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News you can use
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SIDNEY (AP) — Residents of a tight-knit eastern Montana town mixed calls for justice with sorrowful relief Friday as they mourned a high school teacher who was kidnapped, strangled and her body buried in a shallow grave discovered after two months of searching. Hundreds of people filled the Sidney High School gymnasium for Sherry Arnold's funeral, held in the same school where Arnold taught for 18 years, where her husband Gary still teaches and her two children attend classes. AP Photo/Williston Herald, Elijah Nouvelage S...
HELENA — The West Texas district attorney who prosecuted former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf in 2009 said Saturday that he'll file a motion to revoke Leaf's probation following his arrest in Montana. Leaf was arrested Friday in his hometown of Great Falls on burglary and drug possession charges, police said. James Farren, the Randall County district attorney who prosecuted Leaf in Texas and negotiated a plea deal with him in 2010, said he would file the motion Monday to revoke the 10-year probation Leaf got in the agreement. "...
WOLF POINT (AP) — A Florida man who pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he killed his friend by running him over on the side of a highway in northeastern Montana, told a reporter after the court appearance that "it was an accident." Charles Bowen, 46, of Tavares was arraigned Wednesday on a negligent homicide charge for the death of Brian Doyle. Doyle was a friend from Jensen Beach, Fla., who had come to the region to find oil field work. Bowen's mother, Marian Bowen, has said the two worked for the same company, V...
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...
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...
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 — Attorney General Steve Bullock continues to lead in the money race among the field of candidates seeking the governor's office, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Bullock's supporters gave him another $100,000 in the first two months of the year, and he rolls toward the June primary as the presumptive nominee for the Democrats with about $440,000 in the bank. On the Republican side, former Congressman Rick Hill maintained his advantage in that primary by totaling $350,000 in his campaign coffers, a...
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... Full story
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...
MISSOULA (AP) — A group representing Montana's travel and tourism industry has started an initiative to raise awareness about how tourism benefits the state's economy. Voices of Montana says its ultimate goal is persuading state lawmakers to make money available to market the state as a tourist destination. The Missoulian in a story published Sunday reports that the initiative is starting ahead of the 2013 Montana Legislature. Spokeswoman Mary Paoli says the privately-funded group started by the Montana Lodging and H...
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 — Neil Livingstone's biography reads like a real-life man of international intrigue, where big paydays and dealings with dictators are commonplace. Now the counterterrorism expert says he wants to leave all that behind to become Montana's governor, where chairing the state land board and congratulating state football champions could count as an exciting day. Livingstone lists his own exploits as exploring tunnels beneath the demilitarized zone separating the Koreas, fleeing from angry Nazis in Argentina, suffering i...
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 — The Republican challenger in Montana's heated Senate race is calling for a ban on all out-of-state campaign donations. U.S. Rep Denny Rehberg's proposal also seeks a ban on advertising by all third-party groups. Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester asked Rehberg to join him in barring third-party advertisements from the race for the Democratic incumbent's seat. Rehberg proposed Friday to take that idea much further. Rehberg is calling for each campaign to immediately return all money donated by PACs, lobbyists a...
BILLINGS (AP) — North Dakota's governor has signed papers authorizing the extradition of two men held in the kidnapping of a Montana teacher who is presumed dead. A spokesman says Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed documents late Tuesday authorizing the extradition of 22-year-old Michael Spell and 47-year-old Lester Waters, Jr. They are being held on $2.5 million bond each in the kidnapping of 43-year-old Sidney high school teacher Sherry Arnold. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Feb. 14 in North Dakota district court in W...
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...
BILLINGS — Hardin officials said Friday they are considering relinquishing control of a $27 million jail that was built with the promise of spurring economic development but instead became a source of frustration and embarrassment for the southeastern Montana city. The 464-bed jail has sat vacant since it was built five years ago under the direction of Hardin's Two Rivers Authority. With no short-term prospects for finding inmates, Two Rivers Executive Director Jeffrey McDowell said the title to the jail could be turned o... Full story
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...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Police in Great Falls say an overnight standoff that included shots fired ended about 10:45 a.m. Saturday with a man in custody and that the area is now safe. Capt. Bryan Lockerby tells the Great Falls Tribune (http://bit.ly/yulbAP ) that evacuated residents may return to their homes on the city's northwest side. The standoff lasted about 16 hours. The man's name has not been released....
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... Full story
