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AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer Lights from a fire truck streak across a burning hillside in a time exposure as the Dahl fire burns, south of Roundup,overnight Wednesday. ROUNDUP — Wildfires that have torched more than 200 square miles and burned dozens of homes in southeast Montana spread farther Wednesday, triggering another round of evacuations after a blaze south of Roundup jumped a perimeter line built by firefighters. The growing, wind-driven Dahl fire, which has burned more than 60 homes by one estimate, f...
ROUDUP — Firefighters battling an 18,700-acre wildfire south of Roundup got a break in the weather Thursday, while residents forced to leave their homes grew increasingly frustrated that they aren't allowed to return to see if they have anything left. Officials said the fire has burned dozens of residences since it was reported on Tuesday, though a precise tally was not available. Fire officials planned to survey the area Thursday. After the flames jumped its southern perimeter on Wednesday, firefighters were able to keep t...
BILLINGS — Family and friends of one of the two suspects in a brutal Montana kidnapping described him as an illiterate young father who was eager for work when he fell under the sway of a convicted criminal promising lucrative work in the Bakken oil fields. Court documents filed by the prosecutor in the case indicate 22-year-old Michael Spell of Parachute, Colo., has confessed to his role in the crack-fueled abduction and killing of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Mont. Spell and co-defendant Lester Van Waters Jr., 4...
BILLINGS — Prosecutors on Friday filed murder charges and said they intend to seek the death penalty against two men accused of kidnapping a Montana teacher whose body was discovered after two months of searching. Lester Van Waters Jr., 48, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, are accused of grabbing Sherry Arnold off a street in Sidney, Mont., on Jan. 7 while she was on a pre-dawn run. Waters and Spell — two men from Parachute, Colo., who had arrived looking for work in oil fields — were arrested about a week after Arnold's disap...
BILLINGS — After a Lewistown judge slapped his female law clerk's butt with a folder, the clerk first sued her boss. Now she wants his job. Attorney Britt Long characterizes her election bid to replace Judge E. Wayne Phillips on the bench in Montana's 10th Judicial District as a battle against an entrenched status quo that doesn't want her to speak up. AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer District Judge Wayne Phillips admonishes supporters in December after they cheered when he released Barry Beach from prison after t...
BILLING — A Nebraska insurance company has filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana to recover $16 million that was used primarily to cover a sweeping financial settlement of asbestos-related claims from residents of the Superfund town of Libby. The lawsuit from the Omaha-based National Indemnity Co. asks a Montana judge to order the return of any payments in the settlement that fell outside the state's insurance policy. Most of the money from National Indemnity went toward a $43 million settlement in September with m...
BILLLINGS — Booming oil production across a wide expanse of the Northern Plains is forcing law enforcement from the U.S. and Canada to gird for a spike in crimes ranging from drug trafficking and gun offenses to prostitution. Officials say up to 30,000 workers could descend on the Bakken oil fields of Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan in the next few years. The recent kidnapping and brutal murder of Sidney teacher Sherry Arnold has drawn more attention to the changes brought on by the rapid pace of drilling. In the w...
BILLLINGS — Booming oil production across a wide expanse of the Northern Plains is forcing law enforcement from the U.S. and Canada to gird for a spike in crimes ranging from drug trafficking and gun offenses to prostitution. Officials say up to 30,000 workers could descend on the Bakken oil fields of Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan in the next few years. The recent kidnapping and brutal murder of Sidney teacher Sherry Arnold has drawn more attention to the changes brought on by the rapid pace of drilling. In the w...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge granted a restraining order Thursday blocking further relocations of Yellowstone National Park bison following objections from ranchers and property rights groups. State District Judge John McKeon's order came after Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration transferred 62 Yellowstone bison to the Fort Peck Reservation on Monday. AP Photo/Ted Wood,TheStoryGroup This image provided by Ted Wood shows Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer speaking to members of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribe Wednesday on t...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Montana judge has granted a restraining order that blocks further relocations of Yellowstone National Park bison following objections from ranchers and property rights groups. Thursday's order comes after Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration transferred 62 Yellowstone bison to the Fort Peck Reservation earlier this week. The ruling presents another stumbling block in efforts by tribes and agencies to reintroduce bison to parts of their former range. Half the Fort Peck animals were to be transported from a...
BILLINGS — A body found in North Dakota was identified Thursday as a missing Montana teacher kidnapped in January. The identification was made after the body of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold was taken to the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula. Arnold was grabbed off a Sidney, Mont., street on Jan 7 while jogging at the edge of town. Michael Spell, 22, and Lester Van Waters Jr., 48, were charged with aggravated kidnapping in the case and await trial. The FBI said no other details will be released at this time. Arnold's body w...
BILLINGS — Authorities said Wednesday they believe a body found outside Williston, N.D., is that of a missing Sidney high school math teacher who disappeared Jan. 7 during a morning run. Sidney assistant police chief Robert Burnison said the body, likely that of Sherry Arnold, is being sent to the state medical lab in Missoula for further identification. Authorities told The Associated Press the body had been buried. The recovery effort started Tuesday in western North Dakota about 50 miles from Sidney and the body was f...
BILLINGS — Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will keep their threatened status for at least the next two to three years, as wildlife officials said Friday they plan to bolster their case that the species has recovered. Federal and state officials insist there are enough bears in the three-state Yellowstone region to guard against a reversal of the decades-long effort to bring them back from near-extermination. That was put in doubt last fall, when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down an a...
BILLINGS — Sixty-four bison from Yellowstone National Park were shipped almost 500 miles to northeast Montana's Fort Peck Reservation on Monday, under a long-stalled relocation initiative meant to repopulate parts of the West with the iconic animals. They arrived Monday night greeted by a crowd of dozens of tribal members whose flashing cameras spooked some of the animals, while others charged straight into the holding pen. A yearling bison died during the trip, leaving 63, said Fort Peck Fish and Game Director Robert M...
BILLINGS — Sixty-five bison from Yellowstone National Park are due to arrive at the Fort Peck Reservation on Monday under a long-stalled initiative to repopulate parts of the West with the iconic animals. Robert Magnan with the Fort Peck Fish and Game Department says tribal and state officials signed an agreement late Friday allowing the transfer to take place. Magnan says the date of the shipment was kept quiet until it was underway to avoid a court injunction. A group of northeastern Montana landowners and property g...
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File An oil spill crew worker for Oil Mop Emergency Response stepping out of a ring of absorbent pads along a flood plain of the Yellowstone River on July 11, where oil was found collected, near Laurel. Exxon Mobil agreed Thursday to pay the state of Montana $1.6 million in penalties over water pollution caused by this pipeline break last summer that fouled dozens of miles of shoreline along the scenic Yellowstone River, a state official said. BILLINGS (AP) — Exxon Mobil agreed Thursday to pay the s...
BILLINGS — Authorities on Wednesday started extradition procedures against two men held in North Dakota in the kidnapping of a Montana teacher who is presumed dead. Richland County Attorney Mike Weber said he expects a hearing within the next 30 days on whether to extradite 47-year-old Lester Vann Waters Jr. and 22-year-old Michael Keith Spell. The two requested the hearing in an initial court appearance Tuesday in Williston, N.D. The pair face aggravated kidnapping charges in the Jan. 7 disappearance of Sherry Arnold, a 4...
BILLINGS — An affidavit filed in the kidnapping of a Montana school teacher describes a crack-fueled, seemingly random abduction of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold, who was allegedly choked to death and then buried in a shallow grave on a North Dakota farmstead. The affidavit filed Friday by Richland County prosecutor Mike Weber offers the first details of what authorities believe happened to Arnold after she went missing during a morning run on Jan. 7. It is based largely on the alleged confession of Michael Spell, a suspect in t...
SIDNEY (AP) — Two men charged in the kidnapping of a high school math teacher were extradited Tuesday to Montana, where they appeared in court less than a mile from where Sherry Arnold disappeared during her morning run. Sidney City Judge Gregory Mohr told Lester Van Waters, 47, and Michael Spell, 22, that they could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated kidnapping. The judge set a Feb. 28 appearance in Montana district court. AP Photo/Elijah Nouvelage Lester Van Waters Jr., one of two suspects charged with a...
BILLINGS — A judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging the state Land Board's lease of 587 million tons of publicly-owned coal in southeastern Montana. Conservation groups had argued that further environmental studies were needed and that the lease sale would make mining inevitable if allowed to stand. But District Judge Joe Hegel says the state did not give up its discretion to halt mining at a later date when it leased the coal to St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc. for $86 million in 2010. Hegel said in his Feb. 3 ruling that t...
BILLINGS — Special response teams to handle sexual assaults are being established on six Montana reservations in a bid to curb high rates of rape and other abuses against American Indians, U.S. Justice Department officials announced Wednesday. The first-of-its kind pilot program will set up the joint federal-tribal teams to counsel victims and pursue arrests and courtroom justice for perpetrators of sexual abuse. Federal statistics indicate Indian and Alaska Native women are raped at a higher rate than any other race, with o...
BILLINGS — Hardin officials said Friday they are considering relinquishing control of a $27 million jail that was built with the promise of spurring economic development but instead became a source of frustration and embarrassment for the southeastern Montana city. The 464-bed jail has sat vacant since it was built five years ago under the direction of Hardin's Two Rivers Authority. With no short-term prospects for finding inmates, Two Rivers Executive Director Jeffrey McDowell said the title to the jail could be turned o...
BILLINGS (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. is working with government agencies on a plan to speed up the response to oil spills along Montana's upper Yellowstone River, after a major spill last year left local officials scrambling to deal with an ill-defined threat, state and federal officials said. The goal is to provide enough training and resources to take action on major pipeline, refinery or railway spills within 24 hours, or before outside help can arrive. Exxon would pay to plan and possibly equip the stepped-up response u...
BILLINGS — Two fast-moving wildfires triggered new evacuations in southeastern Montana on Monday as firefighters battled a potent combination of lightning strikes, dry weather and flame-whipping winds. The Horse Creek fire south of Hysham quickly grew from 3 to 9 square miles overnight. It was the largest of more than a dozen new fires sparked by weekend lightning strikes. Most were quickly contained, but residents along the Horse Creek and Sarpy Creek basins in Treasure County were evacuated, said Paula Short with the s...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Lewistown judge who freed convicted killer Barry Beach and got sued by his clerk said Friday he is retiring from the bench. Judge Wayne Phillips, 63, said he wants to leave the judiciary after two terms before his performance deteriorates. "A job of district judge is very wearing, and I'm worn out," Phillips said. "I feel like I'm still at the peak of my capacity, so it really is the best thing for the citizens of the district that I leave at the top of my game." (AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer) This...
