Good morning; on the Beacon today, authorities were searching parts of Lake and Sanders counties Monday for a single-engine airplane carrying four people, including two Montana newspaper reporters for the Daily Inter Laket, that took off the day before and did not return. Gov. Brian Schweitzer called on Montana’s federal delegation Sunday to support legislation by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, dedicated to restoring the Columbia River Basin, as a way to fund commitments in the agreement between Montana and British Columbia to protect the North Fork from mining and drilling in Canada. Diesel left over from a 1989 train derailment is apparently beginning to surface on Whitefsh Lake. And many mortgage brokers are surprised at how few people are capitalizing on the extremely low rates for 30-year fixed mortgages.
Dale L. Folkvord of Three Forks, a farmer and founder of Wheat Montana Bakery, died Sunday at the University of Utah Medical Center. After months of hearing from hundreds of patients, caregivers, police and worried parents, an interim legislative committee plans to draft possible changes to the state’s medical marijuana law by August. Goldman Sachs has agreed to buy back over $25.65 million in auction-rate securities sold to Montana investors, as part of a national settlement regarding the company’s sales of the investments. Longtime legislative attorney Greg Petesch is retiring. Montana leaders lauded a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday upholding individual gun rights, but one of the state’s top gun rights activists said the ruling is not as important here, as Montana already has strong gun rights protections.