What’s needed to discourage illegal immigration into the United States has been known for years: Enforce existing law. Amazingly, that is happening now – to some degree. This trend may already be shrinking the flood across the Mexican border and have a modest positive impact on job prospects for “native born” Americans during the present […]

12:16 a.m. Less than favorable actions in Bigfork led to a drunken man being ejected from a home. 1:52 a.m. Two males and two females said to be acting suspiciously at the Foys Lake swimming area turned out to be rather humdrum. 5:14 a.m. A morning jaunt through a local grocery store was short-lived for […]

A year ago, a gaggle of Whitefish ski bums launched a biannual literary journal. With their third issue hitting bookstores this past week, the Whitefish Review not only stretched its fingers around the globe, but notched itself higher into a new plane of literary culture. One story tastes like a sweet cherry, the next like […]

Despite sending only 18 swimmers, ages 5 to 18, to Hamilton for a meet hosted by the Bitterroot Swim Team, Columbia Falls swam to a 4th place finish this past weekend in a field of eleven teams. Head coach Mike Nelson reported “We had many improved times this weekend. As a team, we shaved an […]

10:01 a.m. Deputies responded to a loud music complaint in Hungry Horse. 12:38 a.m. Thirty-seven minutes later deputies returned to Hungry Horse and asked the same party to keep it down. 3:19 a.m. In Bigfork, when a man woke up from an alcohol-induced nap he found that he was still intoxicated and only 15 feet […]

Good morning; today is the anniversary of the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. On the Beacon this morning, our top story reports U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., yesterday announced the biggest conservation land deal in U.S. history between Plum Creek and two conservation groups. Columbia Falls teacher Joe Greene died yesterday from […]

BIGFORK – Since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama has moved quickly to reorient his campaign’s strategy from the primary to the general election. At a time in which there is general consensus that conditions in Iraq are improving while battles in Afghanistan rage, the contrast between the national security policies of Obama […]

BOZEMAN – Those most qualified to manage large fires are turning down assignments after a fire commander was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the deaths of four people under his command, a survey shows. Ellreese Daniels was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and other felonies in 2006, five years after the Thirtymile fire. […]

Two proposed constitutional initiatives launched in Northwest Montana failed to receive enough signatures by the state’s June 20 deadline to qualify for the ballot. John McMenamin of Kalispell sponsored CI-99, which sought to limit increases in property taxes by allowing the state to appraise the value of a home only when it was sold, a […]

As the early reviews of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” trickle in, critics are giving rave reviews of Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker – so much so, that many are suggesting he should be nominated for a posthumous Oscar. Ledger would be the first actor to win a posthumous Academy Award since […]

Frustrated with the increasing number of lakeshore violations on Whitefish Lake and a lack of city enforcement, the chairman of the Whitefish Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee met with county commissioners Tuesday morning, saying that if things with the city don’t improve he’d like the county to consider taking over prosecuting violators. “If at the […]

The Columbia Falls pool at Pinewood Park will be closed this weekend, starting the afternoon of July 4th. It will reopen on Monday July 7th. The pool is closed due to the Columbia Falls Swim Team’s home invitational meet vs. Montana Federation of Swimmers west side teams. Swimmers and their families from Chinook, Ft. Benton, […]

Joe Greene, a well-liked Columbia Falls Junior High School social studies teacher and coach, died Monday due to injuries sustained in a June 29 four-wheeler accident. Greene, 35, sustained head injuries when he crashed his ATV at about 10 p.m. Sunday on Highway 2 East in Columbia Falls. There were no other vehicles involved in […]

OAKLAND, Calif. – It’s early in the summer for California’s firefighters to be outgunned, but it’s an increasingly common situation in recent years. More than a thousand fires are burning across northern California’s wildlands, forcing federal, state, and local firefighters to make tough triage decisions. With homes and human life as first priorities, at least […]

BEULAH, N.D. – Oscar Stohler was raised in a sod house in western North Dakota and ranched there for nearly seven decades. He never gave much thought to what lay below the grass that fattened his cattle. When oilmen wanted to drill there last year, Stohler, 83, doubted oil would be found two miles underground […]