Good morning; on the Beacon today, at the recent annual meeting of the Flathead Business and Industry Association, keynote speaker Roger Fleming said major trade associations lobbying in Washington D.C. are failing to advocate on behalf of their membership across the country. The first tangible steps toward the long-term goal of expanding the Hockaday Museum were taken last week with the demolition of two houses to its south. A 28-year-old Rollins woman has pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment and drunken driving for leading officers on a high-speed chase that ended in a head-on crash with a Flathead County vehicle. A Pablo man has been convicted of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy. Eric Hanson and Matt Lawrance are founders and head coaches of the Flathead Lacrosse Club in Whitefish. The culinary world – at least certain chefs – is having a love affair with fancy, expensive salts and Chef Jim gray is not sure he understands it all.
President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, declaring she would demonstrate the same independence, integrity and passion for the law exhibited by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Billings fire officials say a firebomb was thrown into a medical marijuana business and “NOT IN OUR TOWN” was spray painted on the storefront. After toppling three-term Republican Sen. Robert F. Bennett in Utah, tea party activists and other conservative critics shifted their sights Sunday to a mid-May primary in Kentucky, their next big challenge to a political establishment they have vowed to upend. And Mike Dennison reports on similar primary battles taking place among conservatives in the various legislative primaries upcoming in Montana. A Yellowstone Valley Railroad train has derailed in McKenzie County, spilling cars carrying liquid propane. Chuck Johnson profiles Democratic Congressional candidate Melinda Gopher. Congressional candidate Tyler Gernant gets the same treatment. “Custer Country” is having big-time troubles. Even without a presidential race to lure voters, the stakes couldn’t be higher this election season for Democrats and Republicans fighting to control an often narrowly divided state Legislature.