Good morning, and a happy, healthy TV Talk Show Host Day.
It’s a sunny, relatively warm morning in the Flathead and looks to be a beautiful day. Check out Mark Riffey’s mind-blowing photo of Bowman Lake, taken last weekend on a Boy Scout camping trip. Plum Creek Timber Company’s earnings dropped drastically in the third quarter; though the article is short, the company attributes much of the decline to moving land sales reports to the fourth quarter. And Christie Burns’s Police Blotter from over the weekend has a few real gems – it’s worth a read.
Tonight, the Bigfork school board will release its incident report on the death of Jeffrey Bowman, the Bigfork teenager who collapsed during football practice and died a week later. Bowman’s parents are currently reviewing the report after a raucous meeting last night where other concerned parents criticized school officials over their handling of the incident. Mike Dennison of Lee’s capital bureau reports that Insure Montana, a subsidized health insurance plan for more than 80 small businesses in the state, is likely to decrease its benefits and increase its rates in an effort to stanch the rising cost of medical care. The Helena Independent Record reports on a man whose stepson was killed in Iraq, and now hopes to display the memorial he built to his fallen family member in the state capitol building, as well as other states.
The development of coal-fired power plants, and the global climate change impacts of such development, have been making national headlines as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up a global warming bill. On Saturday, the New York Times reported on the transition from support to opposition by many Great Falls-area residents over the construction of the proposed Highwood generating plant. Today, a New York Times editorial comments on coal projects in Montana and Kansas, predicting a more costly future for coal-fired power plants. Amid this national attention, a leading climate change scientist spoke at the University of Montana last night, and several environmental groups took the opportunity to demonstrate against coal power, and proposed “clean coal” processes on the campus oval.
Finally, if it seems as though logic ceases to apply inside our nation’s capitol, apparently the laws of gravity are becoming irrelevant as well – check out this Reuters video of a levitating magician in front of the White House. Pretty amazing. Get some sun today, while it lasts.