Flathead and Glacier high schools are looking for judges to help with the Kalispell Invitational Speech and Debate meet on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19. According to Kala Lougheed, Flathead’s speech and debate coach, this is year’s meet is the biggest the schools have ever hosted. “This weekend, more than a thousand competitors will be […]

Sunday 11/13 10:35 a.m. Reportedly, a Kalispell woman’s drunken estranged husband was scratching at her windows and laying on the ground behind her house. 12:49 p.m. A man on 12th Avenue East was reportedly involved in a non-physical confrontation with an aggravated Great Dane. 1:19 p.m. “Bulldog-type” dogs were seen harassing deer in Lakeside. 1:40 […]

HELENA – Montana prosecutors are asking the state Supreme Court to lift a district judge’s block of portions of a new state law meant to restrict the sale of medical marijuana. Judge James Reynolds in June issued an injunction that prevented key parts of the bill from becoming law, including a ban on marijuana providers […]

A mother and her two children narrowly escaped a fire that burned down their house near Columbia Falls on the early morning of Nov. 16. The fire leveled the four-bedroom home on 1530 Middle Road at around 6 a.m. and left Hayley Matthews and her 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son with only the clothes on […]

I meant to post a blog following up on my unemployed veterans story last week, but I think it’s still relevant. In the <a href="http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/jobless_on_the_homefront/25334/" title="Nov. 9 Beacon cover story”>Nov. 9 Beacon cover story, I looked into Montana’s unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, which, at 20.1 percent, is the fourth highest in […]

HELENA — A Montana judge abdicated his responsibility when he dismissed a lawsuit by six gay couples seeking the same legal benefits as married couples, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday in an appeal to the state’s highest court. The six couples, barred from marrying under the state’s voter-approved constitutional definition of marriage as […]

Since its inception in 2009, Kalispell’s DUI court has graduated 20 of its 39 participants, and six are still working toward finishing the program. While those stats are important to founder and municipal court Judge Heidi Ulbricht, there is one number that stands out above the rest: zero. “Of the 20 that have graduated, none […]

Thursday 11/10 2:45 p.m. A woman on Cottonwood Drive claimed that the man who called her and her son names is probably a pedophile. 3:04 p.m. Someone saw a basset hound eating road kill. 3:39 p.m. Kids playing with dumpster trash were scolded and made to clean up their mess. 3:37 p.m. A Kalispell woman […]

Kalispell’s duck debate may be resolved for now, but the discussion continues over whether fowl in general should be living inside city limits. The city council voted against changing the current animal ordinance to allow ducks on Nov. 7 after hearing from angry residents who complained about the fowl being a nuisance. For the last […]

COLUMBIA FALLS – It didn’t take long for Katie Miller’s kids to run up the stairs and pick out their rooms. Or what color to paint them. And last Friday the kids were running around the newly built townhouse on Mitchell Way. Miller and her two young children were one of two families about to […]

After Whitefish voters overwhelmingly repealed a 2010 interlocal agreement with Flathead County last week, the question of what comes next is generating vastly different answers with potential legal implications. Whitefish City Attorney Mary VanBuskirk says the two sides now revert back to their 2005 interlocal agreement, which gave Whitefish land-use authority over the roughly two-mile […]

In the months leading up to the 2011 municipal elections, the Flathead Beacon received multiple letters to the editor advocating repeal of the 2010 interlocal agreement dealing with the so-called planning doughnut. In several of those, the authors urged voters to support repeal and give the city control of planning decisions in the two-mile ring […]

HELENA — Federal safety regulators disclosed problems Tuesday with oil and other hazardous liquid pipelines at seven major river crossings and hundreds of smaller crossings in Montana and northern Wyoming — problems that could put the lines at increased risk of failure. Problems found at the major river crossings must be fixed by spring or […]

Wednesday 11/09 6:05 a.m. Reportedly, an intoxicated man tried to crawl into a bathroom stall with a woman at an Evergreen casino. 6:51 a.m. A small drunken woman was seen stumbling down Highway 2 East. 6:54 a.m. A drunk was spotted in the produce department of an Evergreen grocery store. 8:41 a.m. An SUV was […]

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments next March over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul — a case that could shake the political landscape just as voters are about to decide if Obama deserves another term. The decision to hear arguments in the spring allows plenty of time for a […]