News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1402 - 1426 of 2820
BILLINGS — Fire crews working in cooler temperatures Friday made gains on major wildfires threatening homes in central and southern Montana, but officials warned more blazes were possible in coming days. A mandatory evacuation for 20 to 30 homes south of Columbus was downgraded to voluntary and significant progress was reported on a fire north of Winnett. Yet with the landscape dried out from recent hot weather and a high likelihood of new lightning strikes, conditions were considered prime for new fires to erupt. A...
MISSOULA — Montana announced Thursday that it has removed the interim tag from football coach Mick Delaney's title and given him a two-year deal to lead an embattled program caught up in an investigation of how the university as a whole handled allegations of sexual assault. Delaney was chosen as the interim head coach for the 2012 season after coach Robin Pflugrad was relieved of his duties in March and told his contract wouldn't be renewed. Interim athletic director Jean Gee said Delaney's new contract expires in January 2...
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A new study says North Dakota's oil production could jump more than threefold by 2025 to more than 2 million barrels a day. The study released Wednesday by Bentek Energy LLC of Colorado also says natural gas production could more than quintuple by 2025 in the Williston Basin. The basin includes the Dakotas and Montana. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil production in North Dakota, which is the nation's No. 2 oil producer behind Texas. About a third of the natural gas produced in North Dakota is wasted b...
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today reaffirmed its 2-year-old decision allowing corporations to spend freely to influence elections. The justices struck down a Montana law limiting corporate campaign spending. By a 5-4 vote, the court's conservative justices said the decision in the Citizens United case in 2010 applies to state campaign finance laws and guarantees corporate and labor union interests the right to spend freely to advocate for or against candidates for state and local offices. The majority turned away pleas f...
BILLINGS (AP) — The FBI is investigating the embezzlement of nearly $3.7 million from First Security Bank in Malta, state banking officials said. The bank acknowledged the theft in a federal filing on June 30, The Billings Gazette reported Tuesday. The theft was discovered by a third-party processing company that handles First Security's in-house Visa and MasterCard accounts. Bank president Gary Howell reported the theft to the Phillips County sheriff's office on May 2, and the sheriff turned the case over to the FBI. M...
HELENA (AP) — Montana is on pace to issue a record number of oil drilling permits this year while natural gas development has nearly come to a halt, state officials said. The state issued 228 oil permits through June, or one more than it issued in all of last year, the Montana Board of Oil and Gas said. Tom Richmond, the board's division administrator, said he expects oil permitting to remain steady in central and north-central Montana. "We still have a high level of interest in the central Montana Heath formation, and t...
COLSTRIP (AP) — The mayor of Colstrip said the city fired its police chief for several reasons, including a recent complaint by a female dispatcher that he invited her to view pornography on a city computer. "I do not feel confident in his ability to continue to lead the Colstrip Police Department," Mayor Rose Hanser said during Tuesday's city council meeting. Hanser and City Attorney Gary Ryder told The Billings Gazette that Larry Reinlasoder had been reprimanded in the past for making large purchases without the c...
HELENA — Political candidates in Montana reacted swiftly Monday to Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin's comments that women's bodies can prevent pregnancies if they are victims of "a legitimate rape." Attorney General Steve Bullock criticized his opponent's staunch anti-abortion stance after the issue made its way back into the spotlight. Bullock is running for governor against former congressman Rick Hill, who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest. "I think from that perspective, the difference c...
SUN PRAIRIE — A conservation group said Tuesday it has bought a 150,000-acre Montana ranch in a major step toward its goal of a national park-caliber prairie wildlife preserve that is stoking fears of change in the heart of cattle country. Steve Page with Page Whitham Land and Cattle confirmed that the family-owned South Ranch near Glasgow had been sold for an undisclosed sum to the American Prairie Reserve. The Bozeman-based group aims to create a multi-million-acre grasslands wildlife complex around northeast Montana's C...
HELENA (AP) — Republican Rick Hill says that is he is elected governor he would make sure the state did more to reduce the number of wolves. The former congressman said Monday that he thinks management of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is flawed. Hill is running against Attorney General Steve Bullock, a Democrat. Last month, FWP commissioners approved new wolf hunting rules that allow trapping and the killing of up to three of the predators by one trapper. Hill said he believes that FWP needs to go further, and believes the a...
HELENA — The Montana Republican Party is ending its call to make homosexual acts illegal, but the party is reinforcing its opposition to gay marriage. The changes came over the weekend at the party's convention in Missoula. The GOP had held the position seeking to criminalize homosexuality since a 1997 Montana Supreme Court case struck down similar state laws. The party had been criticized in recent years for continuing to maintain the stance. But party executive director Bowen Greenwood says the decision to drop the l...
HELENA (AP) — A University of Montana vice president whose emails helped fuel an ongoing controversy over the handling of rapes reported at the Missoula school is stepping down. The school says Jim Foley no longer holds the title of vice president for external relations. He will continue other work for the school for the next year. Emails released last month show that Foley questioned if a student could be punished for speaking publicly about how the school was handling her report of being raped. Foley also urged use of t...
HELENA — Denny Rehberg often wears cowboy boots while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, telling stories about his ranching background and bashing the "death tax" and "Obamacare," characterizations popular with Montana's rural residents. To Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, the Republican congressman who wants to take his place is all hat and no cattle. AP Photo/Matt Gouras U.S. Sen. John McCain, left, reacts to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012, while campaigning for Rehberg in Great Falls, Mont. Rehberg is e...
GLASGOW (AP) — A BNSF Railway official says a freight train headed from Chicago to Portland, Ore., has derailed in a remote part of northeast Montana. Spokesman Gus Melonas says about a dozen cars derailed Tuesday afternoon about 20 miles east of Glasgow. He says the train had four locomotives and 57 loads of containers carrying general merchandise ranging from batteries to paper products to canoes. Melonas says several containers spilled their contents but there was no environmental threat, and no injuries were reported. A...
GLASGOW (AP) — A BNSF Railway official says a freight train headed from Chicago to Portland, Ore., has derailed in a remote part of northeast Montana. Spokesman Gus Melonas says about a dozen cars derailed Tuesday afternoon about 20 miles east of Glasgow. He says the train had four locomotives and 57 loads of containers carrying general merchandise ranging from batteries to paper products to canoes. Melonas says several containers spilled their contents but there was no environmental threat, and no injuries were reported. A...
BILLINGS — A man was injured Friday during a run-in with a black bear that was later killed in the remote Bob Marshall Wilderness in northwest Montana, wildlife officials said. The unidentified man was hurt early in the day in an area known as Black Bear Creek. It was unclear what provoked the attack, but officials said the man sprayed the animal with bear spray during the encounter. The victim was taken to Kalispell Regional Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. A hospital administrator told The Associated Press...
HELENA — A West Virginia man accused of shooting himself and then claiming to be a drive-by victim was arrested in northeastern Montana on Thursday and quickly released on a $10,000 bond. Ray Dolin, 39, appeared at the Glasgow courthouse at 10 a.m. as the Valley County prosecutor had arranged with Dolin's attorney, Jeffrey Simkovic. Dolin had previously been under the care of Veterans Affairs in Montana and Wyoming as the attorneys negotiated his return to the county. Prosecutors say Dolin, of Julian, W.Va., has a...
HELENA — Montana wildlife commissioners approved new wolf hunting rules Thursday that allow trapping and the killing of up to three of the predators by one trapper. The move came after the officials waded through thousands of written comments regarding management of the species that evokes strong emotions. The new rules approved on a voice vote closely resemble regulations in Idaho and follow a hunting season when Montana hunters failed to reach the quota of 220 wolves. Wildlife managers will allow some trapping, lift most qu...
HELENA — Republican Mitt Romney is raising money in Montana on Wednesday night as he becomes the first major presidential candidate to visit the state this year. Romney will be in Hamilton for a fundraiser at the Daly Mansion. The cost to attend starts at $2,500 per person, and goes up to $25,000 or more for those dining with the former Massachusetts governor. The event is sponsored by Charles Schwab, the brokerage house founder and a part-time Montana resident. Romney supporters say they expect Romney will carry the r...
BILLINGS (AP) — Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg exchanged sharp words Monday in only their second head-to-head debate this campaign season, with each candidate directly dishing — and responding to — attacks that have been dominating state airwaves. Rehberg used every opportunity to tie Tester to President Barack Obama, who Rehberg argued has brought failed policies on health care, business regulation, taxes and other issues. The Republican on several occasions brought up the pending closure of a nearby coal-...
HELENA — There are few undecided voters remaining in the big Senate battle between U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Republican challenger Denny Rehberg — but the campaigns are spending plenty to try and reach them. AP Photo/Michael Albans, File In this June 16, 2011, photo Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., answers a question from an unidentified audience member after the first debate of the 2012 election against Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., in Big Sky. Dale Specht of Great Falls is one of them. The retired school janitor goes to the sam...
HELENA — Dale Specht of Great Falls is a retired school janitor who goes to the same barber as U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, but also appreciates the assistance U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg once offered him on a veteran's issue. And he could be just about the most valuable voter in Montana: one of the few remaining undecideds who is paying attention and plans to vote. AP photo/liza Wiley Independent Record U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg spoke Thursday in the Montana state capitol after filing for office earlier this year. Rehberg said he is c...
MISSOULA (AP) — The Missoula County Attorney's Office says it's concerned a rape case against suspended Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson is becoming what it calls a "trial of the victim" and has requested that 36,000 text messages from the woman's phone be reviewed privately by the court. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/Pzpe0Z) that Assistant Chief Deputy County Attorney Suzy Boylan filed the motion Thursday. She also wants documents containing the text messages filed under seal. Johnson has pleaded not guilty to s...
MISSOULA (AP) — A 2-year-old dog who ran away after a fatal crash on Interstate 90 in western Montana earlier this month was captured Friday morning and will be returned to her family. A Clinton landowner captured Bella at 7:45 a.m. in a live trap baited with Bella's toys, food and some chicken. AP Photo/The Missoulian, Michael Gallacher Missoula veterinarian Patti Prato, left, examines Bella, the dog lost in a fatal car crash earlier this month near Clinton, Montana, at her Four Paws Clinic Friday morning in Missoula. M...
BUTTE (AP) — Montana firefighters struggled Saturday with 19 active wildfires as the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for a weekend of lightning and high temperatures that could spark more blazes. AP Photo/Madison County Disaster & Emergency Services, Steve DiGiovanna A firefighter stands ready at the 19 mile fire,between Madison County and Butte. Rapidly expanding wildfires across a broad swath of southern Montana have caused injuries and burned homes, buildings and vehicles, authorities said Thursday, a...
