News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1996 - 2020 of 2807
MISSOULA (AP) — The season premiere of "America's Most Wanted" brought in more than a dozen tips on Montana fugitive David Burgert, including six that officers in Missoula County consider "very interesting." Saturday's two-hour episode highlighted the most dangerous fugitives in each of the 50 states, beginning with Burgert, a former militia leader who has been missing since a shootout with deputies on June 12 in the Lolo area, the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/scGQcy ) reported. Sheriff's detective Jason Johnson was at the TV s...
Montana mail ballot bill fails amid racism allegation MATT GOURAS, Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A plan to use only mail-in ballots for the state's main elections, which haltingly moved forward with fragile bipartisan cooperation, failed Friday after allegations of racism from a Native American lawmaker and defensive counter-accusations. The simmering tensions between Republicans and Democrats erupted, somewhat surprisingly, over a bill that modifies the way elections are run. The House had abruptly changed its m...
MISSOULA, (AP) — The president of the University of Montana has set some ambitious goals for the next decade, saying he wants to increase graduation rates from 44 percent to 60 percent and more than double the amount of research money the school generates from $67 million to $140 million. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/n6hGwa ) Montana President Royce Engstrom announced his goals during his first State of the University address Friday. Engstrom, a former UM provost who has been with the university since 2007, was s...
CROW AGENCY — Crow tribal officials sent search teams Wednesday to remote parts of their reservation to look for people stranded by flooding, as cities and towns across Montana tried to stave off rivers and streams spilling from their banks. Flood waters in hard-hit southeastern Montana have receded enough for Crow reservation residents to return to find dozens of homes damaged by the flooded Little Bighorn River. AP Photo/Matthew Brown A flooded house and pickup near the Little Bighorn River in Crow Agency, Mont. are s...
NEW YORK (AP) — Huguette Clark, the Montana copper mining heiress who died in New York last month at 104, has left her fortune of about $400 million to the arts. According to her will, obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, she gave a prized Claude Monet water-lily painting not seen by the public since 1925 to Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art. Manhattan prosecutors are still looking into how Clark's finances were handled while she spent the last two decades of her life in a hospital, a virtual recluse. Before t...
HELENA — There is "probable merit" to the unfair labor practice charge filed by state employee unions after the Legislature nixed their negotiated pay deal, a Montana Department of Labor Investigator said Wednesday in a report. The unions filed the complaint last month with the Board of Personnel Appeals after the Republican-dominated Legislature refused to adopt raises the unions negotiated with Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. It was the first time state employee unions have taken such an action. Traditionally those c...
KALISPELL — The state Board of Regents has approved an increase in athletic fees for University of Montana students to fund a new softball program. The Missoulian reports students will see $12.50 added to their fee in each of the next two years. Montana President Royce Engstrom says the increased revenue will be used to help the university stay in compliance with federal gender equity laws by adding a women's softball team. Engstrom estimates the new team would cost about $700,000 a year and the new fee will fully fund the p...
KALISPELL — The Board of Regents has approved the hiring of Donald Blackketter as the next chancellor of Montana Tech. Blackketter, who is currently the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Idaho in Moscow, will start his new job in Butte on June 27. He will replace Frank Gilmore, who served for 13 years. Blackketter earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Wyoming and joined UI in 1989 as an assistant professor in mechanical engineering. He was a...
BILLINGS — A federal panel has rejected an attempt by conservationists to halt the construction of a long-stalled 121-mile railroad that would open a new area of Montana to coal mining. The Surface Transportation Board said opponents failed to show why the $550 million rail line needed further environmental review. The decision came Wednesday in response to a petition by the Northern Plains Resource Council and Montana rancher Mark Fix, who lives along the proposed railroad route. "We believe that (the Tongue River R...
MISSOULA — Two-term Missoula City Councilman Dave Strohmaier (STROW-meyer) says he'll formally announce he's seeking the Democratic nomination for Montana's congressional seat. Strohmaier told The Associated Press Thursday he'll make that announcement at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Farmers Market in Missoula. Strohmaier also sent an email to supporters alerting them of his intention to run....
MISSOULA — A Montana fugitive and ex-militia leader has been on the run since a Sunday shootout with deputies, but the trail has gone cold. Missoula County Sheriff Carl Ibsen said Thursday that deputies were trying to develop leads to find David Burgert, who authorities say ran off into the Lolo National Forest after exchanging shots with deputies following a low-speed car chase. Police think Burgert is hiding somewhere in the mountains near the Montana-Idaho border, an area of towering peaks, low brush and thick pine f...
HELENA (AP) — ?An East Helena woman is trying to put a constitutional initiative to the voters to decriminalize marijuana so that it is regulated like alcohol. Lee Newspapers State Bureau reports that Barb Trego filed the paperwork this week with Secretary of State Linda McCulloch Trego is a 56-year-old medical marijuana patient and former Lewis and Clark Sheriff's Office employee. State agencies must review the proposal before the petition language is approved and she can start collecting signatures. To qualify for the b...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg's campaign says the Republican raised $914,456 over the last three months in his 2012 election challenge of Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. That's about $300,000 less than Tester raised for the quarter that ended June 30. Rehberg reported spending $341,865 for the period, leaving him with $1.5 million in the bank. Rehberg is in his sixth term as Montana's only congressman. He is trying to unseat the freshman Tester in a campaign that has gotten heated early. Friday's report details R...
HELENA — The deadline for Gov. Brian Schweitzer to veto the Republican-led Legislature's medical marijuana overhaul has come and gone. The bill became law on Saturday and already is causing confusion. The sponsor says the state must immediately stop issuing medical marijuana cards. AP Photo/The Independent Record, Eliza Wiley A tractor trailer passes by the empty former greenhouses for Montana Cannabis in Helena, Mont. Montana stopped issuing medical marijuana registration cards after a deadline passed for Gov. Brian Schweitz...
LEWISTON, Idaho — Aerial gunners in a helicopter have killed at least five wolves in north-central Idaho since Wednesday in an effort to protect elk herds, but the hunting has been halted because it hasn't been as successful as expected, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game official says. Deputy Director Jim Unsworth said agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services suspended the hunt indefinitely Friday because it was inefficient and expensive. He said some wolf packs are being found by radio collars w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush have designated public land as national monuments, using a federal law to protect from development sites judged to have natural, historical or scientific significance. Now some House Republicans, saying the 105-year-old law has been misused, have introduced bills to limit or block the president's ability to make such designations without approval from Congress. GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana compared the 1906 Antiquities Act to the mythical sword of Dam...
BOZEMAN (AP) — A tiny actor traded his Darth Vader costume for a Montana State football uniform, but he still used "The Force" to light up the new scoreboard at Bobcat Stadium. Montana State University held a dedication ceremony Friday night for the new $10 million stadium expansion, an effort that added 5,200 seats and bowled in the southern end of the stadium. AP Photo/Montana State University, Kelly Gorham In this photo provided by Montana State University, Max Page helps introduce a new scoreboard at Bobcat Stadium. P...
BUTTE (AP) — A judge signed an order Thursday to temporarily end a strike by Butte public school administrators that shuttered schools and threatened Butte High School's participation in several varsity sporting events this weekend. The Montana Standard reports that District Judge Brad Newman signed the order at the request of several Butte School District parents. The judge said the injunction does not compel the two sides to mediate their differences but simply opens schools. JPhoto by Walter Hinick/Montana Standard Judy J...
BILLINGS — The state of Montana has cut its ties to a joint Exxon Mobil-government command post overseeing an oil spill in the Yellowstone River after the governor said the group was defying state open government laws by denying public access. The move underscores mounting tensions between the state and one of the world's largest energy companies over its handling of the pipeline rupture that spewed an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil into the scenic river. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana said the House Subcommit...
HELENA — Federal education officials are warning that Montana must get in line with its No Child Left Behind benchmarks by Aug. 15 or risk losing some of its funding. Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent Montana education superintendent Denise Juneau a letter on July 1, followed by a formal notice, saying the state is out of compliance with its requirements for determining Montana schools' adequate yearly progress for the 2010-11 school year. The written notice says the state has until Aug. 15 to comply with the annual m...
THREE FORKS (AP) — Seven months after a Montana Highway Patrol trooper was killed in the line of duty, state and local officials dedicated a stretch of highway near Three Forks in his honor. Hundreds of people watched Thursday as signs were unveiled marking the four-mile stretch of state Highway 2 near Three Forks as Trooper David J. DeLaittre Memorial Highway. DeLaittre was 23 when he was shot on Dec. 1 by 56-year-old Errol Brent Bouldin during a traffic stop. Bouldin was found dead several hours later of a self-inflicted g...
BILLINGS — The search for an armed suspect in a triple shooting on the Crow Reservation spanned the southeast Montana countryside Wednesday as people were warned to stay inside for their safety. Authorities were seeking Sheldon Bernard Chase, 22, in the deaths of a his grandmother and a young couple at a rural residence about 10 miles outside of Lodge Grass, a town of about 500 people near the Wyoming border. AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, James Woodcock Law enforcement officers remove a shooting victim's body from a home a...
BOZEMAN — Two charter bus drivers have been arrested for allegedly taking a group of Bozeman seventh-graders on a field trip to Yellowstone National Park while under the influence of alcohol. KBZK-TV reports schools Superintendent Kirk Miller has written a letter to parents of the Sacajawea Middle School students saying the park received a call Friday morning from a person unrelated to the trip who was concerned the bus drivers might be impaired. Miller says that while the students were exploring the park, rangers "...
HELENA (AP) — Medical marijuana advocates say they are making progress toward placing an initiative on the ballot that would ask voters to repeal the state's new law cracking down on medical marijuana. A group called Patients for Reform-Not Repeal is challenging the law adopted earlier this year. The law is also the focus of a court battle in which a judge has temporarily blocked parts of it. Marijuana advocates want voters to throw the law out completely. To place it on the 2012 ballot the group will need more than 24,000 v...
BILLING — A new U.S. government report highlights serious gaps in mental health care for many American Indians and Alaska Natives, groups that suffer from problems including a teenage suicide rate more than twice the national average. One in five hospitals and clinics in Indian Country provide no mental health services, according to the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Health and Human Services. Only half provide drug therapy treatments, and at dozens of facilities some drug treatments are handled by n...
