Wednesday: Gay Pride, Summer Guide, County Pay Raises

By Dan Testa, 6-17-09

Good morning; on the Beacon today, the gay pride celebration planned for Kalispell this weekend, and the relative lack of controversy it has engendered in one of the more conservative pockets of the state, bears testimony to the advances the gay community has made over the last decade, across the state and the country. The 2nd annual Beacon Summer Guide is in papers this week, with a veritable plethora of activities and destinations for the next several months. Flathead County Commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday morning to increase the salaries for the county's elected officials and employees by almost 2 percent. Whitefish High School activities director Jackie Fuller says Mark Casazza has been promoted to head boys' basketball coach. And business columnist Mark Riffey writes about the value of experience accrued by "crusty old dudes."

Planned Parenthood of Montana says the state's Children's Health Insurance Plan, or CHIP, discriminates against young women because it prohibits coverage of contraception. In Washington D.C., Forest Service officials told lawmakers water supplies for 33 million people could be endangered if millions of acres of beetle-ravaged forests in the Rocky Mountains catch fire. Montana officials are asking the federal government to declare the state's cattle free of brucellosis. A Livingston man has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for possession of a machine gun. And a Bozeman-based political group seeking electronic copies of local government contracts is not getting the response from local governments that it expected. [End of article]