News you can use
News you can use
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BILLINGS (AP) — A Montana judge has scheduled a two-day competency hearing to determine if a Colorado man charged with killing a high school teacher is fit for trial. District Judge Richard Simonton scheduled the hearing in the case of Michael Keith Spell for March 24 and 25 in Sidney. The 24-year-old defendant from Parachute, Colo. is charged with killing Sidney High School teacher Sherry Arnold while attempting to abduct her on Jan. 7, 2012. Spell's attorneys say he suffers from mental disabilities that render him unable t...
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — BNSF plans to invest $5 billion in its railroad this year, including $900 million to expand capacity in the Northern Plains where crude oil shipments are surging. The railroad said Tuesday its 2014 spending plan is roughly $1 billion higher than last year. BNSF says it's responding to significant volume growth. Some projects should help alleviate congestion near the booming Bakken oil field in North Dakota and Montana. Last week, the National Association of Railroad Passengers complained to officials t...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court says a legislative referendum to end Election-Day voter registration can go on the 2014 ballot. But the justices ruled in a 5-1 decision Wednesday the attorney general's office must first revise the ballot statement to clarify that the change is not required by the federal National Voter Registration Act. Montana has allowed voters to register or change their registrations on Election Day since 2005. The referendum approved by the 2013 Republican-led Legislature for the November b...
HELENA (AP) — The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge's decision that allowed the U.S. Forest Service to renew a 10-year permit for a statue of Jesus that was placed on a northwestern Montana ski hill six decades ago. In its Jan. 28 brief, the group continues its argument that "a permanent Catholic shrine on public land" is prohibited under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits Congress from making any law regarding the e...
HELENA (AP) — The Office of Public Instruction says Montana's high school graduation rate has risen slightly to 84.4 percent. The numbers are from the 2012-2013 school year and marked an improvement from the 83.9 percent graduation rate a year earlier. It is the third consecutive year in which the graduation rate has risen. Superintendent Denise Juneau also said Tuesday that the dropout rate fell from 4.1 percent in the 2011-2012 school year to 3.6 percent last year. Juneau credited the Graduation Matters Montana i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Foreign Relations committee has easily approved President Barack Obama's nomination of veteran Sen. Max Baucus to become ambassador to China. Baucus is a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade issues. The 72-year-old was first elected to the Senate in 1978. Baucus has said he wants to help build a better economic relationship with China. The U.S. trade deficit with China is far bigger than it is with any other country, and China is the largest f...
HELENA (AP) - Montana Senate President Jeff Essmann says he will ask a state senator to step back from his legislative duties after being arrested on allegations of pushing his wife. Republican Sen. Jason Priest of Red Lodge pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of partner or family assault and resisting arrest. He was arrested Saturday night and released Monday after posting $1,500 bond. Essmann says the allegations against Priest are a matter of serious concern. The Billings...
HELENA (AP) — A conservation group has filed a lawsuit seeking documents concerning Attorney General Tim Fox's joining other states in protesting Bureau of Land Management plans to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal land. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports that the Montana Environmental Information Center filed the lawsuit against Fox late last week in state District Court in Helena. In August, Fox joined attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska and Oklahoma in sending a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell e...
WASHINGTON — The long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline cleared a major hurdle toward approval Friday, a serious blow to environmentalists' hopes that President Barack Obama will block the controversial project running more than 1,000 miles from Canada through the heart of the U.S. The State Department reported no major environmental objections to the proposed $7 billion pipeline, which has become a symbol of the political debate over climate change. Republicans and some oil- and gas-producing states in the U.S. — as well as...
HELENA (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena planned to file for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up. Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers, resulting in the deal to resolve the abuse claims. The settlement details are being worked out, b...
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A governor's council recommends Montana restrict new development in sage grouse habitat to avoid federal protections that would lead to tighter rules. The Greater Sage Grouse Advisory Council outlined its recommendations in a 73-page report given to the governor on Wednesday. "It's essential in Montana that we find a way that we are monitoring and reducing impacts," to grouse habitat, said Glenn Marx of Helena, council member and executive director of the Montana Association of Land Trusts. "We're not j...
HELENA (AP) — A judge has sentenced a California man to 30 years in prison and ordered him to repay the victims of an investment scheme into non-existent oil-and-gas projects in eastern Montana. U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon told Yorba Linda resident Mike Campa Thursday he was imposing the lengthy sentence because Campa had spent a lifetime defrauding others and would do so again if back on the street. Campa pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit fraud, investment fraud by mail and investment fraud by wire. P...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Cascade County commissioners have voted to re-zone property on the northwestern edge of Great Falls to allow seed and herbicide maker Monsanto Co. to locate a wheat breeding testing site there. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/1d7VfHK) the county is taking public comment for 30 days on Tuesday's decision to change the zoning from commercial to light industrial, which would allow the inside storage of chemicals. Last spring, Monsanto announced a new Wheat Technology Center near Twin F...
HAMILTON (AP) — Ravalli County employees working to reconcile the books in the treasurer's office told commissioners they found more than $800,000 in checks that hadn't been deposited. Last week, county commissioners placed Treasurer Valerie Stamey on paid leave after months of complaints about overdue disbursements and as well as complaints by residents that property tax checks hadn't been cashed. Commissioners placed Clerk and Recorder Regina Plattenberg and treasurer's deputy Dan Whitesitt temporarily in charge of daily o...
MISSOULA (AP) — Missoula County commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $50,000 to hire an outside attorney to challenge the authority of the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the way the county attorney's office handles sexual assault cases. The Justice Department announced in May 2012 that it was investigating the way the city of Missoula, University of Montana campus police, and the county attorney's office handle reported rape cases. County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg refused to cooperate, saying the federal agen...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's choice to become U.S. ambassador to China embraced several criticisms of that country Tuesday, agreeing that China wants to dominate Asia and is a regular violator of human rights. Speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Max Baucus said he wants to help the U.S. build a more equitable economic relationship with China while encouraging the Asian giant to act responsibly as it emerges as a global power. "I have become a firm believer that a strong geopolitical relationship can b...
BILLINGS (AP) — Republican state Sen. Elsie Arntzen on Saturday announced she's running for Montana's open U.S. House seat. The conservative lawmaker from Billings in a statement says she wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, balance the nation's budget, and restore a better America for future generations. The 57-year-old Arntzen has worked as a public school teacher for 21 years. She made her announcement at Burlington Elementary after being introduced by a 5th grader, one of her former students. Arntzen and her h...
MISSOULA (AP) - Former Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger says he may end his campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate if current Lt. Gov. John Walsh is appointed to serve the rest of Max Baucus' term. If Baucus resigns from the Senate to become the next U.S. ambassador to China, it will be up to Gov. Steve Bullock to pick an interim replacement until January 2015. Walsh has asked Bullock to appoint him, but the Democratic governor has kept quiet on a possible selection....
HELENA (AP) — A long execution in Ohio that left the condemned inmate gasping and snorting illustrates the dangers of using untested drug combinations in lethal injections, said a civil-rights group suing Montana over its execution method. Montana last year changed its lethal-injection method from a combination of three drugs to two, but there hasn't been an execution in the state since the change and the combination of those two drugs is untested in the U.S., said American Civil Liberties Union of Montana attorney Anna Conle...
BUTTE (AP) — A crackdown involving a 1977 law prohibiting the selling of mice and rats has taken a bite out of the bottom line of a Butte pet shop that sells rodents as snacks for snakes. Fish Bowl pet store owner Mark Dawson said he's sold rodents for 17 years and they account for about a third of his sales. He tells the Montana Standard (http://bit.ly/LBX1va) in a story on Sunday that he's not selling snakes now either because he's no longer allowed to sell their best meals. "My shop has gone dead," said Dawson, a Butte n...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock is reasserting his opposition to stringent federal driver's license rules, saying Montana already has increased the security of its licenses and identification cards. The Democratic governor said in a letter Friday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson that the Legislature voted unanimously against implementing the REAL ID Act. Bullock says he has full confidence in the security measures the state has taken outside the 2005 anti-terrorism law. Bullock is responding to a D...
BILLINGS (AP) — An FBI spokesman says the agency is considering permanent agents in the Bakken oil patch of Montana and North Dakota as the drilling boom drives crime rates higher. That's sparked a dispute between the states' U.S. senators over where the agents should be located. Crime on both sides of the border has spiked as thousands of new workers arrive with drug traffickers following in their wake. Since July, two agents and an intelligence specialist have been stationed in Sidney, Mont. North Dakota Sens. Heidi H...
HELENA (AP) - Montana Rail Link says gusty winds caused a container train to derail on the Continental Divide west of Helena. The Helena Independent Record reports the derailment occurred at shortly before 5 a.m. Monday. The speed of the gust wasn't immediately available. The railroad says there were no hazardous materials in the containers and no one was injured. NorthWestern Energy reported numerous power failures blamed on the wind and said extra crews were called in to...
HELENA — The number of Montanans who signed up for health coverage through the online marketplace that is a key part of President Barack Obama's health overhaul increased nearly tenfold in December, according to new federal health data released Monday. From Oct. 1 through Dec. 28, a total of 13,151 Montana residents chose health plans through the federal exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That is compared to the 1,382 people who had signed up in October and November, the period when p...
MISSOULA (AP) — The Missoula County attorney is proposing a settlement in the U.S. Department of Justice's effort to investigate the way his office handles sexual assault and rape cases. In December, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Montana said the issue could be settled if the office added three people to his staff to better address rape and sexual assault referrals from the police department. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/1lIDFSi ) Fred Van Valkenburg responded Thursday saying he is willing to negotiate an a...
