Thursday: Debt Collection, GOP Advice, Butte Fires

By Dan Testa, 6-11-09

Good morning; on the Beacon today, the Stellar Recovery debt collection business in Kalispell is growing rapidly and hiring new workers. A Whitefish man wants to bring back to life a hydropower plant located just north of Whitefish near the city’s water treatment plant. The clerk at a Whitefish hotel who took part in an April 7 robbery has been arrested and police are searching for her accomplice. Lido has another killer slideshow, this time of the Blue Moon Summer Rodeo. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has confirmed that a bass caught on May 2 on the Noxon Rapids Reservoir is a state record. And Dave Skinner lampoons the Whitefish streetscape project.

Fires are raging in downtown Butte. Gov.Brian Schweitzer's new memo on freezing the pay of state employees does not change an earlier agreement on compensation. Another week, another lawsuit against the Feds for delisting the Gray wolf. Montana businesses may find work on federal stimulus-funded projects as bigger contractors hire smaller local contractors. To rebound from recent election defeats, the state Republican Party is being urged to improve its grass-roots efforts, involve more people and communicate its message better to voters. Wachovia Bank has sued Yellowstone Club co-founder Edra Blixseth in federal bankruptcy court. [End of article]