Good morning; on the Beacon today, forecasts are calling for one of the strongest La Niña weather events on record. “Here we are again,” Darryl Kistler said to the small crowd gathered around him, holding candles on the sidewalk across from the Kalispell library last week – part of a candlelight vigil held as a response to the Holocaust denial film being shown in the library’s basement by Craig Cobb, who moved to Kalispell from Vancouver this summer after he was investigated by a Canadian hate crimes unit. A Flathead Valley woman, Jessica McGee, awaiting sentencing for embezzling $67,000 from a Christian radio station in Kalispell has been charged with writing bad checks. Local attorneys Glen Neier and Dan Wilson are in the race for an open seat in Flathead County Justice Court. Sitting in the crowd during a Bravette’s volleyball game, it’s not uncommon to hear the masses chanting, “smack it Sackett” or “Holy Hannah.”
Idaho officials are disputing a claim by Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana that Idaho won’t enforce federal protection of wolves. The steel is staged, and crews are waiting to lay the last and most expensive leg of TransCanada Corp.’s multibillion-dollar pipeline network that would carry Canadian oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast, yet final U.S. government approval for the massive project, once assumed to be on a fast track, is now delayed indefinitely. Montanans will get to decide this year whether it is time to rewrite the state Constitution. Authorities say a Montana man is dead after a two-vehicle crash southeast of Arlee. The Grizzly offense, after being held to just a couple big plays by a fast Portland State defense, came up big at the end of Montana’s 23-21 Big Sky Conference win over the Vikings on Saturday. Gwen Florio’s got a great piece on the legal troubles of medical marijuana businessman Jason Christ. U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., continues to have a big fundraising advantage over Democratic challenger Dennis McDonald, raising more than three times more money over the past three months, new campaign finance reports show. Authorities in Eureka are trying to figure out if an early morning fire at a bank was a diversionary tactic connected to a robbery at a pharmacy less than a mile away. Gallatin County’s construction boom may be over, but a recently released report shows people are still flocking to live there, making it the fastest-growing county in the state and a leading growth area in the Northern Rocky Mountain region.