ROUNDUP – Crews battled throughout the night into Sunday, struggling to contain a sprawling central Montana wildfire that threatens ranch homes, small subdivisions and vacation cabins in the Bull Mountains north of Billings. Fire information officer Jennifer Costich (KAH’-stitch) says the 126-square-mile Dunn fire was active all night long, and crews were out all night. […]

It’s clear Jackie Fuller runs a tight ship. In 19 years of coaching volleyball, 13 at Whitefish, she has tallied 400 career victories. This year, success is still met with sweat. The owners of five of the last eight Class A state volleyball championships, the Whitefish Bulldogs annually endure the same turmoil: graduation and rebuilding. […]

HELENA – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Thursday he has no qualms about backing Barack Obama for president, calling him an “ordinary person” who is no threat to gun owners. Tester made the comments a day after introducing Obama in Billings, then spending time with him as the traveled on an airplane together to the […]

The Flathead Braves aren’t worried about scoring as long as their whole team is intact. But this is football and injuries happen. So head coach Russell McCarvel will be carefully monitoring the team’s depth chart, which features only 64 players this year, a decent turnout but half as many as before Kalispell’s high school split. […]

DENVER – John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, two senior campaign officials told The Associated Press on Friday. A formal announcement was expected within a few hours at a campaign rally in swing-state Ohio. Palin, 44, is a self-styled hockey mom and political reformer who has […]

Good morning and happy birthday to John McCain and Michael Jackson. On the Beacon this morning, the air is crisp and it sure feels like football season. Myers Reece previews the football season in store for the Flathead Braves and Glacier Wolfpack. The family of Jeffrey Bowman, the Bigfork teen who collapsed at football practice […]

6:36 a.m. A 15-year-old girl was hitting her mom. 9:27 a.m. During an open house in Lakeside last Saturday a camera was stolen from a purse. 10:56 a.m. Drills and wrenches were reported stolen from a workshop in Whitefish. 12:34 p.m. Someone called a second-hand store in Evergreen and told them to be on the […]

The woman injured in a head-on crash that killed a Montana Highway Patrol trooper has died, Flathead County officials said. Ginger Wilborn, 30, of Hungry Horse, died at 5 p.m. Thursday at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, Sheriff and Coroner Mike Meehan said. Wilborn suffered major head injuries in a head-on crash Tuesday that killed trooper […]

In my travels across this great state of Montana, I’ve visited many malls, and used many bathrooms. And I have noticed a peculiar phenomena I have never seen anywhere else. I don’t quite understand what it is about the odd relationship Montana cities have with their past that compels such places to hang the most […]

Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Good Trio at Scotty’s; Betty and the Boy at The Cottage; Silver’s Platter at Blue Canyon; Radio FLyer at Ricciardi’s; DJ Q at Finish Line; Splinters at Great Northern; Sonny King at Blue Moon; Mobile Beat DJ at Red’s Saturday: The Hurley Girley Festival at Belton Stage; […]

Columbia Falls High School band director Karen Ulmer has announced the 2008-2009 band performance schedule, so mark your calendars now so you don’t miss a thing. October 21 – Fall Concert, all bands. December 9th – Holiday Concert (Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Jazz Factory and Jazz George) December 16th – Holiday Concert (Wind Ensemble, Columbians, […]

Four-year-old Carson Mullis may be the Flathead Valley’s youngest entrepreneur. With the help of his favorite Tonka dump truck movie and one simple question, he prompted his parents, Sarah and Dan Mullis, to start their new curbside recycling business, The Green Machines. “We were watching his favorite movie about a dump truck and recycling,” Sarah […]

Authorities say a retired Kalispell doctor will be prosecuted for abandoning 12 puppies last week at a dump site in Somers. The Flathead County Attorney’s Office says John L. Heine has been charged with felony aggravated cruelty to animals. The 74-year-old Heine said Wednesday he tried to kill all the puppies because he feared they […]

Good morning; on this date oil was struck for the first time in the United States in Pennsylvania. On the Beacon this morning, a family business is now offering curbside recycling in the Flathead. The state trooper who died in a head-on collision near Columbia Falls has been identified as Evan Schneider of Kalispell. We […]

You know it’s mid-summer when you’re hitchhiking to the San Juan Island Fair. It was 99 degrees in Friday Harbor, where our boat was docked for the weekend. It has been a half-dozen years since I have been to a county fair and there are subtle changes in what can be seen – but a […]