Missoulian back issues from July 2009:
Seeley searches for a plan
Jul 01, 2009; ... The Missoula Consolidated Planning Board on Tuesday night kicked off what will likely be a series of meetings about the controversial Seeley Lake Regional Plan by trying to determine what exactly the role of the plan should be. More specifically, the board discussed whether particular ...
UM's Main Hall undergoes upgrades
Jul 09, 2009; ... Summers are often quiet on the University of Montana campus, but this summer is a wee bit quieter. Main Hall will undergo renovations over the next four to five months. During that time, the chimes that ring every half-hour from the clock tower will be silenced. Masonry repairs ...
Defendant pleads guilty to embezzling $800,000
Jul 10, 2009; ... A 45-year-old Missoula woman admitted stealing more than $800,000 in cash from the First National Bank of Montana, where she worked for the better part of a decade. Leslie Susan Stehr appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court and pleaded guilty to federal charges of embezzlement and tax ...
Baucus: Health care plan will be produced before end of August
Jul 11, 2009; ... HELENA - Sen. Max Baucus said Friday his Finance Committee will produce a comprehensive health reform bill before the congressional recess next month, but that it's still a long, bumpy road before a final measure is passed. He also acknowledged that even if health reform legislation ...
Schweitzer: 'Damn right I'm mad' at GM
Jul 11, 2009; ... HELENA - Tax-dollar-dependent General Motors wants to cancel its contract with the nation's only platinum and palladium mine, the Stillwater Mine in Montana's Beartooth Mountains, even as it evidently retains contracts with foreign mines. The news came out as GM emerged from bankruptcy ...
Downtown building will be tall, eco-friendly
Jul 12, 2009; ... Work will start this week on the newest - and biggest - addition to downtown Missoula: a six-story glass-and-brick office building for the longtime Missoula law firm Garlington, Lohn & Robinson. The new $14 million structure will go up at the corner of Ryman and West Broadway, in the ...
PSC commissioner wants to kill NorthWestern project
Jul 13, 2009; ... HELENA - While some state regulators say they're concerned whether a proposed NorthWestern Energy power line might end up costing Montana ratepayers, Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar is more blunt: He wants to kill the project. Molnar, R-Laurel, says the proposed 430-mile ...
Ruling doesn't change line plan
Jul 13, 2009; ... HELENA - A federal ruling that went against NorthWestern Energy on a proposed power line shouldn't change basic plans for the 430 - mile line to export, homegrown power to out-of-state markets, company officials say. But the recent order has piqued the attention of state regulators, who ...
Number of sales increase in June
Jul 14, 2009; ... Compared to other parts of the country, particularly Arizona and California, Montana doesn't have a high rate of home foreclosures. In Missoula, the real estate market has continued to be exceptionally strong, so much so that in recent years only a handful of homes somewhere between five ...
Tester to unveil forest bill
Jul 15, 2009; ... Montana Sen. Jon Tester plans to unveil a draft of his new forest land management bill this Friday in Townsend. The word "wilderness" did not appear in Tuesday's announcement of what many consider the first federal wilderness legislation to come out of the Montana congressional ...
State's 2-year colleges hail aid announcement
Jul 15, 2009; ... HELENA - Leaders of Montana two-year colleges applauded President Barack Obama's proposal Tuesday to pump $12 billion into community colleges nationally, with one calling it the most significant news in two-year education in several generations. "It looks to me like this will be quite ...
Report: Housing market not affordable
Jul 16, 2009; ... Missoula County is one of four communities in Montana where the housing market is unaffordable, according to a newly released report. A study by the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research found that the Missoula, Kalispell, Bozeman and Hamilton housing markets ...
At least six fall ill at DoubleTree Hotel
Jul 17, 2009; ... A group of conference attendees at Missoula's DoubleTree Hotel were treated at area emergency rooms for symptoms of foodborne illness Thursday evening, though it's unclear what the guests ate, where they dined or even if the diagnosis is food poisoning. Between six and eight patients - ...
New UM computer policy sparks library arrest
Jul 17, 2009; ... A 25-year-old man was arrested Wednesday night in the University of Montana's Mansfield Library for protesting a new policy that limits public access to most computers. Nicholas Stocks left the library in handcuffs after urging patrons to rebel against the change that requires ...
Some say act breaks up Forest Service
Jul 18, 2009; ... Public lands logging would see big changes if U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's Forest jobs and Recreation Act becomes law. That's either a needed compromise to break deadlocks in Montana's wilderness debate, or a step toward breaking up the U.S. Forest Service, depending on whom you talk ...
Tester unveils forest plan
Jul 18, 2009; ... TOWNSEND - The smell of sawdust hung in the air Friday as U.S. Sen. Jon Tester stood in front of a small lumber mill and announced his plans to create almost 700,000 acres of new Montana wilderness, designate a new national recreation area and mandate timber harvests on thousands of forested ...
Majority of changes small, says official
Jul 19, 2009; ... HELENA--Most Montana homeowners will see their property taxes change by only about the cost of a latte a month under the state's new reappraisal and legislation, the Revenue Department estimates. "Nearly 60 percent of homeowners will see their 2009 property taxes change by only plus or ...
Councilors suing their own city rare
Jul 19, 2009; ... The three Missoula City Council members who this month filed a lawsuit against the city took a rare step. Activists litigate. Elected officials, though, more often let others start the scrapping in court. The International Municipal Lawyers Association doesn't keep data on ...
Seeley Lake market growing by the Sunday
Jul 20, 2009; ... SEELEY LAKE--It might not be the biggest outdoor summer market in western Montana, but this welcoming lake community might just have the friendliest shopping experience in the region. What is called Littlebird's Marketplace is equal parts farmer's market and craft fair, which takes place ...
Potential for power available, but weak
Jul 20, 2009; ... Montana's geothermal energy kettle is on the stove, but don't expect any steam whistles soon. U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management offices are officially braced for geothermal leasing activity this summer. So is the state Department of Environmental Quality's geothermal ...
Vision for downtown remains blurry
Jul 20, 2009; ... As one law firm prepares to break ground in the city center on an estimated $14 million building, the Missoula Downtown Master Plan awaits finishing touches. The new Garlington Building will sit at the northeast corner of West Broadway and Ryman Street, and will rise six stories. The ...
Residents criticize historic preservation proposal
Jul 22, 2009; ... To preserve Missoula's history is one thing. But city residents from many walks of life took issue Tuesday night to the way a proposed ordinance would go about it. "The idea kind of reeks of a gated-community paradigm," one young resident said at a public hearing in City Council Chambers ...
Economy, jobs focus of forum
Jul 22, 2009; ... The local economic forecast dominated a Missoula City Council candidate forum Tuesday afternoon as incumbent representatives and their opponents weighed in on business expansion, job shortages and budget woes. Eleven council candidates attended the Missoula Business Building Community ...
Ads, rallies target Baucus
Jul 22, 2009; ... HELENA - As health care reform heats up politically in Washington, D.C., the temperature is being turned up in Montana as well, with TV ads and rallies targeting Sen. Max Baucus, who's helping craft key health legislation. Two liberal groups are sponsoring an ad urging Baucus to support ...
Playwrights getting hit by economic hard times
Jul 21, 2009; ... The Colony hasn't turned into a shantytown, but as the University of Montana's annual gathering of playwrights got under way this past weekend, it was clear the economic gloom of the nation was casting a long shadow over the proceedings. "We have had some really terrific discussions ...
Road woes all aroung Higgins
Jul 21, 2009; ... It's been little more than a month, but the road work on South Higgins Avenue is already leaving several surrounding businesses and homes in the dust - both literally and figuratively. The $600,000 construction project, which began June 17, will put a roundabout on the bustling Missoula ...
Grant awarded to improve UM emergency management
Jul 21, 2009; ... The Montana Safe Schools Center and the University of Montana Office of Public Safety have received a federal grant to improve the campus emergency response plan. The $500,000 grant was awarded to 20 colleges and universities nationwide. It will enhance, and in some parts rewrite, UM's ...
Kalispell physician: Government is problem
Jul 23, 2009; ... HELENA - On the day that President Barack Obama held a nationally televised news conference on health care reform, a Kalispell physician was in the nation's capital to deliver a much different message: Stop the reforms before Congress and keep government out of health care as much as ...
Everything's free
Jul 27, 2009; ... PABLO - Tucked in a quiet corner of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Complex is a little shop with a big heart. If you ever come here to Sylvia's Store, you're probably living on little more than hope alone. Walk in the door, and Sylvia herself will greet you with a sweet grin and, ...
Bonner houses put on market
Jul 27, 2009; ... BONNER - For the first time in more than a century, you can own your own home here. Scott Cooney, who in 2007 bought the company homes across Highway 200 from the historic lumber mill, has put them on the market. A draft nominating the houses for the National Register of Historic ...
UM address used in scam
Jul 27, 2009; ... Talk about bad luck. "They picked our return address of all the return addresses in the world," said Terri Phillips, associate director of payroll at the University of Montana Human Resources Department. On the main page of the human resources Web site is the headline, "Take no action: ...