The anniversary comes as wildlife officials in the northern Rockies are considering lifting protections for hundreds of grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park, a move environmental groups decry as short-sighted. The grizzlies were first granted federal protections in 1975 after they had been wiped out across much of their historical range.

They have since made a slow comeback, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to advance plans on whether to take more than 700 bears across the Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming off the threatened-species list.

A decision is expected in January. It would open the door for limited sport hunting of the bears in the area, though protections for their habitat would remain in place.

 MORE>>>USA Today

Three days before Christmas 1913, Anna Held, one of the most famous actresses of her day, stepped out of her special train in Billings and began hawking The Billings Gazette.

“Paper mister,” the Polish-born star all but commanded as she strode through downtown businesses, accepting any amount dazzled customers wanted to pay. Chorus girls from her comic opera “Mademoiselle Baby” followed in her wake with great stacks of newspapers.

In the hour before the matinee at the Babcock Theater, the “vivacious, the queenly, the favorite of cosmopolitan audiences,” had sold $200 worth — a princely sum 100 years ago.

Proceeds went to the Big Brother Christmas Tree at the Elks Club. Every cent would benefit the community, especially hundreds of poor swept into the city in a spectacular period of growth.

After her evening performance, Held and her entourage waded into the crowded theater and sold another $100 worth of the evening edition.

The millionaire actress, famous for a vast and stylish wardrobe that included a $20,000 Russian sable coat, had recently split from her common-law relationship with legendary Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. Held has been credited with concocting the showgirl format that became the Ziegfeld Follies.

MORE>>>Billings Gazette

A man reported that someone got into his unlocked car and turned the lights on, draining the battery; a woman had questions about a man who wanted to trade a gun for a puppy; a caller wanted to know how to get his mother to stop harassing him.

In this mountain town (pop. 39,000), police officers' duties extend beyond the daily rounds and reports. They provide fodder for one of the hottest books in town, "We Don't Make This Stuff Up: The Very Best of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle Police Reports."

While some newspapers are banking on the Internet and video to move their business into the 21st century, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle is taking a different tack: turning its police blotter into literature. After more than 100 years of printing, the local broadsheet curates the confusion and mishaps of everyday life and puts these things into a $10 paperback whose second edition is hot off the presses.

MORE>>>Wall Street Journal

A woman on Windsong Way complained about someone from Jamaica who had called her numerous times that morning.

9:29 a.m. A resident of ZackJell Place reported that the neighbor’s miniature horses were on the loose again and eating his hay.

10:56 a.m. A woman on Stoneridge Drive came home to find a strange man in maroon snow pants standing next to her garage with a shovel. He left on foot and was last seen headed toward Foys Lake Road.

MORE>>>Flathead Beacon

It’s called “the ultimate food fight,” and you’d be hard-pressed to imagine a scene farther from the essence of uptown P-Burg.

In early November, with Food Network cameras cranking, Brent Schreyer and his UpNSmokin Barbecue team found themselves under one of glitziest and glitteriest features of Las Vegas.

The overhead Visa Vision at the west end of Fremont Street – 12 million LED lamps illuminating the world’s largest electric sign that stretches the length of five football fields over the street – is the lead attribute of Sin City’s Fremont Street Experience.

The World Food Championships, in their second year, draw the world’s best from qualifying competitions to cook in seven categories. Besides barbecue there are contests over four days in chili, burgers, desserts, sandwiches, bacon, recipes, as well as a chef challenge. The overall winner on Sunday is named the World Food Champion.

MORE>>>The Missoulian

Audubon's Christmas Bird Count, an annual tradition that excites families, communities, and the conservation movement, is here again. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world. The tradition began 114 years ago and is a long-standing program of Audubon, including in Montana.

The CBC is an early-wis count every bird they see or hear during one day in a designated 15-mile diameter circle.

This year's CBC will be conducted between December 14, 2013 and January 5, 2014. Details about exactly where, when and how to participate will be posted below

MORE>>>Montana Audubon

Yellowstone National Park will open to the public for the winter season as scheduled on December 15.

Beginning at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning, visitors will be able to travel to the park’s interior roads on commercially guided snowmobiles or snowcoaches from the North, West and South Entrances.  Travel through the park’s East Entrance over Sylvan Pass is scheduled to begin December 22. 

The road from the park’s North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana, through Mammoth Hot Springs and on to Cooke City, Montana, outside the park’s Northeast Entrance is open to wheeled vehicle travel all year.

MORE>>>NBC/KTVM