Good morning; on the Beacon today, like fly fishermen and trophy elk hunters, largemouth bass anglers flirt with obsession, if not totally give into it. Authorities say a glider pilot made an emergency landing in a construction zone in Kalispell on Tuesday. On the Police Blotter, a Columbia Falls man punched his buddy in the face. And Mark Riffey suggests business owners focus on what has to be done for their business to thrive, not just survive, since survival tasks are usually a subset of the “do this to thrive” list.
A federal judge has pinned the financial collapse of Montana’s ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club on a series of fraudulent deals by founder Tim Blixseth, but says he doesn’t have to repay all the resort’s debts. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Tuesday that a recent ruling by the state Public Service Commission means Montana oil companies have a better shot at putting their oil in a proposed pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission vowed to pursue all legal options to restore the state’s authority over wolf management after a federal judge’s Aug. 5 ruling restored endangered species protections. An Idaho judge has brought a temporary halt to a ConocoPhillips plan to truck oversized loads of massive oil refinery equipment along curvy, scenic U.S. Highway 12 in northcentral Idaho. A federal jury found former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich guilty on Tuesday of one count of lying to federal agents, and the judge said he intends to declare a mistrial on the more serious remaining 23 counts. The Missoulian reports on a Whitefish woman who summitted Mt. Everest three times, the only non-Sherpani woman in the world to do so. A legislative House Republican candidate in Billings, attacked for being a moderate, may now run as a Democrat for the state Senate. A legislative panel Tuesday endorsed two competing proposals to revise retirement benefits for new teachers, to help bail out Montana’s troubled Teachers Retirement System. Authorities say an escaped Arizona inmate might have some survival skills, allowing him and his accomplice to hide out in remote locations. Utilities across the country are building dozens of old-style coal plants that will cement the industry’s standing as the largest industrial source of climate-changing gases for years to come.