Missoula County backed Sam Forstag by more than two to one, and Montana’s western U.S. House seat is still not called.

Unofficial county numbers as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday: Forstag 36,283, Aaron Flint 14,212. District-wide the gap is 6,412 votes. Forstag declared victory and Flint conceded — but the Associated Press has not called the race, and we do not call races.

Missoula split from the state on the Senate, backing independent Seth Bodnar at 61.1% in a contest Republican Kurt Alme won statewide, and said yes to all three ballot measures by roughly 80%. The closest result on the whole Missoula ballot was a school bond trailing by 26 votes.

Not one of Missoula County’s 65 precincts is listed as fully reported. We go through every contest — and the canvass that makes all of it official is November 17.

A family business since 1905 — and part of Missoula since 1981. Flying S Title & Escrow has spent more than a century at the closing table, and it is still run by the founder’s grandson.

The company keeps its own title plant, with direct access to local property records going back to the original land patents, and runs a monthly training series for agents on everything from water rights to fraud prevention.

“Every transaction represents a family, a dream, a business, or a new beginning,” the team says.

Meet the Missoula team behind the moment the keys change hands.

Missoula County’s data center study reaches the Consolidated Land Use Board on Wednesday at 6 p.m. It is the first public step since commissioners paused new data centers in July, days after a proposed facility in Bonner collapsed under public opposition.

The draft does not recommend a ban — state law makes that hard. It recommends rewriting the county’s zoning rules, pushing at NorthWestern Energy’s rate proceeding so a very large customer’s costs do not land on everyone else’s bill, taking statewide standards to the 2027 Legislature, and deciding on a second year of the moratorium after that.

The commissioners take it up on November 12. The current pause runs to July 8, 2027. Here is what the study actually says, and why a land-use argument keeps turning into an electricity-bill argument.

Kratom is off the shelves at Missoula grocery stores, gas stations and cafés from this week. The county health department gave licensed retail food businesses until November 2 to clear it out, and inspectors now check for it during routine inspections.

It is not a new law. It is the food code the county already enforces, which says food has to be safe and unadulterated — and the FDA treats kratom added to food or drink as an unsafe additive. The rule covers licensed food establishments only, not smoke shops or dispensaries.

When county staff checked 23 retail food businesses in late August, 12 of them were selling kratom. Here is what the notice says, what it does not cover, and the number to call if you run one of those businesses.

Missoula’s Franklin Crossing won $8.5 million in affordable housing tax credits from the Montana Board of Housing, which ranked it the top project in a competitive round.

The 8-acre site in the North MRL Triangle is planned for about 210 affordable rentals for households earning 30% to 70% of area median income, plus market-rate townhomes.

The city donated the land, and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency has committed $9.7 million. Final city approvals are expected around December, with a groundbreaking targeted for summer 2027.

Here’s who’s building it, how the roughly $68 million in costs is covered by more than a dozen funding sources, and what still has to happen before construction.

Missoula has lost two taco restaurants inside a month. Taco Sano’s last day on the Hip Strip was Friday, October 30.

The shop said why itself: the building “has been slated for demolition more than once in the last few years”, and a new lease, with CAM fees and unpredictable food costs, “just didn’t make sense.”

A few weeks earlier Taco Del Sol announced it was closing too. Founder Dave Beaton, after almost thirty years downtown: “You kind of know when it’s your time.”

One was pushed out by a building; the other chose its moment. We look at what CAM fees actually are, and why they decide more small-restaurant closures than the headlines suggest.

Milo has been waiting at the Humane Society of Western Montana since February. He is about a year old, a 42-pound mixed breed, and in the kennel he was too frightened of people to let anyone touch him.

Two weeks in foster with a staff member changed that. They describe a completely different dog — one who likes the couch as much as the yard.

What he needs is specific: a confident resident dog, a securely fenced yard, and patience. He is crate trained and fine with cats, but he is not leash-ready and has not yet warmed to every person in his foster home.

He has already shown he changes in the right house. He just needs the house.

Save Our Doggy is proudly sponsored by Aragon & Partners.

Nobody warns you that the first month with a puppy is mostly about floors. The good news: house-training is one of the few parts of dog ownership with a real consensus behind it, and it usually takes four to six months.

The routine does most of the work. Out at least every two hours, and after every nap, meal and play session — a puppy can hold on for roughly one hour per month of age, and that is a ceiling, not a target.

We cover crate sizing and the age-in-months-plus-one-hour limit, why the door should stay open until the puppy chooses to go in, what to do about accidents, and the one rule every source agrees on: no punishment, no scolding, no rubbing noses in anything.

And the thing worth knowing: when a dog who was house-trained suddenly is not, that is a vet visit, not a training problem.

Brooks Davis caught nine passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns at Eastern Washington on Saturday, and Montana won 42–33. Two of the three were catches at the line of scrimmage that he took 75 and 61 yards; the third was a 51-yard Hail Mary as the first half expired.

On Monday he swept the weekly awards — FCS National Offensive Player of the Week and Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week. He is now at 1,145 receiving yards, the most of any receiver in Division I football, FBS included.

The Griz are 6–3, 4–2 in conference, and host Portland State on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the Native American Heritage Game. Then Idaho State at home, then Bozeman for the 125th Brawl of the Wild.

Two Missoula teams are still alive in the Class AA playoffs, and both play Friday. Sentinel hosts Gallatin at 6 p.m.; Big Sky is at Great Falls CMR at 7 p.m.

Big Sky earned it with a 35–14 first-round win over Billings Skyview on October 30. Gallatin comes in off a 35–14 win over Helena the same night.

Winners go to the semifinals on November 13, with the championship on November 20. Here is the full bracket and every first-round result.

Your Google listing is your shop window, and the photo at the top of it is often one a customer took in a hurry. In November, when people are deciding where to spend, that picture is doing a lot of work.

Worth knowing first: you can set a cover photo, but Google does not guarantee it appears first — if yours is low quality, a customer’s photo can be shown instead. So the job is giving Google better material, not flipping a switch.

Three things worth ten minutes: look at your listing logged out on a phone, add a current exterior shot so people recognise the door, and add what you actually sell this month.