Congratulations to the cardiac Cats

When a close game comes down to the wire, the Columbia Falls Wildcats know what to do. What they do usually is win. And no last-minute win was bigger than the one Saturday night in Butte, where the Cardiac Cats took the Class A state championship. They did it in their usual style: a basket with 2.7 seconds left in a tie game. The title-game triumph marked the eighth time this season that Columbia Falls has won a game decided by three or fewer points. Their championship also marked the second state title in three years for Columbia Falls and underscored the school's status as the class of the court in Flathead Valley high school basketball. Congratulations to all the Wildcats and coach Cary Finberg for bringing home another state trophy.

As expected, it was a brief NCAA tournament run for the University of Montana's men's basketball team. The 16th-seeded Grizzlies fell to No. 1 seed Washington on Thursday. But the opening-round loss shouldn't obscure UM's success this season under first-year coach Larry Krystkowiak. Winning the Big Sky tournament and simply reaching the NCAAs is quite an accomplishment and a substantial turnaround for a program that was beset by financial problems a year ago. And don't forget the Lady Griz, who capped another sterling regular season with a Big Sky championship and their own ticket to the women's NCAA tournament. The Lady Griz open tournament play Saturday against Vanderbilt. Perhaps as impressive as their performance on the basketball court is the academic achievement level for Lady Griz players. Montana is one of only three schools in the 64-team women's tournament field with a 100-percent graduation rate for its players. That compares, unfortunately, with the more than 30 schools on the men's side (including the UM men) that failed to graduate at least half of their players.

Anyone who's waited for the train at the Whitefish depot has seen firsthand the mess left behind by the pesky pigeons that have so far refused to leave their roost in the rafters of the historic building. The Stumptown Historical Society, which owns the depot, has tried everything to coerce the birds into leaving, but as the late Whitefish historian Frank Gregg said years ago: "It's like taking on the Chinese army with five men." It's not just the mess that's annoying, says historical society administrator Jill Evans. It's a health hazard. She wears a surgical mask while scraping away the bird droppings. As a last resort, the organization has hired a specialist who's skilled in eliminating pest-bird populations such as pigeons and seagulls. Let's hope he has the magic formula that can make this problem go away. The historical society, with its modest budget, has spent thousands of dollars trying to curtail the pigeon population. The Whitefish train depot is the busiest stop on the Empire Builder's route, but it's difficult for the community to put its best foot forward if visitors have to watch where they step.