News you can use
News you can use
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The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow the Border Patrol to circumvent more than a dozen environmental laws on all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the borders with Mexico and Canada. Supporters said the measure is needed to give border agents unfettered access to rugged lands now controlled by the Interior Department and Forest Service. Laws such as the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act often prevent agents from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land, leaving it to...
Bridger Holt, a 2001 graduate of Havre High School, died Wednesday just before 2 a. m. from injuries sustained in a crash near Lincoln on U. S. Highway 200, the Lewis and Clark County coroner reported. Holt, an Iraq war veteran and student at the University of Montana in Missoula, was wearing a lap belt at the time of the rollover and was partially ejected from the 1965 International pickup he was driving. His brother, 24-year-old Lincoln Holt of Havre, a passenger in the pickup, was airlifted to Great Falls and treated for...
U. S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is telling the postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, that he should visit rural Montana post offices before making any decisions to close some of them. The U. S. Postal Service announced last year that it would be closing three mail processing facilities in the state, perhaps leading to a net loss of 11 jobs in the state. The agency says cuts are needed to meet budget demands exacerbated by a 25 percent decline in mail volume since 2006. Not long after the processing consolidation, USPS said it...
BILLINGS — Environmental groups say they will ask the Montana Supreme Court to overturn a district court ruling that temporarily halts transfers of Yellowstone National Park bison to tribal and public lands. Attorneys for Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation appealed the ruling Monday. They are challenging a restraining order issued by Judge John McKeon after about 60 Yellowstone bison were moved to Montana's Fort Peck Indian Reservation in March. Half of those bison were supposed to be transferred to t...
CHESTER — Railroad officials say a freight train struck a pickup truck at a crossing in northern Montana, killing the woman who was driving the truck. According to the Liberty County coroner, 63-year-old Krystyna Cole was driving the truck. She and her husband farmed north of Chester. Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said the accident happened around 3 p. m. Monday about five miles west of Chester. He said a train with three locomotives, 22 cars of general freight and 48 empty cars was traveling about 55 m...
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...
Creative Commons photo, Jason Hickey A 64-year-old Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation man may face the wrath of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service after he bought a dead golden eagle from two Pablo men who found it injured, then killed it, according to records of the three men's arraignment earlier this week. Doug Standing Rock bought the bird from Curtis Foster, 58, and Glenn Reum, 57, for $100 early last year. The Associated Press reports the court saw an affidavit which claims Foster and Reum saw the injured bird on the side...
Some members of Congress want to include executive branch employees in a bill that would ban lawmakers from using nonpublic information to make stock trades. The bill also would require public reporting of new securities transactions within 30 days, all part of an effort by Congress to boost its dismal approval ratings that are now in the teens. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters Tuesday that if the bill now before the Senate isn't expanded to include the executive branch, he would add that provision to a bill...
The GOP-controlled House and the Democratic Senate — including the two candidates for the Montana Senate seat up for election in 2012 — remain at loggerheads over debt legislation required to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. financial obligations as lawmakers and the White House head into a pressure-packed weekend in search of compromise. A week of extraordinary partisanship was capped by a power play by Senate Democrats, who killed a House-passed debt limit increase and budget-cutting bill Friday night less than two hou...
Proposed federal laws dealing with jurisdiction on federal land near the nation's borders that has raised ire on both sides of the issue in Montana is getting increased attention in Washington. Federal agents trying to patrol the U. S.-Mexico border say they're hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U. S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife — and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed. A growing number of l...
Decrying the state of American education, President Barack Obama this morning said states will get unprecedented freedom to waive basic elements of the sweeping Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, calling it an admirable but flawed effort that has hurt students instead of helping them. Obama's announcement could fundamentally affect the education of tens of millions of children. It will allow states to scrap the requirement that all children must show they are proficient in reading and math by 2014 — a cornerstone of the l...
HELENA — House Republicans are pushing long shot constitutional changes sponsored by Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, aimed at restricting abortion, with the sponsor backing the measures arguing they will help the party at the polls. Both proposed amendments would go to voters in 2012 if they clear the Legislature, which appears unlikely. Proposed constitutional changes require support from a total of 100 of 150 House and Senate lawmakers — and Republicans fall four votes shy of being able to get it done on their own. In Hou...
DURANT, Okla — An Oklahoma judge has sentenced a man to three life imprisonment terms, plus five years, for child abuse and moving the remains of his 12-year-old daughter from Oklahoma to Havre to Oregon. District Judge Mark Campbell imposed the life terms Thursday on Abel Wolf for enabling child abuse and child abuse by neglect. Wolf received five years for unlawful removal of a dead body. Wolf and his wife, Denise, were arrested in 2009 in Havre after local authorities received a tip from an Oklahoma detective. C...
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train loaded with grain has derailed in a remote canyon in Idaho, about 18 miles east of Bonners Ferry. BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas says 24 cars derailed Sunday afternoon as the train with four locomotives and 97 loads of grain headed from Castle Point, near Glasgow, to Kalama, Wash., at about 18 mph. This morning two of the cars had been rerailed. The other 22 are going to be shoved off on the side of the track to allow traffic to resume and will be removed over the next three weeks....
WASHINGTON — The House has rejected a proposal to amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget, seen by many as the only way to force lawmakers to hold the fiscal line and reverse the flow of federal red ink. The 261-165 vote was 23 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. Democrats, swayed by the arguments of their leaders that a balanced budget requirement would force Congress to make devastating cuts to social programs, overwhelmingly voted against it. AP Photo/Harry Hamburg M...
With repairs made to the tracks along the route, the national passenger rail service will resume full operation of the Empire Builder that runs through Havre starting next week. Flooding in North Dakota shut down Amtrak's service between St. Paul, Minn., and Havre starting June 21. The train continued to run from Seattle and Portland to Havre and back, but people looking to travel east along the route had to find alternate transportation. The Empire Builder, Amtrak's most popular long-distance train, continued to leave...
HELENA — The Montana Senate agreed in an initial vote Friday to authorize the state to borrow about $100 million for projects around the state, including $7.9 million for a major revamp to the automotive-diesel center at Montana State University-Northern. The big bonding bill received a 36-14 vote, just clearing the two-thirds threshold required for the state to borrow money. If it passes a final vote, the measure will return to the House, which has approved a version of the bill. Senators increased the economic trigger r...
HELENA — The Montana Senate agreed in an initial vote Friday to authorize the state to borrow about $100 million for projects around the state, including $7.9 million for a major revamp to the automotive-diesel center at Montana State University-Northern. The big bonding bill received a 36-14 vote, just clearing the two-thirds threshold required for the state to borrow money. If it passes a final vote, the measure will return to the House, which has approved a version of the bill. Senators increased the economic trigger requi...
US loses AAA credit rating from S&P Staff and wire report WASHINGTON — The lowering of America's sterling credit rating was the punctuation mark on a tumultuous week in financial markets. The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Friday it was dissatisfied with the plan Congress came up with earlier in the week to reduce the country's debt. This is the first time the nation's credit rating has fallen below the highest level, AAA. The U.S. had held that rating since 1917. The move came just days after a gridlocked Congre...
After a short deliberation, a jury in Helena Thursday found that officers were justified in firing the shots that killed a 13-year-old Havre boy outside of Fort Benton in 2007. Mark Keeley led two law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase after he was reported to have stolen $8 worth of gasoline from Chester. After he drove his car over a spike strip, he tried to drive away with four flat tires. after stopping his vehicle, he fired on the officers, and was killed when they returned fire. The jury deliberated for less tha...
A survey found the Hi-Line one of the better locations in the state for having bridges in good repair, with no deficient bridges listed in Liberty or Chouteau counties, one in Hill County and the largest problem area in Blaine County, where 18 of 166 bridges were found deficient. Statewide, one of every 13 highway bridges in Montana is structurally deficient, and that an average of 80,000 motorists a day cross what the report, prepared by Transportation for America, ranks as the top three busiest bridges in the state that...
A civil trial continues today in Helena over the death of a Havre youth in April 2007 near Fort Benton when law enforcement officers fired 29 shots after a high-speed chase from Chester. Mark Keeley, 13, was pursued to near Fort Benton after a Chester gas station reported he stole a small amount of gasoline. A Chouteau County deputy sheriff and Montana Highway Patrol trooper pursued him and fired the fatal shots after the tires on Keeley's car were flattened by spiked strips. Keeley's mother, Michelle Springer, filed the...
Survey finds structurally deficient Montana bridges MISSOULA — A new survey finds one of every 13 highway bridges in Montana is structurally deficient, and that an average of 80,000 motorists a day cross what the report ranks as the top three busiest bridges in the state that are in that category. The report released this week by Transportation for America said federal guidelines peg a bridge structurally deficient if it has a major defect that requires significant maintenance or replacement. "Drivers in Montana are regularly...
The U.S. Census figures released this morning showed that Montana's population increased 9.7 percent over the last decade. Despite the increase, it will continue to have only one member of the House of Representatives. The district, represented by Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., will remain the second largest district in the nation geographically, behind Alaska, which also has one representative. It will, by far, have more people than any other district in the nation. U.S. Census data released this morning put Montana's population...
Governor sues Legislature over bill Staff and wire report Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday that a companion bill to the 2009 Legislature's spending measure went against the state constitution, so he's suing the Legislature. The governor said the measure contained multiple subject matters and prevented him from using his line-item veto power on many of the expenditures. The Montana Constitution says only the general appropriations bill, usually called House Bill 2, may include multiple subjects. House Bill 676 made a number...
