Weather: An ugly hazy morning -- couldn't even see the mountains at 8AM. Where did all this dust come from after only three sunny days?



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies

Wildlife: The Canadian Goslings are almost 80% of their parents' size.
Another sad bear story (Condensed from the Daily Interlake):
A bear that ransacked a kitchen in a Whitefish home last week soon after was destroyed by state bear managers, but the bear's death may have renewed interest in reducing local bear conflicts. The bear raided the kitchen on Northwoods Drive on June 15, the day before a meeting had been planned to discuss bear-conflict issues in the Whitefish area.
After attending the meeting and discussing ways of reducing bear problems, state wildlife conflict specialist Eric Wenum found the bear in a culvert trap he had set in the Northwoods Drive area. The bear was immediately killed.
"Any time a bear breaks into an occupied structure, we'll put it down," said Jim Williams, the regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "There's a line we don't want to cross, where there's too much of a risk to human safety." Williams said Wenum was able to match the bear's paws with prints found in and around the kitchen. The 2-year-old, 65-pound female had eaten cinnamon rolls and made a mess getting into a jar of honey.
Wenum said Monday the bear clearly had experience in pursuing edibles in residential areas. "You don't go from zero to breaking into houses overnight...This was a learned behavior. She had probably been doing this type of thing her whole life."
"The lesson that folks should take away from this is that no matter how much fun it is to watch bears, especially if they are in town, is if they get fed they are dead," Williams said. "They almost always end up dead, whether it's us through a management action or if they get hit by a car."
Williams and Wenum said the incident appears to have prompted interest among citizens and city leaders to reduce bear problems in and around Whitefish. Wenum plans to meet with Whitefish Public Works Director John Wilson next week to discuss ways to reduce problems in certain neighborhoods where there has been bear trouble. "Whitefish represents a unique problem because it is surrounded by prime bear habitat, both for black bears and grizzly bears," Wenum said.
Wenum hopes to introduce bear-resistant containers, one neighborhood at a time... "When you've got 50 houses on a street and half have their bird feeders out and half have their garbage containers out, getting new garbage containers doesn't really solve the problem" of attracting bears to the neighborhood, he said.
Last year, there were instances of bears raiding one garbage container after another on certain city streets. This spring, however, has been relatively quiet in terms of bear problems throughout the Flathead, Wenum and Williams said. "It's been quiet because there's been a lot of moisture that's caused good forage production," Wenum said. "Rather than going to town for food, bears have been content to pursue forest foods such as cow parsnip, sedges, grass shoots and glacier lilies, along with deer fawns and elk calves."

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site Goal: 2.7 million bowls of food this month -- keep helping them with a click a day please.

Media Watch: Frankly, my dear, I (shouldn't) give a damn!
I saw some of AFI's 100 Great Lines on ABC last night. I like triva as much as anybody, but that show was mostly just plain TRIVIAL. Buck Henry performed well enough as a commentator, on a show that had about as much substance as tissue paper, but Dennis Miller hogged 'way too much camera time. Miller used to be a comedian, but now he neither tells jokes, nor presents humorous outlooks on anything. If his own roles in movies count as evidence, he can't act either. He's also a miserable announcer -- his stint on Monday Night Football shot a hole in it's ratings that may yet prove fatal. I'll never forgive him for his egotistical intrusion onto one of my favorite TV shows.