News you can use
News you can use
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HELENA (AP) — The chairman of the Blackfeet Indian tribe says the U.S. attorney for Montana broke the trust of the tribe when he decided to prosecute a tribal council member and state senator accused of fleeing a traffic stop on the reservation. The federal prosecution of Democratic Sen. Shannon Augare for reckless and drunken driving and obstruction of a peace officer is an incursion into tribal sovereignty, Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. wrote to U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter in an Aug. 14 letter recently obtained by The A...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Police in Bozeman shot a pit bull terrier and arrested its owner after being called to a mobile home amid a party. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://tinyurl.com/kz69gor) reports 36-year-old Adam Lavern Brannon was arrested for disorderly conduct after officers said he directed racial slurs and obscenities at neighbors he believed responsible for calling police about the party. Police say Brannon's dog charged an officer who was approaching the mobile home Saturday night, seeking to get the attention of s...
BILLINGS (AP) — The mother of a 14-year-old rape victim said a Montana judge was "covering his butt" after he apologized for saying her daughter was "older than her chronological age," as prosecutors said Thursday that the judge may have erred in giving the rapist only 30 days in prison. The comments from District Judge G. Todd Baugh in a case involving a teacher raping a student have drawn widespread condemnation from across the country. The 71-year-old judge attempted to q...
HELENA (AP) — Attorney General Tim Fox says Montana is joining Alabama, Alaska and Oklahoma in protesting Bureau of Land Management plans to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal land. Fox said Thursday he and the attorneys general from those states sent a letter last week to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. They argue that BLM fracking rules will duplicate existing state programs and cannot be justified. Jewell has said federal rules are needed to reconcile a patchwork of state fracking rules. T...
BILLINGS (AP) — Montana prosecutors have asked a judge to keep the trial in the murder of a high school teacher in her hometown of Sidney, after defense attorneys sought to have the case moved because of fears of bias among potential jurors. In comments posted with newspaper articles about the 2012 murder of math teacher Sherry Arnold, some readers called for "Old West Justice" in the case and for the suspects to "hang from the nearest tree." But in court documents released Thursday, prosecutors argued to Judge Richard S...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is asking state environmental regulators to further study the effects copper exploration would have on two key waterways before granting a company permission to dig a mile-long tunnel. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/1a2Fhn9 ) the comment from FWP was among the more than 4,400 responses the Department of Environmental Quality received after issuing a draft environmental assessment that gave preliminary approval to the central Montana e...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge apologized Wednesday for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her — remarks that prompted protests and a petition for his resignation. District Judge G. Todd Baugh made the comments Monday while sentencing former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to a 15-year prison sentence then suspending all but 31 days and giving him credit for one day already served. Yellowstone County off...
BILLINGS (AP) — A former Billings Senior High School teacher who pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old student who later killed herself has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a judge who said the victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. District Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse without consent, with all but 31 days suspended. He gave Rambold credit for one day already served, The Billings Gazette r...
HELENA (AP) — Democrat John Lewis has filed paperwork to enter the 2014 race for the Montana U.S. House seat held by Republican Steve Daines. Lewis earlier this month left his job as state director for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. The Billings native is the first to formally file federal paperwork to run for the office. Republican Matt Rosendale has filed paperwork that leaves open the possibility of a House or Senate run. Baucus announced earlier this year he won't be seeking another term — and so far no Democrats have filed to...
LOLO (AP) — Fire managers at the Lolo Creek Complex of fires near the town of Lolo focused Sunday on the northern edge of the fire that's heading toward a Bonneville Power Administration power line. Fire spokesman Thomas Kempton says contingency plans are being made should the 16-square-mile fire reach the 500-kilovolt line that's about a mile and a half from the fire. He says about 800 personnel and seven helicopters are assigned to the lightning-caused blaze that destroyed five homes last week. He says firefighters have h...
HELENA (AP) — The deputy director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has been cited with misdemeanor assault after police say he punched a man who made a derogatory comment about the woman accompanying the deputy director. Helena police tell the Independent Record 44-year-old Mike Volesky punched a 36-year-old man in the jaw Thursday evening at the Downtown Walking Mall near the Big Dipper ice cream store. Helena Assistant Police Chief Steve Hagen says the 36-year-old declined medical treatment at the scene. Hagen says V...
BUTTE (AP) — A Butte man who police say impersonated an officer has pleaded not guilty. The Montana Standard reports (http://bit.ly/18RkCxr) that 47-year-old James Richards Sr. made the plea at an arraignment hearing Thursday. He remains free on bond. Police say that in June Richards forced another vehicle to pull over on Interstate 90 and told the people in the vehicle he was a member of a drug task force and ordered the people out of the vehicle. Police arrested Richards later that day after determining he was i...
LOLO (AP) — Fire crews bolstered a barrier meant to prevent a pair of wildfires from moving east toward houses and heavy timber outside the town of Lolo as light rain and cooler conditions helped efforts to contain the blazes. The Lolo Creek Complex of fires was 40 percent contained Friday night and burning on more than 15 square miles, fire officials said. Crews building fire lines with bulldozers and shovels were working to connect the lines to keep the fire from moving closer to Sleeman Gulch and homes to the east o...
DEER LODGE (AP) — An inmate serving a life sentence for deliberate homicide has died at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Prison spokeswoman Linda Moodry says inmate Cleveland Boyer was found in his cell in a high security housing unit Friday morning and died at the hospital just before 9 a.m. He was 23. An autopsy is planned. Boyer was given a life sentence in January for the shooting death of his former best friend, Daniel Valenzuela. Valenzuela was shot numerous times as he stood at a downtown Billings convenience s...
LOLO (AP) — Fire crews took advantage of rain and cooler conditions Friday to work on a barrier meant to prevent a pair of wildfires from moving east toward houses and heavy timber outside the town of Lolo. The weather Thursday and early Friday allowed firefighters to make progress in corralling the Lolo Creek Complex of fires, which was 30 percent contained Friday morning and holding at about 9,500 acres, or nearly 15 square miles. Crews building fire lines with bulldozers and shovels were working to connect the lines to k...
HELENA (AP) — A federal appeals court is ruling against state laws designed to buck federal gun rules. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed with a lower court's decision that struck down the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The 2009 Montana law attempted to declare that federal firearms regulations don't apply to guns made and kept in that state. Other pro-gun states subsequently passed similar laws. But the Justice Department successfully argued that the courts have already decided Congress can use its p...
HELENA (AP) — A panel advising U.S. Sen. Max Baucus on his plan to rewrite the nation's tax code told him on Thursday that the government should maintain deductions that benefit the poor, small businesses, education, retirement savings and innovation. Baucus is working with the chairman of the House, Ways and Means committee, Republican Dave Camp of Michigan, on a plan to get rid of many tax credits, deductions and loopholes viewed as unproductive. They also want to reduce tax rates. Baucus said he hopes the effort will resul...
HELENA . (AP) — Reinforcements arrived in western Montana as dry thunderstorms and high wind gusts forecast for Thursday made it tougher to predict which way a pair of wildfires threatening 1,200 homes would turn. Since topping the nation's priority list Wednesday, the number of people assigned to the two fires west of the town of Lolo has jumped from 260 to 508, and air and engine support has also increased. That includes Montana National Guard helicopter crews and troops assigned to relieve local authorities at r...
MISSOULA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock ordered two Montana Army National Guard helicopter teams and 18 checkpoint teams to join firefighting efforts on the Lolo Creek Complex west of Lolo. A total of nearly 110 Guardsmen are expected to be on duty by Thursday morning. The UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter teams will be stationed at the Montana Department of Natural Resources state land office in Missoula, while the checkpoint teams will report to their locations at 8 a.m. Thursday. The soldiers will be placed on active duty for up to 1...
LOLO (AP) — Fires have burned at least four homes so far in western Montana and high temperatures and increasing winds made the blazes likely to keep spreading, a state fire official said Tuesday. The two fires west of Lolo had been holding most of the day at nearly 8 square miles burned, but the wind speed started picking up Tuesday afternoon, state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation fire spokeswoman Crystal Beckman said. By evening, the Lolo Creek complex of fi...
HELENA (AP) — Authorities say a woman may be headed to South Dakota with her four children who are not in her custody. The Montana Department of Justice issued a Missing/Endangered Person advisory Tuesday at the request of the Helena Police Department. The agency identified the mother as 36-year-old Jennifer Marie Raymond. She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and 150 pounds. The children are two sets of twins. Melena Marie Frost and Rena Ruth Frost are 7 years old, and each is 4 feet, 1 inch tall and 50 pounds. Therron Joseph F...
LOLO (AP) — Authorities are searching for a man who went berry picking near Lolo Creek just before a wildfire moved into the area. The Missoula County Sheriff's Office says 60-year-old Mark Hannah went with a friend Monday to pick huckleberries off U.S. Highway 12. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/19GYPgr) the men headed back when they noticed increasing smoke, but became separated. Hannah's friend made it to a dirt road that led back to the highway, and a sheriff's d...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — An attorney representing a Blackfeet tribal leader accused of fleeing an officer during a drunken-driving stop has asked a judge to dismiss the charges. Federal prosecutors have charged Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member and state Sen. Shannon Augare with misdemeanor counts of DUI, reckless driving and obstruction of a peace officer. Tribal attorney Joe McKay says in Friday's motion to dismiss that the federal court lacks the jurisdiction to hear the case. The tribe has its own law and order code t...
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A B-1B bomber crashed in a remote area of southeastern Montana on Monday, but its four crew members survived after ejecting from the South Dakota-based aircraft, Air Force officials said. Two pilots and two weapons system officers ejected before the bomber crashed about 9:30 a.m. near Broadus, said Col. Kevin Kennedy, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing. He said they were taken by ambulance and air to two South Dakota hospitals, but none of them suffered life-threatening injuries. Aerial photos of the c...
BOZEMAN (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is making decisions that should be left to Congress or the people, from wiretapping to "inventing" new classes of minorities, Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday. In an apparent reference to the court's recent decisions on gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples, Scalia said it is not the function of the courts to create exceptions outside the Constitution unless a majority of people agree with them. "It's not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special p...
