Good morning; on the Beacon today, Plum Creek announced Thursday it will be closing its stud mill in Evergreen indefinitely. Marty Puryer’s business selling rare quartz rocks for lawn art is beginning to take off. After an astonishingly long losing streak, the Glacier Knights are a frontrunner to win the Rocky Mountain Football League AA title. Baron Foster, accused of fatally shooting his neighbor in Evergreen, has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide. Charges against Thomas Lockwood of Marion, who engaged authorities in an armed standoff with police in January, have been dropped because his wife won’t testify against him. Lewis Hazell, 82, of New Jersey died in a single-vehicle rollover north of Bigfork. And Warren Miller recalls a two-week nautical adventure into the wilds of the British Columbia coast.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer is filing renewed arguments in his ongoing ethics case set for hearing in August. U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is asking the NCAA to rethink a rule which could disqualify football teams at Montana and Montana State from hosting playoff games. The Missoulian reports on a grasshopper infestation threatening Lake County agricultural lands. Lake County resident, Darren Breckinridge, announced he’s running for chairman of the Montana Republican Party. Schweitzer will campaign for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. In Helena, Sebastian Walter Olivares-Coster was arrested Thursday and accused of a shooting that left one teen dead and two others hospitalized.