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Gov. Greg Gianforte today declared a statewide disaster due to severe flooding in Carbon, Park, and Stillwater counties, as well as flood warnings in other parts of the state. “With rapid snowmelt and recent heavy rains, communities in south-central Montana are experiencing severe flooding that is destroying homes, washing away roads and bridges, and leaving Montanans without power and water services,” Gianforte said in a press release. “Today’s disaster declaration will help impacted communities get back on their feet as...
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations has advised people that while the Port of Sweetgrass remains open, Canadian Border Services Agency has closed the Coutts, Alberta, Port of Entry north of Shelby to inbound traffic. The closure is due to truckers protesting Canadian measures on COVID-19, which is blocking the highway north of Coutts. Customs and Border Protection has advised that people need to be aware that travel north into Canada via the Coutts Port of Entry is currently unavailable. Its release...
A project started more than two decades ago to rebuild what has been called "The Lifeline of the Hi-Line" is getting some movement. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Friday that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced the first round of funding for the Milk River Project, for which Tester secured up to $100 million in his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now law. "I'm proud to announce the first round of funding for the Milk River Project from our...
Havre’s branch of the university system reported that after a decade of struggling with enrollment numbers, it has been holding strong for several straight years and has increased its number of freshmen students for the third straight year. “This year we have realized several gains,” Montana State University-Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel said in a press release. “Our number of full-time equivalent undergraduate students is up by over 40 students. We have more full-time students as a result of better advising, retenti...
In the last full week of campaigning, candidates for federal office are all over the Montana map trying to engage voters, including some stops on the Hi-Line. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Daines scheduled events Monday and today for supporters in Harlowton, Livingston, Big Timber, Hardin, Roundup, Columbus and Red Lodge. Today, he’ll host a private 7 p.m. rally in Billings with Dr. Ben Carson, a conservative Republican neurosurgeon who says he may run for president in 2016. Daines will also participate in a c...
Hill County has three providers registered with the Montana Marijuana Registry, and there are 122 registered patients in the county who legally use medical marijuana. Blaine County has no providers and 23 patients, and Cascade has 286 patients to its seven providers. Chouteau and Liberty counties both have no providers, but Chouteau has 17 patients and Liberty has four. According to reports from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, the leading condition registered patients list as their reason for being a...
Former Plain Green online lending company executive Neal Rosette Sr. — who has a lawsuit against the Chippewa Cree Tribe and Plain Green and other companies pending in tribal court — said he has another side of the story regarding an arbitration award. An arbitrator in the dispute ordered Nevada-based Encore Services LLC pay the tribe $1.1 million it had paid to Rosette and fellow Plain Green executive Billi Anne Morsette. Rosette told the Havre Daily News Tuesday that the information released by the tribe had been “co...
HELENA — Montana will open satellite voting offices on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap Indian reservations in October as part of a settlement in a federal voting-rights lawsuit. The offices will be open twice a week for late registration and for voters to cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 4 general elections. Last year, 12 Indian plaintiffs sued Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and elections officials in Blaine, Rosebud and Big Horn counties. They argued they had to drive long distances to county c...
Blaine County saw some of the impacts of the recent flooding that is devastating areas in southwestern and central Montana and led to a disaster declaration for the state, with more storms and precipitation increasing concerns in those areas. Flooding levels in Clear Creek were dropping this morning and no precipitation is in the forecast for this part of Montana, but a new storm brought more snow to areas of Montana where hundreds of people have been left cut off by swollen...
A wind-chill warning is in effect for the Hi-Line through noon Sunday, with predictions of temperatures as far as minus 28 degrees tonight. The Weather Channel predicts a high of minus 5 Saturday. The University of Montana, all Missoula County public schools and many other western Montana schools were closed today based on the weather and a forecast that includes a blizzard warning stretching from Glacier National Park to south of Hamilton. Some sections of Montana highways were closed this morning as well. The National...
Staff and wire reports HELENA— Gov. Steve Bullock has named Board of Regents chairwoman Angela McLean as lieutenant governor. McLean will replace John Walsh, whom the Democratic governor appointed last week as interim U.S. senator. The appointment will also mean that Havreite Paul Tuss, presently Regents vice chair, will be elevated to the chairmanship of the board that oversees colleges and universities in the Montana University System. Tuss is executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. Bullock's office announced M...
The Montana Ranchers Paying It Forward reached their goal of 40 head as of Nov. 19 to add to the successful fund to aid the South Dakotan ranchers who suffered severe losses in their stock due to winter weather in October. Rene Brown and Alisha Burcham organized an effort to gather livestock donations to give to South Dakotans in October. Brown said they hoped they would get their goal of 40 head of cattle at the time, but was unsure that they would achieve it. “I figured if we has a horse trailer-full we would be doing g...
The number of Native Americans in the Hill County Detention Center became a topic at a meeting between Ravalli County officials and Confederated Salish and Kootena tribal leaders. The comments of the Ravalli County Planning Commission has created a stir around the state. Ravalli County commissioners oppose the tribes' plan to put 58 acres of tribally owned land into trust with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying the county would lose $808 in annual property taxes. The meeting ended on a sour note when county planning...
While the possibility of the federal government reopening inched closer this morning, the Chippewa Cree Tribe at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation has prepared for the worse this week. The tribal government declared a financial disaster Tuesday due to the federal government shutdown, warning that nearly all tribal offices will be closed and almost all programs halted if the budget stalemate in Congress isn't resolved by Thursday. The central Montana tribe already has cut back hours, furloughed staff and limited services after f...
A controversial animal relocation is back in the works, with state Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Fort Belknap Indian Community officials signing an agreement to transfer 35 bison from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The agreement comes after more than a year of legal battles, when Hi-Line ranchers and elected officials contested the state moving bison, following a relocation to Fort Peck. The officials signed the agreement nearly two...
Gov. Steve Bullock has declared an emergency in Hill, Blaine and Chouteau counties and on the Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap Indian reservations. Bullock's order includes 12 other counties, mostly in central Montana. Bullock signed an executive order Wednesday that allows state resources to be used in response. Bullock's office says Department of Military Affairs and Disaster and Emergency Services officials are coordinating with local agencies. The flooding is the result of...
Gov. Steve Bullock has declared an emergency in Hill and Blaine counties and on the Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap Indian reservations. Bullock's order includes 13 other counties in central Montana. Bullock signed an executive order Wednesday that allows state resources to be used in response. Bullock's office says Department of Military Affairs and Disaster and Emergency Services officials are coordinating with local agencies. The flooding is the result of recent rainfall that is more than some areas see in an average year....
Hill County, especially areas south of Havre, are still feeling the effects of the rains earlier this week. Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Joe Parenteau said this morning that water had gone over the emergency spillway Monday at Beaver Creek Dam about eight miles south of Havre but had dropped back down by this morning. He said the level of the reservoir has dropped, which is a good sign, but the levels in Beaver Creek below the dam and Big Sandy...
HELENA — House Republicans advanced a plan Thursday to end same-day voter registration that critics blame for long lines on Election Day, but supporters argue improves access to the voting booth. The measure, which cleared an initial 61-39 House vote Thursday along party lines, would end voter registration the Friday before Election Day. Supporters of House Bill 30 argue the deadline provides ample time for voter registration, while freeing up county officials to deal with just traditional voters on Election Day. "Why in t...
A Havre native has been selected, pending Senate approval, to join other Hi-Line natives on the staff and administration of the incoming governor. Gov. -elect Steve Bullock announced he is appointing Jeff Hagener director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Hagener said he is pleased to return to heading the agency. "It is really an honor to go back to an agency that I have a great deal of passion for," said Hagener. He would go back to FWP in a period of controversy over issues ranging from bison relocation to the state...
BILLINGS — U. S. Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus are asking federal health officials to lift security restrictions on the bacteria that causes a disease found in wildlife in and around Yellowstone National Park. The Montana Democrats said Tuesday that the restrictions are making research into a possible vaccine for the disease brucellosis more difficult and expensive. Brucellosis can cause pregnant livestock and wildlife to miscarry. Human infections are uncommon and can be treated. The government lists the bacteria as a p...
The rural cooperative based in Hill County is among a slew of co-ops warning that a federal proposal to upgrade the nation's power grid could raise costs in Montana. Rick Stevens, Hill County Electric Cooperative's general manager, provided testimony at a listening session about the proposal, saying that the cost of upgrades should not be disproportionate to co-op customers. "The bottom line is that the cooperatives are very concerned that our members' power rates will rise significantly due to programs that will provide...
Opponents of a plan to relocate 68 wild bison filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the transfer of the animals to Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Indian reservations. The plaintiffs contend Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks should be blocked from relocating the animals until the agency crafts a statewide bison management plan and conducts further environmental reviews. The suit was filed in state District Court in Blaine County by a coalition of property owners, ranchers, public land access advocates and a state lawmaker, stat...
BROWNING (AP) — A pair of rare winter wildfires fueled by 60 mph gusts burned buildings and forced hundreds from their homes overnight on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation, but better weather conditions on Thursday helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes. The two blazes started around sundown Wednesday and together grew to 16,000 acres by early Thursday, said tribal spokesman Wayne Smith. At least 300 people were evacuated from homes and a boarding school, though no injuries had been reported. "It's probably t...
BROWNING (AP) — A pair of rare winter wildfires fueled by 60 mph gusts burned buildings and forced hundreds from their homes overnight on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation, but better weather conditions on Thursday helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes. The two blazes started around sundown Wednesday and together grew to 16,000 acres by early Thursday, said tribal spokesman Wayne Smith. At least 300 people were evacuated from homes and a boarding school, though no injuries had been reported. "It's probably t...
