The Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Wednesday included the following: 9:01 a.m. A call came in from Anderson Lane in Evergreen about a bunch of transients in a bus. They had started a fire and strung garbage all over the place. When deputies looked into the situation they found that the property owner had given […]

They struck first at Bigfork’s Bear Hollow development on May 17. A few days later, they hit another development, Tamarack Heights at Meadow Lake. Less than a week after that, they hit Cedar Pointe Estates in Columbia Falls. The crimes were the same: surveying posts pulled out of the ground and scattered; black spray paint […]

Much remains the same inside the walls of Kalispell’s Friendship House, the state’s first elderly day care center established in 1978. But outside, things are changing fast. And the Friendship House is having a hard time adapting. That’s why the assisted living facility recently made one of its biggest changes in years with the hiring […]

I had dinner with a client night before last and that topic was one of the things we very much agree on – when to send a client along to another vendor. His story was not unusual. You’ve all probably had it happen to you in one form or another. A new client left voice […]

A spring storm dumped several inches of snow in western Montana on Tuesday, snapping tree limbs and pulling down power lines as it tracked east of the Continental Divide. The National Weather Service issued heavy snow warnings and snow advisories throughout the area and predicted winter weather through Wednesday. Peter Felsch, a meteorologist for the […]

Investigators say they were mistaken when they reported that a 7-year-old Marion girl was shot in the stomach by her 9-year-old brother. Flathead County detective Kipp Tkachyk told Kalispell television station KCFW that it was a neighborhood boy who shot the girl, not her brother. Tkachyk also says the bullet didn’t ricochet off a nearby […]

Good morning and happy birthday to the late Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It’s another bleak, cold, rainy summer day in the Flathead. A good time to curl up with the latest edition of the Flathead Beacon and wait for the sun to come out. Our top story looks at the rising costs and competition to provide […]

As Alpine Theatre Project launches its boldest summer yet, ticket sales climb for the successful theater company, now gearing up for its fifth season. Along with increased ticket sales, the company has gone high tech—adding online ticket purchases. “We’ve already doubled our season subscriptions,” says Artistic Director Betsi Morrison. The increase may be due to […]

Well, did you buy Plum Creek stock on my suggestion last month? A few weeks ago, Congress passed HR 2419, the “Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008,” aka the Farm Bill. Deep within this 682-page pig were two impressive, and impressively stupid, pork slabs for corporate America: $182 million in tax breaks for Weyerhaeuser; […]

HELENA – The state health department says there have been no cases of salmonella related to tomatoes reported in Montana. Howard Reid, manager of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics program within the Department of Public Health and Human Services, says there are always a few cases of salmonella in the state, but none have been […]

WHITEFISH – The Whitefish School Board has given preliminary approval to a drug testing program for the district. The board voted 4-3 Monday to set up a voluntary drug testing program for students who participate in extracurricular activities. Students who don’t agree to the voluntary drug testing program would fall under the district’s current policy […]

The state unveiled its new driver’s license design this week. It includes a hot-pink sky, trio of grizzlies and 1970s-era disco font that will undoubtedly help prove which Montana motorists are terrorists and which are not. This is our elected officials’ answer to complying with the federal Real ID law that asked each state to […]

The Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Tuesday included the following: There were eleven calls to the sheriff’s department about fallen trees, downed power lines and fiery explosions. 1:27 p.m. A Bigfork store employee called to say they had an adult male beer thief on a surveillance tape. 2:54 p.m. Columbia Falls lost another valuable riding […]

WASHINGTON – A nearly $15 billion Amtrak bill passed the House Wednesday as lawmakers rallied around an alternative for travelers saddled with soaring gas prices. The bipartisan bill, which passed by a veto-proof margin of 311-104, would authorize funding for the national passenger railroad over the next five years. Some of the money would go […]

SOMERS – In the weeks following an April fuel spill along Montana Highway 35, area residents renewed demands that truck traffic on the east shore be restricted. An informational meeting last week, though, with the Montana Department of Transportation proved possible solutions – and their ensuing implications – are significantly more complicated. “After having lived […]