Andy Viano

12:58 a.m. A man threatened to shoot a kid if he threw any more rocks at his house. 6:05 a.m. A suspicious man was carrying a bag of tools. 9:32 a.m. Someone had video of a man throwing dog poop. 10:24 a.m. A Chihuahua in a camouflage sweater was barking. 12:50 p.m. A house and […]

The 68-year-old woman who drove into a 6-year-old girl as she exited her school bus on U.S. Highway 93 in November 2019 has entered an Alford plea after reaching an agreement with prosecutors and the victim’s family through criminal mediation. Patricia Ann Berliner of Fortine was charged last April…

A retired Kalispell Police Department sergeant has been charged and a sergeant with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office has been disciplined after the two men were involved in a violent crash in late November, not long after they were both drinking at a Kalispell brewery. Anthony John McDonnell, who retired from the Kalispell Police Department […]

1:22 a.m. Two people at a pond were sent away. 7:37 a.m. Gas pump video screens were punched. 7:59 a.m. Someone was accused of driving on the sidewalk. 9 a.m. A dispatcher returned an abandoned 911 call and was told “all customer service representatives are busy helping other customers.” 9:56 a.m. A wallet with minimal […]

A “large quantity meth dealer” with ties to a white supremacist prison gang, and who also shot and killed a man in Flathead County last year, has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. Leon Paul Kavis Jr., 36, was apprehended by the FBI in Missoula on Nov. 18 and […]

An officer with the Kalispell Police Department (KPD) fatally shot an unidentified man inside a south Kalispell business Friday night. According to a press release issued by KPD, officers were called to the area near U.S. Highway 93 and Cemetery Road just before 10 p.m. after someone reported a vehicle was intentionally ramming other vehicles. […]

The former head of maintenance at Stillwater Christian School and a one-time volunteer with the South Kalispell Fire Department and Flathead County Sheriff’s Posse has been charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting an underage girl beginning when she was 13 years old. William Henley Warricks, 45, was charged with felony sexual intercourse without consent on Monday. […]

9:15 a.m. A Kila man had questions about the new marijuana laws and owning firearms. 9:51 a.m. A man’s wife saw a car-sized drone flying around. 10:11 a.m. Horse-care items were stolen. 11:05 a.m. A man who “took great pleasure” in getting a scammer to admit to her ruse just had to tell law enforcem…

A 32-year-old man on the lam after being accused of second-degree murder in Saskatchewan is one of three people charged in U.S. District Court following a lengthy high-speed chase on Saturday that began just south of the international border in Lincoln County and ended near Whitefish. Afrah Ahmed Adbi is in custody at the Flathead […]

Law enforcement professionals and volunteer dog handlers are teaming up to improve the way Flathead County’s canines are trained, deployed and funded through a new nonprofit organization. The Flathead K-9 Foundation is awaiting formal approval of its application to form a 501(c)3 and begin raising funds, but the small group of dog handlers who came […]

In March, there was fear. In July, it was relief. Then came anger in the fall. And now, with a vaccine on the way and the odds increasing that the summer of 2021 will be more like 2019 and less like this past year, there is, cautiously, a bit of optimism among business owners who […]

A four-term Kalispell state representative has been tabbed by incoming Attorney General Austin Knudsen to lead the Montana Highway Patrol (MHP), Knudsen’s campaign announced on Wednesday. Steve Lavin has spent 28 years with MHP, ascending to the rank of major. He will receive a promotion to colonel and the top job in the department when […]

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) is investigating the depths of a Kalispell woman’s alleged multi-year scheme to defraud dozens if not hundreds of friends, family members and donors by faking a bout with a life-threatening cancer, while some who gave wonder how those closest to the woman could not have uncovered the hoax sooner. […]

Retired Flathead County District Court judge and former Flathead County Attorney Ted Lympus died at his Missoula home on Dec. 3, according to an obituary published in the Missoulian. Lympus, 77, was a mainstay in the Flathead County judicial system for parts of five decades, beginning as a prosecutor in the 1970s and concluding with […]

A man who was arrested but not charged in connection with a fatal shooting on Trumble Creek Road near Kalispell in September is in federal custody after investigators connected him to a drug distribution ring in the Flathead Valley and a notorious white supremacist prison gang. Leon Paul Kavis Jr., 36, was arrested in Missoula […]

Flathead County’s top public health official will leave the job when her contract expires at the end of the year, writing in a scathing letter of resignation that the county commissioners and board of health have failed to protect the public during the COVID-19 pandemic and that county leaders are more motivated by “ideological biases” […]

The Flathead Beacon is a weekly print and daily online news source serving Western Montana’s Flathead Valley.

12:46 a.m. A barn door was open. 6:03 a.m. A Kalispell dog dialed 911. 7:46 a.m. A man who has been trying to get in touch with deputies for two years about a “murder” was losing his patience. 8:44 a.m. A cat bit its owner. 8:44 a.m. A cow walked through a hole in a […]

The residents of Lost Loon Lake have officially shed the lake’s old racist name after a Flathead County District Court judge ruled Tuesday to grant a petition filed by more than half of the lakeshore property owners. Judge Dan Wilson granted the Petition for Change of Watercourse Name and wrote, “the public record shall reflect […]

A transient man has been arrested and charged with felony assault on a minor after he allegedly assaulted and threatened a teenage girl outside a home in Kalispell on Oct. 10, then fired bear spray at himself inside a crowded room. According to a press release issued by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and charging […]