Bull trout nests are up in the Swan, and about average for Flathead Lake and Hungry Horse Reservoir. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks started the redd count in Swan Lake in 1981. Over the past 25 years, they found an average of 395 redds in the area. This year the tally surpassed the average, coming […]

Despite taking only part of their team to last Saturday’s Bigfork Invitational, the five-time Class A State Champion CFHS speech and debate team came away with first place among the Class A schools. This Saturday, the early bus takes the team to Polson, where it’s expected that each team will be bringing their A game […]

KALISPELL (AP) – The owner of an Evergreen home where a 3-year-old boy drowned in a septic tank was fined $500 Wednesday and won’t face jail time. Tommie Cates was sentenced to a one-year deferred jail term after pleading no contest to one count of misdemeanor negligent endangerment for her role in the death of […]

For those looking for inspiration for the upcoming winter sports season, or a final fix as their favorite outdoor summer sport succumbs to snow, or even couch potatoes and film fanatics, an annual Kalispell event aims to satisfy all: The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. The world’s largest mountain festival, the Banff Mountain Film […]

HELENA (AP) – The Montana Democrats said Wednesday that Butte legislator Art Noonan has been named the party’s new executive director. Noonan, who served in House Democratic leadership earlier this year and was charged with challenging the Republicans on the floor, said he likely won’t be running again for the Legislature. Noonan promised to lead […]

Happy admission day! On this day in 1889 Montana became the forty-first state. To celebrate, there’s a colossal amount of news in the valley and across the state. After counting the ballots again Wednesday, it appears that Martin McGrew has overtaken Turner Askew for the third open slot on the Whitefish city council. In Evergreen, […]

Turner Askew must decide by Thanksgiving whether he will ask for a recount of votes, after narrowly losing the third open slot on the Whitefish City Council to Martin McGrew. While it appeared Tuesday night that Askew had won, two recounts of ballots picked up more than 500 votes that hadn’t been read properly by […]

8:18 a.m. Despite the weather, an air conditioning unit was stolen out of a shed at an unoccupied residence on Lion Mountain Road. 11:51 a.m. A worried friend called in because in one residence in West Valley Acres lives three adults, three children, two elderly adults, and 35 cats and dogs. The caller was worried […]

HELENA (AP) – The Montana Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Ferndale man convicted of killing his common-law wife after a night of drinking in August 2005. Lawrence Roedel is serving a 90-year prison term in the shooting death of 36-year-old Dawn Thompson. A jury found him guilty of murder and of using […]

GREAT FALLS (AP) – Elections officials who used mail-in ballots Tuesday reported better turnout and quicker results. “It was so good,” said Paulette DeHart, treasurer and clerk and recorder for Lewis and Clark County, of Helena’s largest mail ballot election. About 8,600 residents voted — 61.5 percent of the registered electorate, and election workers were […]

WASHINGTON (AP) – Partisan differences over taxes, spending and other matters stopped Senate debate on a $286 billion farm bill just as it got underway Tuesday, signaling that progress on the measure will be protracted and difficult. Republicans bristled when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., slapped limits on their ability to offer amendments. Reid […]

After last month’s troop campout at Bowman Lake, I came home with a really filthy Suburban and troop trailer. 60 miles of North Fork driving with a trailer after 3 days of rain last week = muddy, icy vehicles. So I’m thinking that I need to get the mud and ice off, and I don’t […]

The Kalispell Police and Flathead County Sheriff reports for Tuesday included the following: 10:08 a.m. A woman confronted a man who was grading the end of the road near her property. She thought he was on her property and that he needed to ask her permission. The man noticed that the woman was carrying a […]

Good morning and happy Republican Elephant Day – the anniversary of the first time an artist, in 1874, used an elephant to represent the GOP. I’ve got a post-election hangover today, it was a late night at the county courthouse last night, but the results are in and Whitefish has a new mayor: Michael Jenson. […]

Ron Mohn knew he had made it in the caviar business when he started getting calls from rough-sounding guys with thick Russian accents named Boris and Ivan. They were in the highly profitable beluga sturgeon caviar business, an often criminal or at least sketchy enterprise based out of the Caspian Sea region. Perhaps, the Russians […]