Good morning and happy birthday Friedrich Fröbel, who created kindergarten.
On the Beacon today, with Montana musicians now exempt from a state workers’ compensation requirement, the legislative legacy of a late Butte lawmaker lives on. Despite a winter shutdown, Majestic Valley Arena is booking events and has a full slate of events for the summer. Another tractor trailer overturned on Montana Highway 35 along the east shore of Flathead Lake, though its contents weren’t as hazardous as the truck crash a year earlier. Prosecutors in the W.R. Grace & Co. trial called their final witness Monday. Wildlife officials moved a grizzly sow and her cub after they started getting into garbage cans in the foothills of the Swan Range.
In the Legislature, lawmakers are no closer to a budget deal. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that businesses drilling for coal-bed methane must obtain water well permits or replace the water they use. The boom in wheat prices appears to be over, and Montana farmers must now figure out what’s next. Gov. Brian Schweitzer is vetoing a bill that would charge teenagers as adults when vehicular homicide is alleged. A bill asking voters to approve annual legislative sessions cleared the House, but needs a lot of votes to get much further along.
And a Florida man who won the lottery is opening a nude dude ranch – though pants are required for horseback riding. Have a great day.