News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1198 - 1222 of 2820
MISSOULA (AP) — A 46-year-old Arizona man has been returned to Montana to face charges he raped a woman in Missoula in late 2003. Kenneth Edward Whatley is charged with sexual intercourse without consent. He was being held in the Missoula County jail with bail set at $250,000 and was to appear in Justice Court Monday afternoon. According to jail records, Whatley was returned to Montana on Sunday night. Court records say Whatley is suspected of breaking into a house on Dec. 5, 2003 and raping a woman. The State Crime Lab n...
HELENA (AP) — Montana lawmakers on Monday looked at a proposal that would require cities to help enforce anti-immigration laws, which supporters argue is necessary to prevent what has happened in other states. The measure from Republican David Howard of Park City would prohibit cities from establishing policies that they won't enforce illegal immigration. He told the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that House Bill 50 ensures local governments will enforce federal law. Howard said that cities elsewhere have made it a p...
HELENA (AP) — Flu outbreaks are spreading across Montana, with one death reported and 57 people hospitalized so far, a state health official said Friday. Influenza cases have been reported in all but 18 of Montana's 56 counties, and the number of cases is expected to increase for at least a few more weeks, said Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesman Jon Ebelt. "It does seem to be shaping up to be our worst flu season since 2009," he said. Montana is one of 47 states where flu is considered widespread, in w...
MISSOULA (AP) — A judge has sentenced a former University of Montana football player to 30 years in prison with 20 years suspended for raping a female friend in his apartment. Beau Donaldson pleaded guilty in September to sexual intercourse without consent after admitting to the 2010 rape in a phone call monitored by police. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/13oJ5YG ) Donaldson began to cry as District Judge Karen Townsend handed down the maximum sentence sought by the prosecution. He will be eligible for parole after 2...
0MISSOULA (AP) — A parolee suspected of running over a Missoula police officer who was trying to arrest her is being held under guard in the hospital where she is being treated for a gunshot wound, the Missoula County sheriff's office said Tuesday. Dawnette Eaton, 47, was shot when Lt. Rich Stepper fired at her car after she backed over another police officer, Deni Poling, on Monday night at a fast-food restaurant and dragged Poling under the vehicle, police said. Poling's injuries included a fractured hip, fractured leg and...
BILLINGS (AP) — A standoff ended with the death of a handcuffed burglary suspect who hit a Montana police officer with his own patrol car before the officer opened fire, authorities said. The 29-year-old man was in the back seat of the idling patrol car Sunday afternoon when he somehow climbed into the front seat and started driving, police said. "The suspect was able to slip out of his handcuffs or get them in front of his body, climb over the caged partition and into the driver's seat," Billings Police Chief Rich St. J...
HELENA — Steve Bullock says he is "incredibly humbled" to take office as the state's 24th governor. The former attorney general was sworn in Monday with his lieutenant governor, former National Guard commander John Walsh. Bullock replaces outgoing Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Both are Democrats. The 46-year-old governor says he plans to build on Schweitzer's legacy improving schools and the economy. But Bullock also says he plans to improve relationships with Republican legislative leaders taking office Monday to start work on t...
HELENA — Lawmakers filled the Capitol building this week, marking the beginning of Montana's 63rd Legislature. The 90-day session convenes under a new governor, Democrat Steve Bullock, who previously served as Montana's attorney general. Republicans control both houses of the Legislature – leaving the legislative and executive branches split between the parties, just as it was in 2011. GOP lawmakers outnumber Democrats 29-21 in the Senate and 61-39 in the House. Photo by Amy Sisk The Montana State Capitol will be the sce...
State Sen,. Greg Jergeson, D-Chinook, voted for the measure to severely restrict use of drones. Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, voted no. HELENA — Lawmakers in at least 11 states are looking at plans to restrict the use of drones over their skies amid concerns the unmanned aerial vehicles could be exploited to spy on Americans. The American Civil Liberties Union says state legislators are proposing various restrictions on local authorities' use of the technology. Concerns mounted after the Federal Aviation A...
HELENA — Gov.-elect Steve Bullock unveiled budget changes Friday that include increased education funding and keeping intact a proposed expansion of Medicaid under the federal health care law. Bullock released the changes to outgoing Gov. Brian Schweitzer's two-year budget proposal as lawmakers arrived in Helena in advance of next week's start to the Legislature. Bullock's proposal, which largely mirrors fellow Democrat Schweitzer's offering, faces a tough road through Republican-run legislative chambers. Bullock's o...
HELENA (AP) — A state judge has ruled that American Tradition Partnership violated Montana's state campaign-finance and election laws. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports that District Judge Jeff Sherlock of Helena on Friday ruled the group in 2008 acted as a political committee and must report its spending and donors. Sherlock cited the group's failure to turn over records requested by the court in making his decision. American Tradition Partnership claims tax-exempt status as a nonprofit social welfare organization that d...
HELENA (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is ruling out another political run as he leaves Congress after 12 years. Rehberg said Thursday on a radio program that he won't run for office again. Rehberg said on the Northern Broadcasting Network's "Voices of Montana" that he has had a good run and now plans to return to his Billings-area ranch that his wife has been running. The Republican lost his bid in November to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. Republican businessman Steve Daines will be sworn in Thursday to r...
BILLINGS — Wolf hunting and trapping can resume near Yellowstone National Park after a Montana judge on Wednesday blocked the state from shutting down the practice. The restraining order from Judge Nels Swandal allows hunting and trapping to resume in areas east and west of the town of Gardiner. State officials closed the gray wolf season in those areas on Dec. 10 after several wolves collared for research were killed, drawing complaints from wildlife advocates. The closures prompted a lawsuit from sporting groups and a s...
HELENA — A sharply divided Montana Supreme Court has ruled that forcing a Hutterite religious colony to pay workers' compensation insurance for jobs outside the commune is not an unconstitutional intrusion into religion. The 4-3 decision upholds a 2009 law requiring religious organizations to carry workers' compensation insurance, which the Legislature passed after businesses complained they could not outbid the religious workers. The Big Sky Colony of Hutterites in northwestern Montana sued, saying the law targeted its r...
HELENA — Even as Republicans sought the high ground in the ongoing battle over Montana's troubled political practices office, inadvertently released emails show GOP leaders maneuvering to fill the ethics chief post with an ally. Former Commissioner Dave Gallik resigned last week amid a public dispute with his staff over his work time, and the hullaballoo has escalated as a legislative interim committee discusses the issue and lawmakers deal with a Friday deadline to find new applicants. Montana Senate President Jim P...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Strong winds caused travel difficulties and power outages across Montana on Wednesday. A combination of gusty winds and slick roads caused a school bus to run off U.S. Highway 2 near Browning on Wednesday morning, the Montana Highway Patrol said. None of the students on the bus was injured. In the Missoula area, Missoula County deputies and the highway patrol responded to more than a dozen slide-offs as light rain caused a layer of black ice to form on Interstate 90. "The worst areas we saw were east of B...
In December, the fourth month in a row, Montana's jobless rate declined. The state's unemployment rate went down from 7.1 percent in November to 6.8 percent in December. The national unemployment rate has declined steadily since August, registering at 8.5 percent in December. "Montana's employment growth has gained momentum in the last half of 2011, posting large job gains and a sizable drop in the unemployment rate, due in part to the strong agriculture economy and the oil activity on the eastern part of the state, " said...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Brian Schweitzer isn't disclosing what his plans are for the pending request for clemency from a Canadian citizen on death row for the slaying of two Native American men. Earlier this year, the Montana Parole Board recommended to the governor that Ronald A. Smith be denied clemency. Schweitzer can accept that recommendation, reject it and offer clemency or do nothing at all. Schweitzer, who leaves office in early January, isn't indicating which way he is leaning. "I am not saying one way or another," S...
BUTTE (AP) — A Montana newspaper checking court records found seven misdemeanor DUI citations that a city judge hid from the public by attaching notes that said, "Keep out of the paper for security reasons." The Montana Standard in a story (http://bit.ly/ymatkf) published Sunday reported the seven tickets date between May 21, 2009, and Oct. 14, 2010. The notes were from 53-year-old Stephen Joseph Kambich, who in mid-December resigned from his job as a Butte city judge, a post he held since 2004. He pleaded guilty Jan. 13 t...
HELENA — A union covering about 300 state Department of Transportation truck drivers in western Montana warned Friday it may strike amid an ongoing dispute over pay freezes, while the state argues it can't raise pay since the Legislature didn't provide extra money to do so. The workers have been without a contract for more than a year, like many state bargaining units displeased with pay freezes since 2008. But members of Teamsters Local 2 recently authorized a strike if the state doesn't respond quickly enough as m...
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File An oil spill crew worker for Oil Mop Emergency Response stepping out of a ring of absorbent pads along a flood plain of the Yellowstone River on July 11, where oil was found collected, near Laurel. Exxon Mobil agreed Thursday to pay the state of Montana $1.6 million in penalties over water pollution caused by this pipeline break last summer that fouled dozens of miles of shoreline along the scenic Yellowstone River, a state official said. BILLINGS (AP) — Exxon Mobil agreed Thursday to pay the s...
HELENA — Montana officials gave their initial approval Thursday to a plan that would let hunters kill bison that stray beyond designated areas north of Yellowstone National Park and from the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian reservations. The plan is to remove bison that wander outside of defined "tolerance areas" beyond the park and where wild Yellowstone bison have been slated for transfer, such as the two northeastern Montana reservations. AP Photo/The Livingston Enterprise, Garrett Cheen, File Mounted Yellowstone N...
WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — Authorities renewed calls Monday for landowners near the northern North Dakota-Montana border to look for signs of a missing Montana teacher's buried body, while documents revealed one of the two suspects in her disappearance has spent time in prison. At a news conference Monday, authorities asked that "landowners and landowners only" help look for the body of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold, a math teacher from Sidney, Mont., who has been missing since Jan. 7 and is presumed dead. AP Photo/The Billings Gazet...
BILLINGS (AP) — The FBI says dozens of calls have come into an automated tip line set up to help find missing Montana teacher Sherry Arnold. Agency spokeswoman Deborah Bertram says authorities are reviewing all tips that have come in so far. She urged people to continue calling with any information in the case. The FBI on Thursday issued a missing person poster for Arnold, a 43-year-old math teacher from the oil boom town of Sidney near the North Dakota border. Authorities are investigating the possibility Arnold was a...
HELENA — Attorney General Steve Bullock is holding onto his lead in the money race among gubernatorial candidates. Candidates for statewide office on Thursday filed their campaign finance reports detailing how much money they spent and took in over the last three months. The deadline comes as the 2012 campaigns start to ratchet up with the new year. Bullock's campaign reported raising $160,691.12 between October and December. That and the $549,242 he has raised to date are tops among candidates from either party. The D...
