Good morning; on the Beacon today, authorities arrested fugitives John McCluskey, 45, and his alleged accomplice Casslyn Welch, 44, at a campsite in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona Thursday. Authorities say one man is dead and another is in critical condition after a five-vehicle crash on a highway near Kalispell. Michael Taylor, a former state senator and Republican challenger to Max Baucus for the U.S. Senate, for his age group, is arguably the best sporting clay shooter in the world. The Bozeman Watch Company opened its second Montana showroom in Whitefish in July. The Kalispell City Council approved a budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year at its Monday night meeting that pared down spending sufficient to draw the approval of two conservatives on the council who have never before voted in favor of an annual budget: Bob Hafferman and Tim Kluesner. Wildlife officials say two grizzly bears found their way back to the Whitefish Range after being relocated to the Cabinet Mountains. And Mick Holien wonders about the future of University of Montana Grizzlies cornerback Jimmy Wilson.
A proposed workers’ compensation overhaul hammered out by business and labor is going to the full Legislature, despite stiff opposition from the equally powerful trial lawyers and doctors groups. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus is bringing President Barack Obama’s health secretary to Missoula to discuss rural health care issues. The Congressional Budget Office released an improved outlook for the federal budget deficit this year, but the report also amounted to a warning to President Obama and Congress about the limits of policies designed to stimulate the economy. Some cabin owners on Wild Horse Island have seen a bighorn sheep that may have survived a lightning blast that killed eight sheep. Rebuffed by the Montana Supreme Court, opponents of an initiative to cap interest rates charged by payday lenders asked a Helena district judge Thursday to stop the secretary of state from certifying it for the November ballot.