by Boyd Hartwig

Missoula, MT. July 30, 2 p.m. – Firefighters continue to improve and construct fireline on the Packer Meadows Fire, which has not grown beyond approximately 105 acres. Firefighters are also mopping up and putting out hotspots up to 75 feet inside the fire perimeter in some areas. Firefighters have also been able to establish an excavator line near a portion of the northeast end of the perimeter. The fire remains at approximately 50 percent containment.

Firefighters are also focusing their attention on several spot fires outside the fire perimeter. Most of those spot fires are to the north of the perimeter.

The Mineral County Fair runs Thursday August 5 through Saturday, August 7 at the fairgrounds in Superior. Bull-A-Rama Thursday 7 p.m.; Southern Comfort Band Thursday 9 p.m.; Somebody's Hero (rock) Friday 4 p.m.; Copper Mountain Band Saturday 10 p.m. Cabin Fever Quilters Quilt Show Friday and Saturday at the high school. Rodeo Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. Rodeo Ticket presale at Westgate 822-4802, Cenex at 822-4848 or contact Guy Gould at 822-3097. For fair exhibit forms and more information, contact the Fair Office.

by Martin Kidston

Denny Rehberg voted Thursday against a bill to aid firefighters sickened during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Less than a month after filing a lawsuit against firefighters in Billings, Rehberg voted to deny aid to emergency workers sickened by World Trade Center dust after 9/11 (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll491.xml).

by Boyd Hartwig

Missoula, MT. July 29, 5 p.m. – The Packer Meadows Fire showed no significant growth over the last 12 hours and firefighters have been able to establish 40 percent containment of the fire. More precise Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping also established the fire at 105 acres – a reduction from the 150 that was estimated Wednesday.

Even though the fire did not grow Thursday, fire managers note that the fire has significant growth potential during burning periods given the heavy fuel loading, and high temperatures and low humidity that currently exists. The same weather conditions are expected to continue over the next 72 hours.

by Brent L. Christopherson

Wednesday evening, at approximately 6 p.m., the Missoula Rural Fire District was dispatched to a rapidly growing grass fire behind Target Range School in the McCauley Butte area. The first arriving engine company witnessed a fast moving grass fire pushed by high winds in the area because of a passing thunderstorm. Firefighters reported flame lengths of over five feet and asked that other initial response units continue for assistance.

by Joleen Tadej

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials trapped a female grizzly bear and two yearling cubs that are believed to be responsible for injuring two people and killing a Grand Rapids, Michigan man in separate attacks Wednesday morning at a national forest campground near Cooke City. Officials have reset traps and snares to capture a third yearling cub.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials are investigating the attacks at Soda Butte Campground in the Gallatin National Forest, on the northeastern border of Yellowstone National Park.

Measure will help connect rural hospitals to mental health experts

by Carolyn Bunce and Aaron Murphy

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Senator Jon Tester and his colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee have passed legislation that will help start a new regional hospital network to help rural hospitals treat mental illness.

The Senate Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Act includes funding to establish a new Outpatient Mental Health Network in western Montana.

The trucker who allegedly killed West End volunteer firefighter Jerry Parrick was arrested Saturday in New Jersey. Mineral County Attorney Shaun Donovan had obtained warrants for negligent homicide and criminal endangerment.


Caption: Volunteer first responder Jerry Parrick was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 17, 2008.

by John Q. Murray

Petty Creek Road will get 10 miles of new pavement and 1.8 miles of reconstructed gravel road, the federal government decided this month. Construction of the $12.5 million project is expected to start in 2011, with right-of-way acquisition starting immediately.

by Carol Schmidt

BOZEMAN - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is not happy with the intrusion of politics into the selection process of justices for the Supreme Court, nor does he feel that he and his fellow jurists are any "more qualified to decide cases involving the leading moral questions of the day than medical doctors, engineers or even Joe Six-Pack."

Scalia, who is the longest serving justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, told a capacity crowd of 220 Wednesday night at the Hager Auditorium at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies that his appointment by Ronald Reagan to the high court in 1986 was approved by the Senate by a vote of 98-0. "Yet, if I were to be confirmed today I might get 60 votes."