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By The Montana Standard Staff - 11/18/2008

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The state commissioner of higher education says the proposed timeline for developing a community college in the Bitterroot Valley is unrealistic.

Commissioner Sheila Stearns and her staff released a 54-page report on the proposed Bitterroot Valley Community College. The report says advocates are unrealistic in expecting to start classes as early as next fall, and projections for college funding and enrollment are defective.

Public comment on the college proposal will be taken Thursday at the state Board of Regents meeting in Missoula.

Community college advocate Deborah Rogala says the report contains some misinformation that will be addressed.

___ Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com LEGISLATIVE STAFF Key legislative staffers hired HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Key staffers are being hired for administrative work during the Montana legislative session, which convenes in January.

Republican Senate President Bob Story hired Marilyn Miller of Helena to be secretary of the Senate and Nancy Clark of Ryegate to be sergeant-at-arms. Miller was chief clerk in the House of Representatives. Clark had a House role similar to that of sergeant-at-arms, whose work includes overseeing security.

Democratic House Speaker Bob Bergren hired David Hunter, of Helena, to be chief clerk of the House. Hunter's previous jobs include secretary of the Senate and state budget director. The Senate sergeant-at-arms will be Ed Tinsley, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election as a Lewis and Clark County commissioner.

SHELBY SLAYING-PLEA Man pleads guilty to role in Shelby slaying GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A Shelby man pleaded guilty just before he was to stand trial in a fatal beating.

Thirty-three-year-old Clyde Cosner and two others were accused of beating 45-year-old James Jardine last December and leaving him unconscious east of Shelby.

Cosner was scheduled for trial yesterday, but pleaded guilty Thursday in an agreement with prosecutors. It calls for them to request a sentence of 80 years for accountability to deliberate homicide and assault with a weapon, with half of the sentence then suspended.

One of the other men accused in the Jardine case is to have is trial rescheduled after Cosner's sentencing in January. The third man killed himself.

___ Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com MEDICAL MARIJUANA Woman not protected by medical marijuana permit BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — A judge says a Beaverhead County woman charged with growing marijuana was not protected by the state's medical marijuana law, because she lacked the required permit at the time of her arrest.

Summer Sutton-Day was charged with producing, possessing and intending to sell marijuana. She did not have a medical marijuana registry identification card when officers raided her home outside of Dillon on Feb. 1. Sutton-Day obtained a permit after the raid.

District Judge Loren Tucker has ruled that the evidence from the search -- which netted 96 marijuana plants -- may be used against her.

Sutton-Day was charged along with her husband, Scott Day, who died in September at age 34 after battling a debilitating disease.

___ Information from: The Montana Standard, http://www.mtstandard.com CUT BANK FIGHT AG's office says fight not racially motivated GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — The Montana attorney general concurs with the Glacier County attorney that a fight in Cut Bank was not racially motivated.

Three brothers -- Todd, Brian and Aaron Molenda -- were charged with misdemeanor assault in September after a brawl outside a bar.

Two of the alleged victims included Glacier County Commissioner Ron Rides at the Door and his wife, Michelle, who said they were trying to break up the fight. The three brothers are accused of beating Rides at the Door while calling him a "dirty Indian."

In October, County Attorney Larry Epstein asked the attorney general to review his decision that felony charges should not be filed under the state hate-crimes law. The attorney general says Rides at the Door was involved in the fight because of efforts to break it up, not because of his race.

___ Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com WOLVES WYOMING Wyoming reassigns wolf management team JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming has reassigned all but one member of the state's wolf management team because of recent federal action to put northern Rockies wolf management back under federal control.

In recent months, Wyoming had hired four people to manage wolves in the state. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this fall reversed its earlier action to transfer wolf management responsibilities to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

That action came after a lawsuit by environmental groups.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted Monday to reassign all but one of the wolf specialists to other duties.