Kalispell Montana

A new business coming to Kalispell says it intends to hire up to 100 people during its first year of operations. More than twice that number may eventually be hired on.

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.

On Tuesday, grizzly bear managers announced that a representative from Montana’s Department of Transportation will be joining their committee in hopes of reducing a growing number of bear deaths on highways.

Three years after a successful bond request to expand schools, Kalispell Public Schools are asking voters to upgrade technology and programming at the district’s high schools for the first time in more than a decade.

Ballots for the levy were sent Monday, asking for $1.2 million to benefit 2,900 high school students taking classes at Flathead and Glacier High Schools, the Linderman Education Center, and the Agricultural Education Center.

A coalition of wildlife, conservation and outdoor recreation business groups has launched an effort to find ways to fund conservation and maintenance projects on public lands.

Eric Melson says the Montana Outdoor Heritage Project is trying to hear from 10,000 Montanans on what they value about the state’s public lands and outdoor recreation, and how those values should be funded.

An intersection west of Kalispell has clocked 50 crashes in the past 11 years. The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) says a new roundabout could bring that number down. MDT will make its case at an open house this week.