Good morning and happy birthday Francis Ford Coppola.
On the Beacon today, the Whitefish City Council approved the downtown streetscape project last night despite strong public opposition. Down in Kalispell, the city council approved a location on the south end of for a prerelease center, a similarly controversial vote. A small plane that lost its landing gear made an emergency landing at Lost Prairie. Montana’s high-growth areas continue to expand, but they’re slowing down. Sen. Max Baucus will be in the Flathead tomorrow, doing roadwork on U.S. Highway 93. Check out ridiculous pics from the pond skimming competition at Whitefish Mountain Resort yesterday.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer seeks to have some federal timberlands come under state management. Funding Children’s Health Insurance is once again at the center of the budget battles in the Legislature. A bipartisan stream access bill has cleared the Legislature and heads to Schweitzer’s desk to sign. A partisan fight is ensuing over the make-up of a commission to handle redistricting. The Flathead Indian Reservation is delaying construction of a health clinic in Polson. The Pentagon’s move to discontinue the F-22 fighter jet line could affect Malmstrom and some Montana employers. And funding for the National Folk Festival in Butte has come up $350,000 short.
And a California woman had a very bad day at work when she flipped her boss’s red Ferrari, though she was unharmed.