News you can use
News you can use
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BILLINGS — Montana's state parks will be overseen by a board dedicated to parks and recreation matters under a new law that splits up the duties of the former Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission. Legislation signed Monday by Gov. Steve Bullock during a ceremony at Pictograph Caves State Park near Billings establishes a five-member commission over Montana's 54 state parks. Bullock and the bill's Republican sponsor, Rep. Duane Ankney of Colstrip, says that will allow the state to take adequate care of natural and historic a...
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock has signed into law a measure that will allow judges to look back 10 years to add penalties for multiple drunken-driving offenders. Attorney General Tim Fox says his bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Christy Clark of Choteau will create a greater deterrent for drunk drivers and put more offenders into treatment programs. The attorney general's office says the previous law allowed a DUI conviction to be counted as a person's first offense if more than five years had passed since the last o...
KALISPELL (AP) — An Amber Alert has been canceled for a 1-year-old Montana boy who has been found in Washington state. The Flathead County Sheriff's Office says the boy was found Sunday morning in Fife, Wash. Authorities issued the alert earlier in the day for Brayden Blasius after reporting he had been abducted by his non-custodial parents....
MISSOULA (AP) — The tight ends coach for the University of Montana football team has been demoted following an incident in downtown Missoula in which a bar window was broken Head coach Mick Delaney tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/18aecb4) that first-year assistant Kade Rannings is no longer the tight ends coach but remains with the team. No charges resulted from the April 21 incident that resulted in the broken window. Delaney declined to say what duties Rannings now has with the team, but the school's athletics w...
BUTTE (AP) — Police in Butte say the body of a woman was found Sunday in a large trash bin. Butte police Capt. Jerome McCarthy tells the Montana Standard (http://bit.ly/12SJvaA) the 49-year-old woman was likely rummaging through the bin when she fell into it. Her car was found parked nearby. McCarthy says police do not suspect foul play but the body has been sent to the Montana Crime Lab in Missoula, and the death is under investigation. Her name hasn't been released....
MISSOULA — A University of Montana football player was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence after a Missoula police officer stopped him for speeding, a newspaper reported Friday. William "Bo" Harris was stopped for driving 45 mph in a 25 mph zone early on April 14, The Missoulian said. Court records say Harris' blood-alcohol level was 0.097 percent, which is over the legal driving limit of 0.02 percent for people under the age of 21. The redshirt freshman from Fairfield also was cited for speeding and underage...
BILLINGS — The struggle for control of Montana's largest publicly-traded company is turning increasingly bitter ahead of a May 2 shareholders' vote. Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and a team of dissident investors are sparring with Stillwater Mining executives over who could better lead the company. The stakes for Schweitzer are high, complicated by his considering a run to replace U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. Success would allow Schweitzer to launch a Senate campaign on a high note. Defeat could tarnish his much-touted business c...
HELENA — Former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg isn't ruling out a run for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. The Republican is coming off a bruising loss last year to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. But an open Senate seat could entice Rehberg to run again in 2014. Rehberg said Thursday he has been receiving encouragement to take a serious look at the race. He wrote in a brief email to The Associated Press that he owes it to his supporters to "to keep listening and see how things develop." Rehberg is a c...
MISSOULA (AP) — St. Louis Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson was arrested on a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge in Missoula, where he played college football for the University of Montana. Missoula County jail records indicate Johnson was booked into jail at 3:05 a.m. Friday and released about an hour later after posting a $700 bond. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Municipal Court sometime Friday. Police Detective Travis Welsh tells KECI-TV that Johnson was pulled over shortly after 2 a.m. for dr...
HELENA (AP) — A coalition of senators are undermining Republican leaders and forcing a floor vote on a campaign-finance overhaul. The state Senate voted 29-21 on Friday to bring Senate Bill 375 out for a vote on Monday. Republican state Sen. Jim Peterson has teamed up with Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on the measure that aims to force more disclosure about third-party money in politics. Peterson forced the Friday vote to take it out of a committee. Peterson said he worried the bill was advancing too slowly. The chamber's R...
HELENA (AP) — A bill that would allow concealed carry without a permit is shooting toward passage after receiving the Senate's initial endorsement. House Bill 304 would allow people carry concealed weapons within city limits without obtaining a concealed-carry permit. The measure is one of the many pro-gun measures on the docket this session. The Senate endorsed the measure Friday 27-21. It must pass a final vote in the chamber. Supporters say the so bill would give law-abiding people the freedom to carry concealed weapons i...
HELENA — Former Montana Disaster and Emergency Services employees claim the division's chief of staff traded sex for favoritism with a subordinate, and that those who complained were met with hostility and ultimately forced out of their jobs. The result was a dysfunctional workplace in which the agency's emergency management mission was overshadowed by the intra-office tumult, and longtime employees were replaced by unqualified ones, according to multiple lawsuits filed over the past year. The most recent, filed in January by...
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Senate has endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would cut off lawmakers for good after 16 years in office. he amended version of House Bill 277 would tighten term-limit provisions to prevent a state legislator from switching from the House to the Senate and back again every eight years. The original House bill would have allowed a legislator who already has served 16 years to run again after sitting out another eight years. A Senate committee changed that provision to limit the total t...
HELENA — Even Shawn McQuillan's 88-year-old grandfather says his 20-year-old grandson drives too cautiously. The younger McQuillan, who says he has never been in a car accident or received a ticket, testified against a measure Friday that would allow some insurance companies to consider gender when determining Montanans' policy rates — a measure that he finds discriminatory. "If the bill before you is enacted, I would pay more simply because I am a male," McQuillan said. Presented by Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, to the...
MISSOULA (AP) — A University of Montana study has found that more tourists visited Montana in 2012 and spent more money than in any previous year. The school's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research estimates that 10.8 million people visited Montana last year and spent $3.27 billion. That's a 2 percent increase in visitors from 2011 and the money spent is about a 15 percent increase. "People are more comfortable than they were a few years back and it shows," Norma Nickerson, director of the institute, told the M...
HELENA — Two fixes for the state's pension systems are nearing final approval despite lingering concern from Republicans over the cost. Some Republicans joined Democrats on Saturday to advance the public employee's pension fix in a 55-45 vote. It is one more vote away from the governor's desk. The House also voted 53-47 not to negotiate differences with the Senate on the teachers' retirement fix. It faces two more House votes. The two bills ask both employees and their local and state public employers to pay more, while r...
MISSOULA (AP) — Taking over ownership and operations of Kerr Dam will be both a historic and legal triumph for the Flathead Reservation, according to a lawyer who's shepherded the deal through 10 tribal councils. "The Salish and Kootenai tribes are really at the forefront for asserting their authority over natural resources on their lands," Joe Hovenkotter told audience members at the University of Montana School of Law's Public Land Law Conference on Wednesday. Hovenkotter was legal adviser for the Confederated Salish and Ko...
HELENA — Gov. Steve Bullock said Friday that the state's next political practices chief could still influence regulation of so-called "dark money" despite the failure of legislation dealing with the issue. Bullock said he expects to name a new political practices commissioner next week. The position has suffered in recent years from partisan wrangling and high turnover. The governor has interviewed five candidates that were suggested to him by the Legislature, asking each about the increase in political contributions that a...
HELENA — Montana lawmakers said Friday they expect to seek changes to a recently completed plan to redraw the state's legislative map. The Districting and Apportionment Commission is submitting the proposal to the Legislature for comment. The proposal was nearly three years in the making, and crafts 100 new state House and 50 new state Senate districts to align with 2010 population numbers. The plan is set to take effect for the 2014 election. Commission Chairman Jim Regnier told a joint session of the House and Senate t...
HELENA (AP) — Flu outbreaks are spreading across Montana, with one death reported and 57 people hospitalized so far, a state health official said Friday. Influenza cases have been reported in all but 18 of Montana's 56 counties, and the number of cases is expected to increase for at least a few more weeks, said Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesman Jon Ebelt. "It does seem to be shaping up to be our worst flu season since 2009," he said. Montana is one of 47 states where flu is considered widespread, in w...
MISSOULA — Federal officials reached agreements with the University of Montana after a yearlong investigation into mishandled sexual assault reports on campus that require the university to revise its policies and adequately respond to allegations, federal officials said Thursday. University and Missoula police officials previously said they implemented new policies and training on sexual assault awareness and prevention even before the Justice Department investigation. The investigation began after 11 assaults involving u...
HELENA — A Republican-led Senate rules committee is endorsing leadership actions in the fight over a Democratic attempt to kill GOP bills. The Senate Rules Committee on Monday was looking into Friday's standoff over an absent senator. Democrats publicly announced intentions to halt all business by invoking a parliamentary move that demands every member is present, in an effort to kill Republican proposals in danger of missing a procedural deadline. Republican leaders just ignored the Democrats and went ahead with votes. D...
BILLINGS (AP) — Authorities in eastern Montana say a 38-year-old pilot died when his small plane crashed on private land in McCone County. The Roosevelt County Sheriff's Office tells the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/Y6rqRx) that Darin Ray Brown's Cessna 182 crashed Saturday and that he died at the scene. Officials say Brown took off from a rural airstrip near Wolf Point at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday and was last heard from at about 11 a.m. while in the air. He was expected to arrive at a farm in Yellowstone County about 1...
HELENA – Jenny Kaleczyc sits at her desk on the third floor of a downtown Helena building with an overflowing inbox and fresh stack of folders – 10 more cases to add to her current workload of 75. "We lie awake worrying about what we couldn't get to, and wake up in the middle of the night making our to-do list for the next morning," the regional deputy public defender said. Community News Service/Amy R. Sisk Wade Zolynski, chief appellate defender for the Office of the State Public Defenders, testifies on a bill in front of...
HELENA — Gov.-elect Steve Bullock unveiled budget changes Friday that include increased education funding and keeping intact a proposed expansion of Medicaid under the federal health care law. Bullock released the changes to outgoing Gov. Brian Schweitzer's two-year budget proposal as lawmakers arrived in Helena in advance of next week's start to the Legislature. Bullock's proposal, which largely mirrors fellow Democrat Schweitzer's offering, faces a tough road through Republican-run legislative chambers. Bullock's o...
