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As numbers of new COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to creep up - including in Montana - President Joe Biden's administration says the U.S. is headed for "a lot of unnecessary loss of life" if Congress fails to provide billions more dollars to brace for the pandemic's next wave. Yet the quest for that money is in limbo, the latest victim of election-year gridlock that's stalled or killed a host of Democratic priorities. That comes as numbers of new cases again... Full story
BILLINGS (AP) — Scientists say the amount of heat coming from Yellowstone Lake appears to be much higher than previously thought. Rob Sohn with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is leading a $5 million study of the lake. He says his team has used an underwater remote vehicle to measure “ginormous” amounts of heat flowing out of hydrothermal vents from the lake floor. Researchers are trying to gain a better understanding of how the lake’s hydrothermal system has responded to geological events and changing climate...
MISSOULA (AP) — The former chief financial officer of Vann’s Inc. was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in prison after previously pleading guilty to conspiring to defraud the employee-owned electronics and appliance retailer, causing it to file for bankruptcy in 2012. Paul Lyn Nisbet and former CEO George Leslie Manlove were charged last year with more than 200 federal counts. According to prosecutors, the two created shell corporations and had Vann’s lease property from them without the permission from the rest of the board...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A group that represents independent cattle ranchers wants more say in how beef is marketed in the United States. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America — or R-CALF USA — filed a lawsuit this spring questioning the fact that half of the $1-per-head “beef checkoff” fee is given to the privately incorporated Montana Beef Council. R-CALF argues that its producers are being forced to subsidize the council’s promotions, which do not distinguish between domestic and foreign bee...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court race could soon set a fundraising record, as new reports show a state political party has contributed to the nonpartisan race for the first time in decades. District Judge Dirk Sandefur and former University of Montana law professor Kristen Juras are competing for a Supreme Court seat to replace a retiring justice. Campaign finance reports filed Monday show funding raised by the candidates or from groups spending to influence the race is just under the $1.6 million record set in 2014. T...
KALISPELL (AP) — A Helena woman who was sexually assaulted by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee while on a work trip has filed a lawsuit, saying she has been subject to retaliation and harassment in the workplace. The woman filed a federal lawsuit on Oct. 18 against the Department of Interior, former co-worker Lawrence Lockard of Bigfork and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Lockard and two co-workers were in Glacier National Park for a SCUBA diving trip at Quartz Lake in September 2015. The woman said she awakened i...
BERLIN (AP) - Scientists at the European Space Agency downplayed the likely loss of its Mars lander, saying Thursday that a wealth of data sent back by the experimental probe would help them prepare for a future mission to the red planet. The Schiaparelli lander was designed mainly to test technology for a European robotic mission to Mars in 2020 and avoid the fate of Europe's Beagle 2 probe, which failed to deploy after landing in 2003. Data received from Schiaparelli show...
MISSOULA (AP) — The University of Montana has notified students of a reported sexual assault that occurred in a residence hall involving someone the victim knew. Students were notified Tuesday night via email and text. UM spokeswoman Paula Short said the university is working with local police as the case is investigated. Federal law requires campus officials to notify students of significant emergency or dangerous situations. Short said that university officials decided to notify students about the reported assault to ...
HELENA — A Lincoln County official says she has a constitutional right to call herself a Republican while campaigning in the county’s nonpartisan elections, and she is seeking to strike down a Montana law that bars her from doing so, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. If Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Robin Benson is successful in her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Helena, candidates in counties that hold nonpartisan elections would be able to identify themselves as “Republican” or “Democrat” on the campaig...
MISSOULA (AP) — Montana’s attorney general will issue a legal opinion on a Missoula ordinance requiring background checks for private gun sales. The Montana Department of Justice received a formal request for an opinion on the measure from Austin Knudsen, the Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives, department spokesman John Barnes said. The Missoula ordinance takes effect in late October and will require the background checks for most private gun sales or trades. The rule makes some exceptions for family transfers, h...
The Associated Press HELENA (AP) - On his Facebook page, 18-year-old Jacob Bachmeier has the usual selfies, including one cuddling his baby sister and another showing him in the great outdoors with a huge backpack. But these days, the recent high school graduate is trying to depict a more serious image, wearing suits and ties, as he makes a bid to become the youngest member of the Montana Legislature. Two weeks after graduating high school, Bachmeier beat retired English...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A 23-year-old Harlem woman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a Hays resident last fall. Arianne Latray entered her plea Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Johnston in Great Falls. She remains in custody pending a detention hearing. Her public defender, Mark Meyer, was not in the office Friday and could not be reached for comment. Federal prosecutors charge Latray with killing someone identified by the initials S.L.S. in Hays on Oct. 3. Blaine County Sheriff Glenn H... Full story
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers considered for the first time Monday whether to regulate electronic cigarettes. Sen. Diane Sands brought the bill before the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee on behalf of the Montana attorney general's office. Senate Bill 66 would include e-cigarettes, related electronic paraphernalia and nicotine under the state's definition of "tobacco products" that people under the age of 18 cannot legally access. Sands, a Democrat from Missoula, and Jon Bennion, deputy a... Full story
HELENA — Montana Republicans have voted to join a lawsuit seeking to limit their primary elections to those registered with the GOP. The Republican State Central Committee approved the motion by an 83-43 vote Saturday in Helena. They will join a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in September against the state and its open primaries. The lawsuit currently includes 10 Republican county central committees. It asks a federal judge to strike down as unconstitutional Montana laws allowing any registered voter to participate i... Full story
BILLINGS — A former Chippewa Cree tribal council member pleaded guilty Monday to embezzlement, tax evasion and other federal charges as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption within the northern Montana tribe. John "Chance" Houle entered the pleas during an appearance before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls. Morris set sentencing for March 19. The case emerged from a federal probe into the misuse of government stimulus money on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Three felony charges against H... Full story
BILLINGS (AP) — Two more defendants in a sweeping corruption investigation into Montana's Chippewa Cree tribe have agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court documents filed Monday. Former Chippewa Cree tribal council member John "Chance" Houle agreed to plead guilty to bribery, theft and obstruction of justice, court documents show. Former Chippewa Cree tribal rodeo association vice chairman Wade Christopher Colliflower agreed to plead guilty to a single count of theft and aiding and abetting theft. U... Full story
HELENA — More than 20 media groups, including The Associated Press, have asked a Montana court to hold the state House Republican Caucus in contempt for holding an unpublicized meeting in apparent violation of state open-meetings law. The Great Falls Tribune discovered the Nov. 13 Republican caucus meeting being held in the basement of a Helena hotel. The Tribune reported that about 50 lawmakers were discussing the 2015 legislative session. Montana party caucus meetings must be open to the public after courts ruled in 1998 t... Full story
HELENA — A federal judge in Montana has overturned the state's ban on gay marriage. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled Wednesday that Montana's constitutional amendment limiting marriage to between a man and a woman violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September that Idaho and Nevada's bans are unconstitutional. Montana is part of the 9th Circuit, and Morris cited the Circuit Court's opinion in his ruling. The move comes after f... Full story
HELENA — U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis hasn't had much time to introduce herself to Montana voters since becoming the Democratic nominee in August, but she's getting a boost from the party's biggest names in the final days before Tuesday's election. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Gov. Steve Bullock joined Curtis and Democratic U.S. House candidate John Lewis on a tour of the state that hit 17 towns and cities starting Thursday and ending Sunday. On Saturday, they started their day in Helena at a rally attended by about 75 p... Full story
HELENA — A former co-worker of Montana Supreme Court candidate Lawrence VanDyke is questioning whether the ex-solicitor general has the experience and temperament for a seat on the state's highest court. Montana Department of Justice Civil Division Bureau Chief Mike Black told The Associated Press he decided to publicly campaign against VanDyke after working with him during his 1 1/2 years as Republican Attorney General Tim Fox's solicitor general. "My primary reason has nothing to do with his politics," Black said. "It has t... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis has posted her first and perhaps only television ad, a major accomplishment for a candidate who entered the race in mid-August with no money. The ad features Curtis meeting with Montanans and appealing to working families with her "one of us" message. "I come from a family that's a lot like most other Montana families," Curtis says. "And the reason that I've stepped up to the plate is the chance to be the voice for working families like mine." The ad started running... Full story
HELENA — The U.S. Army War College revoked Democratic Sen. John Walsh's master's degree after an investigation completed Friday concluded he plagiarized a research paper required to graduate, a college spokeswoman said. The Carlisle, Pennsylvania, college assigned an academic review board to the probe in August after The New York Times published a story showing Walsh borrowed heavily from other sources for the paper he wrote in 2007. Walsh was pursuing a Master of Strategic Studies degree at age 47, a year before he became M... Full story
NEW YORK - With the solemn toll of a bell and a moment of silence, the nation paused this morning to mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attack at the hallowed site that has been transformed into a bustling plaza. Family and friends of those who died read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Thelma Stuart, whose husband, Walwyn Wellington Stuart Jr., 28, was a Port Authority Police Department...
Correction: HELENA (AP) — In a story Sept. 8 about tribal payday lending, The Associated Press reported erroneously how much revenue from the Chippewa Cree tribe's online lending company was received by three tribal members. It was 7 percent, not more than a third. A corrected version of the story is below: HELENA — The Chippewa Cree tribe's former health director and two former leaders of a tribe-owned online payday loan company secretly received 7 percent of the revenues of the company that has made $25 million since 201... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Montana ranks fifth in the country for employment growth, but it faces slower growth in the future as many members of an aging workforce retire, state officials said Friday. The Department of Labor and Industry's Labor Day report shows the unemployment rate has dropped steadily since 2010. At 4.6 percent, it's now the 11th lowest in the nation. "Businesses have created more than 12,000 jobs in the first part of 2014, and that's truly a record-breaking pace for our state," Gov. Steve Bullock said in presenting t... Full story
