While other fundraising efforts throughout the valley have struggled, a Columbia Falls volunteer organization has made quick strides in its efforts to develop a new library and community center in the city’s uptown district. In its first six months of fundraising for the Glacier Discovery Square, the First Best Place Task Force, a grassroots community […]

6:37 a.m. A dead dog was blocking traffic on West Reserve. 6:49 a.m. Someone spray-painted a peace sign on the Lakeside Elementary School. 9:46 a.m. An $1,800 piece of stolen building equipment was recovered at a pawnshop. A former employee had sold it for some quick cash. 10:55 a.m. Someone listed a home for rent […]

As the dog days of summer wind down, lots of things are happening around Whitefish. Here are a few recent tidbits from the news pot: The Whitefish Wine and Food Summit held at Whitefish Mountain Resort at the beginning of August planned to donate a portion of its proceeds to the Whitefish fire and police […]

A 10-year-old Marion boy has been charged with felony criminal endangerment in the shooting of a young girl in June. The boy is accused of shooting 7-year-old Kayla Oswald in the stomach with a .22-caliber rifle. His name was not released. Investigators say the boy told them several different stories to explain what happened. The […]

Good morning and happy birthday Dorothy Parker and Ray Bradbury. A 10-year-old Marion boy has been charged with felony criminal endangerment for the June shooting of a 7-year-old girl in the stomach. A search is underway in Glacier Park for a backpacker three days overdue. Money is being raised quickly for a new library and […]

Amid the presidential campaign’s mini-scandal du jour – John McCain’s inability to say how many houses he owns – another potential gaffe by the presumptive Republican nominee is picking up steam on a signature issue of the Rocky Mountain West. McCain told a small Pueblo, Colo., newspaper last week he supported renegotiating a 1922 water […]

It’s no secret the United States is in the midst of an energy crisis. We import almost 70 percent of our oil, costing us $700 billion per year. We use 25 percent of the world’s oil, with only 4 percent of the population. Oil is getting harder to find and more expensive to extract. We […]

Even on a muggy day in July, it’s unusual to see nearly every shopper leaving a grocery store with a watermelon. But at a Costco in Everett, Mass., the $5.99 deal on the tantalizing fruit was just too good to pass up. Or was it? Those shoppers might have been surprised to learn that a […]

Live Music: Friday: Can’t Hardly Playboys at Red’s; Betty and the Boy at The Cottage; DK 4 at Eagles Hall; Good Wood at Blue Canyon; One Less Karen at Scotty’s; Big Daddy at Ricciardi’s; DJ Q at Finish Line; Andre Floyd at McGregor Lake; Déjà Vu at Great Northern; Sonny King at Blue Moon; Mobile […]

For 36 years, Shakespeare has come to communities throughout Montana each summer. But for the past several years, he has been absent from Kalispell. On Aug. 21, the Bard is back. In 2005, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP) lost its Kalispell sponsor and took the city off its annual summer tour list. But this […]

Over the last year plans for two new performance venues in Kalispell – the Glacier Performing Arts Center and the Liberty Theater – have stalled. And in Whitefish, an established live music hot spot has disappeared. Yet local arts organizers say the Flathead Valley is only one or two venues away from becoming a central […]

It’s my birthday on Saturday. Woo hoo! In reality, the occasion is not what it once was. This year, there will be no cake or noisemakers, though I haven’t ruled out wearing a funny hat. You never know about these things. But I do plan to have fun. I’m heading down to Missoula to attend […]

Good morning; on this date in 1858 the Lincoln-Douglas debates began. On the Beacon this morning, the family of Jeffrey Bowman, the Bigfork teenager who collapsed during football practice last year and died a week later is suing Bigfork School District 38, Bigfork High School head football coach Bruce Corbett and former BHS Activities Director […]

HELENA – The police practice of “wiring” informants and recording suspects’ conversations in their homes and in vehicles without a warrant is a violation of privacy rights, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled. In a split decision Wednesday, the high court said a district judge in Gallatin County should have suppressed evidence against two men […]

I am always interested in why people choose to live where they do. The answers range from, “It’s where my parents live” to “It’s closest to an international airport.” The first question I get asked is, “Why do you live on a small island in the rainy Northwest? I would think that you would live […]