Area Briefs

Utility warns

of bogus calling

Northern Lights, the utility that serves Troy and areas west of Libby, is getting reports from members who have received phone calls saying they are with the power company.

The caller states that a bill is delinquent, and it must be paid in the next few minutes to avoid having their power disconnected.  

Northern Lights officials take these reports seriously and want to remind members to be vigilant.

Northern Lights does make both personal and automated phone calls to members when the account is delinquent. However, they do not  threaten to disconnect the power in the next few minutes. Furthermore,  no personal phone calls are made after business hours or on the weekend.  

Please call the office at 263-5141 or 800-326-9594 if persons receive any calls that sound to be suspicious.

FVCC to offer

early business class

Flathead Valley Community College of Libby has responded to requests for more business classes.

The Libby campus will offer three business classes — Marketing (BMKT 225), Small Business Entrepreneurship (BMGT 210) and Intro to Social Media Marketing (BMKT 131) — this winter. The classes will start on Jan. 20 and run through May 14.

These classes are offered during lunchtime and early evenings.

A full schedule can be found at http://www.fvcc.edu/academics/course-schedules.html.

For more information, contact Greg at 293-2721.

Sheriff’s Office

seeks to ID man

BILLINGS — The Yellowstone County sheriff’s office is seeking the public’s help to identify a man whose body was found in an irrigation ditch near the Phillips 66 Refinery in Billings.

The coroner’s office says the man was white or possibly Native American in his mid-20s to late-40s. He was about 5-feet, 9-inches tall and weighed 165 pounds.

Assistant Coroner Chad Fehr tells The Billings Gazette  that all of the man’s toes on his right foot and the big toe on his left foot had been surgically removed. An autopsy determined the man drowned in mid-October.

Officials say the man was dressed in dark clothing with a black leather belt and was wearing black work boots.

Keystone now,

senator says

WASHINGTON — Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said Wednesday that the Obama administration should make a decision soon on the Keystone XL oil pipeline and that the decision should be to go ahead with the project.

“The time has come to make a decision,” she said. “And, hopefully, the right decision, which is to approve the crossing.”

The North Dakota Democrat’s comments came after a meeting Wednesday with John Baird, Canada’s foreign minister, and Gary Doer, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S.

The Canadian officials and Heitkamp agreed that the Keystone pipeline would be of great benefit to the U.S. and Canada.

The pipeline would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to refineries in the Houston area. Environmental groups have seized on the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline as a major contributor to global warming. They also worry about spills of tar sands oil, which is heavier than conventional oil.