News you can use
News you can use
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KALISPELL — Officials plan to open a $7 million, 24,000-square-foot inpatient mental-health facility for veterans on June 3 at Fort Harrison west of Helena. Officials with the Veterans Affairs Montana health-care system tell the Daily Inter Lake that the 24-bed facility will offer acute psychiatric care and residential rehabilitation. Montana veterans have been traveling to VA facilities in North Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho to receive help with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and acute psychiatric treatment. I...
LAUREL — Montana Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar pleaded no contest to failing to give quick notice of a crash in a fast-food restaurant parking lot that totaled the car of a high school student. He was given a 20-day suspended jail sentence and fined $200. Laurel City Judge Jean Kerr rejected a plea agreement calling for a deferred sentence and wasn't pleased that Molnar didn't appear in court Thursday as she had instructed, The Billings Gazette reported. "I expected him to be here," Kerr said. Attorney Jack Sands s...
Senate endorses looser concealed carry law The Associated Press HELENA — A measure to allow people to carry a concealed gun without a permit from law enforcement is closer to becoming law. The Senate endorsed the measure late Friday in a 29-21 vote. The gun-rights proposal has already cleared the House. Currently in Montana, a permit and background check from authorities is needed to carry a concealed gun into cities and towns. There are also old restrictions on carrying without a permit into logging, mining and railroad camp...
First VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro dies at 75 BOSTON (AP) — The first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75. A family friend acting as a spokeswoman for the family say Ferraro, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1998, died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital. Ferraro was an obscure New York City congresswoman when she was catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention. Walter Mondale chose her to run with him against incumbents R...
Senate rejects texting while driving ban HELENA — A bill to make texting while driving illegal in Montana has failed to pass the state Senate. Senate Bill 251 would have let police pull a driver over for using a cell phone to send text messages, with a $100 fine for violators. The Senate rejected the proposal Friday on a 31-18 vote. Sen. Christine Kaufmann, the Democrat carrying the bill, says texting while driving is a dangerous epidemic in the state and law enforcement needs to be able to stop it. Those opposing the bill s...
Obama endorses military action to stop Gadhafi WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of hesitation and divisions among his advisers, President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed military action against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, saying U.S. values and credibility are at stake to stop "the potential for mass murder" of innocents. The U.S. military, which is already stretched thin by two wars and an expanding effort to assist disaster victims in Japan, would take a supporting role, Obama said, with European and Arab partners in the lead. H...
Super full moon to shine on Saturday LOS ANGELES — There's a full moon Saturday, but it won't be just any old full moon. It'll be bigger and brighter. It will appear larger as it makes its closest approach to Earth in 18 years. Scientists estimate the "supermoon" rising in the east at sunset will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter at its peak. Full moons vary in size because of the oval shape of its orbit, with one end closer to Earth. On Saturday, the moon will be 221,565 miles away — the closest to Earth since...
Gov's brother leaving post as deputy state auditor The Associated Press HELENA — Deputy State Auditor Walt Schweitzer says he is leaving the auditor's office at the end of the month to pursue another job opportunity. Schweitzer tells Lee Newspapers of Montana that he can't yet say what he will be doing, but he's excited about the job and will be staying in Helena. State Auditor Monica Lindeen says Schweitzer informed her Monday that he wanted to pursue another opportunity. She said she has not decided on a replacement. Schwei...
Man charged with threat to Amtrak train arraigned The Associated Press GREAT FALLS — A Minnesota man charged with making a threat that led to the evacuation of an Amtrak train in northern Montana pleaded not guilty to federal charges of false information and hoaxes. The U.S. attorney's office says 24-year-old Hussein Abdi Hassan of Minneapolis was arraigned by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Holter in Great Falls on Thursday. An Amtrak spokesman has said Hassan was removed from the Empire Builder train in Browning on Feb. 14 f...
St. Patrick's Day parade organizer cited for DUI BUTTE — The organizer of Butte's St. Patrick's Day parade has been arrested on a drunken driving charge. The Montana Standard reports 61-year-old Mollie A. Kirk was stopped at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday after an officer reported seeing a vehicle being driven recklessly. The officer conducted a field sobriety test and Kirk was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Kirk is the longtime director of Butte Celebrations, which organizes the city's St. Patrick's Day parade, the F...
In this Jan. 4, 2 file photo, actor Nicolas Cage attends the premiere of "Season Of The Witch" in New York. Authorities say Cage has been arrested in New Orleans on charges of domestic abuse battery and disturbing the peace. AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File NEW ORLEANS — Authorities say actor Nicolas Cage has been arrested in New Orleans on charges of domestic abuse battery and disturbing the peace. The Orleans Parish Sheriff's office says Cage was booked into the Orleans Parish Prison at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Cage has been a f...
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday that Republican budget crafters are making a bad decision by turning away $35 million in federal money the state would give hospitals for modernizing medical records — and didn't rule out a veto of the Republican budget package. The governor said the money would create jobs and make health care more efficient by creating electronic medical records that would reduce duplicative procedures and speed service. Republicans counter that electronic medical records are untested and cou...
HELENA — Having already cleared the state House, a handful of gun-rights bills that have drawn opposition from many Democrats and some Republicans has moved to the Senate, where they may face a tougher challenge. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard three measures Wednesday from Rep. Krayton Kerns, R-Laurel. The bills propose letting people carry a concealed weapon without a permit in cities and in prohibited places like banks and bars, and permitting the use of a silencer when hunting. Supporters say the measures are i...
Eminent domain battle heats up The Associated Press HELENA — The battle over eminent domain remains mired down in a dispute between landowners and industry groups. Industry interests led by those building electrical transmission lines are seeking a bill currently languishing in a Senate committee that would clarify that their projects have the authority to condemn private land. They argue a court order last year threatens to scuttle the Montana Alberta Tie Line. Property owners led by ranchers are suspicious of that bill and...
HELENA (AP) — Federal agents with guns drawn raided at least 10 medical marijuana operations across Montana on Monday, the same a day that a bill to repeal the state's medical marijuana law stalled in the Legislature. Agents near Helena burst into Montana Cannabis' greenhouse, where the company grows more than 1,600 plants for its four stores across the state. The greenhouse runs about half the length of a football field and is packed with marijuana plants that can be seen from U.S. Highway 12. About 15 workers were inside t...
President Barack Obama reaches to shake hands with 8th graders as he speaks at Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology, in Parkville, Md., Monday. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster Obama budget: Some cuts, not the slashes GOP asks ANDREW TAYLOR, The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Putting on the brakes after two years of big spending increases, President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.7 trillion budget plan Monday that would freeze or reduce some safety-net programs for the nation's poor but turn aside Republican demands for m...
BILLINGS — Billings will host the first of six regional tribal consultations on the trust land component of the government's $3.4 billion settlement with American Indians over mismanaged royalties. Deputy Interior Secretary David J. Hayes said in a statement Monday the talks will help free up trust lands and will involve tribal leaders from the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. A date for the Billings meeting wasn't announced. Native American plaintiffs claimed that trust accounts for hundreds of thousands of Indians were m...
BRIDGER — Officials in south-central Montana say a Bridger man and his horse died after being struck by lightning in the Pryor Mountains. Carbon County Sheriff Tom Reiger tells KTVQ-TV that the lightning strike occurred about 1:40 p.m. Saturday about 12 miles east of Bridger. Reiger says the man was taking part in a branding party when the lightning strike occurred. The man's name has not been released....
HELENA — The Secretary of State's office has determined that medical marijuana advocates need at least 31,000 signatures to block the Legislature's overhaul bill from becoming law. Marijuana advocates say they plan a petition of the strict regulations that Gov. Brian Schweitzer is expected let become law. If successful, they would block the law from taking effect this summer and put the issue on the 2012 ballot. Secretary of State chief legal counselor Jorge Quintana wrote in a memo Tuesday that 15 percent of voters in at l...
GREAT FALLS — Blackfeet tribal officials want to make sure the tribe's indoor smoking ban is enforced at a tribally owned casino. The Great Falls Tribune reports the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council voted 5-4 Monday to ban smoking in the Glacier Peaks Casino. The Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act of 2005 bans smoking in enclosed public places. Casinos were exempted until September 2007. However, a local tobacco initiative group told the council that the ban wasn't being enforced at the casino. Tribal Chairman Willie A. Sharp Jr. w...
HAMILTON — Authorities in Ravalli County in western Montana are having a hard time persuading residents to sign up to receive automatic emergency notifications on cellphones due to mistrust of the government. "I know a lot of people are scared, with emails being hacked and identity theft," said Charlene Stevens, who coordinates the program. "But what I'd tell them is this is a basic thing that could save your life or property." It's not working. "Only about 250 out of 40,000 residents have signed up," Dispatch Director J...
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A youth football coach was arrested after a confrontation with a parent — apparently stemming from a dispute over recruitment of a top player — in which the parent was kicked and punched, then knocked unconscious when he tripped and hit the ground, police said. The coach, Saivaauli Savaiinea, was arrested Saturday afternoon on suspicion of felony battery, according to San Diego Police Officer David Stafford. Savaiinea, 32, reportedly attacked Mark Cannon during an argument at Abraham Lincoln High Schoo...
BOZEMAN — The embattled author of "Three Cups of Tea" has undergone open-heart surgery nearly two months after reports questioned the accuracy of the book and whether he benefited from the charity he founded, the charity's spokeswoman said. Doctors discovered an aneurysm, in addition to a hole, in Greg Mortenson's heart that had left him with low oxygen levels, Central Asia Institute acting director Anne Beyersdorfer said. Surgeons repaired the hole and tied down the aneurysm, she added. "We feel very fortunate it did not b...
HELENA — An audit of the state lottery found its former director violated state law by extending one contract and changing another without the approval of the Montana Lottery Commission. The Independent Record reports the audit was presented to the Legislative Audit Committee Thursday. The audit also found the lottery spent twice as much as it was authorized to spend on lottery ticket vending machines and that it would not be hard for lottery employees to perpetuate and conceal errors or irregularities in prize payments. L...
MONSON, Mass. — The sight of flattened homes, peeled-off roofs and the toppled steeple of a 140-year-old church stunned New Englanders after deadly tornadoes swept through Massachusetts, striking an area of the country that rarely sees such severe twisters. The storms, which came with fair warning but still shocked with their intensity, killed at least three people, injured about 200 and wreaked damage in a string of 18 cities and villages across central and western Massachusetts. If the National Weather Service agrees W...
