Good morning; on the Beacon today, two-time world champion Marvin Camel wants to bring boxing back to the home of his youth on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Several residents of Flathead and Lake counties, saddled with tax bills they say are too high, are filing lawsuits against the Montana Department of Revenue, challenging how the state carried out its property reappraisal. County Planning Director Jeff Harris had a good week, but looking at the federal deficit soar makes for a bad week in our index of what’s up, down and in between. And check out Lido’s sick photo from the skijoring competition in Whitefish this past weekend.
Punxsutawney Phil has emerged to see his shadow before chilly revelers in Pennsylvania, meaning winter will last another six weeks. Members of a Florence-based group called Footloose Montana are circulating petitions to ban trapping on public land. President Barack Obama wants to save $115 million this year — and $1.2 billion over 10 years — by eliminating payments to states and Indian tribes that have completed cleanup of abandoned coal mines, but senators and representatives from coal states are fighting back. U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has maintained his huge campaign fundraising lead over his Republican and Democratic challengers for the state’s lone House seat. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock was to testify Tuesday before a U.S. Senate committee about the implication of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on state and local races in Montana.