News you can use
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HELENA — The Montana Senate is endorsing a proposal popular with House Republicans to crack down on local school district sex education policies. The measure follows uproar in Helena last year over a proposed sex education plan that resulted in several long public meetings and revisions. The Senate voted 27-23 in support of the plan Thursday in an initial vote. House Bill 456 would require schools to notify parents in advance of sex education and receive the parent's written consent before their child attends. The bill p...
SUPERIOR — Authorities say they have identified a body found Friday as that of a 47-year-old Superior woman last seen Tuesday. The Mineral County Sheriff's Office said on Saturday that the body found in a wooded area by a search and rescue team is that of Kelly Dube-Woodard. Officials say autopsy results are pending. Dube-Woodard's ex-husband, Michael Woodard, remains in custody in Elko, Nev., following his arrest on Wednesday after being named a person of interest in her disappearance. He is being held at the Elko County j...
AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Larry Mayer 1st Lt. Parker Taylor, of Harrison, retrieves a safety vest from a Humvee at the Montana National Guard command center at the fairgrounds in Hardint. Flooding is disrupting emergency phone service across a broad swath of eastern Montana as some areas remain inundated with several feet of water. BILLINGS — Flooding disrupted emergency phone service across a broad swath of eastern Montana on Monday as areas of the state remained inundated and downstream communities prepared for the w...
HELENA — Montana's attorney general says the three life sentences a Helena teen received for killing one boy and trying to kill two others are appropriate and shouldn't be overturned. Steve Bullock filed the documents with the state Supreme Court this week in response to an appeal by Sebastian Olivares-Coster's attorneys, who say the sentences constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." Olivares-Coster was 17 when he shot and killed 16-year-old Cory Andrewski on June 3, 2009. He also shot and seriously injured two other b...
AP Photo/Naz Stobe Kirst Convicted killer Tracy Province, center, is seen being escorted from a courthouse in Kingman, Ariz., Friday, after a judge sentenced him to more than 38 years in prison. Province pleaded guilty this month to state felony charges of escape, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault and misconduct with weapons. Inmate gets 38 years in prison for Ariz. escape FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) — A judge on Friday sentenced an inmate who escaped from an Arizona prison last summer to...
HELENA — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a key figure in developing the federal health care law, is selling the program back home to a Republican-led Legislature openly hostile to what they derisively call "Obamacare." Baucus, speaking Friday afternoon to a joint session of Montana lawmakers, said he understands there are strong feelings but argued both sides should work to make it better in certain areas. Most Republicans in the room sat stoically through his speech. Made the Democrats' sales pitch Baucus reinforced the high points o...
Top official at state-run disability center leaves The Associated Press HELENA — A top official at a state facility that caters to people with developmental disabilities and behavioral problems has stepped down following a letter by an advocacy group that contends the facility has a pattern of abuse, neglect and mismanagement. Montana Developmental Center Superintendent Kathy Zeeck on Friday asked to be reassigned following the letter by Helena-based Disability Rights Montana. "We would have taken these actions regardless o...
Bozeman motorists file pothole damage claims The Associated Press BOZEMAN — Four motorists who say potholes in Bozeman damaged their vehicles have filed claims against the city this year. The Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority is the city's insurance company. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that the company has denied two of the claims and is considering the other two. Of the denied claims, the company says the damage was caused by factors outside the city's control. Charles French still has an active claim. He s...
HELENA — Republican leaders said Thursday they are on track at the Legislature's midpoint to cut the governor's budget and advance business-friendly proposals — while Democrats countered that too much time has been spent on "nonsense." Republicans said at the close of the Legislature's first half that they have so far found ways to cut more than $150 million from the governor's spending proposal, a big part of their original promise to make sure the state spends only as much money as it collects in taxes over the next two...
Tea party vision for Mont. raising concerns MATT GOURAS, Associated Press HELENA — With each bill, newly elected tea party lawmakers are offering Montanans a vision of the future. Their state would be a place where officials can ignore U.S. laws, force FBI agents to get a sheriff's OK before arresting anyone, ban abortions, limit sex education in schools and create armed citizen militias. It's the tea party world. But not everyone is buying their vision. Some residents, Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and even some R...
Governor endorses work comp compromise MATT GOURAS, Associated Press HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration is supporting a deal with Republicans to cut workers' compensation insurance rates that are widely regarded as too expensive. Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly told a Senate panel Wednesday morning they will support a reform measure from House Republicans with the negotiated changes the administration believes will provide needed protections for workers. He says the compromise was finally reached late Tuesday n...
House leader pitches sales tax proposal for Mont. The Associated Press HELENA — The Republican House Majority leader is proposing a plan to do away with Montana's income tax and replace it with a sales tax. Rep. Tom McGillvray says House Bill 596 would boost the state's economy by eliminating the time and cost of income tax filing. Other supporters say states with a sales tax instead of an income tax attract workers and increase wages. No opponents spoke at the bill's hearing Wednesday but a recent poll conducted by Lee Newsp...
Poll: Montana voters want stricter pot regulations HELENA — Most registered voters in Montana prefer stricter regulations concerning medical marijuana rather than repealing the 2004 voter-approved initiative that made medicinal marijuana use legal, according to a poll by the Lee Enterprises Capitol Bureau that was released Sunday. When given three options, the poll found 57 percent want stricter regulations while 31 percent want the law repealed. Eleven percent favor the current law. The rest weren't sure. "It should be r...
Asia holds promise for Yellowstone tourism growth TOM MAST, Casper Star-Tribune CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — As it is the world over, Yellowstone National Park could be a powerful magnet for attracting tourists from the People's Republic of China. Xiang (Robert) Li, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, said the Chinese are most aware of urban destinations in the U.S. like New York and Los Angeles. But in the West, Yellowstone and Grand Canyon also are on their radar. Li said people were asked to rate the importance...
HELENA — A Republican member of the Public Service Commission has joined with the Democratic minority to oust the GOP chairman and take over as leader. Friday's hearing started as a discussion on whether to reprimand vice chairman Brad Molnar over a recent trip Washington, D.C. Democratic commissioner Gail Gutsche and Republican Travis Kavulla say chairman Bill Gallagher knew about the trip but he and Molnar kept it a secret from the other three members. The meeting devolved into a heated argument before a recess was h...
GOP-led House endorses Montana budget plan The Associated Press HELENA (AP) — The Republican-led House on Monday backed a Montana budget plan that decreases spending primarily by rolling back social services, but also made same last-minute cuts to proposed education spending. Overall, Republicans said their two-year budget plan reduces spending of state tax money about 5 percent to $3.6 billion. It also rejects about $120 million in federal money for programs like health care assistance for children and food stamps. R...
MISSOULA — Federal and state agents searched a 30-square-mile swath of rugged forest in northwest Montana Monday for a former militia leader and survivalist who officials say fired on deputies and previously told police "he wasn't going to be taken down like last time." David Burgert, 47, fired at Missoula County sheriff's deputies along a logging trail Sunday after leading them on a slow-speed chase near the town of Lolo on U.S. Highway 12. The deputies returned fire — no one was hurt — before Burgert grabbed gear from...
HELENA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed a bill giving a tax break to all businesses operating in the state. The Democratic governor had opposed the Republican plan to reduce the business equipment tax for all the businesses in Montana, saying large, out-of-state companies shouldn't get the break. But he says he signed the bill Friday because vetoing it also would have thrown out help for small businesses. Schweitzer had favored his own proposal to eliminate the tax altogether for businesses with less than $1 million in e...
BILLINGS — Gray wolves in Montana and Idaho would be taken off the endangered list under the budget bill pending before Congress, two Western lawmakers said. Inclusion of the language to lift protections for wolves was confirmed by the offices of Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson on Saturday. "It's high time for a predictable, practical law that finally delists Montana's wolves and returns their management to our state — for the sake of our wildlife, our livestock, and for the jobs tha...
Stream access hearing draws overflow crowd STEPHEN DOCKERY, Associated Press HELENA — One of the largest crowds of the Legislative session is opposing a bill many say would limit stream access for anglers. The opponents along with a smaller group of ranchers and property owners in favor of the proposal overflowed out of a hearing room that holds 215 people. House Bill 309 reopens a 2008 Supreme Court decision saying a slough that runs through the Bitterroot Valley is a public waterway and open to recreational use under the s...
HELENA — A pipeline failure has cut off the water supply to about two dozen homes in a contaminated area of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, leaving residents without drinking and bath water for more than three weeks. The pipeline from Poplar's water supply system to the homes north of the city has been out of service since May 13, said Deb Madison, the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes' environmental program manager. The 23 homes have received the piped water since 2005, after the Environmental Protection Agency o...
AP photo Tim Ravndal, former president of the Big Sky Tea Party Association, said he's wasn't nervous about attending the rally after being ousted over an anti-gay exchange on Facebook. Behind him stand student counter-protesters. Tea party encourages guns at Montana Capitol rally STEPHEN DOCKERY, Associated Press HELENA — Tea party supporters toting guns gathered on the steps of the Montana Capitol Friday, but the rally was something of a misfire, bringing out far fewer people than in previous years. The Lewis & Clark's Cons...
Longtime Helena newsman dies at 64 he Associated Press HELENA — Longtime Helena newsman Bill Skidmore, who worked at the Independent Record for 38 years chronicling the city's events and people, has died. He was 64. The Independent Record reports that Skidmore died Saturday after a two-year battle with cancer. Skidmore started at the newspaper in 1971 after graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin. Known as "Skid" to friends, he eventually became an award-winning opinion page editor before l...
GOP leadership tested as end of session nears STEPHEN DOCKERY, Associated Press HELENA — The seemingly solid Republican majority that swept into the Montana Legislature after huge election wins last fall is showing some signs of cracking as the session enters its final leg. With an overwhelming majority in the House and a significant one in the Senate, Republicans have tried to use their numbers to push through fiscally and socially conservative bills. But GOP leaders have been tested in keeping their caucus together amid c...
HELENA — The red needles of a tree killed in a mountain pine beetle attack can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles of a healthy tree, new research into the pine beetle epidemic has found. AP Photo/Star-Tribune, Tim Kupsick Northern Laramie Range Management Project Forester Nick Williams describes what Camp Wyoba had to do to remove and kill the Mountain Pine Beetle from the property in Casper, Wyo. More than 45 trees were cut down and cooked as a part of the process over the summer. New research into the m...
