![jannettemcdonald](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/06/janette.jpg?w=300&q=75)
jannettemcdonald
![jannettemcdonald](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/06/janette.jpg?w=300&q=75)
![Boeing Carves ‘747’ In The Skies On Test Flight](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/boeing_747_8_zone_1_600x400.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Boeing Carves ‘747’ In The Skies On Test Flight
Boeing painted the numbers "7-4-7" in the skies from Minnesota to California on the final test flight for its new jumbo jet.
A map on the flight-tracking service FlightAware shows that the plane left the airport in Everett, Wash., and flew over Montana, south to California, and back north working its way across North Dakota and Minnesota, with trips as far south as New Mexico and Oklahom
![Judge Upholds Wolf Law Passed By Congress](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/gray-wolf.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Judge Upholds Wolf Law Passed By Congress
A federal judge has reluctantly ruled to uphold a congressional budget provision that removed federal protections for the Northern Rockies gray wolf outside of Wyoming.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy says that binding precedent by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requires him to rule against a constitutional challenge of the rider passed by Congress earlier this year.
![Former Coach Sentenced To Prison For Sex Crime](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/basketball.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Former Coach Sentenced To Prison For Sex Crime
A former girls' basketball coach in Missoula and Darby, who received a suspended sentence after arranging an online meeting with a 14-year-old girl, has been sentenced to prison for violating his probation.
43-year-old David Paisley was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday by District Judge Ed McLean.
![Missoula Woman Named Montana’s Poet Laureate](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/books.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Missoula Woman Named Montana’s Poet Laureate
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has named Sheryl Noethe of Missoula as Montana's poet laureate.
Noethe is the author of four books and the artistic director of the Missoula Writing Collaborative. She has won the Missoula Cultural Achievement Award, the William Stafford Prize Best Book of Poetry and the Montana Arts Council Literature Fellowship.
![Baucus Votes In Favor Of Debt Deal](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/baucus-2.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Baucus Votes In Favor Of Debt Deal
Montana’s Senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus voted yesterday in support of the bipartisan compromise to avoid default and cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion dollars. President Obama signed the compromise into law shortly after it cleared the U.S. Senate. Baucus says it’s very important that both political parties work well together.
![BPA Proposes Power Deal For Aluminum Plant](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/cfac_aerial_lg.jpg?w=980&q=75)
BPA Proposes Power Deal For Aluminum Plant
The Bonneville Power Administration is proposing an electric power deal for the shuttered Columbia Falls Aluminum Plant.
BPA spokesman Mike Hansen says that CFAC has expressed interest in the 4½-year deal, but has not committed to anything. If approved, the power deal would begin on April 1, 2012.
![Obama Signs Legislation To Avert Default](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/alg_obama_signing.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Obama Signs Legislation To Avert Default
It isn't something that could wait until tomorrow -- not without risking a government default on its debts. So, President Barack Obama has signed the emergency legislation to raise the nation's borrowing limit, a little more than an hour after it won Senate approval.
![2 Charged After Officer Assaulted At Helena Fair](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/ponies.jpg?w=980&q=75)
2 Charged After Officer Assaulted At Helena Fair
Lewis and Clark County authorities say a 15-year-old girl and her 18-year-old sister are charged with assaulting a peace officer who was trying to arrest the younger girl for absconding from juvenile probation.
Sheriff Leo Dutton says that deputies patrolling at the fair last week received a report that the 15-year-old was in the carnival area...
![Flooding Assistance Secured Through USDA Program](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/Missoula-County-Flood-Pics-007.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Flooding Assistance Secured Through USDA Program
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus says $852,000 more will be going to fix infrastructure damaged by flooding in Montana this spring.
The Montana Democrat says the funding is in addition to the $3.6 million already secured through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Emergency Watershed Protection Program.
![Americans Cut Spending For First Time In 20 Months](http://townsquare.media/site/119/files/2011/08/department_commerce.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Americans Cut Spending For First Time In 20 Months
Americans cut back on their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years and their incomes grew by the smallest amount in nine months, a troubling sign for an economy that is barely growing.