Good morning and happy Tax Day!
On the Beacon today, staff and regulars at Sawbuck in Kalispell are preparing for the bar to be torn down to make way for a Montana Club. The new 911 Center construction is proceeding as planned and coming in under budget so far. A 7-year-old girl was released from the hospital in Spokane after being accidentally shot by her younger sister near Ronan Friday. In the trial, a former federal health official says W.R. Grace and Co. stymied the government’s attempts to assess the hazard of Libby vermiculite. And business columnist Mark Riffey writes about how efficient shipping can reflect well on your small business.
In state news, the Schweitzer administration is calling the state budget and plan for spending stimulus money “unacceptable” after being revised by the Republican-controlled Senate. A new program allows those running hotels, motels and inns to ask their guests if they want to contribute a dollar or two to help pay for conservation on private land. Heavy roadwork on U.S. Highway 93 this summer around the Jocko Valley and Arlee will cause some road delays in coming months. A Harlowton man caught a record-breaking tiger muskie, but discrepancies in how he caught the fish will keep him out of the record books. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, frustrated with how the property reappraisal bill has become bogged down, is proposing lawmakers pass a simple bill mandating property tax rate increases be limited to no more than 5 percent and be taken up again in 2011. Early hopes by lawmakers that they might adjourn early this weekend seem increasingly unlikely given the feuding over the budget and property tax reappraisal, among other issues, heating up in the final days of the session.
And finally, an Ohio woman is in jail after a feud with her neighbor led her to subscribe to several adult magazines like Playboy and Hustler in his name. Have a great day and get those taxes done.