Good morning and happy birthday to Akira Kurosawa.
A Highway Patrol trooper was killed in a head-on collision near Somers early this morning. A small plane crash near Butte killed 14 passengers, seven of whom were children, and witnesses say they saw the plane pitching hard to the left just before it crashed. Democrats celebrated recent successes and state party chairman Dennis McDonald formally proclaimed his candidacy for Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg’s congressional seat at the annual Mansfield-Metcalf dinner over the weekend. A planned land use advisory committee in Evergreen drew heavy opposition at a weekend hearing. And Kitchen Guy Chef Jim Gray has just encountered his toughest food critics: his grandchildren.
In state news, Gov. Brian Schweitzer continued to press the state’s universities to enact a tuition freeze for the next two years, by supplementing the budget with stimulus money. Legislative committees will seriously take up several proposals this week aimed at lessening the impacts of increased property taxes from reappraisal. It’s dumping snow in southeast Montana, which could receive as much as 2 feet.
And a neighborhood in London was evacuated when workmen mistook a prop from Monty Python’s “Holy Grail” for a bomb. Have a great day.