Good morning; on the Beacon today, after an earthquake largely destroyed much of his birth country, Kobe Dorcheus is a glimmer of hope for his parents and a connection here in the Flathead to the extraordinary recent events in Haiti. The results of a third-party investigation into the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Office were released Wednesday, clearing the office and its personnel of allegations of wrongdoing. On Jan. 28 the International Guitar Night concert comes strumming into Whitefish with – Brian Gore, Itamar Erez, Lulo Reinhardt and Stephen Bennett – some of the best guitar talent from around the globe. And Bill Schneider looks back at the paranoia among gun owners during the 2008 election season and throughout most of 2009 to see if their concerns have been warranted by any restrictions on Second Amendment rights under Obama.
Declaring “I don’t quit,'” an embattled President Barack Obama vowed in his first State of the Union address Wednesday night to make job growth his topmost priority and urged a divided Congress to boost the still-ailing economy with a new burst of stimulus spending. The nation cannot afford the spending Democrats have enacted or the tax increases they propose, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Wednesday in the Republican response to the State of the Union address. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday that he plans to cut $6 million from the state budget by canceling some planned building projects, the latest move as he shaves the edges of state spending. Barring some major changes, state government’s grim budget picture doesn’t appear likely to improve anytime soon, leaving even more difficult decisions for the 2011 Legislature, a preliminary analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Division shows. Jobs have been disappearing in Montana since October 2008, according to data from the state Department of Labor and Industry. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock is hoping to raise as much as $500,000 from private groups this year to finance a public advertising campaign warning of the dangers of prescription drug abuse. And the state’s mule deer population is declining.