As another year of investing draws to a close, let's review the biggest trends in ASX . First, let's take a macro view. At the time of writing, the (ASX: XJO) is up 5.76% in the year to date (YTD). If we add the typical 4% dividend return on top, we get a total estimated return of 9.76%. The two best months of the year for share price gains have been July, when the ASX 200 , and November, when it . The has reset its all-time record high many times over throughout the year. The latest record was set on 3 December at 8,514.5 points. Meantime, the national home value rose for a 22nd consecutive month in November, according to . It's now up 5.2% YTD, with total annual returns (i.e., capital growth plus rents) tracking at 9.6%. So, there's not much competition between shares vs. property in terms of overall returns in 2024. Based on current trends, both asset classes will deliver total returns of 9% to 10%. Very satisfactory! Of course, certain ASX shares and property markets have outperformed these averages. Outperformers of 2024 In terms of best-performing ASX shares for price growth this year, ASX 200 biotech ( ) has had a rip-snorter, up 681% YTD. Buy now, pay later company ( ) has had an incredible comeback, with the share price up 356% YTD. And the relentless rise of ( ) shares has continued, with the share price up 194% YTD. In terms of property, Perth has been the clear outperformer among the capital cities. Regional Western Australia has also been the strongest regional market. The median home value in Perth is up 19% YTD to $808,090. The median home value in regional Western Australia is up 15.5% to $541,743 YTD. Shares vs. property: Key investment trends of 2024 In the share market, has been ASX shares. The (ASX: XIJ) is currently up 47% YTD. It's interesting to note that the much-lauded US Magnificent Seven this year. The has been ASX shares, with the (ASX: XFJ) up 25% YTD. The financials sector includes , insurers, and financial services companies. Big bank stocks have had a great run in 2024, so much so that the ( ) overtook ( ) as the largest stock by market capitalisation earlier in the year. In the property market, we have seen a two-tier performance in 2024. The mid-sized capitals of Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane have outperformed, with median home price gains of 19%, 12.6%, and 11.2%, respectively, YTD. On the other side of the coin, home values have fallen 2% in Melbourne and 0.1% in Hobart. The Canberra median is steady, while the Sydney median has gained just 3.1%. Why is Melbourne weak and Perth strong? Melbourne being the is a very interesting trend. Melbourne is a vibrant international city that has been t's set to become Australia's biggest city in just , a . Yet it is now our third cheapest capital city for housing. Why is that? The weak Melbourne market is partly due to Victoria building more new homes over the past 10 years than any other state or territory. So, supply is much better. Demand has also been moderated by fewer people moving to Melbourne, as well as lower investor activity due to new land taxes. Other interesting trends in the property market this year include more young families being willing to move interstate for cheaper housing, and investors adopting the same mindset for better overall returns. Western Australia has been a key beneficiary of these two trends. Australia recorded the , up 2.8%. The state economy is booming, with new jobs attracting many new residents from the East Coast. In fact, Western Australia just recorded the of all the states and territories for the first time in more than a decade, according to CommSec's latest . People are now earning better money in Perth than in Australia's two biggest city economies, Sydney and Melbourne. This creates another reason to move there—it's easier to cope with the cost-of-living crisis when you're on a higher wage. The latest from the Bureau of Statistics shows median weekly earnings of $1,500 in Perth and $1,442 in regional Western Australia. This compares to $1,450 in Melbourne and $1,416 in Sydney. (Earnings are highest in Canberra at $1,688 per week). Despite strong growth in median prices, Western Australia still offers better housing affordability than the East Coast capitals. The median house price in Perth is $842,227. This compares to $1,482,750 in Sydney, $974,396 in Brisbane, $972,753 in Canberra, and $923,422 in Melbourne. Weekly rents are also higher, and this, combined with strong capital growth, has caused a spike in investor activity. Total annual returns for all dwellings in Perth are currently tracking at a whopping 26.4%. This compares to 6.5% in Sydney, 16.6% in Brisbane, 4% in Canberra, and 1.4% in Melbourne. At the start of this year, Joe White, President of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, said the state was " ". Whilst activity is now slowing down following very strong price growth, East Coast investors , White told magazine this month. As we head into 2025, Tim Lawless, CoreLogic's research director, says all capital city markets are now "losing steam". This is partly because the supply of homes for sale increased over the Spring season. At the same time, demand has waned a bit due to continuing high and costs of living.Globalink Investment Inc. Announces Extension of the Deadline to Complete a Business Combination to January 9, 2025West Lafayette, INDIANA — Imagine this: Two days before your family holiday party, you get a text about an online order you placed a week ago, saying the package is at your door. It comes with a photo – of someone else’s door. When you click the attached link, it takes you to the online store, where you enter your username and password. Somehow that doesn’t work, even though you answered your security questions. Frustrated, you call customer service. They tell you not to worry since your package is still on the way. You receive your package a day later and forget all about the earlier hassle. In the end, it was just a mistake. You are unaware of the terrifying thing happening in the background. You’ve fallen for a classic package-delivery scam , and a form of “ smishing ,” or SMS phishing. And you’re not alone. One in three Americans have fallen victim to cybercrime, according to a 2023 poll. That’s up from 1 in 4 in 2018. As cybersecurity researchers , we want to spread the word to help people protect themselves. Old-fashioned threats haven’t disappeared – identity thieves still steal wallets, dumpster dive for personal information and skim cards at ATMs – but the internet has made scamming easier than ever. Digital threats include phishing attacks that use fake emails and websites, data breaches at major companies , malware that steals your information , and unsecured Wi-Fi networks in public places. A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF SCAMS Generative AI – which refers to artificial intelligence that generates text, images and other things – has improved dramatically over the past few years. That’s been great for scammers trying to make a buck during the holiday season. Consider online shopping. In some cases, scammers craft deepfake videos of fake testimonials from satisfied “customers” to trick unsuspecting shoppers. Scam victims can encounter these videos on cloned versions of legitimate sites, social media platforms, messaging apps and forums. Scammers also generate AI-cloned voices of social media influencers appearing to endorse counterfeit products and create convincing but fraudulent shopping websites populated with AI-generated product photos and reviews. Some scammers use AI to impersonate legitimate brands through personalized phishing emails and fake customer service interactions. Since AI-generated content can appear remarkably authentic, it’s become harder for consumers to distinguish legitimate online stores from sophisticated scam operations. But it doesn’t stop there. “ Family emergency scams ” exploit people’s emotional vulnerability through deepfake technology. Scammers use AI to clone the voices of family members, especially children, and then make panic-inducing calls to relatives where they claim to be in serious trouble and need immediate financial help. Some scammers combine voice deepfakes with AI-generated video clips showing the “loved one” in apparent distress. These manufactured emergency scenarios often involve hospital bills, bail money or ransom demands that must be paid immediately. The scammer may also use AI to impersonate authority figures like doctors, police officers and lawyers to add credibility to the scheme. Since the voice sounds authentic and the emotional manipulation is intense, even cautious people can be caught off guard and make rushed decisions. HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF Protecting yourself against scams requires a multilayered defense strategy. When shopping, verify retailers through official websites by checking the URL carefully – it should start with the letters “HTTPS” – and closely examining the site design and its content. Since fake websites often provide fake contact information, checking the “Contact Us” section can be a good idea. Before making purchases from unfamiliar sites, cross-reference the business on legitimate review platforms and verify their physical address. It’s essential to keep all software updated, including your operating system, browser, apps and antivirus software. Updates often include security patches that fix vulnerabilities hackers could exploit. For more information on the importance of software updates and how to manage them, check out resources like StaySafeOnline or your device manufacturer’s official website. Regular updates are a crucial step in maintaining a secure online shopping experience. Make sure you only provide necessary information for purchases – remember, no one needs your Social Security number to sell you a sweater. And keeping an eye on your bank statements will help you catch any unauthorized activity early. It may seem like another chore, and it probably is, but this is the reality of our digital world. To protect against family emergency scams, establish family verification codes, or a safe word, or security questions that only real family members would know. If you do get a distressed call from loved ones, remain calm and take time to verify the situation by contacting family members directly through known and trusted phone numbers. Educate your relatives about these scams and encourage them to never send money without first confirming the emergency with other family members or authorities through verified channels. If you discover that your identity has been stolen, time is critical. Your first steps should be to immediately contact your banks and credit card companies, place a fraud alert with the credit bureaus, and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission and your local police. In the following days, you’ll need to change all passwords, review your credit reports, consider a credit freeze , and document everything. While this process can be overwhelming – and extremely cumbersome – taking quick action can significantly limit the damage. Staying informed about AI scam tactics through reputable cybersecurity resources is essential. Reporting suspected scams to relevant authorities not only protects you, but it also helps safeguard others. A key takeaway is that staying vigilant is critical to defending against these threats. Awareness helps communities push back against digital threats. More importantly, it’s key to understand how today’s scams aren’t like yesteryear’s. Recognizing the signs of scams can provide stronger defense during this holiday season. And as you develop your threat identification techniques, don’t forget to share with your family and friends. Who knows? You could save someone from becoming a victim.
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George has a bone bruise on his left knee and will miss two games, the team said Thursday. The 76ers said George did not suffer any structural damage when he injured the same knee that he hyperextended during the preseason in Wednesday night's loss at Memphis. The game marked the first time this season the All-Star trio of George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey started a game together. George will miss home games Friday against Brooklyn and Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers, his former team. A nine-time All-Star, the 34-year-old George will be evaluated again on Monday. Wednesday's 117-111 loss to the Grizzlies dropped the Sixers to 2-12, the worst record in the NBA headed into Thursday night's games. George signed a four-year, $212 million contract with Philadelphia after five seasons with the Clippers. He has averaged 14.9 points in eight games this season. Embiid has been out with injuries, load management rest and a suspension, while Maxey was sidelined with a hamstring injury. An expected contender in the Eastern Conference, the Sixers haven't won since an overtime victory against Charlotte on Nov. 10. AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nbaEven the dying legacy media gets it right sometimes. Today, Time Magazine named President-Elect Donald Trump as its ‘Person of the Year.’ Laughably, the ‘news’ magazine was considering Kamala Harris as one of its cover candidates. No, seriously. We covered that madness here . But, in the end Time made the right choice. Well, let’s face it, the only choice. Here’s more. Time magazine to name Trump ‘Person of the Year’ https://t.co/FyLbtY8zd0 It’s quite a reversing of the once-prevailing media narrative about Trump. They predicted he had a date with the ‘big house,’ not a second date with the White House. We’re happy they’re all disappointed. So, are these folks. A year ago leftists believed that Trump was going to prison for the rest of his life Now he’s the president elect and on the cover of Time magazine. Hahaha winning He beat four weaponized cases Two assassinations Won the presidency Restored the American Empire Well deserved. He pulled off the biggest political comeback ever known to human history. There’s no denying that President Trump‘s return to the White House set a precedent that no other president will ever outdo. Of course, Democrats are handling it about as well as you’d suppose. Let’s take a moment and laugh at these poor miserable souls. Are you kidding me @TIME ??????????? I won’t ever read your magazine again! So many people to pick from and you chose a traitorous cheating criminal? pic.twitter.com/QaKiaucJet Trump is also: Felon of the year Rapist of the year Fraudster of the year Seditionist of the year Liar of the year I bet they're doing it because they're struggling with viewership and probably need money. Trump attracts attention. Attention creates traffic. Traffic provides an opportunity for increased revenue. No Time is not putting Trump on the cover for money or to bring in readers. Trump has not been out of the news cycle since he came down the escalator in 2015. This cover does nothing to attract a disinterested public back to the very deservedly dying legacy media. Still, thanks for the cover, Time! Let’s enjoy this meme at their expense. Is this the cover? Dm me @time pic.twitter.com/3kyp9B6d6G Not shocking (although I would’ve picked Elon or even Bibi. It’s not the BEST person but it’s the most influential and both of them were more influential in 2024) Will he finally take down the fake Time Person of the Year cover he has up in his golf clubs? You’ll recall years ago ‘journalists’ and their fellow Democrats lost their minds over Trump‘s novelty ‘Person of the Year’ magazine at one of his golf resorts. Now, he has a REAL one to replace it. Just something else for them to lose their minds over.
Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey A New Jersey lawmaker from part of the state where several mysterious drones have been spotted in recent week says the devices appear to avoid detection by traditional methods. Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia was among state officials who met Wednesday with representatives from the Department of Homeland Security. She says lawmakers were told the drones have dodged detection by helicopters and radio. Fantasia says DHS described the devices as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights off. The Morris County Republican made the comments in a post on X shortly after she and several other state and local lawmakers met with state police and Homeland Security officials. Juan Soto gets free luxury suite and up to 4 premium tickets for home games in $765M Mets deal DALLAS (AP) — Juan Soto gets free use of a luxury suite and up to four premium tickets behind home plate for regular-season and postseason New York Mets home games as part of his record $765 million, 15-year contract. The Mets agreed to provide personal team security for the All-Star outfielder and his family at the team’s expense for all spring training and regular-season home and road games, according to details of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press. New York agreed to assist Soto’s family for in-season travel arrangements, guaranteed he gets uniform No. 22 and included eight types of award bonuses. Rape allegation against Jay-Z won’t impact NFL's relationship with music mogul, Goodell says IRVING, Texas (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says a rape allegation against rapper Jay-Z won’t impact the NFL's relationship with the music mogul. Jay-Z's company Roc Nation has produced some of the NFL’s entertainment presentations including the Super Bowl halftime show. A woman who previously sued Sean “Diddy” Combs alleging she was raped at an awards show after-party in 2000 amended the lawsuit Sunday to include an allegation that Jay-Z was also at the party and participated in the sexual assault. Jay-Z says the rape allegation made against him is part of an extortion attempt. The NFL teamed up with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019 for events and social activism. The league and the entertainment company extended their partnership a few months ago. Ohio politician proposes make flag planting a felony after fight in Michigan rivalry game An Ohio politician has seen enough flag planting. Republican state Rep. Josh Williams said Wednesday on social media he's introducing a bill to make flag planting in sports a felony in the state. His proposal comes after the Nov. 30 fight at the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry football game when the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 13-10 and then attempted to plant their flag at midfield. A fight ensued and police had to use pepper spray to disperse the players. Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield famously planted a flag in the middle of the field at Ohio State after the Sooners beat the Buckeyes in 2017. Gastineau confronts Favre in documentary for his 'dive' on Strahan's record-breaking sack Former New York Jets star Mark Gastineau confronted Brett Favre last year at a memorabilia show and angrily accused the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback of deliberately going down on a record-breaking sack. The tense exchange is shown in the new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “The New York Sack Exchange." It chronicles the Jets’ fearsome foursome defensive line of the 1980s that included Gastineau. Gastineau set an NFL record with 22 sacks in 1984, but Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan broke the mark when he sacked Favre in 2002 in a game between the Giants and Packers. Many have accused Favre of purposely taking the sack so Strahan could set the single-season record with 22 1/2. What happens next with Alex Jones' Infowars? No certainty yet after sale to The Onion is rejected Lawyers in the Alex Jones bankruptcy case are now in discussions on what could happen next after a federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet. The next steps remained unclear Wednesday as the judge ordered the trustee who oversaw the auction to come up with a new plan. Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston rejected the bid late Tuesday, saying there was too much confusion about The Onion’s bid. The bankruptcy case was in the wake of the nearly $1.5 billion that courts have ordered Jones to pay for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut a hoax. Sandy Hook families had backed The Onion’s bid. NFL and Nike extend their partnership with a 10-year deal, will focus on growing the sport globally IRVING, Texas (AP) — The NFL’s desire to become a global powerhouse is no secret. Nike is committed to helping the league continue expanding its worldwide reach. The league and the apparel giant announced Wednesday a 10-year partnership extension. The NFL and Nike will focus on working together to grow the game’s global reach, increase participation, develop new talent, and expand the football fan base. Nike, the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel, has been the NFL’s exclusive provider of uniforms and sideline, practice and base layer apparel for all 32 NFL teams for 12 years. George Kresge Jr., who wowed talk show audiences as the The Amazing Kreskin, dies at age 89 NEW YORK (AP) — George Joseph Kresge Jr., otherwise known to TV watchers as the mesmerizing entertainer and mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, has died at age 89. Kreskin’s friend and former road manager, Ryan Galway, says he died Tuesday at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey. Kreskin launched his television career in the 1960s and remained popular for decades, appearing with everyone from Merv Griffin to Johnny Carson to Jimmy Fallon. Fans would welcome, if not entirely figure out, his favorite mind tricks — whether correctly guessing a playing card chosen at random, or, most famously, divining where his paycheck had been planted among the audience. He also hosted a show in the 1970s, gave live performances and wrote numerous books. Albertsons sues Kroger for failing to win approval of their proposed supermarket merger Kroger and Albertsons’ plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history has crumbled. The two companies have accused each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through, and Albertsons pulled out of the $24.6 billion deal on Wednesday. The bitter breakup came the day after a federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington issued injunctions to block the merger, saying that combining the two grocery chains could reduce competition and harm consumers. Albertsons is now suing Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee, as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger says the legal claims are “baseless.” Keynote Selena Gomez spotlights prioritizing mental health during Academy Women's Luncheon LOS ANGELES (AP) — While surveying a room packed with Hollywood’s most influential figures, “Emilia Pérez” star Selena Gomez took center stage at the Academy Women’s Luncheon to spotlight a critical issue: Prioritizing mental health and supporting underserved communities often left behind in the conversation. The singer-actor has been public about her mental health struggles, revealing she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Gomez was the keynote speaker Tuesday at the event held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with attendees including Ariana Grande, Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Pamela Anderson, Rita Wilson, Ava DuVernay and Awkwafina.Russian cancer vaccine release timeline revealedA full privatisation of NatWest has edged closer after the government further trimmed its stake in the FTSE 100 bank. Taxpayers own just under 11 per cent of the high street lender after the state sold further NatWest stock as part of a trading plan that steadily dribbles small amounts of shares into the market. It comes less than a fortnight after the government offloaded a much bigger stake in the lender back to NatWest for £1 billion , a deal that has accelerated the state’s exit from the bank. At the current pace of share sales, taxpayers will be out of NatWest at some point during the first half of next year. It will be a landmark moment. The bank has been backed by the government since the state rescued it from the brink of collapse between 2008 and 2009 during the global financial crisis. That bailout handed taxpayers a stake of almost 85 per cent in the lender, which was then called Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The government has been selling down its holding since 2015, although the pace of disposals has increased markedly since the start of this year, when the state still owned about 38 per cent.
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Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• Nikki Giovanni, a transcendent American poet, knew her life was quickly coming to an end when she visited Minnesota in September to deliver the keynote speech for an annual gala sponsored by the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. On her third stint battling cancer, a noticeably weakened Giovanni almost casually announced the approach of her inevitable demise. Only she didn’t say she was dying as much as state that she was aware of an impending transition. “You don’t die until you’re forgotten,” she told the sold-out Freedom Fund gala. Giovanni, a storied civil rights activist, transitioned on Monday, Dec. 9, and accolades to her legacy are being heralded. But how do you eulogize someone who refuses to die? In the advancing age of artificial intelligence, as long as human poetry remains an art form and humanity continues, Giovanni will remain as immortal as Baldwin or Frost. Hyperbole be damned. A university professor and author by trade, Giovanni was quoted saying her best audiences were college students and prison inmates. Her social reach was infinitely more expansive. The diversity of her audiences and fanbase attests to a towering intellectual range. As a writer, she fluently addressed issues of gender, race, politics, sex and love with startling aplomb. She was at once unapologetically full-frontal and surprisingly demure, whatever the occasion demanded. The first time I saw her as a college freshman in 1984, I instantly fell in love. Her poem “Revolutionary Dreams” captivated me. It spoke about self-change and revolution — actual and metaphysical. But it was the audacity of “Ego Tripping,” perhaps her most famous poem, that sealed the deal for a teenager: “I was born in the Congo / I walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx / I designed a pyramid so tough that a star that only glows every one hundred years falls into the center giving divine perfect light / I am bad [...]” And, then her ascendant conclusion: “I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal / I cannot be comprehended except by my permission / I mean ... I ... can fly like a bird in the sky ...” Giovanni is the artistic and soulful predecessor of so many artists and intellectuals who now populate the contemporary pantheon of creatives and activist artists. She was and will continue to be a bridge. If you listen closely, you can hear her voice in the work of people as varied as Kendrick Lamar, Janelle Monáe, Amanda Gorman and others. “I really like what the young people are doing,” Giovanni told The New York Times in 2020, as she reflected on the Black Lives Matter movement and the activism of the young. “I think my job is to be sure to get out of their way, but also let them know, if it means anything to them, that I’m proud of them.” “I recommend old age,” she added. “There’s just nothing as wonderful as knowing you have done your job.” Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr. did far more than a job. She was a walking revolution. Now, transitioned at the age of 81, her lasting legacy will be the continued transcendence of time, location and genre.
Around 150,000 people have fled Syria amid ongoing fighting: UNOnce upon a time, there was a talented basketball player named Lonzo Ball, who had a very loud father named LaVar Ball. Lonzo was one of the top talents of the 2017 NBA Draft, but that wasn't enough success for LaVar. In addition to NBA success, LaVar wanted to create his own shoe brand, which he named Big Baller Brand. LaVar had Lonzo wear those shoes for one season and then, long story short, Lonzo stopped wearing them. We already knew Lonzo , but he made it abundantly clear to ESPN . As the story goes, Lonzo was selected No. 2 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft and was given a pair of shoes to wear in summer league. He did like them. Via ESPN: "They were like kickball shoes," Ball said. He wore them just twice that summer. He and his manager, Darren Moore, went out to Foot Locker stores in Las Vegas to buy a different pair of high-end shoes for each game. Ball played one game each in the Air Jordan XXXI, Nike Kobe A.D., Adidas Harden LS and Under Armour Curry 4 en route to winning summer league MVP. LaVar changed course after that, reportedly setting up an agreement with Skechers to manufacture the shoes bearing his family's name. Lonzo wore those shoes and still wasn't a fan, going as far as suggesting they could have played a role in his meniscus injury during his rookie season. "I think it's a possibility for sure, to be honest with you," Ball said. "I wasn't really getting hurt like that until I started wearing them." Lonzo also speculated that years of training on the hard concrete of Chino Hills State Park could have played a role in the cartilage issues that have hammered his career. He missed two entire seasons while undergoing three different surgeries, including a cartilage and meniscus transplant. Ball returned this season and has played only six games due to a wrist injury, averaging nowhere close to his usual playing time. Meanwhile, Big Baller Brand has , , and , . There have been , and , but you can still buy a LaVar Ball-autographed shoe .LIVINGSTON — From the hillside above her home on Suce Creek, Maggie McGuane has a clear view of the property a Miami-based investment firm is eyeing for a luxury resort development. The lower boundary of the empty three-lot parcel is easily identifiable. It’s been planted in winter wheat, highlighting the right angles that form the property’s lower edge. The upper lot has more relief, stretching up a pine-dotted hillside. McGuane has climbed above the cottonwoods that shelter her house from Park County’s infamous wind — blowing moderately on a late October day — to explain why she finds a proposal to put 100 cabins, a restaurant and a spa in this tucked-away slice of Paradise Valley a “uniquely mysterious” prospect. The mystery pertains to peculiarities of the 90-acre property, which is still listed for sale, and the inscrutability of the parties involved: an out-of-state landowner named Robert Pappert whom McGuane has been unable to reach outside of communications with his attorney and Realtor, and Flex Capital Group, an out-of-state real estate developer that’s an unknown quantity here. McGuane has been unofficially appointed by her neighbors to lead the charge against the development, which has generated difficult conversations about zoning in the two months since the proposal came to light via an email exchange unearthed by a local nonprofit. McGuane and others argue that the development is out of alignment with the area’s predominantly rural character, and a poor fit for a community eager to avoid the breakneck development that’s reshaping nearby Bozeman, a rapidly growing college town of 57,000 that was recently crowned one of the country’s “coolest” small cities. Though McGuane is well aware of an outpouring of interest in the amenities Paradise Valley has to offer, aesthetic and otherwise, several features of Flex’s plan have challenged her understanding of the voracity of the land lust transforming Paradise Valley, the place she scattered the ashes of her mother, actress Margot Kidder, and the home she said she can’t imagine leaving. Suce Creek is a relatively tight drainage perpendicular to Paradise Valley, a wider valley that has long been a thoroughfare for ranchers raising cattle, anglers casting for trout in the Yellowstone River, and tourists eager to spot geysers, grizzlies, wolves and bison in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Even without a zoning district precluding the type of commercial resort development Flex has in mind, McGuane finds it hard to imagine more than 100 structures and 400 parking spaces packed into a 90-acre property with so much slope. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” McGuane said, going on to describe the land as “rattlesnake-crusted, barren [and] windblown.” “Barren” pertains to water availability, which McGuane said is “core to this battle,” especially given an active lawsuit between Pappert and neighboring landowners and the fact that several of her neighbors have had to redrill their wells in recent years in search of a reliable water supply. Pappert, a North Carolina-based dentist, acquired a right to some of Suce Creek’s water when he purchased the property in 2014. Since it’s not a particularly senior right, scant water is available to the property owner during the dry months. A three-year legal battle produced a recent water court ruling finding that Pappert is entitled to 40 miner’s inches of water (roughly 450 gallons per minute), but whether he has access to that water via an easement across his neighbor’s property remains legally unresolved. Another access issue pertains to roads. Though the property is just a few miles from two major north-south routes — Highway 89 and its cousin to the east, East River Road — Suce Creek Road is a gravel road prone to drifting in with snow when Park County’s winter winds kick up in earnest. Finally, there are concerns of the horned, hooved, furred and fanged variety. On a recent fall day, dozens of cattle roamed above a cattle guard posted with an “open range” sign. The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, just a couple of miles up-drainage from Pappert’s property, supports the kinds of large mammals that need distance from people to thrive, including moose and rarer animals. In 2006, a trio of teenage hikers spent nearly two hours tucked into the fetal position to protect themselves from a charging grizzly bear. Up on the hillside, McGuane takes a break from throwing a stuffed octopus for Penny, her copper-colored mutt, to relate the story of a black bear that frequented the drainage from 2018 to 2022. He was first seen as a small cub near her house. Her husband dubbed the bear Darren. McGuane’s not sure what happened to the bear, but she suspects a neighbor shot him. She knows plenty of people in Park County don’t share her views about large carnivores — or any number of natural resource issues, for that matter — which is part of the reason she’s been so struck by what she describes as consensus around the Suce Creek development. “It’s amazing to see everyone in agreement — and this is Park County-wide. I have grown up around these things being huge battles. This is my first experience with a proposal that, across the board, everyone thinks this is a bad idea,” she said. “This development has challenged all of our notions of how far things could go, how nonsensical the growth could be.” Like other residents of southwestern Montana, McGuane learned about the development from the Park County Environmental Council, a 34-year-old nonprofit perhaps best known for a successful multiyear campaign to fend off an exploratory gold-mining operation in nearby Emigrant Gulch that state environmental regulators permitted in 2017. Curious if murmurs about a new development in Suce Creek were founded, the group submitted a record request to the county planning department in early October. “This is my first experience with a proposal that, across the board, everyone thinks this is a bad idea.” The request produced about a dozen emails between Park County Planning Director Mike Inman and Nir Balboa, one of Flex’s managing partners. Balboa described the property’s location and inquired about what sort of environmental reviews would be required for a 100-cabin development sketched out in renderings for Flex projects in Utah and North Carolina that he described as “identical to” the company’s plans for Paradise Valley. The documents show small, flat-roofed cabins with lots of right angles and glass situated near 27,000 square feet of shared amenities: an airy 200-seat restaurant, a pair of indoor pools with a view into surrounding green space, an event space and a storefront for recreational gear. The renderings generated an immediate stir on social media. (“Tell these derivative traders that don’t give a flying damn about this place that they are not welcome here,” software executive and local lodge owner Jeff Reed wrote on his Facebook page shortly after Park County Environmental Council shared the renderings. “Make this an election issue for our county commissioners.”) Park County fields inquiries from developers trying to understand the regulatory lay of the land in the county “fairly frequently,” Inman told Montana Free Press in a recent interview. It doesn’t take long to give interested parties the broad outlines: There is a sign ordinance along Highway 89 as well as five smaller citizen-initiated zoning districts scattered throughout the county, but there is no county-wide zoning. Local review requirements for most commercial projects — including those like Flex’s — are therefore extremely limited, he said. Substantive project reviews would instead go through state agencies such as the Montana Department of Natural Resource and Conservation, which would examine the water-availability piece of the equation, and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, which would review project components pertaining to wastewater management and public waterworks. “Nobody wants things in their backyard, which we hear a lot, but there are no guardrails,” he said. Inman and the appointed, volunteer-staffed county planning board he works with spent several years developing a proposal for an agricultural and residential preservation zoning district (previously dubbed a “conflict mitigation zoning district”) that would have allowed local elected officials to weigh in on proposals like Flex’s, as well as other commercial enterprises such as tire dumps, asphalt plants, wind farms, chicken processing facilities and shooting ranges. County commissioners voted to put that proposal on ice in 2022, partly due to the logistical challenges of taking public comment during the COVID-19 pandemic. It generated intense interest: 226 pages of comments regarding the zoning proposal landed in county employee inboxes. In an interesting twist, anti-zoning and pro-zoning contingents banded together to halt it. One side argued that it went too far, and the other said it didn’t go far enough. “Fear runs both sides,” Inman said of the two camps’ unusual cooperation. “When you are operating out of fear, it is really difficult to have consensus and productive conversations.” The community fears that county planners are grappling with now underscore why it’s better to discuss growth before conflict around a specific proposal sharpens the debate, Inman said. “I’m really amazed at how [the Suce Creek proposal] has blown up, for something that may not even get built.” Whether Flex is casually interested in Pappert’s property or fully committed to pursuing a Paradise Valley development is a source of widespread speculation in Park County seat Livingston and beyond. Billed as an “innovation-oriented real estate investment firm with fully integrated acquisition, development and property management expertise,” Flex was founded in 2020 by real estate and hospitality executives with experience in the Miami and New York City real estate markets. The company did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment. Property owner Pappert declined to be interviewed, but the Realtor representing him told MTFP on Dec. 3 that Pappert is still accepting offers for the property, which has been listed intermittently since 2021. It’s currently listed for $3.9 million. In 2014, the year Pappert bought it, it was listed for $800,000. Park County Environmental Council Co-Director Max Hjortsberg said the Suce Creek proposal strikes him as a “very Big Sky-esque” development slated for an area that has retained its agricultural foundation and “quiet social fabric.” “This is indicative of a new type of development,” he said. “[We’re] being sought after by a different level of developer and investor.” Since the nonprofit received its record request, Hjortsberg said, it’s learned that Flex has approached at least two other Park County property owners with purchase offers. (They were declined.) “They’re doing their due diligence, so we think they’re very serious and definitely making a play at this development opportunity,” Hjortsberg said. Erica Lighthiser, Hjortsberg’s co-director, said she doesn’t particularly relish the marathon time commitment involved with zoning questions — “the ‘Z’ word,” she calls it — but she’s grateful that the Suce Creek prospect has reignited conversations about community planning. “We need something, because otherwise it’s this slow erosion of this ecosystem and this area where there’s a little development here, a little development there. And all of a sudden, we’re like everywhere else.” To Lighthiser’s relief, conversations about the Suce Creek development aren’t confined to social media — they’ve spilled over into the City-County Complex, the nexus of local government for the 18,000 people who live in Park County. Lighthiser said she’s encouraged that county residents voted in June to deny Referendum One, which would have repealed the county’s existing growth plan and effectively kneecapped a county-wide zoning initiative. To the chagrin of planning proponents, a sister initiative, Referendum Two, did pass. As a result, any new county growth policies — or amendments to the existing one passed in 2017 — won’t be implemented unless they garner the approval of voters living outside of Livingston and Clyde Park, Park County’s only incorporated communities. On Nov. 20, the commission held a workshop on growth before a standing-room-only crowd in the City-County Complex’s Community Room. Though the workshop wasn’t explicitly about the Suce Creek proposal — the county attorney advised against discussing developments that may eventually come before the commission — the project came up frequently in public remarks during the hour-long meeting. “We need something, because otherwise it’s this slow erosion of this ecosystem and this area where there’s a little development here, a little development there. And all of a sudden, we’re like everywhere else.” First up to the microphone was Suce Creek resident Richard Walker, who said Flex’s project would jeopardize his water and, by extension, his property value. He said five of the “dozen or so” families living in the drainage have had to drill deeper wells in the decade since he moved into the area, and he’s heard of similar issues in more southerly drainages. “If this property goes in at Suce Creek, the water usage is going to render our properties worthless,” he told commissioners. “We won’t have water.” A couple of attendees advised commissioners to consider their legacies, and to act proactively and swiftly to initiate county-wide zoning. Kevin Johnson, who described himself as living “within eyeshot of the Suce Creek project,” implored the commission to preserve Livingston and Park County’s “old-school charm.” Still others cautioned that without guardrails, the area is destined for the growth-related issues that have afflicted other communities like Bozeman and Big Sky. Leslie Fiegel with the Livingston Chamber of Commerce and It’s My Land, a landowner rights organization, offered a different view. Park County residents have had lots of opportunities to participate in planning discussions, she said, and the outcome “has played out the way that it should.” “This is not a time for political division. This is not a time for blaming others or companies that want to start a new business,” she told commissioners. “Thank you for what you’ve done up to this point. ... We have your back.” Park County’s three commissioners stayed quiet through most of the meeting. Toward the end, though, they opened a window into their views about where one person’s property rights end and another person’s start — the tension at the heart of so many land-use debates, both locally and West-wide. Mike Story, who is midway through his term, described the Suce Creek development and the discussions it’s engendered as “an ongoing thing” and encouraged Park County residents to keep reaching out for conversations. He said he’d like to see similarly packed meetings in Park County’s less populous areas — places like Clyde Park, Emigrant and Gardiner — “just [to] have ideas out there that we can look at.” Commission Chair Clint Tinsley, whose term is up at the end of this year, said there are options the commission can pursue now, but they’ll require a lot of hard conversations — a nod to how “beat up” commissioners have gotten in meetings about previous zoning proposals. “If the majority of this community wants zoning, that’s probably where we need to go,” said Tinsley, who formerly led Livingston’s public works department. His seat will be assumed by Jennifer Vermillion, a Shields Valley hay and pig farmer, in January. Brian Wells, an Emigrant business owner appointed to fill a commission vacancy in 2023 and recently elected to serve a four-year term, said in his careful drawl that he would like the planning department to evaluate growth-wrangling options that other counties with similar populations and political leanings have pursued. “We’re a pretty diverse and divided community,” he said, “but one thing we have in common [is] most everybody I talked to would like to see some kind of guardrails, some kind of protection.” For nearly two months, McGuane has made it her mission to learn the public and private tools Suce Creek residents can use to protect their drainage. They’ve mulled over county-wide zoning and citizen-initiated zoning, purchasing the property outright or encouraging a land trust to make an offer. No solution is perfect, McGuane says, so they’ve also hired an attorney to represent their interests if the sale goes through and Flex forwards their proposal to state regulators. (DEQ spokesperson Rebecca Harbage told MTFP on Dec. 3 that DEQ hasn’t fielded any proposals or outreach from Flex.) In the meantime, McGuane said she and her neighbors are “in a weird state of limbo.” But that status hasn’t been without benefits, she said. “This is the most perfect tiny example of the conflict all over the state. So much of it is just the conflict between people from remarkably varying backgrounds with big financial losses and gains on the line,” she said. “If we can do a good job working through this, I would love for this to be a good example for the rest of the state.” Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more.