Good morning; on the Beacon today, the new Jumping Jacks Inflatable Funhouse is home to a number of inflatable structures, perfect for helping kids blow off some energy in the cold weather. Lori Curtis has just released the “Flathead Watershed Sourcebook: A Guide to an Extraordinary Place,” the culmination of a year and a half of intense work. Glacier National Park is on pace for a record year for visitation after receiving more than 66,000 visitors in October. The Flathead County sheriff’s office just sent along a photo of the man who robbed Glacier Bank in Lakeside Wednesday. And Mick Holien looks at how the University of North Dakota has been left in the lurch by all the conference realignment.
The University of Montana Grizzlies will stay in the Big Sky Conference and not move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, President Royce Engstrom said Thursday. Montana State University is nearing its fundraising goal for the expansion and upgrade of Bobcat Stadium. Plans to move gigantic oil refinery equipment down a mountainous Idaho highway are being defended by ConocoPhillips and an Idaho business group. After his sixth straight election to Congress, Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg said Thursday he intends to concentrate on his job as congressman, but isn’t ruling out any political options in the future. When Congress meets for a lame-duck session later this month, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said it must address the expiring Bush administration income tax cuts and the estate tax. Qwest and CenturyLink, the two largest land-line telephone companies operating in Montana, have agreed to merger conditions endorsed by the Montana Consumer Counsel, likely paving the way for state regulatory approval of the companies’ proposed merger. With his Republican pedigree in hand, Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger is reaching out to GOP lawmakers in hopes of forging a relationship between the Schweitzer administration and the heavily Republican Legislature, several lawmakers said this week.