News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1917 - 1941 of 2820
UM School of Journalism HELENA — In a soft and affable voice, Republican Rep. Pat Ingraham introduced herself and said she represented the people of Sanders County. Those words were the last the entire room would agree on in an emotional two-hour hearing Friday on her bill to require that women have an ultrasound before they get an abortion. Last week marked 38 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a right to an abortion. But as the tears, outrage and gavel-slamming that attended Ingraham's House Bill 2... Full story
BILLING — Wildlife agencies in the Northern Rockies go to lengths to warn people of the dangers of grizzly country — from signs advising hikers to carry mace-like bear spray to radio ads that warn hunters to take care when stalking elk in bear habitat. But after two hikers were fatally mauled in Yellowstone National Park over the summer, officials acknowledge their drive to make visitors "bear aware" is not reaching everyone. As a result, park officials, bear biologists and others say that in coming months they plan to sha... Full story
GREAT FALLS, — A Great Falls family says they shouldn't have put their travel plans on a social networking site after returning from a 10-day vacation to find their home ransacked and burglarized. Biff and Amy Larson tell KFBB-TV they shared on Facebook the day they were leaving and how many days they'd be gone celebrating their children's graduation. The couple says before leaving they arranged for neighbors and friends to check on their home and made sure all their doors and windows were locked. They say the burglary l...
HOUSTON — TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline may be threatened by legislation in Nebraska that would re-route the $7 billion project designed to bring Canadian crude to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. At a special session on Nov. 1, Nebraskan lawmakers will consider a bill aimed at forcing Calgary-based TransCanada to move the pipeline to the state's eastern edge, a step that company officials said may put the project in jeopardy. The other five states the pipeline would traverse — Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Okl...
BROWNVILLE — The failure of a Missouri River levee in northwest Missouri offered a brief reprieve Friday from flooding near the Cooper nuclear power plant in southeast Nebraska, although officials expect the waterway to rise back up to a threatening level. The National Weather Service said the river dropped more than a foot at Brownville to 43.1 feet Friday morning after the breach Thursday evening upstream in northwest Missouri. Before the breach, the river had been 44.8 feet deep at Brownville. AP Photo/Dave Weaver M...
MISSOULA — Authorities say they believe a former militia man is still alive nearly two weeks after he fired at sheriff's deputies and then fled into the western Montana woods. The Missoula County Sheriff's Department says authorities were working to rule out that 47-year-old David Burgert was injured or had harmed himself. More than 40 officers and two cadaver dogs participated in the search on Thursday but turned up no sign of him. A department statement issued Friday says officers searched between U.S. Highway 12 and I... Full story
BILLINGS — A failed Exxon Mobil pipeline that spilled an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River was expected to restart operations Saturday after getting approval from federal officials. Changes made during repairs to the Silvertip pipeline have made it less likely to fail again, Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Opper said. The line broke July 1 after flooding scoured the river bottom and exposed the 12-inch pipe, which was buried just five feet deep in some areas. AP Photo/Juli... Full story
HELENA — Veteran state legislator Kim Gillan of Billings says she will be running for Montana's open U.S. House seat in the 2012 elections. Gillan joins two other Democrats who are seeking the state's lone congressional seat, left open now that incumbent Republican Denny Rehberg has decided to challenge U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. Gillan, known for her tenacity in state legislative debates, says she wants to be a vocal and independent advocate for Montana families in Congress. Businessman Steve Daines of Bozeman is the lone R... Full story
HELENA — A judge is expected to finish hearing arguments on whether to block Montana's new medical marijuana law from taking effect July 1. AP Photo/The Independent Record, Eliza Wile Dr. Jack Hensold, a Bozeman oncologist, testifies via teleconference Monday in Judge Jim Reynolds' district courtroom in Helena. Hensold is concerned about the ability of patients to obtain medical marijuana after a new law takes effect July 1. The two-day hearing continued Tuesday before Helena District Judge James Reynolds. The Montana C...
HELENA (AP) — A Bozeman nonprofit group has filed a lawsuit to find out additional information about the salaries and compensation for all 13,000 Montana governmental employees. The Montana Policy Institute, a Bozeman-based think tank that advocates government transparency, in its lawsuit filed last week in District Court in Helena contends that the state Department of Administration did not provide it with the workers' actual compensation, including bonuses and overtime. "We want to know what each state employee made, w...
KALISPELL (AP) — A 24-year-old Kalispell woman who police say fractured the skull of a 7-month-old girl by dropping and then shaking her has been charged with assault. The Daily Inter Lake reports (http://bit.ly/q03Bw4 ) that Kimberly Butler was arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated assault, assault on a minor and criminal endangerment. She was being held at the Flathead County Detention Center with bail set at $40,000. Authorities say a caller alerted the Kalispell Police on June 5. According to court documents, B...
The Montana Highway Patrol says two North Dakota men have died in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 2 west of Wolf Point in northeastern Montana. Police say the two men, ages 35 and 56, were in the backseat of a westbound Chevrolet Suburban that collided late Friday with a Dodge pickup that veered into the westbound lane. Police tell the Billings Gazette that the driver of the Suburban tried to avoid the collision by swerving into the eastbound land, but the driver of the pickup got back into the eastbound lane at the last... Full story
HELENA — Lawyers for BP asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss a Montana lawsuit that alleges the oil giant and its subsidiaries collected millions of dollars in insurance money while letting the state foot the bill for cleaning soil and groundwater contaminated by their leaky storage tanks. The state and the Montana Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board filed the lawsuit in February, accusing the British company and its North American subsidiaries of fraud and negligence when it came to paying for the cleanup of decades o...
HELENA — The chief revenue forecaster for the Montana Legislature told lawmakers that state tax collections are coming in about $70 million higher than was predicted last November. Legislative Fiscal Analyst Terry Johnson says tax collections will be $67.7 million to $77.7 million higher for the fiscal year ending June 30. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports Johnson attributed the increases to strong growth in wage and salary income, higher individual tax payments and improved corporate profitability. State revenue estimates w... Full story
HELENA — Two wind developers have asked Montana's Public Service Commission to keep their bids to buy a 40-megawatt wind farm in Judith Basin County from public view. The Independent Record reported Friday that Sagebrush Wind and Invenergy want their proposals for the project sealed, citing trade secrets. They made the request in May while the PSC considers approving NorthWestern Energy's plans for the farm. Lee Newspapers of Montana and The Associated Press objected to the request, saying if price and cost information for N... Full story
BUTTE (AP) — Authorities say two people died in a single-engine plane crash west of Butte. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus tells the Montana Standard (http://bit.ly/p4imYJ ) that two people were aboard the plane that crashed Monday morning and that there were no survivors. Neither the identities of the victims nor the cause of the crash was immediately known. Police and fire officials are at the site of the crash between Rocker and Ramsay. The wreckage can be seen just south of Interstate 90. Fergus s...
HELENA — State and federal education officials have reached a compromise on Montana's No Child Left Behind benchmarks for the 2010-2011 school year. Monday was the deadline for the state to comply with the law's requirements for determining adequate yearly progress or else risk losing funding. Under the law's Annual Measurable Objectives, 92 percent of Montana schoolchildren are supposed to be proficient in reading and 84 percent in math. But the students measured 83 percent proficient in reading and 68 percent in math. T... Full story
BOZEMAN (AP) — A charter bus driver arrested for drunken driving in Yellowstone National Park while hauling a bus load of middle school students on a field trip had been arrested three times before for driving under the influence. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports a search of public records found Jack Kane Parrent Jr. was convicted of drunken driving in Columbia Falls in 1991 and Lewis and Clark County in 2001. The Chronicle also found Parrent was charged with drunken driving in Vancouver, Wash., in 1998. A Clark County, W... Full story
BOZEMAN (AP) — The Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Montana Newspaper Association have filed a lawsuit against Montana State University seeking information concerning the school's suspension of MSU Symphony Orchestra conductor Shuichi Komiyama. The lawsuit filed Monday in Gallatin County contends the 47-year-old Komiyama holds a position of public trust and that the public's right to know the reason for the suspension outweighs personal privacy concerns. The newspaper previously reported that Komiyama at age 25 pleaded guilty i...
KALISPELL — A 10-year-old Kalispell boy using a rubber worm caught a largemouth bass in western Montana that wildlife officials say is nearly twice as old as he is. Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Mark Deleray said the bass caught and released by Garrett Frost in Rose Creek Slough on July 16 could be as much as 19 years old, which may be the oldest on record for Montana. The fish was 20 to 22 inches long and weighed about 3.5 pounds. Garrett removed a tag that had been placed on the fish in 1997 in another Flathead R... Full story
MISSOULA (AP) — An employee of a Missoula mental health center who told police about a client's computer search for child pornography was fired, in part for making the report, according to court records The client, John Gribble, has been charged with sexually abusing a child after a DVD with photos of nude children was found at his house, the Missoulian reported Wednesday. An employee of Three Rivers Mental Health Solutions contacted police about Gribble on Oct. 17 after seeing the words "female child nude" and "preteen n...
HELENA — Former Republican congressman Rick Hill is among a group of investors alleging they were cheated out of millions in a real estate investment deal. Rick Hill The group will be asking the Montana Supreme Court later this month to let them take the dispute to court. The issue goes back several years when a real estate investment deal fell apart amid the housing crisis. Investors accused the Idaho-based investment company called DBSI of fraud in a billion-dollar class action lawsuit. The investors are asking the high c... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A former congressman and Republican hopeful for governor is among those leading a group of investors alleging they were cheated out of millions in a real estate investment deal, a group that will be asking the Montana Supreme Court later this month to let them take the dispute to court. The issue goes back several years, when a real estate investment deal fell apart as the housing crisis began to hit the country. Investors, including former congressman Rick Hill, accused the Idaho-based investment company called... Full story
PHILIPSBURG (AP) — A 73-year-old Butte man faces a felony aggravated assault charge after another man was punched in the stomach during a heated argument at a water district meeting last week. Granite County Attorney Christopher Miller says Don Lembke has not been arrested and has cooperated with investigators. The Montana Standard reports (http://bit.ly/uVdXQ5 ) the victim was Shakopee Heights water district board member Don Turner, who is also in his 70s. Miller says Turner suffered three broken ribs, a punctured lung a... Full story
POLSON (AP) — Emmett May doesn't just believe in the Great Pumpkin. He grew it. The greatest one Montana's ever seen, anyway — an 893-pounder that smashed the previous state record by 111 pounds. AP Photo/The Missoulian, Kurt Wilson Kurt Wilson sits on his 893-pound pumpkin in Polson, Mont. When they weighed it over the weekend at the Harvest Fest in Ronan. Mont., on a certified scale from Spokane, it outdistanced May's previous personal best by a whopping 250 pounds, and broke the Montana record of 782 pounds set by She... Full story
