News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1592 - 1616 of 2820
BILLINGS — Family and friends of one of the two suspects in a brutal Montana kidnapping described him as an illiterate young father who was eager for work when he fell under the sway of a convicted criminal promising lucrative work in the Bakken oil fields. Court documents filed by the prosecutor in the case indicate 22-year-old Michael Spell of Parachute, Colo., has confessed to his role in the crack-fueled abduction and killing of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold of Sidney, Mont. Spell and co-defendant Lester Van Waters Jr., 4...
BOZEMAN (AP) — The parents of a child born with cystic fibrosis have filed a lawsuit against health care providers contending they would have terminated the pregnancy had they known of the genetic disorder. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://bit.ly/zcBpQZ) in a story published Sunday reports that Kerrie and Joe Evans of Gardiner filed the lawsuit in October in Gallatin County District Court, citing emotional distress and increased health care costs. Named in the lawsuit are Livingston HealthCare, Bozeman OB/GYN and S...
MISSOULA (AP) — Authorities say a Saudi national studying at the University of Montana fled the country after a female student reported being drugged and raped by the man, and the school called the man without contacting police. School officials say the alleged rape occurred on Feb. 10, but wasn't reported to the school until Feb. 17 as the school investigated another female student's report to campus police about being assaulted by the same man. The school that day called the man and also issued a campus-wide email about a...
HELENA — A federal judge on Friday blocked more Montana campaign finance laws amid an ongoing battle over political spending restrictions, and ruled that corporations are indeed allowed to donate to some political action committees. Montana officials are fighting multiple attacks aimed at undoing state restrictions. The legal battles follow a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United that grants free-speech rights to corporations. U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell struck down a state ban on knowingly false st...
BILLING — A Nebraska insurance company has filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana to recover $16 million that was used primarily to cover a sweeping financial settlement of asbestos-related claims from residents of the Superfund town of Libby. The lawsuit from the Omaha-based National Indemnity Co. asks a Montana judge to order the return of any payments in the settlement that fell outside the state's insurance policy. Most of the money from National Indemnity went toward a $43 million settlement in September with m...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with a power company Wednesday in a dispute with Montana over who owns the riverbeds beneath 10 dams sitting on three Montana rivers. In a case that reached back to the travels of Lewis and Clark more than 200 years ago, the court voted unanimously to throw out a state court ruling that could have cost the company, PPL Montana, more than $50 million. The power company had appealed a Montana Supreme Court ruling that the state owns the submerged land beneath the dams on the M...
BILLINGS — Authorities said Wednesday they believe a body found outside Williston, N.D., is that of a missing Sidney high school math teacher who disappeared Jan. 7 during a morning run. Sidney assistant police chief Robert Burnison said the body, likely that of Sherry Arnold, is being sent to the state medical lab in Missoula for further identification. Authorities told The Associated Press the body had been buried. The recovery effort started Tuesday in western North Dakota about 50 miles from Sidney and the body was f...
BILLINGS — Sixty-four bison from Yellowstone National Park were shipped almost 500 miles to northeast Montana's Fort Peck Reservation on Monday, under a long-stalled relocation initiative meant to repopulate parts of the West with the iconic animals. They arrived Monday night greeted by a crowd of dozens of tribal members whose flashing cameras spooked some of the animals, while others charged straight into the holding pen. A yearling bison died during the trip, leaving 63, said Fort Peck Fish and Game Director Robert M...
LIVINGSTON (AP) — Thanks to an eye for vintage items and a little Internet sleuthing, the Community Closet's Heather Heath has made museum staff in Michigan very happy. A limited-edition book, published in 1923, will soon be on its way to the Leslie Area Museum, in Leslie, Mich., a small town of about 2,000 located 25 miles south of Lansing, the state capital. Caron Cooper, the Community Closet's executive director, asked the store's board for permission to donate the book to the Michigan museum. It's the store's policy to s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked a Montana court ruling upholding limits on corporate campaign spending. The state court ruling appears to be at odds with the high court's 2010 decision striking down a federal ban on those campaign expenditures. The justices put the Montana ruling on hold while they consider an appeal from corporations seeking to be free of spending limits. The state argues, and the Montana Supreme Court agreed, that political corruption gave rise to the century-old ban on corporate c...
HELENA (AP) — A state judge has certified a class-action lawsuit against Benefis Health System in Great Falls over the hospital's billing practices. Shannon Conway of Great Falls claims Benefis owes him money the hospital collected from an auto insurance policy over and above the amount his health insurance company was obliged to pay for his care under its preferred provider agreement with the hospital, the Great Falls Tribune (http://bit.ly/wXfS2l) reported Thursday. District Judge Kenneth Neill granted class-action status t...
HELENA — A Bozeman-area state Senate race keeps collecting unlikely candidates, with a former Republican saying Wednesday that he is running as a Democrat so he can change the "would-be communists" from within. Michael Comstock filed this week to run as a Democrat in Senate District 34 — despite a campaign website that features common GOP talking points and is critical of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The announcement follows news that Kurt Bushnell, an active union political leader and supporter of Dem...
HELENA — Crowded primary battles are solidifying with the last day of filing for access to the 2012 ballot. Seven Republicans are seeking the governor's office being vacated by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. And several Republican incumbent state legislators are again facing a primary challenge. Montana Democrats say they believe the turmoil will help them reclaim legislative seats lost in 2010 when Republicans rushed to historic margins in the state House. The Montana GOP dismissed the prediction, saying the party embraces the c...
HELENA (AP) — Crowded primary battles solidified Monday with the last day of filing for access to the 2012 ballot, a busy day topped by the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor formally filing for office. Seven Republicans are seeking the governor's office being vacated by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. But for the Democrats, Attorney General Steve Bullock has all the limelight. "Montana is at a crossroads, and the decisions we make and the people we elect will shape the future," said Bullock, who recently announced Montana N...
DILLON (AP) — U.S. Forest Service officials say about 100 campers had to be evacuated after an escaped campfire burned about 35 acres along the Bear Trap National Recreation Trail in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness in western Montana. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/ykZdqG) that officials evacuated the campers late Saturday after the fire started near the intersection of the Madison River and Bear Trap Creek. Officials have closed all access to the area. Officials are investigating the fire and are asking anyone who saw a...
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer is proposing an aggressive public pension fix as he nears the end of his term. The projected shortfall for the state's government worker pension system exceeds $3 billion over the next 30 years. Schweitzer is calling for employees and their public employers to each increase their contributions an additional 1 percent of the salary paid. His plan would also funnel some revenue from natural resource development into the pensions. An influential union leader says employees would agree to pay m...
HELENA — A district judge may have broken Montana's code of judicial conduct when he wrote a letter soliciting donations for another judge who is running for a seat on the state Supreme Court. District Judge Laurie McKinnon of Choteau confirmed Monday that Judge Nels Swandal of Livingston wrote the undated letter in support of her candidacy, and that the letter was distributed by her campaign. McKinnon said she accepted responsibility for the letter but declined to speak to its contents, other than to say she does not b...
HELENA (AP) — Two Republicans running for governor in a crowded primary have chosen running mates. Former state Sen. Corey Stapleton says former legislative colleague Bob Keenan of Bigfork has agreed to be the candidate for lieutenant governor on his ticket. Keenan was last on the political scene with a failed primary challenge to former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006. Stapleton has so far trailed former congressman Rick Hill in fundraising in a race that features seven hopefuls for the GOP nomination in June. Chouteau C...
HELENA — County election officials are mailing nearly 170,000 absentee ballots for the June 5 primary election. Secretary of State Linda McCulloch tells Lee Newspapers of Montana the number of ballots being mailed Monday is a record for a Montana primary. An estimated 143,000 absentee ballots were sent out for the June 2010 off-year primary, while more than 109,500 people requested absentee ballots for the June 2008 primary, which also was a presidential election year. The number of absentee voters has grown steadily since t...
MISSOULA (AP) — Workers have installed eight banks of lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, giving the University of Montana football program the ability to hold late afternoon practices or games and host night games. The Missoulian (http://bit.ly/Ht2lut ) reports the light poles lifted into place by cranes on Thursday each holds between 18 and 22 lights facing the field. Some of the poles also have four lights that will shine into the tailgate area. Associate athletic director Chuck Maes says the school raised private m...
HELENA (AP) — Five Native American inmates who filed a lawsuit over strip searches required before and after they participated in religious sweat lodge ceremonies at a private prison in Montana can pursue part of their case, but cannot seek monetary damages, a federal judge has ruled. "Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to pursue their claims regarding the strip searches, the alleged prohibition of essential sacred items, and one alleged retaliatory act," U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell wrote. However, Lovell ruled t...
HELENA (AP) — Two men suspected of kidnapping a Sidney schoolteacher have asked that a new judge to be assigned to their case. Attorneys for Lester Waters and Michael Spell filed documents last week requesting a substitute for District Judge Katherine Irigoin. The documents did not give a reason for the request. Public defenders Cynthia Thornton and Randi Hood did not return calls Monday. Spell and Waters have pleaded not guilty to aggravated kidnapping in the disappearance of 43-year-old Sherry Arnold, who was abducted w...
HELENA — Two days after posting bail for drug and burglary charges, former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf has been arrested a second time in Montana. Central Montana Drug Force Commander Chris Hickman says Leaf was arrested early Monday in Great Falls and is facing charges of burglary, theft and two counts of criminal possession of dangerous drugs. He also is being detained on a probation violation. Hickman says the new charges stem from a burglary on Saturday — the day after Leaf was arrested and charged with burglarizing an acq...
HELENA — "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson says the dismissal of a civil lawsuit that accused him of fabricating book passages to make money for himself and his charity confirms his faith in the U.S. justice system. Mortenson told The Associated Press in an email Monday that he has been overwhelmed at times dealing with the lawsuit, a Montana investigation into the Central Asia Institute and surgery to repair a small hole in his heart. "At times, facing so much was overwhelming and devastating, however, my a...
MISSOULA (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the way police, prosecutors and the University of Montana handle reports of sexual assault in Missoula. Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenberg says he received a letter Monday informing him of the investigation. He says he also was visited by representatives of the agency's Civil Rights Division. The Justice Department was expected to announce the investigation at a 3:30 p.m. news conference today. UM President Royce Engstrom says it was his understanding t...
