Good morning; on the Beacon today, the new owners of the Great Northern Resort in West Glacier are looking to work cooperatively with other businesses in Montana’s tiny rafting industry. The Flathead County Commission signed a contract on July 26 to appoint Flathead County Planning Assistant Director BJ Grieve as the interim zoning director during the county’s search for a new department head. The victim of the East Glacier motorcycle crash has been identified as Fred Childress of Oak Ridge, Tenn., co-founder and president of the Tennessee Liberty Alliance. Flathead National Forest officials are managing a 1,200-acre wildfire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, about 18 miles southeast of Condon. Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna tells hikers to carry pepper spray, and he has seen for himself how useful that advice is during a run-in with three grizzly bears.
A rare tornado tore through a farmhouse and killed two people inside, leaving nothing but the house’s foundation and a few twisted vehicles as it swept through Montana’s remote and sparsely populated northeastern corner. Officials say that the wet spring that eased drought also produced a lot of tall grass that will provide plenty of fuel for a late fire season. Tennessee will host Montana in the 2011 season opener at Neyland Stadium. Hundreds of stimulus-funded projects under way in national parks across the U.S. are long-overdue upgrades to the country’s neglected “national jewels,” Vice President Joe Biden said Monday. Doctors working in the fields of asbestos-related disease could have much of their medical school tuition paid under a proposal intended to bring specialized expertise to Libby’s health care community. Montana ranks among the bottom 10 states for teenagers ages 16 to 19 who have dropped out of high school before graduating, the Annie E. Casey Foundations Kids Count reported Monday.