There was once a day in the Beacon office when Hoop Dreams lived. In the earliest days of our humble beginnings, intrepid reporter Dan Testa found an answer to the daily stresses of starting a news organization: a Nerf hoop. Our staff was small and desks were limited, so the office had an open space […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Monday included the following: 9:02 a.m. Someone reported that there was a missing child on Dawn Drive. However, a call was made later explaining that the child was never missing. 9:51 a.m. Three blue heelers charged a Trap Road resident’s kid. 11:47 a.m. Someone fell down […]

BILLINGS – Two inmates escaped from the Montana Women’s Prison on Sunday, the state Department of Corrections said. Alicia L. Luke, 27, and Jenny L. Terrell, 31, escaped from the Billings prison at about 9 a.m. The women were kitchen workers and apparently left through a kitchen receiving area on the prison’s north side, the […]

Good morning and happy Cinco de Mayo. It’s a beautiful spring morning in the valley. On the site today, Myers Reece writes about the heavily favored Whitefish boys tennis team, led by Chilean first singles player Renzo Caimi. Little League in Columbia Falls is underway. And check out Mark Riffey’s photo slide show from the […]

The Whitefish City Council has a packed agenda at tonight’s 7:10 p.m. meeting, deciding how to react to a recent court ruling against the city, discussing two large downtown improvement projects and looking at the budget overview for fiscal year 2008-2009, among other items. In Flathead County District Court last week, Judge Katherine Curtis denied […]

WHITEFISH – A Whitefish man was killed in a motorcycle accident south of Whitefish. Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Glen Barcus says it happened about 9 p.m. Sunday on state Highway 40, 2½ miles east of U.S. Highway 93. Barcus says the man, in his 50s, had just completed passing a westbound pickup truck when he […]

Having grown up in Billings and worked last summer at the Billings Gazette as a reporting intern, it’s with interest and some distress that I’ve read the news coming from the Magic City over the past few weeks. Gazette reporters and the community have endured a crazy streak of awful events, which from the look […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Sunday included the following: 9:33 a.m. Four fence posts were stolen on Shady Lane. 10:13 a.m. Someone shot a fat turkey even though it’s illegal. 12:11 p.m. Reportedly, a motor home with a damaged sewage tank leaked wastewater on someone’s vehicle and on the highway running […]

HELENA – Law enforcement officers were still searching Monday for two women who escaped from the Montana Women’s Prison in Billings over the weekend. Department of Corrections officials say 31-year-old Jennifer Terrell and 27-year-old Alicia Luke escaped from the prison at 9 a.m. Sunday, while working in the kitchen. The women went out a door […]

HELENA – A Helena judge says he will hold a new hearing on the six-year-old school funding lawsuit. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock says it is not clear if the state has addressed the structural deficiencies in the funding formula that led courts in three years ago to declare the system unconstitutional. The state had argued […]

Whether you are in favor of the Columbia Falls school mill levies or against them, please vote today (Tuesday May 6). When we don’t vote, we send the signal that we don’t care. Isn’t that the last message you’d want to send to Washington DC, Helena and SD6?

Saturday marked the Second Annual Arbor Day Celebration in Columbia Falls. This year’s event was well-attended, thanks in part to great weather. I had so many photos from this event, I decided to make a video slideshow of them (lots of manual labor to upload them individually). The city owes Arbor Day organizer Barb Jenkins […]

When asked who her hero might be, Mary Snipstead, after a little thought, responds, “William Wilberforce.” Wilberforce, a British politician and activist, fought to end the slave trade. “I think about him when I think things can’t be done or things will never change,” said Snipstead, a sophomore on the Glacier High School tennis team. […]

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Political observers say Gov. Dave Freudenthal will walk a fine line when he gives his first speech in support of Barack Obama — one between keeping up his conservative reputation and dipping a toe in left-leaning national Democratic politics. Freudenthal is scheduled to speak May 10 at the Montana Democratic Party’s annual […]

BILLINGS – The Montana Department of Transportation is appealing a court decision that favors an advertising company in a dispute over an electronic billboard. The decision in support of Lamar Advertising has been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. The case dates to 2006, when Lamar applied for Transportation Department approval to put an electronic […]