Missoula And Billings Named Among Best Run Cities In America

Missoula and Billings are once more on the list of the "Best Run Cities" in the U.S., with both making the Top 40, and Missoula even cracking the Top 20.

The study, from data site "WalletHub", looks at the leadership and "operating efficiency" of 148 cities, looking at how public funds are spent using a "Quality of Service" score.

Based on that metric, Missoula made it to #16 overall, with "quality of service" at 44, and 26th for "total budget per capita." Billings was 35th overall, at 107 for "quality of service", but lifted to 22nd on budget.

Provo, Utah, was #1 overall, with Nampa, Idaho, at #2.

Marathon means money for all of Montana

The Missoula Marathon has certainly become a star attraction for the Garden City. But organizers of next week's event say it's also had a big economic impact.

Race Director Trisha Drobeck says race registrations show many returning runners use the event as the center point of a Montana vacation. 🏕️

RELATED: What Montanans Want Tourists to Know

Huge economic news from Great Falls

Great Falls is taking a huge jump into the economic future, with the Great Falls Development Alliance announcing the development of a $1-billion data center project.

The Electric reports GFDA made the joint announcement at its annual meeting yesterday, saying Atlanta-based Ardent TAC Data Centers is planning a 2-million square foot campus on a 569-acre site next to Agritech Park.

It could create up to 2000 construction jobs and 200 permanent tech jobs.

Big sentence in Bigfork murder case

A Flathead County man will spend a century in prison for one person's death in a double homicide case from 2022, but face no additional time because of the lingering questions over the death of his mother.

The Daily Interlake reports that 39-year-old Derrick James Jackson was sentenced yesterday for the murder of Stanley Grotberg, following his conviction at trial in April. The jury in the case had acquitted Jackson for the shooting death of his mother, 62-year-old Tricia Demotts.

Jackson was arrested after authorities caught him with a gun, but the jury at least partially accepted the defense's argument that Grotberg shot Demott.

Eastern Montana is dealing with hail, storm damage

Residents in Eastern Montana will be cleaning up from the severe storms of the past days for the next few weeks, after high winds, lightning, and hail ripped across the region, tipping over campers, destroying and damaging buildings, including some residential structures.

Some of the worst damage on Monday was around Shepherd, where video from storm chaser, "Conquer the Storm," shows the aftermath, with several inches of hail making the town look more winter than early summer. (clip may contain some language).

The next threat of storms will be at the end of the week, although without the severe conditions.

☔️ The main impacts look to be rain and even some high country snow.

USFS photo

Montana fire update

Fire danger is back on the rise, as we return to warmer, drier conditions for at least a couple of days. The Jericho Mountain Fire, burning west of Helena and south of MacDonald Pass, continues to be the biggest active blaze in the state. But the size has remained fairly steady over the past couple of days, right around 150 acres.

Some smaller fires continue active, including the Lost Horse Fire burning west of Hamilton in the Bitterroot, the Bone Basin incident south of Whitehall, and the Dixon Incident, near Dell in Southwest Montana, but all of those are less than 5 acres.