Good morning; on the Beacon today, it has been one year since Trooper Michael Haynes and Travis Vandersloot were killed in a drunken driving accident south of Kalispell, but the while their families and friends have been impacted, Montana’s drinking culture is relatively unchanged. An FAA representative took questions from the Kalispell City Council Monday on the proposed expansion and updates at the city airport Monday evening. Folk singer David Boone comes back with plans to perform regularly at Flathead Valley venues through the end of the summer, beginning April 2 at the Boiler Room in Kalispell.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Tuesday that he is sparing cuts to disabled services — promised as part of the Land Board’s approval of an $85 million coal lease — and is doing so even if the money doesn’t come in from Arch Coal Inc. A coalition of wildlife advocates on Tuesday asked a Montana judge to overturn an agreement that allowed dozens of Yellowstone National Park bison to be transferred onto billionaire Ted Turner’s private ranch. Home sales edged 3 percent higher in the Western region of the country last month, as many buyers moved to lock in deals in time to qualify for government tax credits. Wildlife officials say grizzly bears have emerged from their dens along the Rocky Mountain Front. Fliers advertising a Dave Matthews Band concert in Missoula were apparently an elaborate hoax. Next week, census officials will mount an unprecedented effort across Montana to count the people who don’t live in homes and apartments and lack permanent residences — the homeless. An Iraq war veteran in Helena, who claimed that post-traumatic stress disorder contributed to his viewing child pornography, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised probation. And mostly overlooked in the tide of news reports about Sunday’s landmark health care legislation is language in the bill that fundamentally changes the student loan landscape in the U.S.