Good morning; on the Beacon today, Jeremie Hollman, along with his mother-in-law KC Glastetter, authored the children’s book, “Glacier National Park: An ABC Adventure,” in 2008 and have just released their second offering, “Yellowstone National Park: An ABC Adventure.” A convicted sex offender is charged with rape and felony sexual assault for molesting his Kalispell girlfriend’s 5-year-old son. A judge will decide on Jan. 20 whether the punishment in a plea deal for state Sen. Greg Barkus is appropriate for felony charges stemming from an Aug. 27, 2009 boat crash on Flathead Lake. Barkus pleaded no contest to felony criminal endangerment as part of the deal at a hearing in Kalispell Thursday. And The Shak in Whitefish opened this summer with the intent of showing Whitefish the wonders of barbecue.
Moments before he was gunned down in a shootout, a young Montana Highway Patrol officer came upon a running pickup truck that was parked in the middle of a rural road, authorities said Thursday. The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent in November, a seven-month high, as hiring slowed. Republican lawmakers don’t have enough of a majority to override any potential gubernatorial vetoes, so they are considering putting some of the most controversial measures before Montana voters. As high-level negotiations continued Thursday in Washington on whether to extend tax cuts for a sliver of the nation’s wealthiest citizens, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced a bill that would end them – yet extend Bush-era tax cuts to all other taxpayers. The Missoulian relates the story of how police there apprehended a rape suspect. Residents along the south shore of Flathead Lake say they were “blindsided” by a decision by Verizon Wireless to build a 21-story-tall cell phone tower just a few feet outside whatever regulations it may have come under in the Polson city limits, 70 feet from one subdivision and smack-dab in the middle of the lake, island and mountain views of many more homes south of the site. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Thursday defended his vote this week against banning earmarks, warning that it would be bad for Montana and have little effect on the federal debt.