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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...
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...
Montana's senior senator announced that today he will hold the first meeting of a special committee tasked with extending benefits that are hoped to help with the economic recovery. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, released an advisory Monday saying that the conference committee on payroll tax deductions, which he co-chairs with House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., would meet today at 12:30 p. m. "Each member of this conference committee will bring a unique set of...
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...
HELENA— A phone book company has settled a lawsuit over its placement of a Montana restaurant in the "Animal Carcass Removal" section of its yellow pages, a listing the restaurant owner says cost him customers and made him the butt of a Jay Leno joke. The terms of the Nov. 16 deal between Dex Media Inc. and Big Sky Beverage Inc., the parent company of Bar 3 Bar-B-Q, were not disclosed. A tentative agreement proposed in September said a deal would include a payment to the restaurant owner. Restaurant owner Hunter Lacey sued D...
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...
HELENA — State officials said Thursday that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed disputed documents involving a secretive conservative group that critics argue has been illegally coordinating with candidates. The disclosure was made by state officials responding to a Livingston judge's order requesting the American Tradition Partnership documents. The documents were featured in an October documentary by "Frontline" and a story by ProPublica suggesting the tax-exempt social welfare group coordinated with Republican c...
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...
Sherry Arnold HELENA (AP) — A Montana math teacher who disappeared last weekend when she left her house for a run is dead, and the FBI said Friday it had one man in custody and was questioning another in connection with her disappearance. Sidney Public School officials posted a statement online saying they learned of Sherry Arnold's death Friday morning. No further information was immediately available, although a news conference was scheduled for Friday afternoon. "I think we are starting to find some closure in the whole d...
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...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Verizon Wireless spokesman says service has been restored after a Sunday morning outage of more than seven hours in Montana and northern Wyoming. Bob Kelley tells the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/yLV45O) that a switch failed about 1 a.m. during scheduled maintenance on the network. He says engineers fixed the problem by 8:30 a.m. Customers reported cellphone calls could not be completed after 1 a.m. and text messaging had problems. Kelley says the company's network team typically does maintenance and s...
MISSOULA (AP) — A bus crashed Sunday on an icy interstate highway in southwestern Montana, killing at least two people and sending more than two dozen to area hospitals, officials said. The westbound Rimrock Trailways bus crashed on Interstate 90 near Clinton, about 18 miles southeast of Missoula, shortly after 7 a.m., Dan Ronan of the American Bus Association said. The crash was one of several reported along that stretch of highway Sunday morning, closing a portion of the interstate. It was not clear if there were a...
MISSOULA (AP) — A bus crashed Sunday on an icy interstate highway in southwestern Montana, killing two people and sending more than 30 others to area hospitals, officials said. The westbound Rimrock Trailways bus crashed on Interstate 90 about a mile west of Clinton, 18 miles southeast of Missoula, shortly after 7 a.m., Dan Ronan of the American Bus Association said. All of the 34 people on board were either injured or killed. AP Photo/The Missoulian, Kurt Wilson Officials work at the scene of the crash of a Rimrock Stages b...
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...
BILLINGS (AP) — A dog that was feared dead after it was swept away in a weekend avalanche that killed its owner showed up four days later at the Montana motel where its owners had stayed the night before going backcountry skiing. Search and rescue team member Bill Whittle said he was "positive" that the Welsh corgi — named Ole — had been buried in Saturday's avalanche. AP Photo/Natasha Baydakova In this photo released by Natasha Baydakova on Wednesday Jan. 4,2011 showing a Welsh corgi dog named Ole that showed up at a Cooke...
