Good morning; on the Beacon today, the Montana Veterans’ Home in Columbia Falls is a place where you will hear endless anecdotes of lives fully lived, deaths escaped and genuine heroism. Several local short-term loan businesses in the Flathead are shutting their doors after voters passed an initiative capping the interest rates they can charge their customers. And business columnist Mark Riffey advises on what you can learn from the Kindle.
Reinvigorated Republicans have their first announced candidate in what could be a 2012 election battleground to win Montana Democrat Jon Tester’s seat and control of the U.S. Senate. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is making another run at getting cheap prescription drugs for everyone in his state — and trying to make it harder for the federal government to say no. The Montana Supreme Court has stepped in to resolve conflicting orders on whether to proceed with the execution of a Canadian man on death row. Montana State University has achieved its $8 million fundraising goal for the expansion and upgrade of Bobcat Stadium, and now the nonprofit MSU Foundation wants $2 million more so the entire project can be built next year. Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s proposed budget relies heavily on $95 million worth of money transferred from other funds to beef up the state’s general fund and balance his spending plan for the next two years. A cell phone left behind at the scene of a computer theft in Columbia Falls led investigators to a suspect. The Montana University System says enrollment is reaching a new high with 39,100 students in state colleges. The coal industry is maneuvering to sharply ramp up its U.S. exports to Asia out of the West Coast, with the first of several potential port expansions along the Columbia River now before officials in Washington state. State lawmakers Tuesday queried the Schweitzer administration’s top health official about plans to hire a private company to manage part of Medicaid, asking why the administration hasn’t had a more public discussion on the proposal. Gov. Brian Schweitzer is proposing to increase funding for all Montana school districts by $38 million a year by redirecting oil and gas tax revenues that now only benefit schools in the few counties where the minerals are produced. Top leadership spots for the 2011 legislative session appear to be already settled, except for the House Republican caucus. Montana’s tax code is one of the best in the nation for people doing business, a national tax group has concluded.