Good morning and happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day. No, I’m not making this up. The sun is emerging after a much-needed rainy night in the Flathead, and the new Beacons are on the stands. Topping our site this morning is a profile of Miles Passmore, at 19, the youngest full-time farmer in the Flathead. On our new sports statistics feature, By The Numbers, Flathead High quarterback Brock Osweiler is setting a record pace early in the season. Editor Kellyn Brown is a groomsman in a wedding in Buffalo, New York, this weekend. He blogs today on some Best Man speeches dubbed so terrible they’ve become YouTube phenomenas. Some of these speeches are like watching a tuxedo-clad train wreck.
Topping state news, the AP’s Matt Gouras reports that state schools chief Linda McCulloch says meth use by high school students is declining and attributes the trend to the Montana Meth project’s graphic advertisements. Mike Dennison of Lee Newspapers reports that the state’s budget surplus is going strong, with the fiscal year ending more than $500 million in the black. A disheartening new study says the University of Montana ranks 28th among 50 schools ranking how well students are taught civics and American history – but all the schools listed still failed. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle breaks down a disturbing report by an MSU think tank predicting that firefighting costs, particularly in the wildland urban interface, are likely to soar.
Spirit Week continues at Flathead High, with pirates, ninjas, robots and togas in abundance. I wish my high school had such a cool Web site. Wait a minute, the Internet barely existed when I was in high school.
And I thought I’d leave you today feeling paranoid and creeped out. That’s how I feel after reading a story about an enormous meteorite that crashed down in a remote Peruvian village and has been sickening everyone in the vicinity ever since. Let’s hope it doesn’t hatch. Hang in there for Hump Day.