Good morning; on the Beacon today, I mount my old steel bicycle for the fourth annual Cino Heroica ride, which ran from Sept. 11-12. Democrat Carla Augustad challenges incumbent Republican Mark Blasdel in a replay of the 2008 race for House District 10. Dive teams and police with rescue dogs are searching in and around Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald for a Hungry Horse man, Michael William Sloan, who has been reported missing. And Wild Bill Schneider makes a Reagan-esque request: Tear Down the Border Stations!
Sen. Jon Tester, an influential voice in the dispute over a little-used border post between Montana and Canada, said Wednesday that officials should scrap an $8.5 million stimulus-funded upgrade and shut down the underused crossing. Police say a Frenchtown woman fended off a bear attack with an unlikely weapon – a zucchini. Internet travel giant Travelocity said Wednesday that Gov. Brian Schweitzer has misrepresented the ongoing tax dispute with the online travel industry. Prosecutors say a former Montana Developmental Center staffer raped two mentally disabled female patients and tried to rape a third, in addition to a sexual assault charge filed against him in June. U.S. marshals have arrested a Rocky Mountain College professor on a fugitive warrant out of Texas. NorthWestern Energy says it has paid $11.4 million for a majority interest in the Battle Creek Natural Gas Field in Blaine County. After nearly a quarter of century of trying, the Bureau of Land Management’s Missoula field office recently received the good news from the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places: Garnet ghost town is officially on the list. The Missoulian reports on a USDA program that pumped $385 million into Montana. The cause of a massive fire in Malta was still unknown as of Wednesday afternoon.