“Work hard, learn a lot, and have fun!” said Jordan Fiorillo. That’s how Fiorillo describes a trip she has organized for Flathead Valley residents. But it’s not a typical vacation; it’s a working trip. Youth and adult participants get to see sights, but they also dig in to hands-on work for a local community located […]

Good morning. Today is Johnny Cash’s birthday and the anniversary of the establishment of Grand Canyon National Park. In top local news, Whitefish boys basketball edged out C-Falls by two points in a nail-biter of a game, and the bulldogs now head to state. Flathead Travel Service Inc. is organizing groups to travel to New […]

SEELEY LAKE – An explosion has destroyed a Seeley Lake cabin. Fire Chief Frank Maradeo says an administrator with the fire department heard an explosion Monday afternoon. She ran outside and saw debris falling from the sky. Maradeo says the cabin was completely destroyed. Parts were found in the lake and in nearby trees. Some […]

MISSOULA – Divers have temporarily suspended their search of the Clark Fork River for a Wyoming man investigators say was stabbed to death and dumped off a bridge near Alberton. Eight divers from Missoula County Search and Rescue and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Dive Rescue Team searched the Clark Fork River about 30 miles west […]

Standing under the eaves of the Conrad Mansion, Hal Trost cups in his hand one of the original, odd-looking nails that held up the shingled siding. “Modern nails are all off a wire roll, and they have a machine that just goes snip, snip, snip,” says Trost. This old nail tapers to a point like […]

I spent over 25 hours in the crowded Glacier High School gymnasium this past weekend watching and writing about the Northwest A divisional basketball tournament. Two feelings come to mind: high school basketball nostalgia and a sharp stinging pain in my lower back from maintaining a poorly postured sitting position for hours on end. It’s […]

MISSOULA – W.R. Grace & Co. has more time to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the government’s asbestos case against it. The company is expected to ask the high court to a review a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing certain evidence to be used at trial. […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Monday included the following: 8:37 a.m. Kalispell Police Department responded to a car fire. The fire was quickly contained. 8:45 a.m. Deputies responded when one dad at Evergreen Middle School made threatening remarks and threw his coffee at another dad. 9:08 a.m. A fugitive from justice […]

HELENA – Bozeman businessman Steve Daines will run for lieutenant governor on Roy Brown’s gubernatorial ticket, the two Republicans said Tuesday. Daines declined last year to run for governor himself, but Brown has instead persuaded him to be his running mate. “We just kind of hit it off well together,” Brown said. “We sat down […]

PASADENA, – Levi Leipheimer won the Tour of California for the second straight year Sunday, beating Britain’s David Millar by 49 seconds in the eight-day, 650-mile race. The 34-year-old Leipheimer, third in the 2007 Tour de France, led the event for the final five days, finishing in 29 hours, 24 minutes, 32 seconds. He finished […]

President Bush’s recent budget proposal offering Amtrak $800 million through fiscal year 2009, down from nearly $1.3 billion this year, concerns both Amtrak officials and Montana lawmakers alike, though Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari points out that the proposal is far from the final step in the funding process. Top Montana lawmakers have criticized the proposal. […]

Good morning and happy birthday George Harrison. There’s a dusting of snow in the Flathead and a lot of local news this morning. Check out the Beacon’s game center for results from this weekend’s divisional basketball tournament. Ronan won for the boys, and Bigfork won the girls competition. A woman accused of embezzling thousands of […]

On Sunday teams of athletes from across Montana blew into Whitefish. Here for the annual state winter Special Olympics, 250 athletes along with 100 coaches arrived to celebrate their accomplishments with the awarding of gold, silver, and bronze. This year’s games launched Sunday night at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Teams marched with their banners to the […]

There’s much attention and little sympathy given to the whining of professional athletes as they barter to increase multi-million dollar contracts or blame refs, teammates, fans, coaches – anyone but themselves – for poor performances. Sometimes I wish we applied more of that “Get-over-it-crybaby” attitude to ourselves and other nonprofessional teams. At the divisional tournament […]

SEELEY LAKE – The Forest Service is taking public comment on the proposed salvage of trees burned last summer by a wildfire near Seeley Lake. Officials say the comment may be used to further define the salvage work. It would occur on nearly 2,000 acres, or about 17 percent of the 11,600 acres burned by […]