News you can use
News you can use
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HELENA — A California Indian tribe has donated $200,000 to the American Red Cross of Montana for its ongoing efforts to assist American Indian communities affected by spring flooding along the Little Bighorn and Missouri rivers. The contribution from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians was announced Thursday by Tribal Chairman James C. Ramos. San Manuel's contribution is meant to support recovery and cleanup efforts and to secure ongoing shelter and daily living necessities for those affected by the flo...
HELENA — A man charged with negligent homicide in his son's drowning last week cannot travel to Washington state to attend the 3-year-old's funeral, a Lewis and Clark County judge has ruled. Justice of the Peace Michael Swingley made his ruling after a hearing Wednesday in which County Attorney Leo Gallagher argued Leo Eugene Mathis, 26, had no ties to Helena other than the criminal charges filed after his son, Leo Eugene Mathis Jr., drowned in Prickly Pear Creek in East Helena on June 22. Mathis had just moved to the area a...
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday that one of her biggest fears when she became chief executive of the state two years ago was a devastating wildfire. That concern came to life this year as nearly 1 million acres of Arizona burned in wildfires that included the largest such blaze in the state's history. "One percent of the total land mass of Arizona has already burned in this fire season alone, and the season is not over yet," said Brewer, speaking at the Western Governors' Association a...
BOZEMAN — Montana regulators are proposing a rule to require oil and gas companies to disclose what chemicals are being pumped into the ground as a way to extract natural gas and oil in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." But the proposed rule is already under attack because of an exception that allows companies to withhold information if it reveals trade secrets. Environmentalists contend that fracking contaminates the soil and ground and surface waters Tom Richmond, administrator for the Montana Board o...
SEATTLE — Clarita Vargas was sent to an Indian boarding school some four decades ago to study her ABCs and learn to blend in with majority culture. She says she instead learned a nightmarish lesson — that children sometimes have no one to protect them from pedophiles. On Friday, the 51-year-old had her "day of reckoning and justice," when an order of Jesuit priests agreed to pay $166.1 million to hundreds of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives who were abused at its schools around the Pacific Northwest. Settlement one of...
Education funding plan goes back to committee HELENA — Senate Republicans searching for votes on their primary education funding plan sent the measure back to committee for more tinkering. The Thursday move followed a floor vote on Wednesday where the measure deadlocked 25-25. Republicans hold a 28-22 advantage in the chamber, but face some opposition from those within their ranks worried about how it treats some resource-rich rural areas. Democrats are opposing it, arguing they like Gov. Brian Schweitzer's education plan b...
Landowner-friendly eminent domain bill moves ahead MATT GOURAS, Associated Press HELENA — A measure giving more power to landowners hit with eminent domain actions moved ahead Thursday at the Legislature — potentially freeing up a separate measure that clarifies utilities have eminent domain power. The eminent domain issue has been bogged down all session amid a dispute between landowners and utilities behind a pair of proposed power line projects. The landowners worry they're being treated unfairly, while the utilities say...
Reducation education funding plan reduced The Associated Press HELENA — Senate Republicans are trimming their education spending plan in hopes of getting full support from their caucus. Some Republicans bucked the original plan that re-crafts key aspects of school funding while increasing funding about 3 percent over the two-year budget period. Late Thursday, a committee reduced the funding a little and made clear that the 2013 Legislature will have to revisit a controversial plan to redistribute some of the oil and gas m...
Montana Republicans pitch education funding rewrite MATT GOURAS, Associated Press HELENA — A complicated rewrite of the state's school funding scheme from Republicans — which aims to increase education funding a little more than even the governor sought — faces an uncertain future after a close Senate vote Tuesday. The measure, which aims to fix a complicated school funding system that few understand with a 51-page bill that even fewer can fully explain, has stiff opposition from Democrats — and even a fair amount of skeptic...
AP Photo/Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, James Brosher Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar listens as Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead answers a question during a news conference on Tuesday, March 22, 2011, in Cheyenne, Wyo. Salazar is making a vast amount of coal available for mining in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, saying the substance will remain an important source of the nation's energy supply. The coal leases Salazar announced Tuesday in Cheyenne amount to 750 million tons and will take several years to mine. Interior Secretary Salazar...
Montana marijuana overhaul begins taking shape STEPHEN DOCKERY, Associated Press HELENA — A new option to do away with the state's marijuana law and replace it with a new one is taking shape in the Legislature after a proposal to repeal the law stalled in the Senate and lawmakers said they don't think overhauling the current law would go far enough. Senate Majority Leader Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, is leading a subcommittee to try and quickly cobble together a proposal before the legislative session ends. Essmann said Monday h...
HELENA — Senate Republicans spent Monday making quick work of the GOP spending plan already endorsed by the House, making only small changes despite harsh words from Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration and the threat of a veto hanging in the air. A Senate budget committee was finalizing work Monday, mostly rebuffing proposals from Democrats to restore pieces of Schweitzer's original proposal. The governor said he remained hopeful that Republicans in firm control of the Legislature will change their mind. "I'm o...
AP Photo/Shelby Promoter/Chris Muller Investigators survey the scene of a school bus accident Friday near Devon. The bus carrying about 40 people returning from a church camp flipped on its side Friday on a rural highway in northern Montana, injuring several students, none of them seriously, authorities said. A camp counselor says three people remain hospitalized after a school bus carrying about 40 people returning from a church camp flipped on its side on a rural highway in northern Montana. Malachy Horning tells the Great...
BOZEMAN — A retired Montana State University administrator and professor says he will donate $100,000 to the school's library in honor of his wife, who died last year at the age of 78. University officials say 82-year-old Stuart Knapp made an estate gift in his wife's name that will provide books and electronic materials after his death. Knapp says his wife, Bev Knapp, was a strong supporter of the MSU library, chaired the Bozeman Public Library board and was president of the Montana Library Association. The couple also h...
Republican wants to link state coffers to gold The Associated Press HELENA — A Republican lawmaker says his plan to link state coffers to gold would spur rethinking of currency. Rep. Bob Wagner of Harrison told a House committee Monday that he wants Montana state government to trade with some taxpayers and contractors in units of gold. He envisions the exchange will be done electronically rather than with actual precious metal. Supporters say the new currency exchange will be "separate and parallel" to the traditional e...
Medical marijuana repeal stalls in MT Senate HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A measure to repeal Montana's medical marijuana law has stalled in a state Senate committee. House Speaker Mike Milburn's House Bill 161 was rejected Monday on a 6-6 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Most legislators say something should be done to rein in the state's marijuana industry. They say the boom in patients and providers has gone beyond the intention of the 2004 voter initiative approving the law. But many senators from both parties are o...
Democrats' job training bill stopped in committee HELENA — Legislation to train veterans and unemployed Montanans to be truck drivers has halted in committee after initially gaining bipartisan support. Some opponents of Senate Bill 359 were skeptical that the bill targeted veterans since the proposal opened up its training services to all unemployed Montanans. Others said the price tag could spiral well beyond the initial estimate of about $650,000 a year. Supporters of the bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mary Caferro of He...
HELENA — The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed and killed 14 people in Butte in 2009 cut safety corners and then did not take the appropriate action after discovering a problem with his fuel system, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday. The privately owned plane carrying seven children and seven adults from California to a ski vacation in Bozeman crashed moments after the pilot requested a diversion to Butte without explanation. The board's findings of probable cause lay the blame on the 6...
AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer The Crow Tribe rounds up horses on the former Leachman Cattle Company ranch east of Billings, Mont. on Monday, March 21. Hundreds of horses were placed in the former ranch feedlot ans will be sold at an upcoming sale. The Bureau of Indian Affairs condemned the horses on March 1 because they were trespassing on tribal land. BILLINGS — A bankrupt Montana rancher whose starving horses were fed donated hay over the winter bought back dozens of the animals at an auction. The sale was held...
HELENA — The number of gun rights bills likely to clear the Montana Legislature appears to be dwindling significantly, as the session enters its final days, dealing a blow to gun-rights advocates who seem unable to capitalize on having a Republican majority. With the GOP holding one of the largest legislative majorities in years, this session presented a key opening for conservative lawmakers that often favor more lenient gun measures. But the gun-rights supporters seem to be unable to seize the moment. Most of the m...
0-year-old Great Falls boy shot, killed; sixth-grader charged GREAT FALLS (AP) — Great Falls police say a 10-year-old boy has been shot to death and a sixth-grader is facing a negligent homicide charge in Youth Court. Police tell the Great Falls Tribune the shooting was reported at 7 p.m. Sunday at an apartment complex. The 10-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital. The sixth-grader appeared before Judge Dirk Sandefur for a juvenile detention hearing and was released to his father's custody after investigators v...
BILLINGS — Exxon Mobil Co. reassured concerned regulators that an oil pipeline beneath the Yellowstone River was buried deep enough and not in danger just a month before it broke in a flood and spewed an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude into the waterway. Details about Exxon Mobil's actions leading up to the Friday night spill into one of the West's premiere rivers emerged in federal safety documents as cleanup work continued downstream of the rupture site in the Montana town of Laurel. AP Photo/Jim Urquhart Oil covers a p...
LAUREL — Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer says he believes that oil from a broken pipeline under the Yellowstone River has traveled hundreds of miles into North Dakota. AP Photo/Jim Urquhart Jim Swanson surveys the oil impact on his property in Laurel., Tuesday. An ExxonMobil pipeline near Laurel., ruptured and spilled an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone. last weekend. The Democratic governor said Tuesday that the river was flowing about 7 mph, so it was a given that some oil has reached the state's e...
Senate bill would lift wolf protections in MT, ID MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press BILLINGS — Gray wolves in Montana and Idaho would lose their Endangered Species Act protections and become fair game for hunters under a provision buried deep in a U.S. Senate budget bill introduced Friday. The provision was included in a broad measure introduced by Democrats to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. The one-paragraph passage on wolves — which appears on page 253 of the bill and doesn't mention the ani...
HELENA — High waters from huge amounts of rainfall combined with melting snowpack over the past month are prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release massive amounts of water from Fort Peck Dam earlier than expected. Roosevelt County officials announced Thursday afternoon that engineers plan on releasing 50,000 cubic feet per second of water from the dam starting June 9, revising an earlier plan to release that amount of water in mid-June. That decision likely will spell higher floodwaters sooner in the Dakotas. T...
