Good morning and happy birthday Chuck Yeager.
On the Beacon today, Kalispell’s John Guymon Band has made it to third place in a national music competition. A movement among Flathead businesses encouraging people to buy local is picking up steam. The state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is hiring for seasonal wildfire jobs. Flathead Valley Community College will host the Crown of the Continent symposium from Feb. 20-21. Warren Miller recounts the evolution of the parallel ski turn, and the integration of Swiss, Austrian and Norwegian techniques.
Lee’s Mike Dennison reports a judge has ruled BNSF must clean up a polluted former oil refinery site in Kalispell to the tune of $32.5 million. Montana wildlife officials are seeking to transport more than 40 Yellowstone wild bison to an American Indian reservation in Wyoming. Creditors owed millions are seeking to sue Credit Suisse, the firm that made a fraudulent loan to the Yellowstone Club that ended up in the pockets of the owners. U.S. and Canadian officials are looking into a major iinitiative to store greenhouse gases underground in a cross-border collaboration. A Helena senator’s bill to end the tax holiday on oil and gas extraction, unsurprisingly ran into stiff opposition from the petroleum industry. New statistics from the White House say the federal stimulus could create or save 11,000 jobs over the next two years.
And finally, Italian authorities arrested a cross-dressing Mafia boss in Naples. Have a great weekend.