, reported Army Times.

Two other contractors, a sandwich eatery and a pizza parlor, have asked to terminate their Army and Air Force Exchange Service contracts to operate at two other installations.

These decisions most likely are related to Labor Department rules governing fast food workers on federal contracts, along with a recently signed executive order increasing the minimum wage for employees working on new federal contracts beginning Jan. 1, a source told the publication.

United States soldiers patronizing a McDonald's in Kuwait.

The Labor Department rules, issued last fall, require federal contractors operating under the Service Contract Act to pay fast food workers a higher minimum wage, as well as additional health and other benefits. It is not yet clear what the impact of President Obama’s executive order will be for contracts on military installations. It will increase the minimum wage for all federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10.

These closings “are the tip of the iceberg,” the source told Army Times. “I don’t think anybody has realized what the far-reaching effects of this will be.”

The shutdowns and job losses prompted a response and rebuke from the Navy:

More closures may come unless relief is granted. Navy and Marine Corps exchange officials estimate that up to 390 fast food concession operations would close on installations across the U.S. and its territories, which would result in the loss of jobs for nearly 5,750 employees, according to an April 8 letter to Labor Department officials signed by Russell Beland, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for military manpower and personnel, asking for exemption from the wage regulations.

These contracts are negotiated for different bases at different times, so the effects will be seen incrementally. The Navy and Marine Corps exchange systems already have suspended 74 contracts for “new concepts,” according to the Navy letter.

Many family members and veterans are employed by the fast food restaurants.

Officials of the two exchange services estimate a combined loss of about $27 million a year in profits associated with food service sales alone. The companies that build and operate the restaurants on base make payments to the exchange systems.

This was a lose, lose, lose deal as is so normal when the federal government intervenes in business decisions and interferes with markets. I pray someday that we have a president again who worked real jobs, for real businesses, in the real world, for an actual living.

For now, at least, the Department of Labor has found a well of disappearing ink.

No need to bid adieu to that Big Mac. The U.S. Department of Labor is temporarily exempting fast food restaurants on Navy and Marine Corps installations from new minimum wage rules that led to the closure of McDonald's restaurants on several bases.

Time will tell if this is the last chapter or Obama will author more writs to show employees the door.

Top April Posts

At long last April is gone, and so, after the last few days, is the snow cover below 7,000 feet. Yesterday was delectable. May is opening with more of the same. I began work on a new garden plot (with a raised bed) a few weeks back, taking a few shortcuts to allow early planting. I am hoping for the best. Cold April weather kept my attentions indoors much of the month, which was great for posting productivity on Along the Gradyent, but not such a positive influence on my golf game. Here are the top ten April posts. 

Diagram depicting the anatomy of the Club Rendezvous tragedy.

1. My boyhood hometown of Morton Grove Illinois was a mecca for roadhouses and speakeasies during the 1920s and 1930s.  One of these establishments was the Club Rendezvous, located in a converted bungalow on the southeast corner of Austin and Dempster, where the Hi Lo and Jewel Tea grocery stores, and the Sun Drug pharmacy, operated during my youth. In the wee hours of the morning on March 25, 1935 a flash fire erupted in the club. Inwardly opening, spring locked doors trapped patrons inside, including Northwestern University students, killing seven and seriously burning a dozen more.  Morton Grove Before the Baby Boom: Club Rendezvous Goes Up In Smoke chronicles what happened that night and outlines the shady history of the club proprietors -- Al and Rose Cowdrey.

2. If you like the movie CaddyShack you will love King Day Post, which tells the story, from this then fourteen year old's perspective, of us caddies going on strike, following the model of a civil rights demonstration. The post is fun and, like the movie -- long after its initial release -- has become a perennial favorite. We are happy to entertain. Read and enjoy.

Obama's sprawling new NSA data center.

3. In the NSA scandals, all Barack Obama has done is follow in Bush's footstep, right? In NSA Overreaches are Bush's Fault? we point out the contrary evidence is right in front of everyone's eyes. 

4. In the The Masters (Repost) we reminisce about  caddying for the first of the honorary starters at The Masters, and apologize for not believing the elderly gentleman when he related to us how he won the Open Championship.

George S. Foster, candidate for Congress in 1904.

5. My great uncle George S. Foster led an incredible life. As a teenager he lived in a sod shanty where a snake slithered from the roof down into his cup of tea. By the time he was an elderly man he was a gentleman farmer who lived comfortably on the shores of Lake Michigan. Along the way he was a successful lawyer, a Chicago Democratic politician, and a zealous advocate for unpopular clients. Read all about in On the Road to Bathgate Act 4g: George S. Foster, Chicago Politician, Lawyer, Banker and More.

6. Morton Grove: Before the Baby Boom is the first installment of the Morton Grove Prohibition era roadhouse series that we are rolling out.  We began with the figurative end, which is the burning of The Dells. Our next post in this series will come out this month. It will document the history of The Dells from soup to nuts, or perhaps should I say from robbery, to arson, to kidnapping and to murder. These guys played for keeps.

The Dells is torched on October 7, 1934. The boys stopped to pose.

7. To Invest In A Bank talks about my investment in Glacier Bancorp, headquartered up the Flathead valley in Kalispell.  As promised, I attended Glacier's shareholder meeting earlier this week. I took copious notes -- about a lot of tall, serious looking guys in dark suits, white shirts and boring ties. When the gardening and golf schedule permits I'll write a post with insights gleaned from that first hand look and share a look at my new GBCI hat.

8. First it was Fannie Mae.  Then it was the Obamacare website contractor.  It was a neighborly mix. The in house lobbyists for both lived across the street -- from me, literally. Check our story out in It's That Fella Across The Street.

9. With the golf season in full swing again, training for the uninitiated is freshly in order. Readers of this blog who are new to the game are learning how to survive a season of professional golf coverage in The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide To Sanity (Special Guest Post).

Paul Bunyan in Bathgate, not Brainerd.

10. Bathgate had snow -- Fargo and Brainerd didn't. On the Road to Bathgate: Fargo the Movie, is an ever popular pop culture story that found new legs this month with the debut of Fargo, the series, on FX. "You should have seen it right after they put it up," said Reinhold Henschel, who owns Reiny's Bar, one of a handful of businesses in the town of 75 people about 10 miles south of the Canadian border. "It was foggy, and people couldn't see it until they got right up to it. Then, it says, 'Brainerd,' and they thought, 'What the hell?"