Whitefish City Council on Tuesday will consider a large-scale mixed-used development straddling Big Mountain Road. Developers behind the Mountain Gateway project are requesting a planned unit development and conditional zoning for the property. The council is meeting on Tuesday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday. The meeting begins at 7:10 Read More…

On Tuesday, Jan. 11, Smith Valley School in Batavia announced staff shortages due to the rise in COVID-19 cases were forcing the school to close for the remainder of the week, the first pandemic-related school closure of the new year. Meanwhile, Kalispell Public Schools (KPS) Superintendent Micah Hill dispelled rumors circulating this week that administrators Read More…

A lawsuit has been filed against the City of Whitefish regarding the recent denial of a proposed hotel just off Highway 93 on the south end of town. Rimrock Companies, the Florida-based company that proposed the project, filed a lawsuit last month in Flathead County District Court claiming the city unlawfully denied the proposal. It’s Read More…

BOZEMAN, Mont. – A staffing shortage of substitute teachers mixed with COVID concerns and full-time teachers calling out sick is affecting some of the biggest school districts in Montana. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year in September, human resource directors at some of the biggest school districts across the state from Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Read More…

WEST GLACIER — Retiring Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow has a sense of satisfaction for what his staff accomplished during his eight-year assignment. But he also looks ahead to the challenges his successors are going to face in the years to come. If there’s a development historians will notice about the past decade in Read More…

A woman with four previous DUIs is once again accused of driving impaired, this time allegedly plowing through a ditch and smashing a snowman in front of multiple witnesses. Christine Lois Simmons, 73, was booked into the Flathead County Detention Center on Christmas Eve, charged with felony DUI. READ FULL STORY

GREAT FALLS — Montana’s minimum wage will increase from $8.75 per hour to $9.20 per hour beginning on Saturday, January 1, 2022 – an increase of 45 cents per hour. Montana law requires that the minimum wage be adjusted annually based on changes in inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from Read More…

HELENA, Mont. – The closing date for public comment on the 2022/2023 hunting regulation proposals has been extended from Jan. 14 to Jan. 21. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) says this is a second opportunity to provide input on the draft regulation proposals. Biologists with FWP offered regulations proposals based on science that combine some Read More…

BILLINGS – Senator Steve Daines honored Will James Middle School teacher Hunter Jones, for his nearly two decades of supporting Montana veterans. A release from the office of the senator says Jones also makes sure to teach his students about those who serve our country and how to honor them. In September, Jones was recognized Read More…

A Flathead Valley woman accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from donors in an alleged cancer fraud scheme has been charged in Flathead County District Court. Amy Elizabeth Glanville, 46, of Kalispell, is charged with one felony count of theft. She faces a maximum of 10 years in the Montana State Prison. A Read More…

TOWNSEND — In a press release sent Friday afternoon, Prickly Pear Land Trust (PPLT) says they acquired thousands of acres of farmland that will be added to its protected properties list. The Tri G River Ranch between Townsend and Toston is the second conservation easement in Broadwater County that PPLT has acquired. The easement will Read More…

On Monday afternoon, a Cascade County District judge sentenced a Great Falls woman for mitigated deliberate homicide for killing her mother in 2017. Pamela Jean Courtnage, 49, will spend 40 years committed to the care of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services at the Montana State Hospital (MSH) in Warm Springs. She was Read More…

The interim leader of Flathead County’s ImagineIF public library system resigned on Thursday, citing interference by a board of trustees that has devalued the institution by slashing salaries while entertaining motions to censor certain books and materials, particularly those that portray characters who are gay, queer or transgender. After serving in the director position for just four Read More…