News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1792 - 1816 of 2820
BILLINGS (AP) — A trooper who resigned last month rather than being fired was investigated several times during his 17-year career with the Montana Highway Patrol, according to a report obtained by a newspaper. The Billings Gazette reported Thursday the investigations included allegations that Steve Wisniewski pointed a gun at a motorist and repeatedly struck a man with a baton while probing a traffic crash. Patrol commanders assigned an officer to examine Wisniewski's past after learning Wisniewski had lied about his previou... Full story
Indian leader: Unleash energy on tribal lands WASHINGTON — To achieve energy independence, the United States should focus on tribal lands with vast untapped supplies of coal, natural gas, oil and wind, the leader of the nation's largest Indian organization said Thursday. Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said tribal lands contain about 10 percent of U.S. energy resources, but provide less than 5 percent of national energy production. He blamed bureaucratic obstacles that prevent tribes f...
HELENA — The House has endorsed a plan to use only mail-in ballots for the state's main elections on a 57-43 vote despite a divided Republican majority. The issue has failed for years in the Montana Legislature after the political parties took turns opposing it. Many of the conservative tea party Republicans opposed the measure on Thursday. The plan brought forward this time was a long time in the making and likely better researched than past efforts. Under House Bill 130, all local, municipal, state and federal elections wou... Full story
OP chairman says he will run again for post HELENA (AP) — Montana Republican Party chairman Will Deschamps says he will seek re-election after the GOP's big wins last year. Deschamps is making it known early that he will seek another term as chairman when Republicans hold their state convention in June in Butte. Deschamps says Republicans had a great year by seizing large margins in the Legislature after November's election. He says the party needs to finish the job by duplicating that success with the statewide offices on t...
Mont. Senate acts to undermine federal health care MATT GOURAS,Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two Republican bills aimed at undermining federal health care reform advanced Wednesday in the state Senate despite objections that one of the measures may itself be unconstitutional. Republicans in control of the Legislature have made their opposition to the federal health care reform a priority this legislative session. A long list of GOP bills aim to stymie implementation that in many cases will have to be done by state a...
MISSOULA (AP) — Police say officers used stun guns to subdue two University of Montana football players Sunday morning after the team returned to Missoula following a game Saturday at Northern Arizona. Sgt. Collin Rose says quarterback Gerald Kemp and cornerback Trumaine Johnson scuffled with police officers who responded to a noise complaint at about 2:40 a.m. Rose says one player struck an officer in the chest with an open hand and the second player grabbed the officer to prevent the arrest of his teammate. Both players b...
HELENA — Several dozen people are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena over sexual abuse they say they suffered as children at the hands of clergy members in western Montana. The 34 men and women, who now range in age from 45 to 73, say the diocese must answer for what they claim is its "gross negligence" in the alleged abuse by at least eight clergy members, including six priests and two nuns, that took place from the late 1940s through the 1970s in St. Ignatius, Missoula and Arlee. More alleged victims may be added a...
BILLINGS — As many as 360 migrating wild bison would be shot by hunters in Montana, captured for slaughter or shipped elsewhere this winter under a proposal from Yellowstone National Park officials seeking an alternative to the indiscriminate slaughters of years past. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show officials are considering "selective culls" to help reduce the park's bison population from 3,700 animals to about 3,000. Some of this winter's anticipated decrease would come from natural deaths. AP Photo/Janie O...
HELENA — The state Department of Transportation's chief human resources officer has resigned just days after the agency's former director stepped down amid revelations that his daughter was given a DOT job. The department's new director tells Lee Newspapers of Montana (http://bit.ly/nEbjvA ) that Jennifer Jensen quit Monday afternoon. Jensen was the chief human resources officer when former director Jim Lynch's daughter, Emily Rask, was hired in 2008 to work in the department's human resources office. Lynch resigned T...
HELENA — Six year ago, farmer Jon Tester ran as an outsider fighting lobbyists and corruption in Washington D.C. — even promising a unique ethics platform that has since pushed other elected officials to publicly post meetings held with lobbyists and others. But after nearly five years in the U.S. Senate the Democrat's pledge is being tested amid one of the hottest Senate races in the country and the demands of raising millions in campaign money. AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File Democrat Jon Testercelebrates with family, inc... Full story
HELENA — A judge has given the go-ahead to break up Montana's third-largest health insurance company as part of an antitrust settlement. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's Monday order sets the ground rules for the divestiture of New West Health Service's commercial insurance business. Five of the hospitals that own the company want to switch their 11,000 employees' insurance coverage to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. Regulators say the deal would spell the end of New West's commercial business and drive out c...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Montana's Board of Regents plans to ask each campus in the state's university system to set funding priorities and suggest what they can do without to help the system save money, higher education leaders said. "Prioritization, we're very committed to," Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns said Thursday during a listening session with Montana State University professors and others. "The process will take a couple years. Every program will have to justify itself." Regent Stephen Barrett, of Bozeman, sa... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Former Montana Transportation Director Jim Lynch has announced plans to run for governor. Jim Lynch Lynch is the ninth Republican to join the 2012 governor's race along with two Democrats. Term limits prevent Gov. Brian Schweitzer from seeking re-election. Schweitzer asked Lynch to resign as transportation director in August after the administration confronted Lynch about that agency's hiring of Lynch's daughter about four years ago. Lynch has maintained that he did nothing wrong and was not involved in the h... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A Helena man who was shot to death in his apartment Thursday was denied a temporary restraining order last month and filed for divorce two days before his estranged wife was arrested on suspicion of killing him and another woman. Joseph Andrew Gable, 48, sought a temporary order of protection from Michelle Coller Gable on Sept. 20, alleging she was stalking him, the Independent Record reported Friday (http://bit.ly/pCOEBK). He said Michelle Gable, 48, had entered his apartment while he was trying to change t...
HELENA — A 911 call captured two women's voices saying, "Don't do it," and, "You took my husband," before gunshots rang out in a shooting that left a man and a woman dead in a Helena apartment, according to court documents filed Friday. The documents provided new details into the Thursday morning slayings of Joseph Andrew Gable, 48, and Sunday Cooley Bennett, 50, at Gable's home. Gable's estranged wife, Michelle Coller Gable, was due to appear in court Friday on two charges of deliberate homicide. AP Photo/The Independent Rec... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Montana lawmakers are considering bills to regulate the growth and sale of medical marijuana. Republican Sen. Dave Lewis of Helena has introduced Senate Bill 154, which would have the Department of Revenue regulate medical marijuana. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports Lewis' bill would require growers to be licensed, file quarterly reports, submit to inspections and pay a 10 percent tax on the sale of marijuana. A separate bill, House Bill 68, would require a licensing fee to pay for the cost of regulation by t...
MATT GOURAS,Associated Press HELENA (AP) — Utilities and supporters of a high-voltage power line in north-central Montana asked the Legislature Wednesday to make sure eminent domain can be used to build such projects when private landowners won't let them. A Montana judge ruled last month that the Canadian developer building the Montana Alberta Tie Line does not have the authority to condemn private property for the project. State Sen. Ken Peterson said Wednesday in a legislative hearing that utilities had long believed t...
HELENA — Republicans running the Montana Legislature who have launched bills aimed at undermining a federal health care law they believe is unconstitutional may themselves be running up against the state Constitution by trying to order the attorney general to take action. The first GOP proposal on the issue to get a hearing Wednesday would direct the state attorney general to join about 20 other states suing the federal government over the health care plan. But the Legislature's top lawyer said in an analysis that ordering t...
MISSOULA (AP) — Police in Missoula have reviewed cellphone videos as part of an internal investigation over the use of a stun gun in the arrests of two University of Montana football players. Police Chief Mark Muir says the videos do not show any of the officers using force or anything leading up to the officers' use of force. He tells KECI-TV (http://bit.ly/v7DaFX ) the video does not support claims by the players' attorney that police used excessive force in arresting two players during a loud party early on Oct. 23. An o... Full story
LAUREL — State workers on Tuesday set fire to an oil-tainted logjam on an island along the Yellowstone River, the last of dozens of debris piles smeared with crude from an Exxon Mobil pipeline break that dumped 42,000 gallons of oil into the waterway. Two employees of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Derek Yeager and Matt Wolcott, used drip torches to ignite the woody debris as Exxon Mobil contractors looked on. With a blast of heat and a spiral of smoke, the fire spread quickly through the o...
HELENA — U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg is proposing a land swap to save a Jesus statue that is facing eviction from U.S. Forest Service land. AP Photo/Missoulian, Linda Thompson, File In this Feb. 20, 2011 file photo, Freshmen at the University of Montana, Jake Coburn, Stephanie Ralls and Claire Dal Nogare, from left, visit a statue of Jesus Christ at Whitefish Mountain Resort Whitefish on Feb. 20. The statue of Jesus on U.S. Forest Service land is about to be evicted amid an argument over the separation of church and state. The F...
HELENA — Republicans in control of the Montana Legislature are planning early votes next week in opposition to the new federal health care law, putting the spotlight on a major campaign theme for many in the GOP. Both the state Senate and House will take up bills next Wednesday that in some way oppose state implementation of the federal law, Republican leaders said. Their action is intended to coincide with a scheduled U.S. House vote on repealing the law. President Barack Obama's signature expansion of health insurance relie...
HELENA — Montana's Democratic secretary of state said Wednesday she's working with a Republican lawmaker to switch the state over to mail ballots for all elections. Secretary of State Linda McCulloch said counties that run polling places and elections could save more than $2 million each election cycle under a plan that she expects would dramatically increase voter turnout. Many voters currently mail ballots in through the absentee ballot process. But election officials must still staff and open polling places for others. P...
HELENA (AP) — An internal audit of supervisory changes at the Montana Department of Transportation over the past two years found a dozen instances in which the person who was hired or promoted didn't meet the minimum hiring qualifications for the jobs, the agency's director said. Tim Reardon told lawmakers Thursday he began the audit after a legislative audit reviewed five employment files and found three hires didn't meet the minimum qualifications. Reardon said two are performing their jobs well while a third appears to b...
HELENA — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus says he plans to marry his girlfriend and former director of his state offices. Baucus said Monday he and Melodee Hanes were engaged over the Christmas holiday in Helena. The 69-year-old veteran Democrat says they intend to marry in Montana this summer. Baucus and his second wife, Wanda, divorced in early 2009 after 25 years of marriage. The senator recommended Hanes for Montana's U.S. attorney post in 2009, a move that later came under scrutiny due to their relationship. By then, Hanes had w... Full story
