News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 299 - 323 of 2820
HOLBROOK MOHR GARANCE BURKE Associated Press BUTTE - At least 786 children died of abuse or neglect in the U.S. in a six-year span in plain view of child protection authorities - many of them beaten, starved or left alone to drown while agencies had good reason to know they were in danger, The Associated Press has found. To determine that number, the AP canvassed the 50 states, the District of Columbia and all branches of the military - circumventing a system that does a...
MISSOULA (AP) — Thirty empty Montana Rail Link rail cars have derailed in Missoula. Montana Rail Link says there were no injuries and no hazardous material involved. Mainline rail service has not been interrupted. Officials say the derailment occurred about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Montana Rail Link says it is investigating the cause of the derailment....
BOZEMAN (AP) — Increasing license fees is a priority for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department in the upcoming legislative session, agency Director Jeff Hagener said. On Monday night, legislators, administrators and sportsmen met to discuss the agency's needs and how they might be affected by bills already being drafted. FWP is reaching the end of a 10-year budget cycle and will soon be in the red without new authorization for fees. But this time, it would extend for only four years. FWP depends mostly on money f...
MISSOULA (AP) — The defense rested its case Monday in the murder trial of a Montana man who shot and killed a German exchange student inside the man's garage. Markus Kaarma fired four shots into his garage early April 27, killing 17-year-old Diren Dede. He was alerted to Dede's presence in the garage by a motion detector. Prosecutors say that after a previous burglary, Kaarma was intent on harming an intruder when he shot Dede. Kaarma's attorneys say Montana law allowed him to use deadly force to defend his home. Defense l...
BILLINGS (AP) - A Colorado man was sentenced Monday to 80 years in prison for killing a Montana teacher in a case that emerged as a chilling example of the social changes brought by the Northern Plains' oil boom. Lester Van Waters Jr., 50, will not be eligible for parole for at least 20 years under the terms of the sentence, court officials said. Waters pleaded guilty last year to deliberate homicide by accountability. State District Judge Richard Simonton suspended an additio...
BOZEMAN (AP) — A Montana State University student was hospitalized with burns over more than half his body after an explosion in his dorm room. University spokesman Tracy Ellig tells The Bozeman Daily Chronicle (http://bit.ly/15RRJFD ) the student and his roommate were "horsing around" in their room Thursday evening by spraying an aerosol product used to remove stuck-on chewing gum. After spraying the flammable chemical around the room, one of the students triggered the explosion with a lighter. The blast was strong enough t...
From Montana Stockgrowers During next week’s 130th Annual Convention of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, ranchers will have the opportunity to attend several Cattlemen’s College education workshops, ranging from animal reproduction and nutrition, estate planning and discussions on current markets and processing plant feasibility. Gov. Steve Bullock is scheduled to speak during Friday’s Opening General Session. All MSGA events will take place at the Holiday Inn Grand Montana, Dec. 11-13 in Billings. “This year we are exc...
HELENA -— Outside groups poured at least $1.36 million in a Montana Supreme Court race that was supposed to be nonpartisan, demonstrating how increased political spending by interest groups has spilled over to down-ticket races. A group backed by the Montana Trial Lawyers Association spent the most — almost $640,000 on incumbent Mike Wheat, Lee Newspapers of Montana reports. Wheat was re-elected to the court over challenger Lawrence VanDyke in the Nov. 4 election. VanDyke was supported by several conservative and pro...
BILLINGS (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock on Tuesday sought to enlist the business community to help him promote to skeptical lawmakers a $300 million plan to upgrade state buildings, sewers, roads and other infrastructure across Montana. Doubtful lawmakers have questioned both the amount of spending and Bullock's desire to use bonds to cover about two-thirds of the costs. It's shaping up to be a major point of friction for the Legislative session that starts in January. Republicans already have voiced opposition to the plan — a cen...
The Chippewa Cree Tribal Courts set Dec. 16 as the date for the hearing of Jonathan Windy Boy’s injunction. Windy Boy filed the injunction with the court after the election board for Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Business Committee rejected his objection to the results of the election Nov. 12. “Jonathon is requesting the Chippewa Cree Tribal Courts grant him an injunction until all legal remedies have been exhausted,” read court documents granting Windy Boy the hearing. “ … There are some questions that can only be answer...
MISSOULA (AP) — A man charged with shooting and killing a German exchange student in his garage has a criminal record in Seattle and Missoula. Court records show Markus Kaarma pleaded guilty in 2003 to an assault charge in Seattle Municipal Court and received a deferred sentence. Kaarma was also charged with two criminal offences in Missoula Municipal Court in 2005, according to The Missoulian (http://bit.ly/1A8dGMS ). Court officials have refused to release records for those cases. One of Kaarma's attorneys previously f...
Staff and wire report The Montana Board of Public Education approved Friday standards that will be a part of Gov. Steve Bullock’s Early Edge plan, if legislature approves the funding for it in 2015. According to a press release from the governor’s office, the standards they approved were: • Set a class size limit of 18 students • Set a minimum number of hours required for a preschool program • Describe what children should know and be able to do in order to be prepared for Kindergarten • Create the early childhood e...
GREAT FALLS (AP) — A federal judge has vacated a hearing scheduled for next week in Great Falls to hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging Montana's ban on gay marriage. The four gay couples who sued to overturn the ban along with Attorney General Tim Fox, who is defending the ban, agreed that U.S. District Judge Brian Morris has enough information to decide the case without the formal hearing that had been scheduled next Thursday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down similar gay-marriage bans in I...
HELENA (AP) — Republican members of the Montana House have held a caucus meeting after-hours and away from the Capitol. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/11oigIQ) that about 50 Republican lawmakers met late Thursday in the basement of a Helena hotel to talk about the 2015 legislative session. Party caucus meetings must be open to the public after the courts found in the 1990s that party caucuses were public bodies and subject to Montana's right-to-know laws. Newly elected Republican House Majority Leader K...
Special to the Daily News HELENA — Montana’s Outdoor Legacy Foundation and several other co-sponsoring conservation and historical organizations are about to announce the first round of inductees into the newly formed Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame. The first batch of 12 inductees has already been selected by the planning committee and will be honored in an induction ceremony Dec. 6 at the Great Northern Hotel in Helena. Going forward, the committee will consider nominations from the public. The Hall of Fame was created to hon...
Special to the Daily News HELENA - Gov. Steve Bullock and the Montana Department of Commerce are celebrating 125 years of statehood by giving residents a chance to own an iconic piece of Montana history. By entering a social media contest, Montanans could win one of 10 "Welcome to Montana" highway signs used across the state from the late 1980s until earlier this year. New signs, designed through a partnership between the Montana Office of Tourism and the Montana Department...
HELENA (AP) — Montana Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has taken his campaign for campaign finance reform to Harvard Law School. He told a group of law professors and federal election officials there Friday that big money and a wealthy few are drowning out the voices of regular folks. Tester in 2013 introduced a constitutional amendment aimed at limiting rights of corporations to spend in elections. The amendment awaits a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tester says the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United d...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Advocates of same-sex marriage predict gay marriage soon will be a reality in Montana. Four gay couples filed suit in May seeking the right to marry in Montana. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris is scheduled to hear arguments in that case in Great Falls on Nov. 20. Liz Welch with the Montana ACLU says she's not 100 percent sure Morris will rule in the couples' favor, but she's encouraged by recent rulings allowing gay marriage in other states. The Bozeman Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1xlAm9Z) three of the f...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock's administration and three public employee unions have agreed to give most state employees raises next year and the year after. The increases of 50 cents an hour would take effect in October 2015 and October 2016. The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/1pBkr6A ) the proposed agreement announced Friday must be ratified by union members to take effect. After that, the Legislature would need to approve the deal. Bullock says Montana's strong fiscal position makes the raises possible. The i...
HELENA — U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis hasn't had much time to introduce herself to Montana voters since becoming the Democratic nominee in August, but she's getting a boost from the party's biggest names in the final days before Tuesday's election. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Gov. Steve Bullock joined Curtis and Democratic U.S. House candidate John Lewis on a tour of the state that hit 17 towns and cities starting Thursday and ending Sunday. On Saturday, they started their day in Helena at a rally attended by about 75 p...
HELENA (AP) — The presidents of Stanford University and Dartmouth College are sending 100,000 letters to Montana residents apologizing for and disavowing election mailers sent by political science researchers. The mailers sent last week rate whether the four nonpartisan Supreme Court candidates in this year's elections are liberal or conservative. Their use of the state seal makes them appear to be official state documents. The letter by Dartmouth president Philip Hanlon and Stanford president John Hennessy dated Tuesday u...
SIDNEY — A Colorado man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the murder of a Montana teacher in an oil boom town where residents say their lives were forever altered by the crime. Montana District Judge Richard Simonton accepted Michael Keith Spell's guilty plea on a count of deliberate homicide. A charge of attempted kidnapping was dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors. Spell testified that Sherry Arnold, 43, was killed when he and an accomplice tried to abduct the Sidney High School math teacher while she was out for a p...
HELENA (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis has posted her first and perhaps only television ad, a major accomplishment for a candidate who entered the race in mid-August with no money. The ad features Curtis meeting with Montanans and appealing to working families with her "one of us" message. "I come from a family that's a lot like most other Montana families," Curtis says. "And the reason that I've stepped up to the plate is the chance to be the voice for working families like mine." The ad started running...
BUTTE (AP) — University of Montana Western officials say the provost of Southwest Minnesota State University has been hired as the Dillon school's chancellor. The Montana Standard reports (http://bit.ly/11LCN9U) Beth Weatherby will begin her new job on Jan. 15. University of Montana President Royce Engstrom announced Weatherby's hiring after a search that began in the spring. The 57-year-old Weatherby has been provost and vice president of academic affairs and student affairs at the Marshall, Minnesota, school since 2007. S...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock is proposing a $37 million early childhood education program that would make half-day, pre-kindergarten programs available to 4-year-olds. Bullock was in Billings Monday to talk about Early Edge Montana. Under the voluntary program, block grants would be available to public schools to create or expand early childhood education programs or to partner with existing programs in their communities. Montana is one of eight states without any state investment in preschool programs. Studies suggest s...
