On the Beacon today, the Quiet Skies Committee, a public group critical of Kalispell’s plans to improve and possibly expand the city airport, held another meeting last week at the Outlaw Inn that may have only muddled the issue. A record number of candidates registered for public office on opening day of the filing season. With Sheila Bowen now retired, her replacement, Kevin Gartland, appears fully ready to continue and expand the Whitefish Chamber’s well-established presence. The Flathead Valley offers a wealth of groomed Nordic trails for skiers of all abilities, and some of the best are on Blacktail Mountain in Lakeside.
Republican state Sen. Roy Brown is one of the more high-profile figures reaching out to other social and fiscal conservatives, hoping to create a bipartisan movement against capital punishment. Ted Turner’s offer to have Yellowstone bison on his land is is stoking a sharp debate over the role of deep-pocketed private entities in conservation. State labor officials are hoping to land a federal emergency grant to assist the growing number of workers whose livelihood has been affected by the closure of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.’s Frenchtown linerboard plant. Montana forests managers will get a $20 million boost from the federal government to address the mountain pine beetle epidemic and general forest health. Chuck Johnson compares Schweitzer to other governors who have had to slash the state budget.