Page 25 - Flathead Beacon // 7.29.15

Aug. 2-9 Aug.4-6
The 65-year-old Western Montana Shrine Circus would lose its elephant acts under the measure. Representatives told the committee circus animals are well- cared for and that law would effectively shut down the circus.
HELENA
5. Montana Grandparents Organize Against Child, Family Services
When parents lose custody of their children due to abuse or neglect, their grandparents often step in to scoop up the pieces. In Montana, dozens of those grandparents have organized to push back against a state agency they say has shut them out as caregivers and some- times has placed children with parents they don’t know.
A network of 24 grandparents has staged protests across Montana, told their stories to lawmakers and enlisted at least one former legislator to lobby state officials on their behalf. Months into their campaign, Gov. Steve Bullock plans to meet with them about their con- cerns, spokesman Dave Parker said.
Sarah Corbally, administrator of Mon- tana Child and Family Services, insists that the agency complies with a state pol- icy, endorsed by the courts, requiring the placement of a child with a biological par- ent unless a caseworker finds good cause to recommend otherwise.
“We can’t say, ‘I’m sorry, but I think the grandparent is the better place- ment,’” Corbally said.
But the grandparents’ network says the system is broken.
“I am like a bulldog,” grandmother Patsy Fercho said. “My teeth are clenched and I’m not letting go.”
Fercho, who lives in eastern Montana, is fighting an agency recommendation and a judge’s order that her grandsons be placed out of state with their birth father. The boys had been living with Fer- cho after their mother lost custody due to drug use.
Child and Family Services officials declined to speak about Fercho’s or any other case, citing confidentiality laws.
BUTTE
6. EPA Resists Calls to Remove Mining Waste
Below the center of Butte flows water tainted with poisons drawn from a mass of mining and smelting waste that has been a pollution problem for more than a century.
The deadly bright-blue plume “is the most contaminated mine water in the state of Montana,” says hydrogeologist Joe Griffin.
No one argues that point. But a raging dispute centers on what to do about it — and about the mass of tailings from the Parrot mine and smelter that is feeding the deadly brew of metals-laced water.
The polluted groundwater is moving toward Silver Bow Creek, and critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-standing decision to leave the tail- ings in the middle of the city as “waste
in place” say it could eventually endan- ger the recently completed cleanup of the lower part of the creek, which cost $147 million.
That EPA decision has been roundly criticized as being based on a flawed sci- entific model — and also for its intrinsic capitulation to the idea that Butte will never be able remove the taint of mine pollution.
Nobody is saying the Parrot pollution is a human health concern – but Silver Bow Creek’s recovery is key to Butte’s desire to move on from the environmen- tal damage caused by its mining legacy.
Meanwhile, public pressure to remove the tailings is gaining steam. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester last month sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy urging that the tailings be removed. He received a reply that did not mention the tailings.
Gov. Steve Bullock favors removal of the tailings, as do Butte-Silver Bow County Executive Matt Vincent and State Sen. Jon Sesso, who serves as the county’s planning director and Super- fund coordinator.
BOZEMAN
7. Three Sets of Twins Born on the Same Day
Three sets of fraternal twins were born on the same day at a Bozeman hos- pital — adding up to more than half of the hospital’s births that day.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports the first of the trio of twins was born at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital at 7:49 a.m. on July 22. The other two sets followed over the next seven hours, making it the first time in a decade the hospital has seen so many twins born in a day.
First-time parents Dustin and Davya Jackson say twins run in both their fami- lies, so it was almost inevitable when they found out they were having both Sonja Ryann and Landon Lee.
Including the three twins, 11 babies were born at the hospital that day.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
8. Bison Injures Woman Posing for Selfie
Yellowstone National Park officials are warning tourists to keep their dis- tance after a bison flipped a woman into the air as she posed for a selfie with the massive beast.
The dangerous encounter was the fifth run-in between park-goers and buffalo this year.
Park officials said the 43-year-old Mississippi woman turned her back on the animal to get a photo with it near the Fairy Falls trailhead just outside Old Faithful.
Someone nearby saw the woman and her daughter about 6 yards from the ani- mal and warned they were too close just before it came at them.
They tried to run, but the bison caught the woman and tossed her with its head. The woman’s family drove her to a
nearby clinic where she was treated for minor injuries.
JULY 29, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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