Good morning; on the Beacon today, a former Kalispell fire chief, Randy Brodehl, takes on a manager at Glacier National Park’s Sperry Chalet, Karen Reeves, in the legislative race for House District 7. The state commissioner of political practices is investigating a group alleging wrongdoing by the Lake County sheriff’s office. Montana wildlife officials say they have captured five grizzly bears that were searching for food too close to homes in northwestern Montana. A Republican lawmaker, John Brueggeman of Polson, says it is time to remove from the books an obsolete Montana law declaring homosexual acts illegal. The state Land Board has given its approval to a company’s plan to salvage submerged logs from Flathead Lake.
Timber harvests would increase but logging would be prohibited within 50 feet of streams under a proposed conservation plan for 548,000 acres of state-owned land in central and western Montana. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday that a companion bill to the 2009 Legislature’s big spending measure went against the state constitution by containing multiple subject matters and prevented him from using his line-item veto power on many of the expenditures. The University of Montana football team continued its slide in the Football Championship Subdivision polls, falling from sixth to 14th. No criminal charges will be filed in connection with allegations that underage drinking may have occurred at a pre-graduation party last May that was hosted by the Plains School Board chairman and three teachers, who all had children in the senior class. Montana resident Walter Breuning, believed to be the world’s oldest man, is celebrating his 114th birthday. Before the sun rose Monday, dozens of families huddled together in an airport terminal outside Bozeman, exchanging last-minute embraces as they bid farewell to the service men of the 1-163 Combined Armed Battalion of the Montana Army National Guard.