Flathead Beacon

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Thursday: Pot Vote, Brenneman Files, Commerce Dept. Ouster

By Dan Testa, 3-11-10

Good morning; on the Beacon today, Defense officials said 19-year-old Pvt. Nicholas S. Cook of Hungry Horse was killed in Afghanistan's Konar province on Sunday when insurgents opened fire on his unit. With five days to go until the filing deadline, Flathead County Commissioner Joe Brenneman turned in his paperwork to run for reelection for Commission District 2 on Wednesday morning. There are roughly 6,000 bighorn sheep in Montana and wildlife officials fear that nearly 700 of them could be dead by the time a pneumonia outbreak runs its course. The Kalispell Planning Board voted 4-2 Tuesday to amend the zoning ordinance so it prohibits any new medical marijuana business from operating, in a sign that city officials plan to take a hard line against the dispensaries. Northwest Montana’s unemployment rolls rose precipitously in January to the highest levels since the beginning of the recession.

Democrats claimed momentum Wednesday in their drive to enact the sweeping health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, citing near agreement on crucial issues despite persistent Republican efforts to knock them off stride. They called it a cold case in California, but more than 30 years later, the brutal murder of Mary Bennett still simmers in Montana. Anthony Johnson scored 34 of his career-high 42 points in the second half, including the Grizzlies' last 21 points in a 66-65 win over Weber State in the Big Sky tournament championship game Wednesday night. The head of the Bowl Championship Series thinks Congress "has more important things to do" than look into the way his group distributes money to college football conferences. Another staff member for Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., was on a hunting trip last November that led to citations this month against Rehberg's new state director for poaching a young bull elk and leaving the carcass behind, a Rehberg spokesman confirmed Wednesday. A longtime state Commerce Department official says the Schweitzer administration forced him to quit Friday because he responded to a Republican senator's inquiry about why $3.5 million in local government grants were being stalled. Montana Change That Works, a vocal advocate for health care reform, is running out of money and will close shop at month’s end, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. Medical marijuana's growing popularity is presenting Montana's public schools and universities with a new set of challenges and legal gray areas. [End of article]
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