News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 697 - 721 of 2820
BILLINGS (AP) — A Montana judge under fire for his comments about a 14-year-old victim in a schoolhouse rape case has ordered a new sentencing hearing for the former teacher who received just 30 days in prison for the crime. In setting the hearing for Friday afternoon, District Judge G. Todd Baugh said Tuesday that state law appears to require that a two-year mandatory minimum prison term be imposed against Stacey Rambold, 54, of Billings. Rambold last week was sentenced to 15 years with all but 31 days suspended and a one-da...
HELENA (AP) — The chairman of the Blackfeet Indian tribe says the U.S. attorney for Montana broke the trust of the tribe when he decided to prosecute a tribal council member and state senator accused of fleeing a traffic stop on the reservation. The federal prosecution of Democratic Sen. Shannon Augare for reckless and drunken driving and obstruction of a peace officer is an incursion into tribal sovereignty, Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. wrote to U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter in an Aug. 14 letter recently obtained by The A...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Police in Bozeman shot a pit bull terrier and arrested its owner after being called to a mobile home amid a party. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://tinyurl.com/kz69gor) reports 36-year-old Adam Lavern Brannon was arrested for disorderly conduct after officers said he directed racial slurs and obscenities at neighbors he believed responsible for calling police about the party. Police say Brannon's dog charged an officer who was approaching the mobile home Saturday night, seeking to get the attention of s...
LIVINGSTON (AP) — A woman from southwestern Montana had an unexpected and unwelcome visitor last week when she discovered a rattlesnake sitting in plain view on the kitchen table. The Livingston Enterprise (http://tinyurl.com/lma22vw) reports the woman was checking on her neighbor's home when she heard a rattle — and realized it was coming from the poisonous snake perched on the table. That's when she called Livingston Police Department officers, who arrived quickly and killed the snake. A local snake specialist, Mic...
WEST YELLOWSTONE (AP) — A smokejumper remained hospitalized Sunday after sustaining a hip injury parachuting into rugged backcountry on the Montana-Idaho border to battle the Two Top Fire. Fire spokeswoman Marianne Baumberger says the elite smokejumper was injured during the initial attack Friday on the fire that's burning on the Continental Divide. She says the smokejumper had to be flown out by helicopter and was in stable condition Sunday. She says about 100 firefighters are on the ground battling the fire that's about s...
BROADUS (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock, like his predecessor, is a Democrat. On most days, that would seem like the only thing they share in common. Gov. Brian Schweitzer cast a presence over Montana politics that few could match. Bullock arrived in the governor's office in January as a seemingly reluctant heir to the spotlight. Bullock tends to blend into the crowd, as he did on a recent visit to Glacier National Park's Many Glacier Hotel, where he wandered the gift shop with h...
BILLINGS (AP) — A Billings man suspected of killing his great-grandmother has been extradited from Colorado to Montana to face a charge of deliberate homicide. The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/17aUaf0) that 19-year-old Robert Alan Thompson was booked in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility on Friday. Police say Thompson beat and stabbed 77-year-old Shirley Lawrence to death at her home in Billings on July 19. Thompson was arrested the next day in Denver. Thompson refused to willingly return to Montana. But o...
HELENA (AP) — The chief of the Montana Highway Patrol is retiring, citing remarks made to subordinates, but he did not elaborate what the remarks were when making the announcement Friday. "I regret that I have made inappropriate remarks to subordinates that have compromised my ability to effectively lead Montana's Highway Patrol by example," Col. Kenton Hickethier said in an email statement late afternoon. "Therefore, I have chosen to retire from the Patrol. I am sorry for these mistakes and any harm they may have brought t...
HELENA — Montana is on track to recover the jobs lost during the recession later this year, but low productivity and an aging workforce could threaten future economic growth, state officials said Friday. The Department of Labor and Industry's new Labor Day report predicts the state's unemployment rate, now at 5.3 percent, will continue to decline through the next year to between 4 and 5 percent. The national unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in July. "This report makes it c...
BILLINGS (AP) — The mother of a 14-year-old girl who was raped by her teacher and later committed suicide appeared at a raucous Thursday protest against the judge who sentenced the man to a month in jail and said the victim was "older than her chronological age." The protest came as prosecutors considered an appeal of the sentence by Montana District Judge G. Todd Baugh, whose actions in the case have drawn condemnation from across the country. Joining in the backlash was Montana's governor, who said the judge's comments "...
BILLINGS (AP) — The mother of a 14-year-old rape victim said a Montana judge was "covering his butt" after he apologized for saying her daughter was "older than her chronological age," as prosecutors said Thursday that the judge may have erred in giving the rapist only 30 days in prison. The comments from District Judge G. Todd Baugh in a case involving a teacher raping a student have drawn widespread condemnation from across the country. The 71-year-old judge attempted to q...
HELENA (AP) — Attorney General Tim Fox says Montana is joining Alabama, Alaska and Oklahoma in protesting Bureau of Land Management plans to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal land. Fox said Thursday he and the attorneys general from those states sent a letter last week to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. They argue that BLM fracking rules will duplicate existing state programs and cannot be justified. Jewell has said federal rules are needed to reconcile a patchwork of state fracking rules. T...
BILLINGS (AP) — Montana prosecutors have asked a judge to keep the trial in the murder of a high school teacher in her hometown of Sidney, after defense attorneys sought to have the case moved because of fears of bias among potential jurors. In comments posted with newspaper articles about the 2012 murder of math teacher Sherry Arnold, some readers called for "Old West Justice" in the case and for the suspects to "hang from the nearest tree." But in court documents released Thursday, prosecutors argued to Judge Richard S...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is asking state environmental regulators to further study the effects copper exploration would have on two key waterways before granting a company permission to dig a mile-long tunnel. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/1a2Fhn9 ) the comment from FWP was among the more than 4,400 responses the Department of Environmental Quality received after issuing a draft environmental assessment that gave preliminary approval to the central Montana e...
BILLINGS — A Montana judge apologized Wednesday for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her — remarks that prompted protests and a petition for his resignation. District Judge G. Todd Baugh made the comments Monday while sentencing former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to a 15-year prison sentence then suspending all but 31 days and giving him credit for one day already served. Yellowstone County off...
BILLINGS (AP) — A former Billings Senior High School teacher who pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old student who later killed herself has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a judge who said the victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. District Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse without consent, with all but 31 days suspended. He gave Rambold credit for one day already served, The Billings Gazette r...
HELENA (AP) — Democrat John Lewis has filed paperwork to enter the 2014 race for the Montana U.S. House seat held by Republican Steve Daines. Lewis earlier this month left his job as state director for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. The Billings native is the first to formally file federal paperwork to run for the office. Republican Matt Rosendale has filed paperwork that leaves open the possibility of a House or Senate run. Baucus announced earlier this year he won't be seeking another term — and so far no Democrats have filed to...
LOLO (AP) — Fire managers at the Lolo Creek Complex of fires near the town of Lolo focused Sunday on the northern edge of the fire that's heading toward a Bonneville Power Administration power line. Fire spokesman Thomas Kempton says contingency plans are being made should the 16-square-mile fire reach the 500-kilovolt line that's about a mile and a half from the fire. He says about 800 personnel and seven helicopters are assigned to the lightning-caused blaze that destroyed five homes last week. He says firefighters have h...
HELENA (AP) — The deputy director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has been cited with misdemeanor assault after police say he punched a man who made a derogatory comment about the woman accompanying the deputy director. Helena police tell the Independent Record 44-year-old Mike Volesky punched a 36-year-old man in the jaw Thursday evening at the Downtown Walking Mall near the Big Dipper ice cream store. Helena Assistant Police Chief Steve Hagen says the 36-year-old declined medical treatment at the scene. Hagen says V...
BUTTE (AP) — A Butte man who police say impersonated an officer has pleaded not guilty. The Montana Standard reports (http://bit.ly/18RkCxr) that 47-year-old James Richards Sr. made the plea at an arraignment hearing Thursday. He remains free on bond. Police say that in June Richards forced another vehicle to pull over on Interstate 90 and told the people in the vehicle he was a member of a drug task force and ordered the people out of the vehicle. Police arrested Richards later that day after determining he was i...
LOLO (AP) — Fire crews bolstered a barrier meant to prevent a pair of wildfires from moving east toward houses and heavy timber outside the town of Lolo as light rain and cooler conditions helped efforts to contain the blazes. The Lolo Creek Complex of fires was 40 percent contained Friday night and burning on more than 15 square miles, fire officials said. Crews building fire lines with bulldozers and shovels were working to connect the lines to keep the fire from moving closer to Sleeman Gulch and homes to the east o...
DEER LODGE (AP) — An inmate serving a life sentence for deliberate homicide has died at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Prison spokeswoman Linda Moodry says inmate Cleveland Boyer was found in his cell in a high security housing unit Friday morning and died at the hospital just before 9 a.m. He was 23. An autopsy is planned. Boyer was given a life sentence in January for the shooting death of his former best friend, Daniel Valenzuela. Valenzuela was shot numerous times as he stood at a downtown Billings convenience s...
LOLO (AP) — Fire crews took advantage of rain and cooler conditions Friday to work on a barrier meant to prevent a pair of wildfires from moving east toward houses and heavy timber outside the town of Lolo. The weather Thursday and early Friday allowed firefighters to make progress in corralling the Lolo Creek Complex of fires, which was 30 percent contained Friday morning and holding at about 9,500 acres, or nearly 15 square miles. Crews building fire lines with bulldozers and shovels were working to connect the lines to k...
HELENA (AP) — A federal appeals court is ruling against state laws designed to buck federal gun rules. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed with a lower court's decision that struck down the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The 2009 Montana law attempted to declare that federal firearms regulations don't apply to guns made and kept in that state. Other pro-gun states subsequently passed similar laws. But the Justice Department successfully argued that the courts have already decided Congress can use its p...
HELENA . (AP) — Reinforcements arrived in western Montana as dry thunderstorms and high wind gusts forecast for Thursday made it tougher to predict which way a pair of wildfires threatening 1,200 homes would turn. Since topping the nation's priority list Wednesday, the number of people assigned to the two fires west of the town of Lolo has jumped from 260 to 508, and air and engine support has also increased. That includes Montana National Guard helicopter crews and troops assigned to relieve local authorities at r...
