Good morning; on the Beacon today, there were plenty of smiles and handshakes at the Flathead County commissioner’s office on Aug. 12 after the commission voted to accept the deed for Volunteer Park in Lakeside. Montana’s timber industry may have had a small bump in business in the first half of the year, but production and employment numbers are still well off from where they were two years ago, according to a recent report from the University of Montana. A hiker, Evan Kreps of Lakeside, had to be rescued by helicopter after falling about 120 feet on Kakashe Mountain near Mission Falls. A Kalispell girl charged with two counts of deliberate homicide after police say she attempted suicide by driving her car into oncoming traffic has pleaded not guilty. But at a joint work session between the Kalispell City Council and the Impact Fee Advisory Committee last week, members of both groups sought to communicate with each other about mutual expectations, so that when the economy eventually does pick up, Kalispell is in a better position to examine its impact fee policy.
A warden and a security official have resigned their posts at an Arizona state prison where three inmates escaped last month, setting off a nationwide search. Lost in the Bonnie and Clyde tale of Arizona fugitives on the run for two weeks is the grisly slaying of an Oklahoma couple whose bodies were found in a burned-out travel trailer on a remote ranch in eastern New Mexico. The Griz, who finished as runners-up in the NCAA FCS football title game last season, took to the field for their first scrimmage of fall camp Sunday afternoon as several hundred eager Griz fans followed the shade in the stands. The Billings Gazette takes a look at the pros and cons of oil and gas drilling on the Bakken formation in North Dakota. Lee’s Mike Dennison looks at the public meetings by Montana’s federal delegation over the August recess. At Madison Rural Valley Fire Station No. 1 just north of Ennis, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is taking questions — and getting out the Republican message.