Good morning; on the Beacon today, Sept. 2 brings four, free guitar workshops, taught and attended by some of the best talent in the country as part of a weeklong festival and workshop from the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation. On Aug. 19, two days before horse racing returned to Kalispell for the first time since 2005, owners and trainers gathered at the racing barns on the Flathead County Fairgrounds to continue the incessant task of caring for their horses. The Flathead County attorney’s office has filed two felony assault charges against a 68-year-old Kalispell man suspected of attacking another man with a hatchet and throwing a knife at a responding police officer. And Mick Holien discusses how a number of former Griz football players are shining in the NFL preseason.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, cooking up a new plan to get cheaper prescription drugs for state residents, said he wants to let every Montanan get discounted medicine through Medicaid. Across the country, political ad spending is up and attack ads lead the way. Those who take the high road do so at their peril. The economy grew at a much slower pace this spring than previously estimated, mostly due to the largest surge in imports in 26 years and a slower buildup in inventories. Three former employees of a Missoula medical marijuana business that has helped thousands of patients get their state marijuana card sued its owner Thursday, alleging that he ordered hundreds of card applications to be falsified. A mandatory evacuation order is in effect this morning for numerous residents west of Hamilton whose homes are threatened by a wildfire burning in the Bitterroot National Forest and on private lands adjacent to the forest. Authorities say a 32-year-old inmate who escaped while he was being transferred to the state prison earlier this week has been captured near the Sweetgrass Port of Entry on the Canadian border. A prescribed fire by the Helena National Forest exploded out of control early Thursday afternoon, swelling to an estimated 2,800 acres by 8 p.m. and prompting the evacuation of about 10 homes along Stemple Pass Road. A former Ravalli County sheriff’s sergeant has pleaded guilty to felony theft for stealing thousands of rounds of ammunition from the department.