News you can use
News you can use
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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...
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...
BILLINGS (AP) — A private conservation reserve taking shape on north-central Montana's open prairie now spans more than 300,000 acres — or almost 470 square miles — with the addition of a large parcel south of Malta that was disclosed Thursday. American Prairie Reserve manager James Barnett said the group recently bought a 22,000-acre ranch in Phillips County that will be known as Sun Prairie North. The Bozeman-based group described the purchase as an important step in its goal to piece together more than 3 million acres...
BILLINGS (AP) — Disclosures from railroads about volatile oil shipments from the Northern Plains show dozens of the trains passing weekly through Illinois and the Midwest and up to 19 a week reaching Washington state on the West Coast. The Associated Press obtained details on the shipments Tuesday under public records requests filed with state emergency officials. Details on the shipments were turned over to states under an order from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That came after fiery accidents including an oil t...
BILLINGS (AP) — Montana Republicans resolved Saturday to close their primary elections to nonparty members and adopt a runoff system for the general election, following a fierce internal debate that underscores lingering divisions within the party heading into the general election season. The proposals were adopted by a voice vote taken of roughly 200 delegates at the party's election-year convention in Billings. The changes will not go into effect automatically. They would have to be approved by the state Legislature or i...
BILLINGS (AP) — The remaining defendants in a corruption scheme on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation have avoided prison, after a judge rejected the prosecution's claims of significant financial damages. Former Crow historic preservation director Dale Old Horn, his son, Allen, and Shawn Talking Eagle Danforth were convicted of theft, fraud and other charges. The case stemmed from cultural monitoring work they did for the tribe and private companies. Prosecutors asserted the defendants gouged companies out of roughly $...
BILLINGS (AP) — A White House plan to address climate change by reducing carbon dioxide pollution would have a magnified impact in coal-rich Montana and consequences for both mining and electricity generation. Draft rules for power plants unveiled Monday call for Montana to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 21 percent by 2030. Montana has the largest coal reserves in the U.S. — almost 120 billion tons of the fuel. It's also home to the second largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi at Colstrip, a 2,1...
BILLINGS — The chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee says he wants the Obama administration to address the "dysfunction" that is hobbling Native American health care and causing rising dissatisfaction over poor and delayed care on reservations. Chairman Jon Tester has invited tribal leaders from Montana and Wyoming to a Tuesday field hearing in Billings to air grievances about the U.S. Indian Health Service — a $4.4 billion agency that provides health care for 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. The...
BILLINGS (AP) — Prosecutors say they no longer will pursue the death penalty against a Colorado man suspected of killing a teacher in eastern Montana's oil patch. Tuesday's move by Richland County Attorney Mike Weber comes after psychiatrists determined 25-year-old Michael Keith Spell is mentally disabled. Spell is charged with killing 43-year-old Sherry Arnold, who disappeared while jogging along a Sidney street in 2012. Weber cited a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said executing mentally disabled criminals c...
BILLINGS (AP) — A judge says a mentally disabled Colorado man is fit to stand trial in the killing of a Montana teacher who disappeared after she went jogging in the Bakken oil patch. District Judge Richard Simonton in a Friday ruling cited testimony from a state psychiatrist that the mental disabilities suffered by 25-year-old Michael Keith Spell are not so severe to make him incompetent. Spell is charged with the attempted kidnapping and murder of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold. The Sidney High School math teacher disappeared i...
BILLINGS — A high school teacher who served one month in prison for raping a 14-year-old student is asking the Montana Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that could send him back to prison for at least two more years. The high court in April ruled that the original sentence given to former Billings teacher Stacey Dean Rambold was illegal. Justices cited in part comments from Judge G. Todd Baugh, who said during Rambold's sentencing that the victim shared control over the situation. Under state law, children younger t...
BILLINGS — A former high school teacher who raped a 14-year-old student could be headed back to prison after the Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that his original one-month sentence was too short under state sentencing laws. The court ordered a new judge to re-sentence defendant Stacey Dean Rambold. Rambold was released after fulfilling the original sentence last fall, and is expected to remain free pending his reappearance in state District Court. (Full story in Thursday's Havre Daily News.)...
BILLINGS — Gov. Steve Bullock proposed a $45 million grant program Thursday to ease strains on water and sewer systems in eastern Montana towns that have struggled to keep pace with the demands of the fast-growing Bakken oil patch. The proposal needs approval from the 2015 Legislature. It would be paid for with state bonds — an aspect that's likely to run into opposition from some lawmakers. The Democratic governor last year vetoed a broader, Republican-sponsored measure that would have set aside money from mineral rev...
BILLINGS (AP) — An unarmed robbery suspect moved his hands six times in defiance of an officer's orders before the officer fatally shot him during a traffic stop, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John said Wednesday. St. John said the actions captured on a police dash-cam video justified the officer's decision to draw his weapon and shoot Richard Ramirez, 38, three times. "I'm upset we had a tragic end to this," St. John said. "I'm confident we did things properly." A search of the car in which Ramirez was a passenger found d...
BILLINGS (AP) - A Billings police officer shot and killed a man being sought in a recent robbery after authorities say the suspect made a sudden movement while in the back of a car that had been pulled over, authorities said Tuesday. Billings Police Chief Rich St. John identified the deceased as Richard David Ramirez, 38, of Billings. No weapon was found on Ramirez, who was shot three times just a few blocks from his home. St. John said the officer was placed on...
BILLINGS — U.S. transportation officials rebuked the oil industry Friday for not giving up information regulators say they need to gauge the danger of moving crude by rail, after several accidents highlighted the explosive properties of fuel from the booming oil shale fields on the Northern Plains. Department of Transportation officials told The Associated Press they have received only limited data on the characteristics of oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, despite requests lodged by Secretary Antony F...
BILLINGS — Federal officials say their investigations into drug crimes in the Bakken oil patch have led to the arrests of 11 people linked to a ring that trafficked methamphetamine from southern California. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the arrests in Montana and California on Friday. The defendants will face drug conspiracy charges in Montana. The charges carry potential penalties of life in prison and fines of up to $10,000,000 each upon conviction. The defendants include four Montana residents, three from Los A...
BILLING (AP) — Advocacy groups said Friday that a yearlong investigation of Montana's corrections system found "systemic" mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners, including their placement in solitary confinement for months or even years and the routine denial of needed medicines. The findings were detailed in a letter to state officials from the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana and Disability Rights Montana. The ACLU warned it will sue the state if changes aren't made. ACLU attorney Anna Conley said the problems w...
BILLINGS (AP) — Attorneys for a former Montana teacher who raped a 14-year-old student argued Friday that his 30 days in prison were enough punishment, even as a judicial oversight panel sought the censure of the judge in the case over what it called an unlawful sentence. Prosecutors want to send freed rapist Stacey Dean Rambold of Billings back to prison. They say he should have served a minimum of four years after pleading guilty last year to sexual assault without consent. In a legal brief setting up their appeal, l...
BILLINGS (AP) — BNSF Railway Co. said Thursday it intends to buy a fleet of 5,000 strengthened tank cars to haul oil and ethanol in a move that would set a higher safety standard for a fleet that's seen multiple major accidents. The voluntary step by the Texas-based subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. comes as railroads in the U.S. and Canada are under intense pressure to improve safety for hazardous materials shipments. There's been a string of recent train accidents involving oil and ethanol, punctuated...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge who said a 14-year-old rape victim appeared older than her chronological age has waived formal proceedings and asked the state Supreme Court to decide his punishment. District Judge G. Todd Baugh said in a court filing Tuesday that his actions appeared improper and failed to promote public confidence in the courts. He says he is waiving the pending proceedings before a judicial oversight panel. The Montana Judicial Standards Commission filed a complaint against the Billings judge earlier this m...
BILLINGS (AP) — At least 10 times since 2008, freight trains hauling oil across North America have derailed and spilled significant quantities of crude, with most of the accidents touching off fires or catastrophic explosions. The derailments released almost 3 million gallons of oil, nearly twice as much as the largest pipeline spill in the U.S. since at least 1986. And the deadliest wreck killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Those findings, from an Associated Press review of U.S. and Canadian accident r...
BILLINGS (AP) — A judicial oversight board wants a Montana judge disciplined for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and sentencing her rapist to just one month in prison. The Montana Judicial Standards Commission filed a formal complaint Monday with the state Supreme Court against District Judge G. Todd Baugh (baw) in Billings. The complaint was released Tuesday. It says the 72-year-old Baugh eroded public confidence in the courts with his statements and the "overly lenient" prison s...
BILLINGS (AP) — An FBI spokesman says the agency is considering permanent agents in the Bakken oil patch of Montana and North Dakota as the drilling boom drives crime rates higher. That's sparked a dispute between the states' U.S. senators over where the agents should be located. Crime on both sides of the border has spiked as thousands of new workers arrive with drug traffickers following in their wake. Since July, two agents and an intelligence specialist have been stationed in Sidney, Mont. North Dakota Sens. Heidi H...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge under fire for commenting that a 14-year-old student rape victim appeared "older than her chronological age" said Tuesday that he deserves to be censured but not removed from the bench for the remarks. District Judge G. Todd Baugh told The Associated Press the comments violated judicial ethics rules by failing to promote public confidence in the courts. But he repeated his prior assertions that his comments did not factor into the 30-day sentence he handed down in the case, and said he has no p...
