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HELENA (AP) — A judge has ordered the Montana Department of Administration to release salary information for 14,000 state employees to a Bozeman-based think tank. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports District Judge Dorothy McCarter of Helena recently ruled in favor of the Montana Policy Institute, which advocates for free-market economic policies. Her ruling said citizens have the right to examine the operations of government agencies. Department of Administration Deputy Director Sheryl Olson said Monday agency officials were r...
HELENA (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service says it will re-authorize a permit for a 57-year-old statue of Jesus that had been facing eviction from a northwestern Montana ski resort. The agency faced a firestorm of criticism from religious groups, the state's congressman and residents after it decided last fall to boot the Jesus statue from its hillside perch in the trees. The Forest Service said Tuesday will renew a 10-year special-use permit for the Knights of Columbus Council statue. Service supervisor Chip Weber says the d...
BILLINGS (AP) — As thousands of workers and their families move to North Dakota's Bakken oil field in search of jobs, nearby rural Montana communities' resources are being pushed to the limit. Housing, education and infrastructure are top government concerns regionally. But after the recent disappearance and apparent murder of Sidney high school teacher Sherry Arnold, communities also are looking closely at law enforcement. "We have a lot of activity now in this part of the state," Sidney Police Chief Frank DiFonzo said in e...
HELENA — State Sen. Jeff Essmann of Billings said that he is dropping out of the crowded Republican primary, indicating his presence in the race could detract from the GOP effort to take back the governor's office. Essmann sent a letter to supporters, dated Thursday, saying Republicans need to be united in their financial support for the primary winner if they hope to defeat Steve Bullock, the Democratic attorney general running for governor. The letter was released to the public on Friday. Essmann told supporter that "the c...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Montana State University plans to tear down about 55 so-called "Monopoly houses" that for decades housed students. "They're just wearing out," said Tom Stump, MSU director of auxiliary services, "The majority are already vacant. The floor joists are failing. They have asbestos siding, asbestos in the floors." The houses are scheduled to be torn down this summer as part of a $9.1 million project to save energy, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/yJZgMl). The school has been paying to heat the h...
HELENA — Even as Republicans sought the high ground in the ongoing battle over Montana's troubled political practices office, inadvertently released emails show GOP leaders maneuvering to fill the ethics chief post with an ally. Former Commissioner Dave Gallik resigned last week amid a public dispute with his staff over his work time, and the hullaballoo has escalated as a legislative interim committee discusses the issue and lawmakers deal with a Friday deadline to find new applicants. Montana Senate President Jim P...
Montana's senior senator announced that today he will hold the first meeting of a special committee tasked with extending benefits that are hoped to help with the economic recovery. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, released an advisory Monday saying that the conference committee on payroll tax deductions, which he co-chairs with House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., would meet today at 12:30 p. m. "Each member of this conference committee will bring a unique set of...
HELENA (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Pat Williams and former Bozeman Mayor Jeffrey Krauss have been appointed to the state Board of Regents, which oversees the Montana university system. Gov. Brian Schweitzer announced the appointments Wednesday. Williams spent 30 years as a classroom teacher and education administrator and served in the U.S. House from 1979-97, where he was chairman of the post-secondary education committee. Following his retirement from Congress, Williams taught at the University of Montana. Krauss is the d...
MISSOULA (AP) — The state Board of Regents plans a system-wide look at the way it handles reports of sexual assault after an ongoing investigation uncovered reports of at least five recent attacks at the University of Montana. At Thursday's meeting in Helena, board members expressed concern about the sexual assaults at UM and made a commitment to work to prevent similar attacks on all of Montana's college campuses, the Missoulian reported. The regents called the attacks "intolerable" and affirmed their commitment to safe s...
BILLINGS (AP) — Montana's 2011 wheat crop is valued at $1.3 billion, surpassing $1 billion for the second consecutive year, according to the state bureau of National Agricultural Statistics Service. Officials told the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/AsE9l3) that strong and lasting wheat prices kept values high despite challenging weather during the crop year. Crop values in 2010 were $1.4 billion. Montana wheat values have exceeded $1 billion only four times, all in the last five years. "In 2010, prices were low through t...
WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — Two suspects in the disappearance of a high school teacher requested an extradition hearing Tuesday that could delay their transfer from North Dakota to Montana to face aggravated kidnapping charges. North Dakota District Judge Josh Rustad on Tuesday set bonds of $2.5 million each for 47-year-old Lester Vann Waters and 22-year-old Michael Keith Spell. The two men have been held in Williston, N.D. since their apprehension last week in the Jan. 7 disappearance of math teacher Sherry Arnold of Sidney. D...
HELENA (AP) — A district court judge indicated Wednesday that a portion of a Republican-backed ballot initiative, which many in the GOP hope will tilt Montana Supreme Court elections to their party's favor, could be unconstitutional as alleged by critics. The Legislature last year sent the initiative directly to this June's primary ballot. It establishes regional districts that would each elect one justice to the state's high court. The court's six justices and one chief justice are currently elected in statewide e...
HELENA (AP) — A former Constitutional Party presidential candidate and Florida transplant says he is leaving the gubernatorial ticket headed by Bob Fanning of Pray. Chuck Baldwin said Monday that the campaign doesn't have enough money to run an effective campaign for governor. Recent finance reports show just $1,000 in the bank. Baldwin in 2008 was the Constitution Party's candidate for president, except for in Montana where the state party instead nominated Ron Paul. The Baptist minister moved to Montana in 2010 and soon a...
HELENA — Republican hopefuls for governor are increasing their efforts to carve out conservative ground from perceived front-runner Rick Hill with less than two months until the GOP primary. Hill, a former congressman and fixture in Republican Party politics who has stockpiled plenty of endorsements, maintains a solid fundraising edge in the seven-way primary. Hill's campaign labeled recent criticisms as "desperate" attempts to catch him. Former state senator Ken Miller of Laurel is trying to parlay his social conservative b...
HELENA — Ten people filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic priests and nuns in central and eastern Montana, including a priest who was on a board that reviews allegations of child sex abuse for the church. It is the third sex-abuse lawsuit filed against the Catholic church in Montana since last year and the first against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings. AP Photo/Great Falls Tribune, Larry Beckner Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff announces a lawsuit against t...
BILLINGS — A judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging the state Land Board's lease of 587 million tons of publicly-owned coal in southeastern Montana. Conservation groups had argued that further environmental studies were needed and that the lease sale would make mining inevitable if allowed to stand. But District Judge Joe Hegel says the state did not give up its discretion to halt mining at a later date when it leased the coal to St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc. for $86 million in 2010. Hegel said in his Feb. 3 ruling that t...
HELENA — Two top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for a hearing Tuesday to examine a Montana judge's conduct in forwarding an email that included a racist joke involving bestiality and President Barack Obama's mother. Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Steve Cohen of Tennessee told Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, in their letter that the committee has a duty to investigate the potential consequences of Judge Richard Cebull's email. "At a minimum, forwarding this email illustrates poor judgment and o...
BILLINGS (AP) — The city of Billings says it spent nearly $21,000 defending itself against a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg and his wife that alleged negligence by the city's fire department in 2008 led to more damage after a wildfire at the Rehberg Ranch Estates subdivision. The Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/x3by3q ) reports the city released the information Tuesday at the request of the campaign of Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who is being challenged by Rehberg in the 2012 election. The Rehbergs dropped t...
HELENA — An investigation into the second of two fatal grizzly bear attacks last summer at Yellowstone National Park was unable to conclude if the same bear was responsible for both deaths, a report released Monday said. But DNA tests show the bear that killed California hiker Brian Matayoshi in July fed on Michigan hiker John Wallace with one of her cubs in August, and evidence of two other bears in the area where Wallace's body was found much farther away — 65 feet and 492 feet from the body. The report indicates there is...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Ryan Leaf will stay in jail in Great Falls a while longer while Texas prosecutors work with their Montana counterparts to revoke the ex-quarterback's probation on 2010 drug charges. Probation and Parole Office regional administrator Dawn Handa tells the Great Falls Tribune (http://bit.ly/HU9rIL0 ) that the 30-day hold gives authorities the time they need to send information between states. The former Washington State and NFL quarterback was arrested last Friday and Monday on separate allegations that he b...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Lewistown judge who freed convicted killer Barry Beach and got sued by his clerk said Friday he is retiring from the bench. Judge Wayne Phillips, 63, said he wants to leave the judiciary after two terms before his performance deteriorates. "A job of district judge is very wearing, and I'm worn out," Phillips said. "I feel like I'm still at the peak of my capacity, so it really is the best thing for the citizens of the district that I leave at the top of my game." (AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer) This...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Montana State University's investigation of a former music professor found he made inappropriate advances to college students and at least one high school student, and that one high school would no longer allow him contact with its students. A judge ordered the documents released Thursday after the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Montana Newspaper Association sued, arguing the investigation into professor Shuichi Komiyama should be made public. Komiyama, 48, resigned Sept. 30. He had been placed on paid l...
MISSOULA (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is beginning an investigation into the way police, prosecutors and the University of Montana deal with reports of sexual assaults after complaints that the allegations were not properly handled. Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenberg, Mayor John Engen and Police Chief Mark Muir received letters Monday informing them of the investigation. Van Valkenberg said he also was visited by representatives of the agency's civil rights division. The letter, obtained by KECI-TV, said t...
MISSOULA (AP) — Fired University of Montana football coach Robin Pflugrad and athletic director Jim O'Day have met with attorneys in the wake of their sudden dismissals. The Missoulian reports in a story published Sunday that Pflugrad has met with Milt Datsopoulos of Datsopoulos, MacDonald and Lind, a firm that has represented UM football players with legal problems in recent years. O'Day has hired the Billings law firm of Edwards, Frickle and Culver. University President Royce Engstrom told Pflugrad and O'Day on Thursday t...
HELENA— U.S. Sen. Max Baucus is coming out with an early campaign advertisement this week and clearly making an announcement that he will run again in 2014 despite some speculation to the contrary following his bruising participation in the health care debate. The Democrat who is fifth in the U.S. Senate in seniority and has long been known as a dealmaker in Washington D.C., even often crossing party lines to do so. But he saw his approval ratings at home nosedive after the Obama administration tasked him with turning t...
