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HELENA — The state Department of Health and Human Services says it has stopped issuing new medical marijuana cards. Spokesman Jon Ebelt says his agency is complying with a new medical marijuana law that required the department to stop issuing the cards on May 14. Ebelt previously said the department would continue to issue cards to patients because of confusion over the law. Despite Ebelt's new statement on Tuesday, the agency's website says the department is still accepting applications. The first phase of a new r...
BOSTON — Federal officials in Boston say a tip led the FBI to begin surveillance on former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger's apartment in Santa Monica, Calif., Wednesday afternoon. AP Photo/David Zent Police and FBI surround the apartment building in Santa Monica, Calif., where fugitivecrime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his longtime companion Catherine Greig were arrested, Wednesday evening. The two were arrested without incident, the FBI said. Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after...
WASHINGTON — Two House members introduced a bill Thursday that would remove marijuana from the list of federal controlled substances and cede to the states enforcement of laws governing pot. The legislation would eliminate marijuana-specific penalties under federal law, but would maintain a ban on transporting marijuana across state lines. It would allow individuals to grow and sell marijuana in states that make it legal. The bill has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House. The bill was introduced by Democrat B...
RONAN — The $15 million-a-year seed potato crop in northwestern Montana's Lake County faces a serious threat from a disease brought on by cool, damp weather, officials say. Lake County extension agent Jack Stivers said a storm last summer likely blew in the spores that can cause "potato blight," a highly destructive fungal disease. "With the type of spring we've had, it's more than likely to rear its ugly head," Stivers told the Missoulian. "Ultimately, it just rots potatoes, tomatoes, peppers. In some cases, it's almost l...
BILLINGS — Officials have closed a section of Interstate 90 in southeast Montana due to surging water from the Bighorn River as authorities on Sunday continue to deal with rising water in the eastern part of the state where a slow moving storm dumped up to six inches of rain. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service on Sunday blanketed much of eastern Montana with flood warnings as the storm begins moving out of area but runoff works its way through streams and rivers. Meteorologist Keith Meier in Billings says a...
READING, Kan. — A tornado swept through a small eastern Kansas town, killing one person and destroying at least 20 homes, as severe thunderstorms pelted the region with hail that some residents described as the size of baseballs, authorities said Sunday. Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson identified the victim as Don Chesmore, 53, of Reading. He was in a mobile home that flipped over Saturday night. He was taken to a hospital in Emporia, where he was pronounced dead. Five others were injured b...
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Thursday requested changes to a bill that prohibits the relocation of wild bison to a wildlife management area south of Avon, one of 14 vetoes and amendatory vetoes issued by the governor. The Legislature approved Senate Bill 174 this month, which aims to stop the relocation of bison to the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area. Relocation of wild bison has been unpopular topic among ranchers who fear the transfer of disease to livestock and property damage from the massive animals. Critics o...
Poll shows Rehberg. Tester in tight race The Associated Press HELENA — A new poll shows U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, are nearly even in the race for the Tester's Senate seat, while Sen. Max Baucus' approval rating has plunged, apparently over his role in the federal health care bill. The poll found 46 percent of registered voters favored Tester, a Democrat, while 45 percent favored Rehberg with 9 percent undecided. Lee Enterprises of Montana commissioned Mason-Dixon Polling & Re...
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is entering a $40 million dispute between an energy company and Montana that could turn on the experiences of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The justices said Monday they will hear an appeal from PPL Montana of a state court decision ordering the company to pay $40 million in rent for placing its hydroelectric dams in riverbeds owned by the state. The ownership of the waterways turns on whether they were navigable when Montana became a state in 1889. Both the company and the state base part o...
HELENA — Opponents of a new state law that allows companies to condemn private property in the path of new power lines have begun gathering signatures to suspend the law and bring it to a public vote. A coalition of groups against House Bill 198 has formed the group VoteFor125. Group spokeswoman Kate Ord of Dillon said the secretary of state approved the group's petition language last week. A bill passed in April allows a power line company with a state certificate for its route to use the power of eminent domain to c...
GOP stops death penalty repeal; keeps anti-gay law Associated Press HELENA — House Republicans put a stop Friday to separate plans that would repeal the state's death penalty and get rid of an obsolete state law that criminalizes gay sex. Both plans had cleared the state Senate — but the large Republican majority in the House Judiciary Committee tabled them and made it clear the GOP supermajority in that chamber won't allow either to advance. The death penalty repeal would have replaced the punishment with life in prison wit...
Governor's office calls GOP budget 'unacceptable' The Associated Press HELENA — The governor's office is lambasting Republican legislators' budget proposal as "unacceptable," "absurd," and "ridiculous" at the start of Senate hearings on the spending plan. Friday's comments by David Ewer, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's budget director, set a stark tone for what already promised to be tense negotiations over the next month. House Republicans sent the Senate a budget that cuts spending of state money about 5 percent, while rejecting a...
BOZEMAN — A federal judge has put on hold a settlement that would require the government to consider greater protections for hundreds of imperiled species. Attorneys said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the Obama administration to resume negotiations with environmentalists over the deal. The Center for Biological Diversity objects to the deal, saying it is unenforceable and leaves out important species of animals and plants. The settlement has been embraced by other conservationists as a b...
Yellowstone bison get more room to roam in Montana The Associated Press BILLINGS — Montana officials are pushing ahead with a plan to let Yellowstone National Park bison roam more freely within a sprawling river basin formerly off limits to the disease-carrying animals because of livestock industry concerns. The move is aimed at ending a dispute on Yellowstone bison that has resulted in almost 4,000 of the animals being hauled to slaughter since 2000. It will allow at least some of the animals to carry out their natural m...
State land purchases lead to maintenance backlog The Associated Press HELENA — The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the last six years has acquired 232,000 acres for state parks, wildlife management areas and fishing access sites. But Parks Division administrator Chas Van Genderen said his division is in a "terrible fiscal situation" trying to pay for maintaining new land and other properties the state already owned. The Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission last month refused Van Genderen's request to raise fees at s...
BILLINGS — The Montana Highway Patrol suspended a Billings-based sergeant for a week without pay for claiming compensation from the patrol for time he actually spent working a second job as a private security officer, The Billings Gazette reported Wednesday. The Gazette obtained the letter Col. Mike Tooley sent to 12-year veteran Sgt. Jay Nelson informing him of his suspension from March 14-18. Nelson declined the newspaper's request for comment. The investigation into Nelson began after Nov. 24, when he was recorded a...
BOZEMAN — Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau is rejecting the latest federal requirements for school testing. Juneau said she wrote a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan saying she would not raise the state's target test scores to meet benchmarks for No Child Left Behind, the national education overhaul. She told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that the current federal requirements are unrealistic for schools to meet while they also wait for new education standards from the Obama a...
HELENA — A Senate committee stopped an eminent domain bill that's backed by businesses and it is now likely lawmakers will take no action on eminent domain during the 2011 legislative session. House Bill 198 is aimed at giving utility companies the right to take private property for public use, as long as landowners receive compensation. It stalled on a 6-6 vote Monday in the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee. Developing a mechanism for resolving disputes between advocates of property rights and utility line b...
BISMARCK, N.D. — Flooding-related problems in North Dakota continue to disrupt Amtrak passenger rail service between Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest. Amtrak on June 1 suspended the Empire Builder line between St. Paul, Minn., and Spokane, Wash., because of water-related track problems between Devils Lake and Rugby in northeast North Dakota. Amtrak says the line will remain closed through at least Monday with a couple of exceptions. On Friday and Monday, a train will travel from the Pacific Northwest as far east as W...
VICKSBURG, Miss. — The Mississippi crest rolled past Memphis on Tuesday, going easy on much of the city, yet downriver in the mostly poor, fertile Delta region, floodwaters washed away crops, damaged hundreds of homes and closed casinos key to the state's economy. In Vicksburg, home of a pivotal Civil War battle, the river was forecast to peak slightly above the record level set during the flood of 1927. Some places were already several feet underwater and the river wasn't expected to peak here until Saturday. AP P...
BUTTE — A Butte man has turned himself over to Veterans Affairs officials after a two-hour standoff with police outside his home. Butte police officers arrived at the man's home Monday night after receiving a report from Veterans Affairs that he was armed and threatening to hurt himself. The Montana Standard reports police set up a perimeter around the home and tried to communicate with the man for about two hours until officers determined the he had gone to sleep. Butte Sheriff John Walsh told the newspaper that the man c...
House backs bill tightening political ethics rules HELENA — The House is backing a bill to tighten ethics rules for state officials. Senate Bill 338 would prevent state officers from using public time, facilities, equipment, supplies, personnel or funds to produce an advertisement or public service announcement. Exceptions would be made for emergencies or if the announcement is directly related to a program or activity under the officer's jurisdiction. The bill comes in the wake of an ethics complaint alleging Gov. Brian S...
World's oldest man hospitalized in Montana GREAT FALLS — Officials at a Montana retirement home say the world's oldest man has been hospitalized. Walter Breuning is 114, making him the oldest man and the second oldest person in the world. Breuning lives at the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home in Great Falls The Great Falls Tribune reports that the retirement home confirmed Monday that Breuning had been hospitalized but declined to comment on his condition, citing privacy rights. Breuning was born on Sept. 21, 1896, in M...
Schweitzer vetoes Hutton-sponsored abortion insurance ban HELENA — The governor has vetoed a Republican bill aimed at making sure abortion isn't covered by insurance offered under the federal health care overhaul. Gov. Brian Schweitzer vetoed Senate Bill 176 on Monday. He says the measure violates Montana's constitutional guarantee of a right to privacy and access to reproductive health care. The federal law calls for state-run health care exchanges that offer people a choice of health plans. The bill proposed prohibiting t...
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer has ordered all flags in Montana to be flown at half-staff on Tuesday in honor of U.S. Marine Cpl. Steven Jorgenson, who was killed in an accident after returning to the U.S. from Afghanistan. Jorgenson, 22, died May 26 when he was struck by a car after exiting a cab in New York City during Fleet Week. He was 200 yards from his ship, the USS Iwo Jima, when he was hit. "To die on a city street after surviving in Afghanistan — it's just a strange tragedy that shouldn't have happened," his fat...
