Good morning; on the Beacon today, the Great Northern Brewing Company, on Central Avenue in downtown Whitefish, is once again offering the beer, “Minott’s Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager.” That’s right – for one day, and one day only, Elvis Presley will be in the Bigfork Village for two Valentine’s Day shows. Well, maybe not the actual King, but a pretty solid reproduction. A federal judge who in 2008 banned extended-season snowmobiling in the Flathead National Forest has dissolved the injunction. And Mick Holien debates whether the Football Championship Subdivision is getting too big.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a stripped down “Jobs Bill” that blew apart an agreement with key Republicans like Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who worked with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., for weeks to produce a bill containing the extra provisions. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is lashing back at ads criticizing his support of a “big bank bailout” that he says doesn’t exist. Montana wildlife commissioners on Thursday struck down a proposed lead shot ban for game birds, tightened elk hunting rules as herd sizes plummet in southwest Montana and approved a youth-only hunt for this fall. The state Land Board might consider lowering the minimum bid for 570 million tons of state-owned coal in southeastern Montana’s Otter Creek Valley, after getting no bids by a deadline this week, state lands officials said Thursday. Gov. Brian Schweitzer says the Department of Livestock is coming under budget with implementation of its brucellosis plan. The federal Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose next month that metals contamination at the 250-acre smelter and refinery complex on Smelter Hill in Great Falls and some residential properties in Black Eagle be cleaned up on under the federal Superfund program, federal officials said Thursday.