KALISPELL (AP) – A 31-year-old man faces arson charges after Flathead County authorities said he set fire to a car and an outbuilding and tried to burn down a house. Kevin M. Templin, was arrested Wednesday morning after Templin’s estranged wife went to the sheriff’s office to report that he had violated a restraining order. […]

HELENA (AP) – Montana Republicans have added almost 800 new party volunteers in advance of the Feb. 5 caucus and say the process has been a success, even though several hundred openings for precinct volunteers went unfilled. The Montana Republican Party reports that there will be 1,817 eligible voters on Tuesday when the GOP will […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Wednesday included the following: 5:01 a.m. A man walked into a Hungry Horse residence and asked three men for a ride. They told him no way, but they could help him out later. The man, angered by their lack of enthusiasm, pushed one of the men […]

I’ve spent this last week involved in a vicious back-and-forth of e-insults with Beacon Events Editor Colin Hickey. What began as a trade of friendly jibes quickly digressed into a duel of wildly offensive barbs in which one of us points out the other’s resemblance to a socially inept, unattractive character from a 1980s TV […]

KALISPELL (AP) – A Bigfork man who was questioned in the murder of 24-year-old Clyde Wilson was released from jail without charges Tuesday, the chief deputy Lake County attorney said. Attorney Mitch Young told Kalispell television station KCFW that Zachary Forkin, 19, was released from the Lake County jail. He declined to give any other […]

With the Jan. 20 death of a skier outside the boundaries of Big Sky Resort and three deaths in California, this winter’s avalanche fatality rate is rapidly outpacing recent seasons across the West – and this is proving especially true among skiers and snowboarders. Avalanche deaths among winter recreationalists in the United States and Canada […]

When Kalispell City Council members emerged from City Hall in the early morning of Jan. 23, after five hours of deliberation, they had approved the largest commercial development in the history of Flathead County – a project for which the construction alone will take 20 years to complete. After years of public debate, the dimensions […]

Good morning and happy birthday to Vice President Dick Cheney and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – two men who share very little in terms of political philosophy. On the Beacon this morning, hot off the presses, a look at some of the immediate implications of the Glacier Town Center development’s approval. The number of avalanche […]

Two weeks ago, we started getting you a little more time to work on the next 6 things. Last week, we worked on getting closer to your existing clients. This week, we’re going to personalize your business by systematically collecting and using testimonials. One of the biggest opportunities that small businesses miss out on is […]

A Bigfork man who was questioned in the murder of 24-year-old Clyde Wilson was released from jail without charges Tuesday, the chief deputy Lake County attorney said. Attorney Mitch Young told Kalispell television station KCFW that Zachary Forkin, 19, was released from the Lake County jail. He declined to give any other details. Forkin and […]

HELENA (AP) – Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger and the Montana Republican Party are clashing again, this time over whether he will be allowed to vote in the Feb. 5 presidential caucus. Bohlinger said Tuesday that he plans to vote and make a speech beforehand in support of John McCain. “And why not?” Bohlinger asked. “I’m […]

BIGFORK – The Bigfork Valkyries’ starting lineup looks like an all-conference team. Across the board, the Vals are tall and talented, led by a core of seniors who have played together since pre-high school days. On any given night, it would be hard to pick a player of the game. “We play as a team […]

Chicken Little, at least in the most recent film adaptation, is the story of an adolescent who is chided for proclaiming, “The sky is falling!” The townsfolk, who had at first panicked, eventually conclude that the paranoid bird was walloped by a falling acorn. Little is vindicated in the end – as will you be […]

As the city of Whitefish seeks to address a dilemma involving nearly 5,000 disenfranchised residents on the outskirts of town, City Attorney John Phelps believes the best option, while unprecedented and complex, is to change the city’s charter to give those residents a voice in city government. Whitefish has changed its charter only twice since […]

Erik Anderson seems to have been born with an innate sense of determination. Following in his older sister’s ski boots, Anderson clipped into his first cross-country skis and tackled his first race – a one-kilometer loop around the Whitefish Golf Course – while still in diapers. “I tried to bite people because they told me […]