Good morning; on the Beacon today, our annual Gift Guide features excellent ideas on unique gifts all made in Northwest Montana. Chief among those suggestions are skis from Whitefish’s Montana Ski Company: skis handmade with wooden cores and top sheets from sustainable Montana timber. Nearly 200 local Special Olympic athletes will take over the Pin and Cue in Whitefish for the annual Holiday Bowl on Dec. 3, and organizers are inviting the public to join the fun as audience support. The Montana Highway Patrol says an Arlee woman swerved to avoid hitting a deer on U.S. Highway 93, leading to a crash that killed the woman and injured her passenger. And Mark Riffey sees a silver lining for business in the backlash over new TSA screening measures.
Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay. Reaching no quick fixes, President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress vowed on Tuesday to seek a compromise on their sharply different views about tax cuts before year’s end. Members of Montana’s three state employee unions have approved a pay plan proposed by unions negotiators and the Schweitzer administration. The government is losing tens of millions of dollars in potential royalties from energy companies that let immense volumes of natural gas escape into the atmosphere, congressional investigators said in a new report. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation funding $5.5 billion in settlement agreements that will mean hundreds of millions of dollars to Montana Indians. The group representing Montana school districts says Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s funding plan for schools comes close to meeting their hopes for the next two years — but that his proposed transfer of oil-and-gas revenues to finance the plan is “unacceptable.” Leaders of the Montana Legislature on Tuesday announced their appointments for committee chairmen for the 2011 session. A bill calling for sweeping reforms in the nation’s food safety regulations passed the U.S. Senate Tuesday with small business exceptions sought by Montanans.