Monday: State Worker Raise, Ty Thomas, Home Sales Plummet

Good morning; on the Beacon today, the opening salvo in what is likely to be one of the key battles of the 2011 Legislature was fired when Eric Feaver, president of Montana’s largest union, said in a June newsletter the MEA-MFT would not accept another salary freeze for the next two years. Lido’s got a killer slideshow up of images from last week’s Northwest Montana Fair. An Oregon State University offensive lineman, 19-year-old Tyler Patrick Thomas of Kalispell, has been dismissed from the team after police say they found him naked and intoxicated in a stranger’s home and had to use stun guns to take him into custody. The FBI says AP Report and singer who died along a roadway just outside the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. Two escaped convicts from Arizona and a woman who accompanied them were charged with murder and carjacking Monday in the deaths of an Oklahoma couple who authorities said were targeted because of their camping trailer.

Sales of previously occupied homes fell to the lowest level in 15 years last month as the economy weakened. A legislative committee on Monday finalized details of a planned overhaul of the state’s medical marijuana law, setting up a final vote to send the proposals to the 2011 Legislature. Five Big Sky Conference football teams are ranked in the Top 25 in the Football Championship Subdivision preseason coaches poll, and Montana ranked second. No matter what an Idaho judge decides Tuesday, Montana isn’t ready to give a green light to the shipment of four massive loads of oil refinery equipment bound from the Port of Lewiston to Billings. Rebate checks to several thousand Montanans using Medicare Part D should be arriving soon in mailboxes, said a Medicare official touring the state to ease concerns about changes to the federal program.