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News you can use
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HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court is setting up a possible challenge to aspects of the high profile U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted political speech rights to corporations. The state court decided Friday to restore Montana's century-old ban on direct spending by corporations on political candidates or committees. The lawsuit was prompted by U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year granting political speech rights to corporations. The Montana Supreme Court says the state has a "compelling interest" to uphold c... Full story
SUPERIOR — Longtime guidance counselor Dan Lucier studies hallway-mounted photos of past graduating classes at Superior High School, pointing to the teenagers who joined the military. There are usually one or two in each class of about 30 students who graduate from the one-story wooden school in Superior, a town of 900 residents in the forested northern Rockies. But the class of 2003 was the most striking for its military service, coming two years after the attacks of Sept. 11 and just months after the country went to war w... Full story
KALISPELL (AP) — A skydiver who crashed into a retaining wall while attempting to jump into Washington-Grizzly Stadium before a University of Montana football game this fall is expected to make a full recovery but says he just feels lucky to be alive. The Daily Inter Lake reports (http://bit.ly/sEIEMi) that Blaine Wright, a 53-year-old rocket engineer and a veteran skydiver, is recuperating at home in Whitefish after the Oct. 29 crash in which a gust of wind blew him off course during the Silvertip Skydivers' popular p...
HELENA — Montana Republicans think the time is ripe for them to retake the governor's mansion they previously held for 16 years before losing in 2004. But here's the problem: The sheer number of hopefuls is creating a jumbled, messy courtship of the far-right voter bloc critical to winning the GOP nomination. An abnormally large and possibly still-growing field of nine is engaged in the crowded race to win the conservative heart of the Montana GOP. The candidates are banking that some momentum remains in the wake of the t... Full story
MATT GOURAS,Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Legislative supporters of extractive and other industries want to ask voters to change the Montana Constitution's "clean and healthful environment" provision to help aid development. The declaration in the Constitution's inalienable rights has long been a sore point for those who say it gets in the way of development — while conservationists and others hail it as forward-thinking language that has helped preserve the state. A Republican lawmaker told the House Judiciary Com...
BILLINGS (AP) — Overwhelmed and almost giddy, Billings Central High freshman Mikayla Nelson was ecstatic as she left the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night after the State of the Union address. "It was the most amazing and touching experience of my life," she said. Nelson was invited by the White House last week to sit with first lady Michelle Obama and her other guests at the State of the Union address. She said the invitation and then the actual experience of being there Tuesday night were surreal. During the broadcast, N... Full story
Senate moves to undermine federal health care HELENA — The state Senate is advancing two Republican measures aimed at undermining federal health care reform. One measure tells the attorney general to join an ongoing lawsuit from other states challenging the federal law, despite objections that plan could run up against the state Constitution by trying to give an order to the attorney general. The other bars the state from implementing the federal requirement to purchase health insurance. The GOP holds a 28-22 majority in the...
ROUNDUP — Part of the legacy of flooding earlier this year by the Musselshell River in central Montana goes beyond how high the river rose to how much it changed the landscape, residents say. Ranchers say it covered cropland in river sand, made some irrigation projects useless and left one suspension bridge with nothing to span. AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer, File This May 26, photo shows the Musselshell River flooding the town of Roundup. Part of the legacy of flooding earlier this year by the Musselshell River i...
BILLINGS (AP) — High temperatures, low humidity and steady winds helped a wildfire in southeastern Montana spread to more than 5,000 acres Tuesday, prompting evacuations near Lame Deer. Fire officials say the blaze is about half a mile north of the town on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Marilyn Krause, a spokeswoman for the Northern Rockies Type II incident management team, said the fire is not contained and is among five burning in the area. She said mandatory evacuations have been ordered northwest of Lame D...
HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court is making it clear that it won't be easy to preserve Montana's century-old ban on corporate political spending. Justices peppered Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock with questions during oral arguments Wednesday morning. Bullock is appealing a state judge's ruling that the ban is unconstitutional in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year on a related issue. Justice James Nelson says he agrees with Bullock that the state's ban is needed to limit corruption. But he also says j... Full story
Kathleen Helen Schweitzer, the mother of Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the daughter of Box Elder homesteaders, died Sunday. She was 83. She died following a fall on Friday morning when she became tangled in her miniature schnauzer's leash on a visit to the veterinarian in Helena and banged her head, the Montana governor said. She was initially taken to a hospital in Helena and seemed OK, the governor said, but was later transferred to Benefis Medical System in Great Falls after doctors realized she had suffered a broken blood...
HELENA — Lawmakers aiming to crack down on drunk driving made it clear Wednesday that the state's relatively lax laws on driving drunk very likely could get a makeover over the next several months. The spotlight on repeat drunk driving has intensified over the past couple of years following some high-profile deaths and a promise from policymakers to do something about it. House and Senate committees meeting Wednesday and Thursday were looking over 17 proposals that included everything from tougher penalties to more t...
BILLINGS — Montana ranchers are not likely to face new sanctions on cattle exports following yet another round of suspected brucellosis infections, signaling an effective truce in the long-running debate over the animal disease, state officials and outside veterinarians said. Tests are pending to confirm the suspected cattle infections, which officials said last week were found in a 150-head herd in southern Park County. Brucellosis causes pregnant animals to prematurely abort their young and is blamed for weight loss and o...
LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT, Mont. (AP) — — On a hot, nearly windless day in early August, Edwin C. Bearss is looking across the Little Bighorn River as he describes an early scene in the battle that would come to be known as Custer's Last Stand. He is dressed in a ball cap, two T-shirts and a pair of stained khaki pants held up by an ancient leather belt. His hiking boots, by contrast, are sturdy and relatively new. He looks like a man who can't be bothered by superfluities. AP Photo/The Billings Gaz... Full story
HELENA — A battle in the Montana Supreme Court over a century-old ban on corporate political spending could determine the fate of some third-party attack ads in the 2012 elections. A conservative group called Western Tradition Partnership — which does not file campaign finance reports — has riled Democrats and even some Republicans with its hard-hitting attack mailers. The ads generally slam Republicans in primaries that the group considers too moderate or liberal, and then take aim at Democrats in the general elect... Full story
HELENA (AP) — State Sen. Kim Gillan is leading the other candidates in fundraising in the campaign for the 2012 Democratic nomination for Montana's U.S. House seat. Gillan's campaign reported Friday that the Billings Democrat had raised about $97,000 from July to October and has $90,046 in the bank. State Rep. Franke Wilmer of Bozeman was next, reporting $55,559 raised for the quarter and $41,757 on hand. Wilmer also loaned her campaign $7,500. Missoula City Council member Dave Strohmaier raised $22,636 for the three-month p...
HELENA (AP) — A new report says the Montana public employee pension system's projected shortfall is growing larger. Analysts hired by the Montana Public Employees Retirement Administration say past market losses and other factors remain a drag on the system. The annual look at the pension system shows that the projected shortfall, known as the unfunded liability, has grown about 20 percent over the past year to $1.6 billion. The analysts found that investments fared well over the past year, growing about 19 percent. But t...
HELENA (AP) — Republican Steve Daines of Bozeman is reporting that he raised another $180,000 over the last quarter in his bid to succeed U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg. Havre Daily News/Tim Leeds Republican candidate for the U.S. House Steve Daines of Bozeman, Mont., speaks during a meet-and-greet in Havre on Oct. 3. Daines has raised a total of about $760,000 since first declaring a U.S. Senate bid last year. He switched to the House race when Rehberg announced early this year that he would be leaving the office to challenge D...
BILLINGS (AP) — A convicted murderer who was freed without bail while awaiting a new trial enjoyed his first hours of freedom by swimming in a hotel pool and eating at McDonald's. Barry Beach, 49, said food smells and tastes totally different outside Montana State Prison, where he has spent nearly 29 years serving a 100-year sentence for a murder he says he didn't commit. District Judge E. Wayne Phillips ordered the new trial last month, and on Wednesday released Beach pending those proceedings, which have not been s...
AP Photo/Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer Barry Beach emerges from the Fergus County jail after his release by District Judge Wayne Phillips in Lewistown on Wednesday. BILLINGS (AP) — A convicted murderer who was freed without bail while awaiting a new trial enjoyed his first hours of freedom by swimming in a hotel pool and eating at McDonald's. Barry Beach, 49, said food smells and tastes totally different outside Montana State Prison, where he has spent nearly 29 years serving a 100-year sentence for a murder he says he d...
HELENA — Montana officials on Friday approved the relocation of 68 quarantined bison from Yellowstone National Park to two Indian reservations amid intense debate over whether the animal that once populated the American West has a place on today's landscape. The Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission gave its permission to move the animals once agreements are negotiated with Fort Belknap and Fort Peck tribal leaders over monitoring for disease and how to prevent the animals from escaping to neighboring land. Ownership of the a... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Conservation groups are asking a higher court to evaluate their lawsuit that challenges the federal Bureau of Land Management's plan for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in central Montana. Three groups totaling six plaintiffs filed appeals Monday after a federal judge dismissed their lawsuit in August. The groups, including The Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society and Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument, are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to agree that the B...
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Public Service Commission's first meeting stalled Monday over the new Republican majority's attempt to pick one of their own as a chairman — leaving the panel without a leader and the GOP with a very public internal fight on its hands. New Republican commissioner Travis Kavulla of Great Falls said he won't vote for veteran GOP commissioner Brad Molnar unless the sometimes confrontational Molnar signs a code of conduct. Molnar rejected the offer — and called Kavulla "extremely arrogant" for m...
KALISPELL — A SWAT team has arrested a fugitive after a six-hour standoff at a Kalispell motel. Police Chief Roger Nasset says officers tossed three flash bangs and then stormed the room shortly before 5 p.m. Friday and arrested Thomas Mulligan. He's accused of an alleged parole violation stemming from a kidnapping conviction. Police held off making any moves for several hours because Mulligan claimed to have a gun and said he would not be taken alive. Nasset says when it became clear efforts to talk Mulligan out weren't goin...
HELENA — Montana wildlife officials on Wednesday said they will recommend the relocation of 68 quarantined Yellowstone National Park bison to two Indian reservations after running into strong opposition by ranchers and landowners to proposals to move the animals to other parts of the state. The bison could be moved to the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations this winter if the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission approves the recommendation at its Dec. 9 meeting. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File A government horseback rider h...
