News you can use
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HELENA — A Montana judge will decide without a court hearing whether to hit a conservative political group with a hefty fine for improper campaign spending after American Traditional Partnership's lawyer asked to be removed. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock said Friday he would rule based on briefs filed in the proceedings against the political group known for challenging state campaign finance laws and targeting moderate Republicans. The state attorney general's office is seeking more than $300,000 in fines against ATP a...
BROWNING (AP) — Federal officers including from the Department of Homeland Security entered a northern Montana Indian tribe's headquarters to remove three councilors at the center of a factional impasse. The Flathead Beacon (http://tinyurl.com/kqap8oj ) reported Saturday officers with military-style rifles acted on a tribal judge's order to remove Blackfeet councilors Bill Old Chief, Paul McEvers and Cheryl Little Dog. Turbulence has plagued the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council since at least 2012 when Old Chief, McEvers a...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the conviction of a Beaverhead County man for criminal distribution of dangerous drugs, saying he was convicted based on insufficient evidence. The court ruled in a 4-1 decision that state prosecutors presented the testimony of just one witness, who said Anthony James Burwell provided her with marijuana in exchange for baby-sitting his two daughters while he went to work in summer 2011. Jennifer Jones told authorities that the night before she was supposed to b...
HELENA — NorthWestern Energy officials are saying their planned $900 million purchase of 11 hydroelectric dams will mean decades of stable customer rates after an initial increase. NorthWestern CEO Bob Rowe and vice president of supply John Hines outlined the utility's agreement to buy the PPL Montana dams to an interim legislative committee on Friday. The deal must be approved by state and federal regulators. Hines says the acquisition will mean an initial increase of about 5 percent, or $4 per month, on a typical r...
MISSOULA (AP) — The University of Montana has found a way to cover a $3 million budget shortfall during the fall semester without impacting academic instruction or student support. Michael Reid, vice president of administration and finance, told the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/1gug5b9 ) the school will make some small budget adjustments, including delaying some projects and finding utility savings. However, Reid and UM Provost Perry Brown say covering the $3 million shortfall the university expects it will face for the s...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Blackfeet tribal leader and state Sen. Shannon Augare has pleaded guilty in federal court to misdemeanor charges after he fled a sheriff's deputy who stopped him for drunken driving. Augare entered the plea Thursday after U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong ruled Augare's conviction on the same charges last month in tribal court did not end the federal case. Strong ordered Augare to pay $1,250 in fines and to attend a treatment class. Augare apologized and told the judge he accepted full responsibility. H...
HELENA - Former Republican Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger said Wednesday his decision to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014 as a Democrat was sealed by last month's federal government shutdown and Congress' inability to work together. Bohlinger, 77, made the surprise announcement Tuesday at a Lewis and Clark County Democratic Central Committee party dinner. He confirmed his decision to The Associated Press Wednesday morning at his Helena home. He had been considering a run for months,...
BOZEMAN - U.S. Rep. Steve Daines announced Wednesday that he will run for Senate in 2014, giving Montana Republicans a candidate they believe has a strong chance at winning the state's first open Senate seat in decades. Daines released a video announcing his candidacy shortly before launching his campaign in Bozeman by criticizing the Senate for supporting President Barack Obama and his signature health-care law. "Obamacare is a failing law that Montanans don't want and the...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Public Employees Retirement Board reversed course Tuesday and decided during a closed-door meeting to reinstate the head of the state pension agency less than two weeks after placing her on leave. The board had little to say after making the decision to keep Executive Director Roxanne Minnehan. Minnehan had been placed on administrative leave late last month after a meeting with board President Scott Moore. At the time, Moore said there were concerns with workplace issues involving Minnehan. But t...
HELENA (AP) — State Sen. Shannon Augare will plead guilty to charges of drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction of a peace officer if a magistrate judge rejects a request to dismiss the federal charges, his attorney said Tuesday in a court filing. A change of plea would allow Augare, a Blackfeet tribal council member, to avoid defending himself in U.S. District Court against the same charges he pleaded guilty to in tribal court last month in connection with a May 26 traffic stop. His trial had been scheduled to b...
HELENA — Federal prosecutors no longer have jurisdiction to try a state senator and Blackfeet tribal leader on drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction charges after he pleaded guilty to the same crimes in tribal court, his attorney said in a new court filing. Joe McKay, the attorney representing Browning Democrat and Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member Shannon Augare, asked a federal magistrate judge to dismiss the charges against Augare on Friday, just days before his federal trial is to begin Thursday. A f...
HELENA (AP) — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has notified thousands of customers it is raising premiums 3.5 percent in January because of taxes and fees included in the new federal health care law. Notices dated Thursday were mailed to 3,000 holders of group policies that insure tens of thousands of Montanans, Lee Newspapers of Montana reported. Some of the policyholders signed contracts earlier this year and are getting a mid-contract premium increase. State law generally forbids that, but makes exceptions for c...
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — A 28-year-old Texas man is jailed in southwestern Montana after prosecutors say he was trying to hit pedestrians with his sport utility vehicle near a Bozeman bar. Bryan Curtis Paluk of Lewisville, Texas, made an initial appearance in Gallatin County Justice Court Monday on a charge of felony criminal endangerment. Justice of the Peace Bryan Adams set Paluk's bail at $50,000. Court records say Paluk was arrested Friday night after people reported someone driving an Isuzu SUV was trying to hit p...
CODY, Wyo. (AP) — A Wisconsin couple reported missing after a visit to Yellowstone National Park was found safe on a closed highway in Wyoming, where their car had been stuck for nearly a week, officials said Monday. The owner of a guest ranch heard about the missing couple and went looking for them on his snowmobile. He found them Monday and took them back to the guest ranch, Park County sheriff's spokesman Lance Mathess said. Mark and Kristine Wathke of Cornell, Wis., were cold and hungry but otherwise OK, Mathess said. "...
HELENA — Congressional candidate Ryan Zinke says he has distanced himself from the political action committee he helped launch now that he is running for office. Special Operations for America has stockpiled more than $200,000 for the 2014 election cycle, thanks in part to the fundraising it paid Zinke to do. Zinke said he doesn't know if any of that money will be spent assisting his own election effort, or criticizing potential opponents. "I don't know, because I don't coordinate with them," Zinke said. Zinke, a former s...
HELENA (AP) - The FBI and law enforcement officers in eastern Montana are asking for the public's help in locating a man suspected of molesting a 5-year-old girl in Baker. The man has been known to use the aliases Sean Denning, Shawn Denning, Sean Dennis, Dave Freebard and Dennis Shawn. He is between 5 feet, 7 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, about 135 pounds and between the ages of 44 and 55. He has gray hair and brown eyes. The man was last seen in Miles City on Aug. 20....
BILLINGS (AP) — Attorneys for a Colorado man charged with killing an eastern Montana teacher filed court papers Friday saying his mental disabilities render him unfit to stand trial in a case that could carry the death penalty. Defense attorneys asked state district Judge Richard Simonton to commit 24-year-old Michael Keith Spell to the Montana State Hospital or another state facility for up to 60 days to undergo a mental examination. The Parachute, Colo., man faces a felony murder charge in the January 2012 death of S...
BILLING (AP) — A Yellowstone County employee says his use of slurs in an email expressing his disbelief that President Barack Obama was re-elected is no reason for him to resign. County Treasurer Max Lenington said he won't resign over what he called a personal message to his sister. He did say that possibility was raised in a discussion with county Attorney Scott Twito on Thursday. Twito's office is investigating whether there are grounds to recall Lenington for comments made in an email sent from his work computer last y...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Montana State University paleontologist Jack Horner is being honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Horner is scheduled to receive the Romer-Simpson Medal Saturday in Los Angeles for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology." The award is to be presented during the society's 73rd annual meeting. The organization is also honoring Steven Spielberg with its Gregory Service Award for contributing to t...
BROWNING (AP) — A state senator and Blackfeet tribal council member says he plans to ask a judge to drop federal charges against him after he pleaded guilty in tribal court to similar charges of fleeing a sheriff's deputy on the reservation. Sen. Shannon Augare (OH'-zhair) spoke publicly Tuesday for the first time since the May 26 traffic stop that led to drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction charges being filed against him. The Browning Democrat apologized for his behavior. He also defended his failed attempt t...
BILLINGS (AP) — Montana's Department of Corrections will offer boot camp for female prisoners and cancel a mandatory treatment program that was criticized as degrading under a settlement announced Tuesday in a discrimination lawsuit. The state also agreed to pay $50,000 in legal costs and a combined $12,000 to the seven current and former prisoners named in the case, according to settlement documents provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana. The lawsuit began with a complaint filed in federal court last y...
HELENA (AP) — Montana's entire congressional delegation may have taken a hit in their approval ratings because of the 16-day federal government shutdown, the director of a new Montana State University-Billings poll said Friday. The poll, conducted during the shutdown earlier this month, asked state residents their views on several national and state issues and to assess the performance of their elected leaders. Most respondents said they opposed President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, but even more people, r...
BILLINGS (AP) - Gov. Steve Bullock on Friday declared an energy emergency that lifts work time restrictions on truck drivers in eastern Montana, where disrupted fuel supplies have caused hours-long waits at pipeline terminals ahead of a winter storm forecast for this weekend. The executive order comes after a recent mudslide shut down a CHS Inc. refined fuels pipeline serving eastern Montana and western North Dakota. The closure of that line for repairs put a further strain...
HELENA (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs is offering to mediate in a dispute that has split the governing body of the Blackfeet Indian tribe into two factions, but the tribal chairman said Friday he hopes to resolve their problems internally. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council fractured this week after Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. unilaterally suspended two members and reinstated three others who had been previously suspended. The result has been a leadership struggle between the rival factions. Sharp said he has c...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Montana State University Billings poll found that nearly 57 percent of Montanans oppose the Affordable Care Act, but 69 percent opposed shutting down the government as a way to defund it. MSU Billings students interviewed 410 Montanans by telephone between Oct. 7-10, calling both land lines and cellphones. It has a margin of error of 5 percentage points. Sixty-nine percent of those polled disapproved of President Barack Obama's performance, while 29 percent approved. Fifty-three percent approve of Gov. S...
