Good morning; on the Beacon today, the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Department released its year-end count of lots created and proposed in the valley during fiscal year 2010, which showed a considerable drop in activity from the previous year and forecasted financial reductions for the department. In a phone interview with the Beacon this week, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell signaled his solidarity with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on lingering issues regarding. On July 17, the first phase of the Whitefish Trail, formerly known as A Trail Runs Through It, was unveiled at Lionhead Mountain trailhead off of U.S. Highway 93. And summer colds are particularly hard on chefs like Kitchen Guy Jim Gray.
A key union leader for Montana state and university employees says he will not bargain another salary freeze with the governor — drawing a line in the sand amid what is expected to be a very tight budget process. Fire officials say the Lakeside Fire burning near Canyon Ferry Reservoir east of Helena in western Montana is 100 percent contained. A company that wants to move more than 200 huge loads of oilfield equipment from the Port of Lewiston in Idaho and through northwestern Montana is paying utility companies in Montana to move power lines, a spokesman says. Matt Hagengruber of the Billings Gazette has the firefighters’ report over a 2008 Billings wildfire at the center of a lawsuit filed by Rep. Denny Rehberg’s company against the city. Experts say new benefits for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are likely to be very beneficial for Montanans. A globe-trotting artist who landed in Montana two years ago is building her version of Stonehenge in Seeley Lake using logs. A Kalispell resident has become the first woman and only the third person to swim the length of Flathead Lake in western Montana. And Chuck Johnson reports that Schweitzer is unlikely to run for the Senate in 2012 or 2014.