Good morning; on the Beacon today, officials in Columbia Falls have announced that they would consider housing a new prerelease center for the Flathead if the current committee in Kalispell cannot find an appropriate location. A Eureka man, Eric Haas, has been charged with eight felonies for a string of burglaries and a fire that nearly destroyed a county building in October. In a costly case of mistaken identity, a man accidentally placed his backpack containing $6,000 in cash and a laptop in the wrong rental car at his hotel. And we’re high on Heidi Roedel and low on Smurfit-Stone in our weekly news index of what’s up, down and in between.
Montana’s top elected officials backed a plan Monday to put vast tracts of coal up for lease, bucking pressure from environmentalists who say digging up and burning the fuel will be an “abomination” that endangers the planet. President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul easily cleared its second 60-vote test in the Senate early Tuesday morning. Federal wildlife agents are working to remove gray wolves from six packs in Montana in response to recent livestock attacks. The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices has dismissed a campaign complaint against Missoula Councilman John Hendrickson. The northern tier of the country should slowly climb away from the recession in 2010, with Montana’s outlook brighter than other parts of the region, a pair of economists said Monday. Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Monday interviewed the two finalists for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Montana Supreme Court. More than $14 million is earmarked for Bozeman projects in the $636 billion defense spending bill just passed by the U.S. Senate. And down in the Bitterroot, a lion has snatched a dog off a family’s deck, ran a horse to death and created a feud between neighbors after a man shot another man’s two hounds that were tracking the beast.