Good morning; on the Beacon today, at 216 feet long and 36 feet wide, the new Doris Point concrete boat ramp on the Hungry Horse reservoir can accommodate large boats whose owners will no longer have to use the smaller, congested boat ramp on Lost Johnny Point. In an issue that was framed as a battle over the very character of Whitefish, the city council rejected a controversial proposal to expand retail along U.S. Highway 93 South. A 68-year-old Kalispell man who police say struck a 74-year-old in the back with a hatchet, threw a military knife at a police officer and harmed himself with another knife has been taken into custody. Three alternative design plans for an upgraded high school in Whitefish are now available for public viewing and input. State and federal wildlife officials plan to start netting invasive lake trout from Swan Lake in northwestern Montana so that native bull trout can survive. A former Flathead County resident has been charged with felony animal cruelty after 15 severely neglected horses were seized by the sheriff’s office in May. And Kitchen Guy Jim Gray packs two full-sour Kosher dill pickles cross-country.
Fire officials say four lightning-caused wildfires burning in central Montana merged into one fire on Sunday and about 15 square miles have burned. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is scheduled to travel to Great Falls, Sunburst and Havre next week to speak with Montana senators and law enforcement officials about efforts to secure the northern border. Yellowstone’s grizzlies are going to be particularly hungry this fall, and that means more dangerous meetings with humans in a year that is already the area’s deadliest on record. The Billings Gazette is updating the status of the man-caused Stump Gulch fire near Columbus. A top U.S. agriculture official on Friday defended the Obama administration’s award of $64 million to a little-known company to install a new fiber-optic network in Gallatin County, saying it fits the program’s goals of bringing high-speed Internet service to rural areas.