News you can use
News you can use
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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...
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...
FARGO, N.D. — Top federal law enforcement agents who spent the last several days touring the oil patch in North Dakota and Montana came away comparing the scope of the crime problem to the cocaine cowboys of south Florida in the 1970s and '80s and the heyday of street gangs in Washington and Los Angeles in the early '90s. Officials from seven federal agencies on the trip say they want to help state and local authorities who are doing most of the heavy lifting but are often bogged down by an onslaught of service calls for d...
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...
BILLINGS (AP) — The trial of a Colorado man charged with killing eastern Montana teacher Sherry Arnold has been moved out of her home town. Attorneys for defendant Michael Keith Spell of Parachute, Colo., argued he could not receive a fair trial in Sidney because of the heavy news coverage surrounding the case. They wanted it moved to Bozeman, more than 400 miles away. In a Wednesday ruling, District Judge Richard Simonton instead moved the Jan. 6 trial to Glendive, about 50 miles away. Authorities say Spell grabbed Arnold f...
HELENA - A state senator and suspended Blackfeet leader has pleaded guilty in tribal court to charges similar to those he faces in federal court over fleeing a sheriff's deputy who stopped him for erratic driving. Shannon Augare's surprise tribal court appearance and guilty plea Wednesday is the latest twist in a case that has become a testing ground for federal versus tribal jurisdiction in prosecuting American Indians for misdemeanor crimes. It is unclear what effect Augare'...
HELENA (AP) — Montana lawmakers who say term limits have reduced their effectiveness looked Wednesday to other states for ideas on how to strengthen their branch of government. The Legislature is supposed to be equal to the state's executive and judicial branches, but it has been weakened by eight-year term limits on lawmakers, Republican Senate President Jeff Essmann of Billings said. That frequent turnover in legislators results in the entire body lacking a deep knowledge of government agencies, issues and problems, he s...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — The Blackfeet tribe's chairman has reinstated two tribal council members after suspending two others, the latest round of turmoil in what has been a tumultuous year for the leadership of the northwestern Montana tribe. Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. sent previously suspended council members Paul McEvers and William Old Chief letters on Monday saying their reinstatements were effective immediately. Chairmen in the past have hired and fired personnel without being questioned, Sharp told the Great Falls Tribune (...
HELENA (AP) — Two political consultants are appealing a judge's ruling over campaign documents tied to a secretive conservative group that turned up at the Montana office of political practices. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals received the appeal Thursday from Christian and Allison Lefer. Two days earlier, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled Commissioner of Political Practices Jim Murry did nothing wrong in receiving the documents and letting others view them. The Lefers say the documents were stolen from them. T...
HELENA (AP) — A judge won't grant former Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill immunity from a possible state investigation into a $500,000 campaign donation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong ruled against Hill's argument the threat of an investigation discourages him from giving the $300,000 left from his failed campaign to the state Republican Party for the 2014 elections. Hill argues that has a chilling effect on his First Amendment right to free speech. Strong ruled Friday any potential threat to Hill is s...
BOZEMAN (AP) — A former Montana State University student has filed a lawsuit against the school alleging she and other women were sexually assaulted and harassed by a former music professor. The woman's Oct. 11 lawsuit alleges the university negligently hired, retained and supervised Shuichi Komiyama, Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://bit.ly/19f8PKH ) reported. He was required to register as a sex offender because he pleaded guilty in California to having sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 25. She alleges MSU showed d...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Rep. Steve Daines said his vote to raise the debt ceiling was about ending the government shutdown, and says he still hopes to repeal the health care overhaul. The Montana lawmaker joined some other Republicans and all Democrats in voting for the deal on Wednesday. The measure funds the government through early next year. The potential U.S. Senate candidate told Montana Public Radio on Thursday that the vote shows he can split with the Republican majority. Daines, who originally said the opposition to r...
HELENA (AP) — The Office of Commissioner of Political Practices is dinging Gov. Steve Bullock for a bookkeeping error that led to excess campaign donations. A Helena attorney who was appointed deputy for the cases says that Bullock's 2012 campaign took three contributions from three political action committees that exceeded the legal limits. Jay Dufrechou says the mistake is understandable given the volume of donations that go to a campaign for governor, and he found no evidence of willful attempt to receive excess c...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Rep. Steve Daines' new fundraising totals show he has more than $1 million on hand as he considers a run for the U.S. Senate. Daines' totals released Tuesday for the most recent quarter show he has taken in $640,000 as interest has grown in his possible Senate candidacy. So far he has spent little of the money. The Republican has said he is considering running for the first open Senate seat in the state since the 1970s. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus has announced he is retiring at the end of 2014. Republicans e...
HELENA (AP) — Republican state legislator Matt Rosendale says his campaign for the U.S. House will champion conservative ideals. Rosendale announced Tuesday that he will be running for the U.S. House after also first considering a U.S. Senate run. Republicans expect current U.S. Rep. Steve Daines to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Max Baucus in 2014. The race for the Republican nomination in the House could be crowded. Former state Sen. Corey Stapleton of Billings is already running and others are considering it. R...
HELENA (AP) — A Blackfeet tribal councilman and state senator accused of fleeing an officer during a traffic stop has refused a request by the tribe's chairman to remove himself from his duties until his legal troubles are behind him. Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. made the request of Sen. Shannon Augare, D-Browning, in a letter Friday, asking Augare to "respectfully step away" from tribal business so he can be involved in defending himself against the charges he faces. They will "determine what avenue is to be taken" regarding A...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon decide whether American Indians in rural Montana were wrongly denied on-reservation satellite voting offices that the plaintiffs say are needed to make up for the long distances they must drive to reach county courthouses. Attorneys representing tribal members and the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday told judges in Portland that a federal judge used the wrong legal standard when he denied a request to establish satellite election offices on three r...
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock says the state will not pick up the tab to reopen Glacier National Park during the federal government shutdown. Bullock said Thursday that it's long past time for Congress to end "this reckless and job-killing shutdown" Earlier Thursday, the Obama administration said it would allow states to use their own money to reopen some national parks after a handful of governors made the request. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday he reached an agreement to pay $166,000 a day to the I...
