News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1132 - 1156 of 2820
HELENA (AP) — A Montana lawmaker says convicts should be allowed to get out of prison time if they instead agree to the "infliction of physical pain" — an idea that so far is receiving a cool reception. Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil is drafting a bill that would allow those convicted of misdemeanors or felonies to negotiate corporal punishment instead of another sentence. The method used to inflict the pain would be decided by a judge. The veteran lawmaker said Wednesday that he thinks long prison sentences are inhumane. "Te...
BILLINGS (AP) — State prosecutors have filed a negligent homicide charge against a 17-year-old Malta-area boy for the October 2010 shooting death of a 16-year-old hunting companion during a deer hunt northeast of Malta. The charge was filed in Phillips County Youth Court on Jan. 15 by Assistant Attorney General Brant Light, nearly a year after the death of Logan Wilson was ruled an accident. The charging documents allege the teen, who was 14 at the time of Wilson's death, acknowledged that he was looking through the rifle sco...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana House is endorsing a plan to start testing drivers to determine possible marijuana impairment. The chamber backed the bill Tuesday in a 68-31 vote before sending it to the appropriations committee to analyze a price tag of about $100,000 per year. Supporters say it will crack down on driving under the influence of marijuana. The bill establishes a legal standard of allowable amount of THC — an ingredient of marijuana — that can be in a person's blood. Republican sponsor Rep. Doc Moore of Misso...
HELENA (AP) — The Republican chairman of a special committee charged with fixing the beleaguered state pension systems said Tuesday that elements of his proposal to end the plan for new employees will be part of final negotiations on the complicated issue. Gov. Steve Bullock's office opposed the plan in favor of the Democrat's proposal to fix the current system — setting up protracted negotiations over a tough political issue that has seen lots of talk and little action in recent years. AP Photo/Matt Gouras Republican sta...
HELENA (AP) — A lawmaker's proposal protecting "alternative viewpoints" during the teaching of evolution and science in schools came under fire Friday from opponents who argued it would pave the way for teaching of creationism. Rep. Clayton Fiscus, R-Billings, said evolution isn't settled science and called it a "monumental leap" to believe it is true. His bill would allow teachers — if they want — to address perceived weaknesses in evolution studies in the classroom. "This is just a bill to instruct what we have prese...
HELENA — Montana Republican leaders pitched their plans Wednesday to cut business equipment taxes and argued that the state's clean energy tax break should be expanded to include fossil fuels. AP Photo/Matt Gouras Senate Taxation Committee chairman Bruce Tutvedt on Wednesday talks about GOP plans to cut the business equipment tax, in Helena. Republican leaders are pitching their plans to cut business equipment taxes and to include fossil fuels in the clean energy tax break. The business equipment tax cut proposal will c...
House endorses plan to criminalize killing fetus Reps. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, and Kris Hansen, R-Havre, voted for the legislation. Rep. Clarena Brockie, D-Harlem, voted no. HELENA (AP) — The House is backing a proposal sought by abortion foes to criminalize the killing of a fetus. The measure is steeped in abortion politics even though it exempts legal procedures, like abortion, and miscarriage from prosecution. The House endorsed the bill Wednesday in a 60-40 initial vote. The measure adds "unborn child" to homicide o...
HELENA — With Google Earth on their computer screens and cups of coffee cooling on the table, a five-person commission spent five August days in the Capitol discussing, drafting and redrawing lines that would determine the makeup of legislative districts for the next decade. The committee's proposal is currently awaiting legislators' input. It reflects a state population that increased by 10 percent between 2000 and 2010. But not every part of Montana experienced the boom. Many rural counties' populations declined, forcing c...
HELENA (AP) — A Republican-led committee is rejecting Gov. Steve Bullock's plan to increase the mandatory hiring percentage of Montana workers on public-works projects in the state. The House Business and Labor Committee tabled House Bill 490 Thursday with an 11-9 vote. The measure would have required that at least 75 percent of the laborers on state or local projects be Montana residents. The current requirement is 50 percent. Democratic Rep. Amanda Curtis of Butte is carrying the bill for the governor. She told the House p...
In the Hi-Line delegation, Sen. Greg Jergeson,. D-Chinook, and Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, voted for the decriminalization measure. HELENA (AP) — The Montana Senate on Tuesday overwhelming backed a measure to strike an obsolete state law that criminalizes gay sex — a proposal that still faces an uncertain path in the House. Senate Bill 107 repeals an anti-gay law that was ruled unconstitutional in 1997 by the Montana Supreme Court. But the state's deviate sexual relations law still makes illegal "sexual contact or s...
Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Gavre, vorted against bringing the bill to the floor. Rep. Clarena Brockie, D-Harlem, voted yes. Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, was excused. HELENA (AP) — The Montana House on Monday rejected a plan that aimed to give hunters and others access at "corner crossings" to public land that is intermingled with private land in a checkerboard pattern. Hunters and advocacy groups packed the chamber in support of the measure, seeking access to patches of government land that meet at corners. Supporters of H...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge issued an injunction Friday allowing wolf trapping and hunting to continue outside Yellowstone National Park, as lawmakers in Helena advanced a measure to loosen restrictions on killing wolves statewide. Combined, the two actions pave the way for a further ratcheting up of Montana's efforts to curb gray wolf numbers less than two years after they came off the endangered species list. Friday's decision from state District Judge Brenda Gilbert came after state wildlife commissioners attempted to c...
BILLINGS — Police are searching for two armed suspects who purported to be FBI agents when they allegedly kidnapped an Illinois man from a Montana hotel room. Police in Billings said Friday that 29-year-old Dejuan Laster is missing after two men showed up at the Extended Stay hotel where Laster was staying with an unidentified woman. After brandishing handguns and claiming to be federal agents, police say the suspects zip-tied the woman and questioned her extensively about Laster before releasing her. Laster has not been s...
HELENA — Lawmakers on Thursday were considering a renewed effort to test drivers suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana — a measure law enforcement agents said is necessary to deal with an increase in such cases. Republican Rep. Doc Moore of Missoula said his House Bill 168 provides a legal limit for the amount of THC — an ingredient of marijuana — that can be in a person's blood while operating a motor vehicle. He argued the measure is just aimed at enduring streets are safe, not at the debate over medical...
HELENA — Montana Senate Republicans held a pep talk Thursday for their members after documents detailing an internal power struggle publicly exposed a widening rift within the caucus — but the message was met with skepticism by at least one ousted leader. Senate President Jeff Essmann, appearing to offer a concession, told the caucus he will let the group decide policy goals collectively — including whether to back those coming from moderates. Essmann said his only personal goal is a conservative and balanced budget. AP Ph...
HELENA (AP) — Abortion foes seeking to expand the state's parental notification law say voter-backed laws can trump the Montana Constitution. The debate played significantly in a Friday debate over plans to rewrite and expand a recently-passed ballot measure requiring minors under 16 years old to receive parental permission for an abortion. House Bill 391 increases the age requiring consent to all minors under 18 years old. It also requires both parent and teen to receive and sign a notification form about the dangers of t...
HELENA (AP) — Members of a House committee heard emotional testimony on a bill that would end the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole to save taxpayers the expense of such cases and prevent the possible death of a wrongfully convicted person. Marietta Jager Lane supports the bill even after her 7-year-old daughter was kidnapped in 1973, repeatedly raped, killed and dismembered. She told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that her daughter deserves a more honorable memorial than the s...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A jury has awarded a former BNSF Railway Co. employee $1.7 million in damages in a civil lawsuit. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/YvDkUt ) jurors on Wednesday found BNSF negligently injured Robert Dannels' spine by assigning him work that caused trauma over the course of his career, which ended when the skid steer he was driving struck a metal pole as he was removing snow in the Havre area in March 2010. Dannels said he was thrown against the cab and he felt a popping sensation in his b...
HELENA (AP) — Gun advocates are advancing several measures aimed at expanding gun rights. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took a second day of testimony on six bills backed by gun advocates. One of the measures allows concealed carry of weapons by anyone who would otherwise qualify for a permit. Supporters say concealed carry is currently allowed by anyone outside of city limits, a policy they argued has worked. They also want to allow concealed guns in currently prohibited places like bars. Opponents argued it w...
MISSOULA (AP) — A group of University of Montana football fans has started a petition asking the governor and higher education officials to censure former Congressman Pat Williams for his statements last week that the UM football program recruits "thugs" and to remove him from the board that oversees the state's university system. Scott Gratton, father of former Montana wide receiver Sam Gratton, is circulating the petition via email. He declined to comment to the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/X3Fw7j). The petition argues that l...
DETROIT (AP) — Warnings about the zombie apocalypse may seem pretty amusing, but officials say they're dead serious about figuring out who hacked into the nation's public warning system to broadcast such messages in a handful of states. So far, people in California Michigan, Montana and New Mexico have heard the warnings about attacking zombies that have been sent over the Emergency Alert System. "Local authorities in your area have reported the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living," the me...
MISSOULA (AP) — The woman who accused former University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson of raping her a year ago said Wednesday that she had been kissing Johnson while the two watched a movie when he "just changed into a totally different person." She tearfully testified that he pinned her to her bed and raped her. She said she told him "no" several times. Assistant Attorney General Joel Thompson asked her why she didn't call out to her housemate, who was in the next room. She said she was terrified, in shock and c...
HELENA — Wildlife officials are asking lawmakers to make it easier to hunt and trap wolves in Montana. The House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee is scheduled to hear two proposals Thursday. The first by the FWP agency would allow hunters and trappers to buy multiple tags and use electronic calls. It also would reduce the price of a non-resident tag from $350 to $50 and eliminate the requirement that hunters wear fluorescent orange outside of deer season. The second bill by Republican Rep. Ted Washburn of Bozeman would g...
HELENA (AP) — The House on Wednesday backed a proposal to require parental permission before students can attend sex-education classes in schools, a measure supporters said is necessary to deal with an increasingly controversial curriculum. Social conservatives are trying again to place limits on local sex-education policies they believe are teaching bad morals. A similar bill cleared the Legislature in 2011, only to be vetoed by former Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Supporters pointed to a debate over sex education in Helena that le...
HELENA (AP) — A Montana Senate committee is backing a big education funding bill that has been two years in the making. The proposal unanimously cleared the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and goes to the Senate floor. It aims to increase education funding — and cut property taxes with the help of natural resource revenue. It sends about $40 million to reduce local property taxes over the next two years. After some changes made in committee, it would send about $50 million in new money to schools. Committee cha...
