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News Buffet: Home Burglaries On The Rise, Sinrud Shut Down, Mafia Irony

By Beacon Staff

Good morning and Happy Hanukkah!

The news is bumping this morning. Keriann Lynch reports on the rash of home burglaries plaguing the Flathead. In Whitefish, the Flathead Nordic Patrol is training interested candidates in avalanche conditions and backcountry rescue. There’s still time to get into a course. Check out yesterday’s Police Blotter to read about a young woman who partied a little too hard and started taking shots of dish soap. The recent rash of grizzly encounters throughout the state, capped off by a very close call in Whitefish, has renewed calls to lift some of the remaining protections on the bear.

In state news, Joseph Edward Duncan III pleaded guilty to federal charges yesterday. Duncan abducted 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her brother 9-year-old Dylan Groene, and sexually abused them in a Montana campground for two months before eventually killing Dylan. Another murder trial opened in Missoula, this one to try a Libby auto body shop worker for hiring someone to kill his wife. A Helena lawmaker asked Gov. Brian Schweitzer to call a special session of the legislature after another investment in the state’s investment pool was downgraded yesterday. It doesn’t look as though Schweitzer is going to call it. The state board of architects issued a cease and desist order against Bozeman Republican Rep. John Sinrud for practicing architecture without a license. Sinrud says he’s being targeted for political reasons. And Attorney General Mike McGrath is filing a friend of the court brief, supporting gun rights, in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging a Washington D.C. handgun ban.

Enjoy this strange snap of warm weather, although if you’re like me, you’re a bit bummed about the implications for skiing this weekend. And here’s a bizarre case of life imitating art for a Sicilian mobster.