News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1452 - 1476 of 2820
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Canadian man has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in what the U.S. Attorney's Office in Montana says is one of the largest drug cases it has ever handled. U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon gave Christopher Chambers a lower sentence than federal guidelines recommend after Chambers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to export cocaine. Haddon said Monday he considered the fact that Chambers had no previous record and the support shown by about 30 friends and family members in the courtroom. P...
BILLINGS — Fire crews working in cooler temperatures Friday made gains on major wildfires threatening homes in central and southern Montana, but lightning continued to spark new blazes and the heat was expected return 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. Meanwhile, crews scrambled to squelch several new small fires caused by lightning in Fergus County, along Ambrose Creek in the Bitterroot V...
BOZEMAN — A conservation group wants a trap-free buffer in Montana to protect wolves roaming outside Yellowstone National Park. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition said the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission shouldn't allow wolf trapping in three management units that cover southern Montana from the Absaroka Mountains to the Madison Range. Montana wildlife commissioners earlier this month approved new wolf hunting rules that allow trapping and the killing of up to three wolves by one trapper to reduce the state's wolf p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Child labor groups say they are stunned and disappointed that the Obama administration is backing off a plan to keep children from doing the most dangerous farm jobs. Reid Maki, coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, said the Labor Department's sudden decision late Thursday to withdraw the proposed rules means more children will die in farm accidents that could have been prevented. "There was tremendous heat and I don't think it helped that it was an election year," he said. "A lot of conservatives m...
BILLINGS — Prosecutors on Friday filed murder charges and said they intend to seek the death penalty against two men accused of kidnapping a Montana teacher whose body was discovered after two months of searching. Lester Van Waters Jr., 48, and Michael Keith Spell, 22, are accused of grabbing Sherry Arnold off a street in Sidney, Mont., on Jan. 7 while she was on a pre-dawn run. Waters and Spell — two men from Parachute, Colo., who had arrived looking for work in oil fields — were arrested about a week after Arnold's disap...
DEER LODGE — Montana officials on Friday rejected parole for a notorious "mountain man" who abducted a world-class athlete in 1984 to keep as a wife for his son, and then shot her and left her to die during a rescue attempt. The state Board of Pardons and Parole held its third parole hearing for Don Nichols as federal authorities search for his son Dan, accused earlier this month with new drug and gun crimes. During his 20-minute hearing, the 81-year-old Nichols expressed contempt for the board. AP file photo/File This 1...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Brian Schweitzer has ordered all flags on state property to be flown at half-staff Friday in honor of James Browning, a Montana native who served for more than 50 years on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Browning served as chief judge of the San Francisco-based court from 1976 to 1988 and helped turn away pressure to split the 9th Circuit into smaller courts by persuading lawmakers to add more judges. He also is credited with modernizing the court's technology. Browning served as a clerk of the U...
HELENA — The Justice Department has broken its long silence about last year's crackdown on medical marijuana operations in Montana, with U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter saying more than two dozen people have been indicted so far and that prosecutions will continue. The statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office is the agency's first since a single press release was sent the day after the March 14, 2011, raids on 26 homes, offices and businesses that effectively stymied the state's once-booming medical pot trade. Then, f...
HELENA — A University of Montana vice president whose emails helped fuel an ongoing controversy over the handling of rapes reported at the Missoula stepped down from that position, the school announced Tuesday. UM said 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, in a move the school said was perhaps the last cabinet-level change to be made in the wake of a public relations bruising. Emails released last month show that Foley q...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Billings police officer who authorities say drove an intoxicated man and woman outside the city limits and left them on the side of a two-lane highway at 3 a.m. in January has been placed on leave without pay for two weeks. The Billings Gazette reports that Paul Lamantia must also write a letter of apology and attend cultural diversity training. Authorities in documents released Friday say officers believed the man and woman were trying to be taken to jail. But jail officials told officers they didn't h...
MISSOULA (AP) — A bullet-riddled outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" containing a fake birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama and graffiti that read "For a Good Time," and a reference to first lady Michelle Obama was on display at the Montana Republican Convention in Missoula. The Missoulian reports the display on Saturday also contained "For a Good Time" references to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, her name circled in red. The display, painted to l...
HELENA — A Montana health care group that lost its bid to run a state employee clinic has formally protested the awarding of the contract to a Tennessee firm, arguing the state incorrectly scored the proposals and violated state procurement laws. MiCare of Montana filed its protest with the Department of Administration last Wednesday, Lee Newspapers of Montana reported. The protest letter argues if the bids had been scored correctly, MiCare would have won. Officials with the state Health Care and Benefits Division said F...
HELENA — Protesters opposed to coal development in Montana occupied the state Capitol Monday, planning a week-long event that aims to convince elected officials to block future development leases. The protesters, led by a Missoula group called the Blue Skies Campaign, billed the "Coal Export Action sit-in" as a peaceful gathering. They hope to convince the Montana Land Board to reject development of coal in eastern Montana, or at a minimum delay action on the issue while more studies are undertaken. AP Photo/Matt Gouras L...
HELENA — The race to court the Republican Party's most conservative voters has prompted two candidates for governor to sign a lengthy "constitutional" pledge that, among other things, promises they will resign from office if they don't pursue such policies as privatizing state entitlement programs and pensions. It's the latest escalation in a pitched primary battle featuring a number of candidates who proudly tout conservative credentials as they seek to sway GOP voters increasingly interested in finding "constitutional" l...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration and labor unions have negotiated a 10 percent pay raise for state workers over the next two years, but there's a catch: The deal must be approved by legislators who won't meet until the lame-duck Democratic governor has left office. Three public employee unions announced the deal Monday at the state Capitol. It calls for base pay raises of 5 percent and a 10 percent increase in the state's share of employees' health insurance premiums in each of the next two years, Lee N...
RONAN (AP) — Confusion that led to the cancellation of a Hollywood movie producer's talk to some high school seniors in western Montana has led the superintendent to apologize and the principal to move his family out of their house because of death threats. "Schindler's List" producer Gerald Molen said he believes Ronan High School Principal Tom Stack did what he thought was right when he canceled the May 14 speech, but he said Stack didn't handle things very well. In a May 27 letter to the editor of the Daily Inter Lake, M...
HELENA — When federal agents raided 26 Montana medical marijuana provider homes, businesses and warehouses in March 2011, prominent among those targeted were the owners of Montana Cannabis. The four partners — Richard Flor, Chris Lindsey, Tom Daubert and Chris Williams — ran one of the state's largest pot businesses, with more than 300 registered customers. Montana Cannabis had locations across the state, a slick website and hundreds of leafy marijuana plants plainly visible through the windows of its massive warehouse on U....
HELENA — A charity watchdog says the penalties leveled against "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson for mismanaging and financially benefiting from his Central Asia Institute underscores the need for stronger regulation of charitable organizations. Daniel Borochoff of the American Institute of Philanthropy said the problems found at the Bozeman, Mont.-based Central Asia Institute are more prevalent in the charity world than most people think and that the regulatory structure is broken. "It's a Wild West atmosphere and i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 31-year-old soldier from Great Falls has been killed in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense said Sunday that Spc. Antonio C. Burnside died Friday at Ghanzi province from injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. Burnside was assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. He was supporting Operating Enduring Freedom....
MISSOULA (AP) — Suspended University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson has pleaded not guilty to raping a woman earlier this year. KECI-TV reports Johnson's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charge of sexual intercourse without consent and is asking prosecutors to turn over dozens of text messages traded between students and University of Montana administrators involved in the investigation. Johnson declined comment Tuesday as he left the courtroom to be fingerprinted and booked into jail. Prosecutors allege J...
HELENA — Attorney General Steve Bullock easily won Montana's Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday night and looked ahead to a general election battle with former U.S. Rep. Rick Hill, who topped a crowded Republican field. Hill was always considered the front-runner on the GOP side but had to fight hard to seal the win over state Sens. Corey Stapleton of Billings and Ken Miller of Laurel. AP Photo/Dylan Brown, Independant Record Steve Bullock and John Walsh supporters cheer, after Bullock gives a speech Tuesday nigh i...
BILLINGS — Two fast-moving wildfires triggered new evacuations in southeastern Montana on Monday as firefighters battled a potent combination of lightning strikes, dry weather and flame-whipping winds. The Horse Creek fire south of Hysham quickly grew from 3 to 9 square miles overnight. It was the largest of more than a dozen new fires sparked by weekend lightning strikes. Most were quickly contained, but residents along the Horse Creek and Sarpy Creek basins in Treasure County were evacuated, said Paula Short with the s...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — The U.S. Attorney's Office says a 48-year-old Malta woman has been sentenced to just over two years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $950,000 in restitution for defrauding a Belt bank when she and her husband applied for operating credit for their ranch. Lori Webb Knudsen was sentenced to 27 months in prison Monday during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon in Great Falls. Prosecutors say Steve and Lori Knudsen defrauded Belt Valley Bank by overstating their assets and failing to list h...
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EDT): 1. LIFE RETURNS TO NORMAL IN INDIA Now that power has been restored, work resumes while the government investigates what went wrong. 2. AUTHOR GORE VIDAL DIES AT 86 The playwright, politician and commentator made his living by challenging power. 3 HOW ROMNEY'S OVERSEAS TOUR COMPARES WITH OBAMA'S IN 2008 His recent visit to Britain, Israel and Poland was never envisioned to be as eye-catching but comparisons betw...
PRAY — The town of Pray in southwestern Montana failed to attract a bidder willing to pay the minimum acceptable amount. Bidding on Wednesday reached $325,000. The minimum acceptable wasn't disclosed, but owner Barbara Walker initially listed the property for $1.4 million. Walker said a large commercial space and apartment that is the central building on the property is worth more than the amount offered. "To not have a bid that is even serious today — providence is taking this in a very interesting direction," she said aft...
