A local nonprofit group has filed a lawsuit against Flathead County Commissioners over the final phases of a subdivision that could add more than 1,000 new homes to the Lakeside community, doubling the number of homes in the small town. Commissioners say the process was open and diligent, but those opposed to the subdivision claim […]

In an age when many people prefer to research the Lewis and Clark Expedition on Wikipedia rather than thumb through 500 pages of “Undaunted Courage,” Flathead’s independent bookstore owners tenaciously cling to one enduring belief: There will always be enough people who want the whole reading experience – ink stains on the fingers, dust on […]

About 15,000 years ago, ice dams collapsed, shooting waters from Glacial Lake Missoula toward the Pacific Coast. Soils and huge erratic rocks tagged along in the flood, some settling in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where that original western Montana topsoil has fostered reputable wines. One gray erratic rock the size if a mini-van sits below the […]

Good morning and happy National Day to our readers in Burkina Faso. On the Beacon this morning, Becky Lomax writes about an Oregon Pinot Noir made with the Montana market in mind. Bigfork is seeking someone to fill a vacancy on its Land Use Advisory Committee following the resignation of Mary Jo Naïve. We’re proud […]

This year, regrettably, I will drag no dying conifer into my living room. It wouldn’t make sense, as I won’t even be here this Christmas. But I do so with a touch of melancholy. For me, it’s never been about the thrill of watching a fir tree rot next to the television. It’s always been […]

Three of four victims in the weekend church shootings in Colorado had ties to Montana. Philip Crouse helped build a home for a foster family on the Crow Indian Reservation this summer, while sisters Stephanie and Rachael Works lived in Montana when they were younger. The gunman, 24-year-old Matthew Murray, shot Tiffany Johnson, 26, and […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff’s reports for Sunday and Monday included the following: 9:40 a.m. A dog-seller called the Sheriff’s Department after he had sold his dog to a man who he now assumed was beating it. 10:43 a.m. An 8-foot inflatable Santa was swiped out of the back of a man’s truck […]

Gil Jordan of Coram announced Tuesday evening he would run as a Democrat in 2008 for Senate District 2, following the announcement by incumbent Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish, earlier this week that he would not be seeking re-election. Jordan serves as the executive director of the Northwest Montana Historical Society Museum at Central School in […]

For Dylan McFarland, the road between Kalispell and Hamburg, Germany, was paved with grueling NFL training camps, dinners with Brett Favre and prolonged moments of awe – a Flathead boy living the NFL dream. Today, the dream is over, but the 27-year-old McFarland has no regrets. Back at the University of Montana, where he won […]

Good morning and happy day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It’s Wednesday and the weekly news cycle is hitting full tilt with new Beacons on the stands this morning. This week Myers Reece looks at the remaining independent booksellers in the Flathead hanging on in the age of box stores and the Internet. Lido Vizzutti’s […]

HELENA (AP) – U.S. Senate candidate Michael Lange told fellow Republicans here Tuesday that he is not “black and blue,” just a “battle-hardened” politician with some unconventionally gained name recognition. The man behind one of the state’s most notorious legislative blowups promised to fight – incumbent U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, the entire Congress if elected […]

Whitefish Mountain Resort will kick off 60th Anniversary celebrations starting on Friday, Dec. 14 with a ceremonial rope dropping, a monument unveiling, as well as the presentation of lifetime season pass privileges to six individuals from the resort’s storied past. “A lot has changed over the past 60 years, but a lot of things have […]

KALISPELL Kalispell City Council meets tonight at 7 p.m. for an informal work session – at which no votes are allowed – to discuss a tax credit housing proposal and further city airport improvements. Tim Germann is developing a tax credit housing project. The site would be 40 rental apartments in its first phase, located […]

Good morning and happy birthday to poet Emily Dickinson. It’s a beautiful, snowy morning in the valley with lots of news coming out of the weekend. In Hungry Horse, police have the husband in custody of a woman found dead Sunday from multiple gunshot wounds. Whitefish Democratic Sen. Dan Weinberg announced he would not be […]

Sheriff’s deputies responding to a disturbance in Hungry Horse Sunday night found a 46-year-old woman who had been killed by multiple gunshots. Jody Smith was pronounced dead at her home on 120 First Ave. NW. She was shot three times in the chest and once in the arm. Her husband, Charles Glenn Smith, 50, was […]