Good morning; on the Beacon today, the trial for Evergreen teenager Justine Winter has been delayed again, to be rescheduled for a currently unknown date. Bigfork has proven it can light up the scoreboard on the football field this year, but in the second round of the Class B state tournament the Vikings also proved they can grind out a victory. Nomad Global Communication Solutions, a firm located on U.S. Highway 2 near Glacier Park International Airport, has delivered the first three of 12 emergency command and communication vehicles specially designed for the Army Corps of Engineers' Deployable Tactical Operations System. A state senator charged with driving a boat while drunk and crashing into the rocky shoreline of Flathead Lake is close to a plea agreement.

Montana sued more than a dozen online travel companies on Monday, claiming the companies shortchange the state on hotel taxes. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set a Jan. 10 hearing date on Montana's claim that farmers in Wyoming are taking too much of the region's scarce water supply. A high-profile race for a state Senate seat representing Billings has tightened to an eight-vote margin after a tally of provisional ballots. Chuck Johnson puts a historical perspective on state Republicans' election night victories, noting you have to go back 46 years, to find a bigger shellacking administered by one Montana political party in the House races here. Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, a retired longtime state employee and budget director, is having a bill drafted to ask voters to limit the pay and benefits of state workers. Tourists taking advantage of mild fall weather are adding to the already record number of people who have visited Yellowstone National Park this year.

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, an organization called Biz to Biz Network Inc. provides a forum for representatives from all sorts of different industries to meet up regularly to exchange business cards, strategies and pleasantries. Glacier head coach Grady Bennett said No. 1 Bozeman, undefeated at 10-0, is a “little bit above” the rest of the field, but any team in the tournament could realistically win it all. Kalispell’s Hockaday Museum of Art has a busy November planned, with an upcoming exhibit featuring the artistic talents of the museum’s own members and a fundraising gala featuring several prominent local artists. The state wildlife agency has eliminated the position of wolf coordinator and plans to assign other duties to Carolyn Sime, who held the post for the past decade.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer says Montana will be featured in the January issue of Sky magazine — Delta Air Lines' in-flight publication. A man involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist on Highway 83 near Seeley Lake struck a deal Thursday and pleaded no contest to several reduced charges. The president of a Florida retirement community and his family are among eight people who have been charged with poaching in Montana, state wildlife officials said Thursday. Rep. Ken Peterson, R-Billings, said Thursday he is running for the job of House majority leader in the 2011 Legislature. Several environmental groups are calling for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to excuse herself from the review of a $7 billion oil pipeline project because of comments she made last month suggesting support for it. You have to go back more than 70 years to find an election year that compares to 2010, a Montana State University professor said Thursday.

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, a contractor who is facing 15 felonies in Washington and has been accused of improper business dealings in at least two other states is now operating in Montana, leading to complaints from homeowners and former employees who say they’ve been swindled. Authorities are investigating after a backpack full of dynamite was found under a bridge near the Whitefish River in northwestern Montana. Flathead County Commission awarded the bid for construction of the first stage of Bigfork’s new stormwater system last week, but construction won’t begin until next spring after a Bigfork landowner filed a protest with the state over the scope of the project’s environmental assessment. And Wild Bill Schneider speaks directly to cyclists, not motorists, on the prickly relationship between the two.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday that big Republican wins in the state House won't change his plans for the budget or state policy, and he promised to form a broad coalition to get state business done. A group of children waiting for their school bus Wednesday morning got a shock when they spotted a mountain lion in a field just 200 feet from their stop along a rural route. At least two payday lenders in Billings are closing after voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative to cap interest rates on payday and title loans at 36 percent. Montana Republicans won control of the 2011 Legislature in stunning fashion in Tuesday's election, surprising even themselves by picking up 18 seats to craft a 68-32 majority in the Montana House. Candidates for leaders of the 2011 Legislature began surfacing publicly Wednesday, with Sen. Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, the likely Senate president, and Rep. Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, the probable speaker of the House. The day after Republicans won two Public Service Commission seats to give the GOP a majority on the regulatory board, its only current Republican — Commissioner Brad Molnar of Laurel — said he expects to become the PSC's next chairman when the new commissioners are sworn in next January.

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, Republican challenger Pam Holmquist ousted Democrat incumbent Joe Brenneman in the race for the Flathead County Commission District 2 seat, winning by a vote of 20,195 to 10,458. Republicans were victorious in legislative races across the valley as well. ALERT’s nurses, paramedics and pilots spent much of last week training on the two new systems, which should improve rescuers’ chances of locating avalanche victims. Coldwell Banker Wachholz and Co., one of Northwest Montana’s leading real estate companies, is shutting down its five offices on Nov. 5. The Kalispell City Council Monday denied an application by the Gateway Community Center for approximately $600,000 in tax increment funds to pay for improvements to the hub of social service and nonprofit agencies located on the west side.

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg has ridden a wave of tea party-fueled conservative fervor and voter resentment of Democratic policies to a sixth term in Congress. Montanans have voted to put a 36 percent cap on payday loan interest rates and to block the government from imposing a certain real estate tax. Republicans were looking ahead to taking full control of the Legislature in 2011 as the bulk of the returns still trickling in early Wednesday favored their candidates. Republican Jay Doyle won a close and viciously fought race Tuesday with 38 percent of the vote to become Lake County's next sheriff, defeating two detectives who work in the office. A pair of Republican political newcomers swept to victory in the two contested Public Service commissioner races Tuesday night, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority on the board that regulates utilities in the state. Helena attorney Beth Baker defeated Livingston Judge Nels Swandal on Tuesday to win an eight-year term on the Montana Supreme Court. In the state's most expensive legislative race, Democrat Kendall Van Dyk was edging incumbent Republican Roy Brown by just 16 votes in final, unofficial results. In non-political news, Allen Goff, a teenager believed to be the leader of a local white supremacist group, was in jail Tuesday night after Billings police officers arrested him on suspicion of pointing a gun at a man and threatening to kill him. Three Montana hunters who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping in a wall tent with a propane heater are recovering at a Salt Lake City hospital thanks to some young family members.

 

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Good morning, be sure to vote today by 8 p.m.; on the Beacon today, we've got a breakdown of the information you might need if you're not registered to vote yet or you don't know who's who in the races. Judge Katherine Curtis ruled Monday that the homicide trial for Evergreen teenager Justine Winter will stay in Flathead County if the jury selection process successfully yields a jury. Flathead Electric Cooperative and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office are warning valley residents of a possible energy product scam and are looking for people who may have already been affected. PPL Montana says it is pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court is asking the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General to look into its case over disputed rent with the state. A judge in Helena on Monday halted the execution of the only known Canadian on death row in the United States, even though a date for the death has not been set. Brucellosis has been found in Ted Turner's 4,600-head bison herd in Montana, the first time we've seen the bacterial disease in a domestic herd in Montana in two years.

Voters are deciding whether to give Republican Denny Rehberg a sixth term as Montana's congressman and where the balance of power will fall in a state House that is now evenly split. Former state commerce director Tony Preite has accepted a job at Montana State-Northern. Environmentalists said a 3-2 decision Monday by the Idaho Supreme Court focusing on proposed oil-equipment shipments on U.S. Highway 12 likely means the state highway agency now must hold a formal hearing where foes of the wide loads can air their grievances in public. The Big Sky Conference is adding North Dakota and Southern Utah to its ranks. A Missoula judge has issued a restraining order preventing three former employees of the Montana Caregivers Network from operating a medical marijuana consulting business as their lawsuit against the network proceeds.

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, the election is tomorrow, Nov. 2, and we've got a roundup of all the election info you'll need before casting your ballot. Speaking of the election, members of the GOP in Montana are confident that national political sentiment will trickle down to the local level and give Republicans control of the state Legislature, whereas Democrats believe they will be rewarded for effectively running the state in hard times. Longtime Whitefish School District Superintendent Jerry House is getting ready to retire, but he's not about to become a lame duck. Kalispell's Elrod elementary got some praise from the state's top education official, Denise Juneau, when she visited the nationally awarded school last week. A Montana native who lost both legs and his right arm while serving in Afghanistan is receiving treatment at an Army hospital in Texas. No trespassing signs and locked gates on 670 acres of land owned by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Mullan Pass appear to contradict his campaign pledge to not allow outsiders to buy up land and restrict public access.

Sediment contaminated with heavy metals and spread over 600 acres to cover even more dangerous mining waste at a Superfund site near Anaconda in western Montana appears unable to support vegetation. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on the proposed drilling of a gas well in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation will host its fourth annual Voices of the Wilderness silent auction on Nov. 5 at Glacier Discovery Square in Columbia Falls. Ex-Griz Dan Carpenter kicked five field goals to help the Miami Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 22-14. The Big Sky Conference has announced that it will issue a press release Monday afternoon “regarding league expansion.”

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, if seeing Bigfork football at the top of the standings makes you take a second look, Columbia Falls may give you the same reaction. For those looking for places to don some ghoulish garb and participate in All Hallows Eve festivities, here is a quick rundown of some of the weekend’s events. Tamar Lambert has died after being involved in a single vehicle roll over crash on Church Drive, east of Stillwater Road in Kalispell, according to a report issued Thursday by the Flathead County Sheriff's Office. A Montana-owned bank, Mountain West, says it will lay off six employees at two locations and cut lobby hours at one branch. No job at Riebe’s Machine Works is too small or too odd. And, according to Mick Holien, the Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 poll compiled by the Sports Network has a problem.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer says he supports a cap on so-called payday loans. But he opposes a constitutional initiative to prohibit certain real-estate taxes and a call to convene a new constitutional convention. A first-time Republican candidate for one of two Public Service Commission seats up for election has received more than double the campaign contributions of his Democratic opponent. Planned Parenthood of Montana has sued the state for denying teen girls access to birth control through Montana's low-income health insurance program. The Montana Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of Anthony St. Dennis in the 2007 beating death of Forrest Clayton Salcido, a sometimes-homeless veteran from Missoula, saying there was no conflict of interest in his defense. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 10 suspected illegal Mexican immigrants in northeastern Montana on Tuesday.

 

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Good morning; on the Beacon today, we wonder who is keeping track of high school athletic records, and the answer is no one. In a midterm election characterized by palpable partisan divides in some areas of the Flathead Valley, the race for House District 9 has largely been a quiet one. In a business community hit hard by the recession, several local manufacturing companies are seeing diversification and expansion efforts pay off. Whitefish edged Fergus to claim its fourth straight Class A girls cross country title, while the boys just missed out on a title of their own.

Grizzly bear numbers in the three-state region in and around Yellowstone National Park have hit their highest level in decades. Helena tea party activists angry over the way a former president was ousted from the Big Sky Tea Party over anti-gay rhetoric said they are forming their own group. A Montana man who was arrested after DNA linked him to the death of a Spokane woman in 1986 is being investigated in at least three other unsolved slayings. It's millionaire versus millionaire in the race for Montana's House seat between Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg and Democrat Dennis McDonald. A midmorning bank robbery in downtown Missoula on Tuesday involved a leisurely suspect who - after allegedly taking cash from a Sterling Savings Bank teller - sat down and ate breakfast at Liquid Planet, called a cab, stopped for smokes and then tipped the driver $5 for the $7.50 ride that delivered him to the DoubleTree Edgewater Hotel. An execution date for a 53-year-old Canadian man on Montana's death row, Ronald Smith, will be set during a Nov. 3 hearing in Philipsburg. The Montana Democratic Party on Tuesday questioned the appointment of Jake Eaton as the new treasurer of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee after he was accused of suppressing voter turnout in 2008.

 

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