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HELENA (AP) — A Montana precious metals mining company targeted for takeover by a group that includes former Gov. Brian Schweitzer reported Wednesday that its profits dropped almost 62 percent in 2012. Stillwater Mining Company's year-end results showed the company had $55 million in net income, down from $144 million in 2011. Revenues for the Billings-based platinum and palladium miner fell 12 percent, to $800 million, as prices for the metals dropped through much of last year. Schweitzer and a New York-based hedge fund, t...
BILLINGS — Montana's bolo tie-wearing former governor is teaming up with an unlikely ally — a New York hedge fund — to seek control of a precious metals mining company that has sunk more than $500 million into projects deemed questionable in Canada and Argentina. Democrat Brian Schweitzer says he's intervening to save Stillwater Mining Co. and its 1,500 employees from the same fate that befell Montana's legendary Anaconda Co. That copper industry giant cratered after the Chilean government took over much of its foreign asset...
CROW AGENCY — Leaders of the Crow Tribe agreed Thursday to give a Wyoming mining company rights to lease an estimated 1.4 billion tons of coal beneath the tribe's land in southeastern Montana. The deal with Cloud Peak Energy involves more coal than the U.S. consumes annually, and revives stalled efforts to expand mining on the impoverished, 2.2 million-acre reservation. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File A shovel prepares to dump a load of coal into a 320-ton truck at the Black Thunder Mine in Wright, Wyo. It is aimed at tapping i...
BILLINGS (AP) — Attorneys for asbestos victims in a Montana mining town are seeking more than $4 million in fees and costs out of a legal settlement with chemical company W.R. Grace that was set up to cover the victims' ongoing medical costs. State District Judge James Wheelis has ordered a March 1 fairness hearing on the request, recently submitted by a group of lawyers who said they sunk more than 16,000 hours of work into the case over 11 years. Last year's settlement followed decades of asbestos exposure from a Grace m...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge issued an injunction Friday allowing wolf trapping and hunting to continue outside Yellowstone National Park, as lawmakers in Helena advanced a measure to loosen restrictions on killing wolves statewide. Combined, the two actions pave the way for a further ratcheting up of Montana's efforts to curb gray wolf numbers less than two years after they came off the endangered species list. Friday's decision from state District Judge Brenda Gilbert came after state wildlife commissioners attempted to c...
BILLINGS — A mining company plans to start exploratory work this spring on an estimated 400 million tons of coal beneath Montana's Crow Indian Reservation, adding to a spate of recent interest in the region's huge coal reserves despite flagging domestic demand for the fuel. Signal Peak Energy is eying a future mine on private property within the reservation's boundaries known as the Hope Ranch. AP Photo/Billings Gazette, David Grubbs, File Production at the Westmoreland Coal Mine northeast of Hardin is shown ojn May 9, 2...
DETROIT (AP) — Warnings about the zombie apocalypse may seem pretty amusing, but officials say they're dead serious about figuring out who hacked into the nation's public warning system to broadcast such messages in a handful of states. So far, people in California Michigan, Montana and New Mexico have heard the warnings about attacking zombies that have been sent over the Emergency Alert System. "Local authorities in your area have reported the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living," the me...
BILLINGS — An autopsy has confirmed a police officer's gunshot killed a 32-year-old Billings man who authorities say was reaching for a BB gun during a confrontation. Yellowstone County Deputy County Coroner Chad Fehr said Tuesday that Jason Shaw died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Police say the shot was fired by Officer Grant Morrison. Morrison confronted a combative Shaw in a residential neighborhood early Monday. He attempted to subdue Shaw with a stun gun but failed, then fired a single round after Shaw allegedly r...
BILLINGS — Investors including Montana's former governor filed formal notice of their intent to take over a mining company they say is losing money and putting its domestic operations at risk with foreign expansion pursuits, according to regulatory filings released Monday. Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the Clinton Group hedge fund are trying to oust the CEO and board of directors from Billings-based Stillwater Mining Co. In coming weeks, they'll launch a campaign to convince shareholders that CEO Frank McAllister is not w...
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Opponents of a railroad that would open Montana's coal fields to new mining have asked federal officials to halt their review of the proposal, alleging it would be much larger than disclosed with impacts stretching to the West Coast. Backers of the Tongue River Railroad say it would haul up to 20 million tons annually from a planned Arch Coal, Inc. strip mine near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. But opponents said Thursday they want to turn the spotlight on the potential for the $416 m...
BILLINGS — Federal officials say they anticipate finishing by late 2014 a risk study to guide the cleanup of a contaminated Montana mining town where hundreds have died from asbestos exposure. That comes after a panel of scientists recently backed a draft study that said even minuscule amounts of asbestos from a W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine outside Libby, Mont. can lead to lung problems. The risk study will determine when Libby's cleanup can end. It has so far has cost more than $447 million over more than a decade. E...
BILLINGS — A Stillwater Mining Co. shareholder has filed a federal class action lawsuit alleging the Montana company improperly awarded its chief executive more than 104,000 shares of company stock. The lawsuit comes as a group that includes former Gov. Brian Schweitzer wages a proxy fight to oust Stillwater's board for alleged mismanagement. Billings Attorney Thomas Towe represents the Pennsylvania woman named as a plaintiff in the case. He said Friday that stock awards in 2010 and 2012 to Stillwater Chairman and CEO F...
NYE — Shareholders of Montana's largest public company elected former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and three other outsiders to Stillwater Mining Co.'s board Thursday after alleging mismanagement by the current directors. But the shareholders also re-elected four current board members, including CEO Frank McAllister, meaning the two sides now have even numbers and will be forced to work together after an acrimonious struggle for control of the company. AP Photo/Matthew Brown This photo shows Stillwater Mining Co. Chairman and C...
BILLINGS — Wolf hunting and trapping can resume near Yellowstone National Park after a Montana judge on Wednesday blocked the state from shutting down the practice. The restraining order from Judge Nels Swandal allows hunting and trapping to resume in areas east and west of the town of Gardiner. State officials closed the gray wolf season in those areas on Dec. 10 after several wolves collared for research were killed, drawing complaints from wildlife advocates. The closures prompted a lawsuit from sporting groups and a s...
BILLINGS — An elder from Montana's Crow Indian Tribe whose family ceremoniously adopted then-Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race has died. AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File In this Dec. 2, 2011 file photo, president Barack Obama, Crow tribal elder Hartford "Sonny" Black Eagle Jr., left, and his wife Mary Black Eagle appear at the White House Tribal Nations Conference. Sonny Black Eagle, who had "adopted" then-presidential candidate Obama in a traditional cermony during the 2008 campaign, has died. Tribal o...
BILLINGS (AP) — Energy companies behind the oil boom on the Northern Plains are increasingly turning to an industrial-age workhorse — the locomotive — to move their crude to refineries across the U.S., as plans for new pipelines stall and existing lines can't keep up with demand. Delivering oil thousands of miles by rail from the heartland to refineries on the East, West and Gulf coasts costs more, but it can mean increased profits — up to $10 or more a barrel — because of higher oil prices on the coasts. That works out...
BILLINGS — State schools superintendent runner-up Sandy Welch is likely to wait until next week to request a recount in a race she narrowly lost but has pledged to challenge, her campaign manager said Tuesday. The Republican education consultant from Martin City trailed incumbent Denise Juneau by 2,231 votes in results certified Tuesday by state elections officials. State elections officials say she has until Monday to request a recount. Welch plans to use that time to line up observers to oversee ballot counting in each o...
BILLINGS — State schools superintendent runner-up Sandy Welch is likely to wait until next week to request a recount in a race she narrowly lost but has pledged to challenge, her campaign manager said Tuesday. The Republican education consultant from Martin City trailed incumbent Denise Juneau by 2,231 votes in results certified Tuesday by state elections officials. State elections officials say she has until Monday to request a recount. Welch plans to use that time to line up observers to oversee ballot counting in each o...
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 — Republican Sandy Welch dropped her request for a recount in the state schools superintendent race on Tuesday after failing to come up with $115,000 to cover the costs of the effort. Welch had pledged since the days following the Nov. 6 election to challenge her 2,231-vote defeat to incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau. AP Photo/The Daily Inter Lake, Patrick Cote Sandy Welch exits the courtroom Friday afternoon, in Flathead County District Court in Kalispell, Mont. A Flathead County judge h...
BILLINGS — Authorities expanded their search Monday for a high school teacher who's missing from an oil boom town in northeast Montana, after recovering only a single running shoe since she failed to return from a weekend run. No solid evidence has emerged to indicate 43-year-old Sherry Arnold was kidnapped, authorities said. But FBI agents were called in to assist local law enforcement in the case, and an agency spokeswoman said the possibility of abduction was under investigation. AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry M...
BILLINGS — After four days with no answers, authorities said they were considering scaling back their search for a Montana math teacher who left her home for a pre-dawn run and never returned. The only publicized clue into Sherry Arnold's disappearance Saturday was a single running shoe, found by a ditch along her running route in her hometown of Sidney. FBI agent Deborah Bertrand said late Tuesday that tips were starting to come into an automated hotline set up for the case, but would not offer any details. The FBI and l...
BILLINGS — Montana wildlife commissioners on Monday closed down the gray wolf season in some areas outside Yellowstone National Park after several collared animals used for scientific research were shot in recent weeks. The closures prohibit hunting and trapping for the predators and include areas north of the park around the town of Gardiner. AP Photo/National Park Service, Doug Smith This May 2007 photo by National Park Service photographer Doug Smith shows a Leopold wolf pack hunting a bull elk in Yellowstone National P...
BILLINGS — The replacement of 1,200 wood stoves in Libby with newer, more efficient models has improved air quality, leading to associated health improvements for children in the northwest Montana town, according to a new study. Airborne particulate pollution in Libby dropped 30 percent over the course of the four-year study. The decline was associated with fewer reports of childhood wheeze, a condition commonly linked to asthma. Other health conditions showed less or no improvement. But study author and University of M...
