Good morning; on the Beacon today, A 47-year-old Kalispell man, Dennis Cartwright, who was chased down and held by the owner of a pickup he allegedly tried to steal has pleaded not guilty to felony assault and attempted theft. With the help of a dedicated team of real estate professionals and a sizeable anonymous donation, the Northwest Montana Veterans Stand Down and Food Pantry will finally be moving into a building more than quadruple its current size. Local musher Katie Davis is competing in February’s Yukon Quest, a journey that will take her through more than 1,000 miles of arctic wilderness in temperatures of 50 below or colder. Whitefish High School football coach Patrick Dryden has resigned after four seasons as head coach. And Mick HOlien writes abut the surreal scene of the UM football team’s return from its defeat against Villanova when the Grizzly charter plane unceremoniously touched down in Great Falls at 4 a.m. after being diverted from Missoula and several other Montana airports because of weather.
Lack of confidence in the economic recovery led employers to shed a more-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December even as the unemployment rate held at 10 percent. President Barack Obama suggested Thursday he would not fire anyone for the attempted Christmas airline attack, saying it appears the security lapses that led to the near-disaster were not the fault of a single individual or institution. Bozeman city commissioners are considering a policy change that would prohibit discriminating against people because they are lesbian or gay. Scientists and citizens are challenging asbestos cleanup proposals in Libby, arguing that not enough is known about the contamination and that more studies should be completed before a final plan is adopted. Ted Turner’s bid to get 74 wild bison from Yellowstone National Park is drawing stiff opposition from those who say the animals are being given up for private profit instead of conservation. The head of the company that owns more than half the coal in southeastern Montana’s Otter Creek Valley said this week that he’ll be surprised if anyone bids on state-owned coal there, because the Land Board probably set the minimum price too high. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has named nine Montana counties that were hammered by last October’s heavy freeze “primary natural disaster areas.” A state agency that sued The Associated Press over a request to see documents on alleged sexual misconduct of prison employees must hand over the records, a Helena judge decided in the constitutional right-to-know case.