Wednesday: School Awards, Kalispell Robbery, $3B Settlement

By Molly Priddy, 12-09-09

Good chilly morning; on the Beacon today, Elrod and Lakeside elementary schools were recently nominated for the 2010 National Blue Ribbon Award. If either or both win, it will be the second time a Flathead County school has won since 1982. The Whitefish city council decided to temporarily ban medical marijuana shops until the city figures out how to zone potential pot shops. Beacon photographer Lido Vizzutti braved the cold last weekend to put together a stellar slide show of the Columbia Falls Night of Lights celebration. An armed man robbed the Woodland Qwik Stop on Tuesday night; authorities are still searching for the suspect. The U.S. divorce rate fell for the first time since 2005, but it may have more to do with the expensive consequences instead of more love spreading through the country. Forest managers and environmentalists say a compromise agreement on the details of a Missoula timber sale will benefit bull trout and goshawks as well as loggers.

The National Transportation Safety Board said preliminary reports on a fatal plane crash near Kalispell show that neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the accident that killed Whitefish veterinarian Hugh Rogers. Hundreds of people in Billings lined up in the freezing weather for a chance to get their "Going Rogue" books signed by Sarah Palin; many described the experience well worth the sub-zero wait. Asarco, a mining and smelting company in Montana for a century, is leaving the state today as part of a $3.5 billion bankruptcy court settlement. The Obama administration says it will spend more than $3 billion to settle a long-running and contentious Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit over royalties owed to American Indians. And Montana Democrats respond to the recent criticism from three Republican state lawmakers who chastised U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and his work on national health reform. [End of article]