Living

School's still out, technically, but for 50 soon-to-be sixth-graders at C.S. Porter Middle School, class has already started. The kids have been taking part in a pioneering orientation program designed to ease the sometimes-daunting transition from elementary to middle school. “This is something we're using to ease the anxiety of coming into sixth grade,” said Porter assistant principal Lisa Hendrix, who will welcome about 180 new sixth-graders next week. “It can be hard, coming from smaller schools and being mixed with kids from all these other schools.”

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

The fire that destroyed Janice and George Olk's home had barely started before their Travois Village neighbors were busy helping the couple put their lives back together.

“We were just getting ready for bed,” George said. “They think an electrical plug shorted out.”

“The bathroom lights started flickering, and I smelled rubber burning,” Janice added. “I came out of the bathroom, but couldn't get any further than the side door because of the smoke. Then the oxygen bottles started exploding.”

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

A Montana effort to improve children's health insurance coverage dovetails with a national campaign to challenge the health care status quo.

A couple of Democratic state office candidates joined Service Employees International Union members for a “Road to American Health Care” rally in front of the Missoula County Courthouse on Monday morning. While the national union crew was criticizing Republican presidential candidate John McCain, the Montana candidates stumped for the I-155 “Healthy Montana Kids” ballot initiative.

By BILL SPELTZ of the Missoulian

Watch the senior bowlers

Take away the funky rental shoes and back-straining urethane ball and bowling just wouldn't be the same.

Actually, it's better.

At least that's what the seniors say at Clark Fork Riverside retirement apartments in Missoula. They've caught Nintendo Wii bowling fever, and it's highly contagious.

It was a perfect Missoula summer evening for Zane Kuhnhenn's 12th birthday, the day he climbed his first mountain. It was a day his mom Dianna never thought she would see. Zane, 12, has myelomeningocele spina bifida, the most severe type of the birth defect that involves the incomplete development of the spinal cord or its openings. Paralyzed from the waist down, Zane must wear special orthopedic braces and shoes to walk the short distances he can manage before he tires. He has undergone 12 surgeries in his 12 years and Dianna said the future almost certainly holds others.

By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian

It's like music to the ears - affordable homes have hit the Missoula housing market.

Construction crews on Monday finished last-minute details on the Burns Street Commons, an affordable housing project in Missoula's Westside neighborhood.

The 17-unit housing complex, a mix of townhouses and condominiums at 1400 Burns St., is aimed at providing homes for medium-income working families who may not otherwise be able to afford one.

By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian

STEVENSVILLE - Lin Taylor's gate was forever open to animals in need.

She and they could use another hand now.

Taylor, 60, died unexpectedly July 31 at Community Medical Center in Missoula from internal injuries suffered a week earlier in a horseback accident on Bass Creek.
Left behind were 11 horses, 25 cats, two dogs and a passel of chickens, ducks and geese at her ranchette north of Stevensville, where Taylor, a retired U.S. Marine, lived alone since her husband Steve died in 1997.

By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

FLORENCE - There's something about Tyler Barham that's so different from his competition.

Sure, he's a country singer - and a talented one at that - and yeah, his heroes are Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks and Toby Keith.

But Barham doesn't look much like the others. At 18, he has a boy's face and a mop of sandy hair. And Barham, of Florence, is far from Nashville, unlike almost all the others he'll face off against in a nationally televised chance to land a record contract.

CORVALLIS - There is no respite from the convulsions that make Tyler Boshae a prisoner in his own body. No warning when the body-wracking tremors will erupt and launch him into a seizure of spasms. There's a polite medical name for what happens. They're called “tics.” But in reality, what happens is a brutal, raw expression of a body raging, painfully, against itself.

By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

Take a long look. And don’t look away.

Their faces stare back with curious eyes, creased eyes, expression-filled eyes. They’re the eyes of your fellow human beings. They’re eyes that have seen hard times, better times, many years and not so many years.