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Tuesday: Harris Contract, Judge Sidney Thomas, Alcohol Tax

By Beacon Staff

Good morning; on the Beacon today, Flathead County commissioners voted unanimously Monday against renewing Planning Director Jeff Harris’ contract past September, despite public comments urging them to keep Harris in the department. In its May issue, Outside magazine is revealing its third-annual “Best Places to Work” list, and out of 50 companies nationwide, Whitefish’s River Design Group is ranked No. 27. Flathead High’s tennis coach Buck Measure is building a strong program this year.

Friends and colleagues on Monday called federal appeals court Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana a coalition builder who would be a worthy pick to replace Justice John Paul Stevens and one who would add a needed Western perspective to the Supreme Court. Economic stress declined in the nation’s most troubled areas in February as unemployment stabilized and the pace of foreclosures eased, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis of conditions in more than 3,100 U.S. counties. The Missoulian’s got must-read coverage of the city council’s decision to adopt a controversial equality ordinance, where, urging him to halt his “ignorant and hurtful” crusade, the daughter of one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed equality ordinance came out Monday night as a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The avalanche danger was unprecedented in the history of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center’s 20 years of operation, wrote the center’s Doug Chabot in a season-ending roundup. Higher taxes on beer, wine and hard liquor could lower Montana’s high rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths, a new study indicates.