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Monday: Power Out!, Whitefish Fireworks, Hospital Exec Pay

By Beacon Staff

Good morning; on the Beacon today, a squirrel got into a Flathead Electric Cooperative transformer Monday morning and cut off electricity to 3,900 members, including many in downtown Kalispell. Kalispell police say a 33-year-old Kalispell man, David Joel Knapton, has died of injuries suffered in a motorcycle crash. Three school districts in the Flathead Valley are staring down significant budget shortfalls for the 2010-2011 school year, and officials are worried about even grimmer forecasts looming for the following year. The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise $15,000 to continue the tradition of the July 4 fireworks display over Whitefish Lake.

Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage. Montana is leading a 16-state effort to save small farmers and ranchers by urging the federal government to use antitrust weapons and enlist the states’ help to fight increasing consolidation in agriculture. At Montana’s major hospitals, most top administrators saw their pay frozen or increased only slightly last year – but hospital executives continue to be well-paid professionals in a sometimes lucrative field. Bank holding company First Interstate BancSystem Inc. is expected to raise about $130 million in an initial public offering this week. Fifth- through eighth-grade students from around the state are set to compete in the Treasure State Spelling Bee on Saturday in Billings. A year has passed, but for family members of the victims of the plane crash in Butte last March, the wounds are still raw.