Monday: Loons, FDR Glacier, Food Stamps

By Dan Testa, 8-10-09

Good morning; on the Beacon today, the fate of the north shore and a warming lake were two issues attendees were greeted with at the Flathead Lakers annual meeting at Flathead Lake Lodge. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has approved an experimental netting project designed to remove non-native lake trout in Swan Lake and upstream waters. After six years of research, biologists with the Loon Ecology Project are chronicling plenty of quirks about the bird, as well as important habitat considerations. Seventy-five years after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled on the newly built Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, his great-granddaughter, Kate Roosevelt, re-created the journey. Kalispell author Tricia Goyer is the author of 20-plus books of fiction and nonfiction and has written more than 300 articles for national publications like Guideposts for Kids, Focus on the Family, Christian Parenting Today and HomeLife Magazine.The Montana Supreme Court has thrown out the felony sex assault conviction of Kalispell man Darwin Keith Berosik.

The number of Montanans receiving help in the form of food stamps is now above 10 percent. Tourism was down in Montana the first half of the year but the state is still doing better than the rest of the country. Lee's Mike Dennison has an excellent breakdown of what changes Medicare and Medicaid could face if the country's health care system is overhauled. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to speak at a water forum in Billings on Monday that will focus on the growing pressures facing the West's limited water supplies. And nonprofit groups in Montana say the bad economy is making it difficult for them to raise money. [End of article]