Thursday: Four-Day School Week, Hungry Horse Plane Crash, GPS Snafu

By Keriann Lynch, 4-02-09

Good morning and happy birthday to the late Hans Christian Andersen, author of classics like "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid."

On the Beacon this morning, a four-day school week proposal is gaining momentum in West Glacier. Congressman Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., recently sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag telling him that the so-called "Buy American" provision in the federal stimulus package has bogged down Montana projects. And one person was killed in the crash of a single-engine aircraft at Hungry Horse Reservoir in northwestern Montana Wednesday.

Environmentalists will once again file suit on behalf of Western wolves, this time challenging a plan that would remove federal protection from the species in Montana and Idaho. A preliminary report on the Montana plane crash that killed 14 people two weeks ago says the pilot twice asked air traffic controllers to divert from the flight's original destination but gave no reason either time. And a new University of Montana study said alcohol abuse costs the state's economy more than half a billion dollars per year in medical costs, lost wages and productivity and other public and private spending.

And a reminder that technology isn't always the answer: A woman was driving when the best routing from the GPS sent her onto a road that forked into a snowmobile trail.
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