Aaron Bolton

Whitefish-based Potter’s Field Ministry is facing new allegations that it misrepresented a program that provided food to kids in foreign countries. The ministry’s new CFO is now saying that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donations were diverted to a missionary training program.

The director of a private therapeutic treatment center for kids in northwestern Montana says he plans to appeal the state’s suspension of his license to operate.

Tuesday, state health officials removed more than two dozen kids from the Ranch for Kids in Rexford with a court order, citing “egregious, chronic, and persistent child abuse.”

In January, former Indian Health Service Doctor Stanley Weber was sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexually abusing boys on the Blackfeet reservation. The IHS has instituted new policies to try to prevent similar abuse in the future, but at least one expert is skeptical of the agency’s actions.

A Whitefish-based ministry that runs a popular burger chain is shutting its doors amid allegations that its leaders used threats of physical violence, verbal and psychological abuse to coerce workers.

Potter’s Field is now sending most of its staff and program participants home in the wake of those allegations, and locals are raising money to help some get there.

A Flathead County land use consulting company is suing the City of Whitefish, saying it violated Montana open meeting laws when it crafted its recently implemented affordable housing policy.

The Blackfeet Nation is getting some help toward its goals of reforming agriculture on the reservation to make healthy, local food more accessible. Barriers include complicated land management regulations and a lack of processing facilities.

A small wildfire that was discovered Monday on the Flathead Reservation is now being called 80 percent contained. Responders say the blaze was sparked by lightning either Sunday or Monday.

The wildfire burned just two and a half miles northwest of Arlee. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Division of Fire and local firefighters were able to contain 20 percent of the blaze shortly after responding Monday evening.

More than 500 nurses working for Kalispell Regional Healthcare will vote this week on whether to unionize. The vote will bring disagreement over staffing ratios to a head.

Park rangers rescued three people Monday evening after their car crashed down a 40-foot embankment along Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. The driver reportedly swerved away from a truck that stopped to view a bear.

Local photographer Philip Granrud was on his way to a trailhead when he arrived at the scene around 5 p.m.