Good morning; on the Beacon today, Montana’s Fuel for Schools and Beyond program is in danger of running out of funding. Kalispell Municipal Judge Heidi Ulbricht is so far pleased with a new treatment program for DUI offenders she helped introduce earlier this year. Glacier National Park officials say a grizzly bear yearling that died after being hit by a tranquilizer dart suffered from internal bleeding not related to the dart. And check out HIGHS & LOWS, our new weekly news index of what’s up, down and in between.
Two Montana businesses have been awarded subcontracts on projects to rebuild ports of entry along the state’s border with Canada. A federal judge has agreed to host a last-minute hearing on a request from environmental and animal rights groups to stop upcoming wolf hunts in the Northern Rockies. One reason President Barack Obama is having trouble winning the health care fight might be because the young, tech-savvy activists who helped him get elected don’t have as much of a stake in health care policy. Lake County officials said an off-duty Montana Highway Patrol trooper drowned over the weekend in an irrigation canal while trying to retrieve his dog, which had fallen into the water. As of July 31, the stimulus spending had created 140 construction jobs in Montana, the state Transportation Department reported. And NorthWestern Energy executives were in Bozeman declaring external forces the cause of the massive March explosion there.