HELENA – The price for natural gas is hitting historic highs, and members of the Montana Public Service Commission worry it will continue to climb, translating into huge home-heating bills this winter. “We think we’re approaching a crisis,” said Commissioner Bob Raney, D-Livingston. “We know that the cost of gas this coming winter is going […]

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has set aside $750,000 to build a law-enforcement training facility in northwestern Montana. The proposed Northwest Montana Regional Public Safety Training Center will include a sophisticated indoor shooting range, classrooms, and training areas for fire, hostage, and rescue scenarios. Funding for the training center is included in the fiscal 2009 […]

Good morning; on this day in 1868 the patent was issued for the first practical typewriter with a QWERTY keyboard. On the Beacon this morning, Myers Reece reports on a new children’s book about the mystical Rocky Mountain snow ghosts. Flathead County Public Libraries are using bugs to get kids to read this summer. This […]

Kalispell City Council meets tonight for an informal work session in City Hall at 7 p.m. No votes are allowed at a work session. The four items on the agenda include: –Council will determine how to best correct an oversight in tax collections between the city and the Flathead Soil Conservation District. Essentially, the district […]

George Carlin, a Grammy-award winning standup comedian and actor, died Sunday. He was 71. An irreverent comic, Carlin showed that nothing — not the most sensitive social issues or even the absurdities of everyday life and language — was off-limits for smart comedy. With a comedy career that extended more than 40 years, he’s probably […]

HELENA – An Idaho attorney who owns two independent power plants in Montana is criticizing NorthWestern Energy’s request for a $15 million annual rate increase, saying the company has paid more in dividends over the past two years than it reported in net income. In 2006 and 2007, NorthWestern reported $91 million in net income, […]

GATESVILLE, Texas – A former Kalispell man has been convicted of a Texas murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Stephen Hogankamp was sentenced last Friday in the 2006 killing of 71-year-old Kenneth Smith. Hogankamp was convicted of beating Smith to death and then setting the victim’s house on fire to cover up the […]

The Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Sunday included the following: 12:01 a.m. A woman called in from Whitefish to report that three boys had pounded on her door and fled in their small getaway car. 12:53 a.m. Someone called in from Meadow Lake Resort to tattle on the kids they had caught recreating in the […]

I once freaked out a food writer for a major metropolitan newspaper by including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on my “last meal on death row” menu. My answer to this macabre question became the stuff of legend in that city because of my reputation for preparing high-end, very pricey meals. According to my mother, […]

School is out but young readers can continue learning at the Flathead County Library’s five locations across the valley. There, readers will find a wealth of adventure, history, fantasy and bugs … bugs? “Catch the Reading Bug” is the theme for this year’s summer reading theme for children from infancy through fourth grade. Along with […]

A woman who drove after drinking alcohol and was convicted in a 2006 traffic death has received a prison sentence of 10 years. Steffanie Ann Schauf of Kalispell sobbed on Friday as District Judge Stewart E. Stadler imposed the sentence of 20 years with 10 suspended. Stadler said there was no doubt the 27-year-old Shauf […]

WASHINGTON – In the battle for independent voters, where the 2008 presidential election will be won, Barack Obama and John McCain start at a dead heat in polls – but there the similarity ends. Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, carries the label “most liberal senator,” per the National Journal magazine’s analysis of his voting […]

Barack Obama has joined the list of prominent state and federal officials who oppose a proposed coal mine in the Canadian Flathead Valley. On May 29, Obama’s Montana campaign manager Matt Chandler sent an e-mail to Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association announcing the presidential candidate’s opposition to a plan by the Cline […]

MISSOULA – Few Republicans at their party’s state convention here Friday wanted to meet Bob Kelleher, Montana’s perennial political candidate who became the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate by pulling off a surprise victory in the primary election last month. Bob Kelleher got a separate room in which to meet with any Republicans interested […]

MISSOULA – Sen. Max Baucus says the Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a measure to keep the phrase “The Last Best Place” from being trademarked. Baucus, D-Mont., said he included language in the fiscal year 2009 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill to protect the slogan, which is commonly used to describe Montana. “There is […]