News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1427 - 1451 of 2820
HELENA — A judge has issued an injunction that effectively prevents Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill from spending a disputed $500,000 donation before Tuesday's election. District Judge Kathy Seeley's order issued Wednesday says Hill's campaign appears to be in violation of the state's campaign contribution limits by keeping the Montana Republican Party donation. The order keeps in place a hold that has been in effect since last Thursday. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until there is a final j...
HELENA — A state judge has released a heavily redacted investigative report in the 2009 boat crash that injured U.S. Senate candidate Denny Rehberg. The 155-page document released Wednesday is a 2011 presentencing investigation report compiled after the boat's driver, state Sen. Greg Barkus, pleaded guilty to felony criminal endangerment. The report details many facts already known. Barkus piloted the boat into the rocky shore of Flathead Lake at a high rate of speed and with a blood alcohol content that was at least twice t...
BILLINGS — Rapidly expanding wildfires across a broad swath of southern Montana have caused injuries and burned homes, buildings and vehicles, authorities said Thursday, as firefighters struggled to contain the flames amid hazardous conditions. The precise toll of the latest spate of fires to hit the state remained uncertain. But there were well over 150 homes threatened by blazes that in some cases burned unchecked. AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Bob Zellar A pickup makes it out just ahead of the Rosebud fire Wednesday. R... Full story
HELENA — A convicted Montana medical marijuana provider with a history of serious illness died Thursday after his transfer to a federal prison that could give him proper medical care was delayed for months. Richard Flor's death came weeks after a federal judge denied an attorney's request to release the 68-year-old Miles City resident while he appealed his five-year sentence. U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell wrote in his Aug. 7 order that it was "unfortunate" that Flor's transfer to a Bureau of Prisons medical facility w...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A 10-episode documentary filmed on a Hutterite colony in Montana is scheduled to debut on the National Geographic Channel on Tuesday. AP Photo/National Georgraphic, Ben Shank This undated image released by National Geographic Channels shows Hutterite Judy Hofer picking carrots from the garden in King Colony. "Meet the Hutterites," a National Geographic documentary series about a small religious colony in rural Montana, debuts Tuesday. The documentary, titled "American Colony: Meet the Hutterites," was f... Full story
KALISPELL (AP) — A man dressed in a military-style "ghillie" suit and apparently trying to provoke reports of a Bigfoot sighting in northwest Montana was struck by two cars and killed, authorities said. The man was standing in the right-hand lane of U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on Sunday night when he was hit by the first car, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. A second car hit the man as he lay in the roadway, authorities said. Flathead County officials identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell. Tr...
ROUNDUP — Gov. Brian Schweitzer has extended his emergency declaration to include six counties and an American Indian reservation in eastern Montana threatened by wildfires. The emergency order signed Wednesday morning is for Musselsshell, Rosebud, Custer, Treasure, Yellowstone and Big Horn counties, along with the Northern Cheyenne reservtion. AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer Lights from a fire truck streak across a burning hillside in a time exposure as the Dahl fire burns, south of Roundup, overnight W...
MISSOULA (AP) — Missoula County's chief administrative officer has asked county commissioners to add $100,000 to next year's budget that might be needed due to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the way Missoula police, prosecutors and the University of Montana have responded to reports of sexual assault and harassment after the agency learned of complaints that cases weren't being properly handled. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/O6283F) that Dale Bickell made the request Friday, saying the county may h...
BOZEMAN (AP) — A former Bozeman High School track coach who authorities say sent sexually explicit messages to two 15-year-old girls has pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually abusing children and one charge of tampering with evidence. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/OPP7HP) that 30-year-old James Michael Evans pleaded guilty to the three felonies in Gallatin County District Court on Friday as part of a plea agreement. The agreement calls for Evans to serve 30 days in the county jail followed by five y...
CANYON, Texas (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf could return to West Texas as early as next week to face a judge who could revoke his probation on drug-related charges. Leaf pleaded guilty in Montana after his arrest for breaking into a house and illegally possessing painkillers. A Montana judge on Tuesday gave Leaf at least nine months in a drug treatment center. Leaf received 10 years of probation in Texas in 2010 after pleading guilty to felony drug charges stemming from a burglary while he was a coach at West T...
WHITEFISH (AP) — An attorney for a conservative Christian group is confident a judge will uphold a decision by the Flathead National Forest to renew a permit for a 6-foot-tall Jesus statue on Big Mountain near Whitefish. CeCe Heil with the American Center for Law and Justice said case law that discourages the government from being "hostile" to religion favors the agency, the Daily Inter Lake (http://bit.ly/O9eCqK ) reported. "The government's position in this case is well supported," Heil said Monday on a teleconference c...
BILLINGS — Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby — a welcome dose of normalcy for a city that has become synonymous with lung disease and death. It's a major milestone for the mining town of about 3,000 people near the Canadian border where an estimated 400 people to date have been killed by asbestos exposure. More than 1,700 have been sickened. Lethal dust from the WR. Grace and Co....
BILLINGS — Authorities say a West Virginia man who claimed to be a victim of a drive-by shooting along Highway 2 near Glasgow has confessed to shooting himself. Valley County Undersheriff Vernon Buerkle says 39-year-old Ray Dolin of Julian, W. Va., acknowledgement Thursday night. No charges were immediately filed against Dolin. The case remains under investigation and Buerkle says charges are possible. Dolin claimed he was hitchhiking along U.S. Highway 2 west of Glasgow when the driver of a maroon pickup pulled over and s...
LIVINGSTON (AP) — The Park County town of Pray is scheduled to be sold at auction later this month. The five-acre townsite three miles north of Chico Hot Springs has been on the market for $1.4 million for several months without a buyer. Owner Barbara Walker decided to go with an auction because she wants to focus on her photography career. She says she plans to set a reserve price below which she will have the option to decline officers. Pray is made up of a closed historic store, a post office, a few mobile homes and a l... Full story
BILLINGS (AP) — Prosecutors say they will seek to increase bail to $100,000 on a suspect being held in the weekend shooting of a hitchhiker outside of Glasgow. Fifty-two-year-old Lloyd Christopher Danielson III of Tumwater, Wash. is expected to appear Tuesday in Valley County Justice Court on charges of felony assault with a weapon. He allegedly shot 39-year-old Ray Dolin of Julian, W. Va. in the arm as the victim was hitchhiking along U.S. Highway 2 near Glasgow on Saturday. Danielson was initially held on $50,000 bail a...
A man hitchhiking across the country and writing a memoir called "The Kindness of America" was injured in a random drive-by shooting along a rural highway near northeastern Montana's booming Bakken oil patch, authorities said Monday. Ray Dolin, 39, of West Virginia, was shot in the arm as he approached a pickup Saturday evening thinking the driver was offering him a ride, said Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier. The shooting took place just west of Glasgow along U.S. Highway 2. A 52-year-old Washington man, Lloyd Christopher... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that a legislative referendum calling for income-tax credits when there is surplus state revenue is unconstitutional. Friday's 4-3 decision upholds a district judge's ruling that the referendum cannot appear on the November ballot. The referendum would have required the state Revenue Department to issue income-tax credits if the state general fund balance exceeds the Legislature's projection by a certain percentage and dollar amount. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled in J...
GREAT FALLS — Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he broke into a Montana home and illegally possessed painkillers, part of a deal with prosecutors that recommends he spend nine months in a secure drug treatment facility. The former San Diego Chargers quarterback and Washington State standout was shackled hand and foot and wore a black-and-white prison stripes as he told Cascade County District Judge Kenneth Neill that he needed treatment. "I'm very much looking forward to the o...
BILLINGS — Government workers are set to begin hazing hundreds of wild bison back into Yellowstone National Park after capturing a small group of the animals for use in a birth control study. Montana state veterinarian Marty Zaluski says 10 bull bison were captured Tuesday near West Yellowstone. Seven were later released and three turned over to U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers. The government is studying whether birth control can rein in the park's burgeoning buffalo herds and reduce its rate of disease. T...
GREAT FALLS — Former Washington State and NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf has reached a plea agreement on drug and burglary charges filed in Montana. The Great Falls Tribune reports Leaf's attorney, Kenneth Olson, requested a combined arraignment and change-of-plea hearing on charges that Leaf broke into two houses in his hometown and stole prescription painkillers. District Judge Kenneth Neill set the hearing for 1 p.m. Tuesday. The details of the plea agreement had not been filed in District Court Monday afternoon. Cascade C...
HELENA — Montana officials planning the state's upcoming wolf hunt are considering allowing trapping for the first time and eliminating quotas in an effort to reduce the number of wolves in the state. Ranchers and hunters concerned about their livestock and big-game kills have complained the growing wolf population threatens their interests and they have pressured state regulators to do more to cut wolf numbers. In March, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials invited county commissioners from across the state to Helena t...
BILLINGS — Negotiations are under way for the voluntary return of a man accused of shooting himself then claiming to be the victim of a drive-by shooting, a Montana prosecutor said Friday. Suspect Ray Dolin, 39, of West Virginia has been charged with evidence tampering, making false reports and obstructing an officer in Valley County. He was last reported to be under the care of a Veterans Affairs hospital in Wyoming. His phone was not accepting messages. Under a proposal being negotiated with Dolin's attorney, the d...
HELENA (AP) — A new poll shows Montana's U.S. Senate candidates continuing to run in a tight contest. A Lee Newspapers of Montana poll found Republican Denny Rehberg, a six-term member of the House, supported by 49 percent of respondents. Incumbent Democrat Jon Tester had 45 percent. Libertarian Dan Cox had 1 percent and 5 percent said they're undecided. Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. of Washington, D.C., polled 625 registered voters on both cellular and land-line phones from Monday through Wednesday. The poll's m...
HELENA — The Montana 2012 election season has been dominated by battles over money that promise to continue long after Election Day — thanks largely to the anonymous backers of a Virginia-based nonprofit that Gov. Brian Schweitzer is now calling a "criminal organization." Less than a week before the election, Schweitzer rallied a crowd against anonymous political money and American Tradition Partnership. The governor said the group is engaged in using "dirty, secret, corporate and foreign" money in a conspiracy to inf...
HELENA — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is spending the weekend before the election barnstorming the state with other Democrats in a final effort to break through a tough-as-nails battle with U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg. Rehberg had a quieter weekend, spending his time with family and at his Billings field office helping volunteers make calls encouraging voters to the polls. AP Photo/Matt Gouras Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., right, campaigns with Sen. John Thune, R-Mont., left, in Helena on Oct. 16. Rehberg has been turning to o...
