Good morning; today is the anniversary of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. (And, for good measure, here’s a link to Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood.)
On the Beacon this morning, Keriann Lynch examines the fight over state education funding, as a fix remains elusive. At Flathead High, students helped raise money for the Central Asia Institute, which supports community-based education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Before the summer tourism season in Whitefish, businesses are closing, opening and changing locations. At a wildfire symposium last weekend, the Flathead Business and Industry Association and the Big Sky Coalition hammered the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighting policy and blamed it for economic loss and “mega-fires.” And Beacon columnist Wild Bill Schneider discusses the meaning of the term, “multiple use.”
Former President Bill Clinton will return to Montana Saturday to campaign in Bozeman, Lewistown and Miles City. In preparation for Montana’s June 3 primary, Sen. Barack Obama will be simultaneously campaigning here while he begins his general election campaign. Farmers are taking evasive action as more than half the state’s wheat fields are withering in an early season drought. In Congress, a major mix-up has stalled the Farm Bill and embarrassed Democrats. A new report finds top officials have played politics with Endangered Species Act cases and the Interior Department may have even found more such cases if it had investigated the problem more thoroughly. A new Bush administration report finds much of the U.S. oil and gas reserves located under public land is off limits to drilling.
And a 96-year-old great-great-grandmother races around the Indy 500 track. Have a great day.