News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 998 - 1022 of 2820
HELENA (AP) — House Republicans advanced a plan Thursday to end same-day voter registration that critics blame for long lines on Election Day, but supporters argue improves access to the voting booth. The measure, which cleared an initial 61-39 House vote on Thursday along party lines, would end voter registration the Friday before Election Day. Supporters of House Bill 30 argue the deadline provides ample time for voter registration, while freeing up county officials to deal with just traditional voters on Election Day. "Why...
HELENA (AP) — A Montana lawmaker says convicts should be allowed to get out of prison time if they instead agree to the "infliction of physical pain" — an idea that so far is receiving a cool reception. Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil is drafting a bill that would allow those convicted of misdemeanors or felonies to negotiate corporal punishment instead of another sentence. The method used to inflict the pain would be decided by a judge. The veteran lawmaker said Wednesday that he thinks long prison sentences are inhumane. "Te...
HELENA (AP) — The state Senate has endorsed a bill that would criminalize the employment of illegal immigrants. House Bill 297 would suspend the license of a business that employs illegal immigrants and would allow the prosecution of whistleblowers who provide false reports of illegal labor. The bill passed an initial Senate vote Wednesday along party lines. It has already passed the House Republican Sen. Verdell Jackson of Kalispell says the measure would discourage illegal immigrants from taking Montanans' jobs, while p...
HELENA — The Montana House advanced a pay raise for state employees and endorsed the governor's proposed fix for the beleaguered pension systems as lawmakers eyeing compromise turned their attention to big pieces of legislation. The lawmakers, with a month left in the session, face deadlines this week and next week to advance bills that spend money or deal with tax revenue. And they continued a trend Wednesday of finding bipartisan support for potential compromises between the GOP-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Steve Bul...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Ballots were mailed out Wednesday to Montana State University professors who will decide whether to keep their faculty union. The ballots went to 400 tenured and tenure-track professors after more than 30 percent of the professors requested a union decertification vote with the state Department of Labor and Industry. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that professors disagree whether the Associated Faculty of MSU has won better pay raises or benefits, caused the faculty to be treated more fairly or resulted i...
BOZEMAN (AP) — Tenured faculty at Montana State University have voted to decertify the union that has represented them for the past four years. Members of the Associated Faculty of MSU voted 190-185 in favor of dissolving the union. Union president Sandy Osborne said six contested ballots weren't counted. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/17klWZi ) the parent union decided not to challenge the election. MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver said he didn't see any election irregularities. Some professors began w...
HELENA — Gov. Steve Bullock is increasing pressure on Republican lawmakers to accept federal money for Medicaid expansion. The Medicaid health care program for the poor is funded primarily with federal money, along with some state tax money. The federal health care reform offers states a big chunk of federal money to expand it further to low-income workers who don't have insurance. But Republicans opposed to the federal program argue state costs for the program will eventually increase as federal money dries up. The g...
HELENA — Gov. Steve Bullock and the Montana Legislature moved closer Tuesday to an agreement on the remaining big pieces of the state budget and eyed an early adjournment. Bullock said a gap of only about $30 million remained between lawmakers considering the two-year, $10 billion spending plan. Both sides were working late to reach agreement on the priorities. Bullock was asking lawmakers for more funding for child protective service, prisons, and law enforcement in booming oil fields and other areas. He said more than $6 m...
HELENA — Even the architects of a surprising bipartisan House budget deal didn't expect the unprecedented unanimous vote from the chamber on Tuesday. "I had no idea in my wildest imagination," Republican Rep. Duane Ankney of Colstrip said after a 100-0 vote on a roughly $9 billion spending plan. "Wow," said Democratic Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh of Helena. The chamber broke into applause Tuesday morning after endorsing the budget in a little over an hour — a process has taken days in the past. There was no debate or dissent — alth...
HELENA (AP) — The Senate is backing a bill that reduces from five days to 24 hours the time hunters have to wait after purchasing a license to hunt black bears. Republican Sen. Fred Thomas of Stevensville says House Bill 278 would allow for consistency in the law by requiring the same waiting period to hunt bears as that for wolves. Opponents argued the measure would increase incidences of poaching. They point to a 1994 Fish, Wildlife and Parks study that concluded that Montanans preferred the five-day waiting period. Some 2...
BILLINGS — A Lewistown judge said he fears he's done a "soul-wrenching injustice" to a man he freed from prison after more than 27 years, only to see him ordered back behind bars by a higher court. AP Photo/Matt Gouras, File In this Aug. 2, 2011 file photo, District Judge E. Wayne Phillips, right, speaks to witness Susan Mohler in Lewiston during a hearing in the case of Barry Beach. Phillips says he fears he did a "soul-wrenching injustice" to Beach, a man he freed from prison after 27 years, only to see the man ordered back...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Barack Obama's health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it's headed for a "train wreck" because of bumbling implementation. "I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama's health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense. Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care l...
HELENA — A bipartisan coalition in the House is restoring part of the session's big school funding bill. Senate Bill 175 is the result of a multi-year effort by various interest groups to improve the school funding system. It also seeks to reduce the burden on local property tax payers with the help of natural resource money. Conservatives opposed to the cost of the bill used their majority in committee to dramatically alter the measure last week. But Democrats joined a group of Republicans Monday on the House floor to r...
HELENA — Bipartisan foes of so-called "dark money" behind many attack advertisements in politics are facing some opposition from traditional allies. AP Photo/Matt Gouras Republican State Sen. Jim Peterson discusses the plan he wrote with the governor to shed light on so-called "dark money" in politics at committee hearing on Thursday, in Helena. Republican state Sen. Jim Peterson and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock are teaming up with a measure that aims to force more disclosure on third-party money in politics. They took t...
MISSOULA (AP) — Backers of a government-sponsored conservation effort to transplant Yellowstone National Park bison to Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian Reservations say a state judge erred in blocking the relocations because state law doesn't apply to moving bison on tribal lands. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation made the argument Friday to the Montana Supreme Court in an effort to have lifted a state judge's injunction last May preventing the bison relocations. The...
WEST GLACIER (AP) — A Glacier National Park official says the annual battle to clear Going-to-the-Sun Road of snow has begun and progress is about equal with previous years. Spokeswoman Denise Germann tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/15bh9es) that crews started work the week of April 1 and have found below-average snowpack at elevations under 4,500 feet. But she says there is above average snowpack at elevations above 4,500 feet. The road that bisects the park is a major tourist draw, but clearing it of snow is a m...
DECKER (AP) — From the time coal is scooped from the depths of the Spring Creek strip mine in Montana's wide-open Powder River Basin until it travels more than 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to power plants in South Korea, the price can increase more than fivefold. Mining companies, however, are only paying government royalties on the price of the coal when it is mined from federal lands, not when it is sold for more overseas, saving them millions of dollars in the process. As the Interior Department investigates the i...
HELENA (AP) — A bipartisan budget deal is restoring federal family planning money sought by Democrats and giving Republicans a permanent cut of 500 vacant state jobs. The Montana Senate is finalizing the state's main $9 billion budget bill that spends a combination of state and federal money. It covers services big and small: schools, driver's licensing, Medicaid, law enforcement and much more. Lawmakers huddled for two hours to start Saturday trying to reach a deal on two contentious issues. It produced a compromise that r...
HELENA (AP) — A breakdown of the federal crackdown on marijuana trafficking by people operating under Montana's medical marijuana law. Time period 2010-2013 Investigations 3: Operation Smokejumper, Operation Weed Be Gone, Operation Noxious Weed People indicted 34 People convicted 33 Plea deals 31 Trials 2, both resulting in convictions Dismissals 1 Source: U.S. Attorney's Office. A look at the changes in the Montana pot industry The Associated Press HELENA (AP) — A look at how the number of Montana medical marijuana use...
HELENA — If American society's tolerance for marijuana is now growing, then what happened in Montana illustrates just what can happen when the government decides things have gone too far. Pot advocates were running caravans, helping hundreds of residents in a day get medical marijuana user cards. Some doctors who conducted cursory exams on scores of people were fined. As the number of users quickly grew, so did a retail industry that led some to dub the state "Big High Country." AP Photo/Matt Volz Drug Enforcement Agent In C...
HELENA — Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed a measure Friday that he says would have allowed a way for anonymous political organizations to contribute to campaigns through religious groups. House Bill 217 would have exempted religious organizations from campaign finance reports. The measure would have given so-called "dark money" groups the opportunity to donate to campaigns through churches without any oversight or regulation, Bullock said in his veto letter. The Democratic governor also vetoed 11 other bills Friday, including one t...
HELENA, (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock signed the Legislature's main budget bill Friday — but not after first using his line-item veto authority to strike a small portion of the spending. Bullock said in his line-item veto message that he needed to reduce spending. His office said the reductions cut about $30 million, roughly 0.4 percent of the two-year, $8 billion budget. House Bill 2 cleared the Legislature with the backing of minority Democrats and some Republicans. But Bullock said lawmakers did not stick to his goals of a s...
HELENA — Montana legislative leaders decided Friday to send the governor five potential candidates for the commissioner of political practices post after deadlocking on efforts to trim the list. A panel of two Republicans and two Democrats interviewed five candidates Friday, but the group couldn't agree afterward which should be the top selections. AP Photo/Matt Gouras Commissioner of political practices candidate Jonathan Motl speaks to the selection committee on Friday, in Helena. Montana legislative leaders are sending t...
BILLINGS — Wolf hunting and trapping can resume near Yellowstone National Park after a Montana judge on Wednesday blocked the state from shutting down the practice. The restraining order from Judge Nels Swandal allows hunting and trapping to resume in areas east and west of the town of Gardiner. State officials closed the gray wolf season in those areas on Dec. 10 after several wolves collared for research were killed, drawing complaints from wildlife advocates. The closures prompted a lawsuit from sporting groups and a s...
HELENA — A midnight court hearing in Kalispell helped a Montana prosecutor accused of assaulting a family member avoid spending last weekend in jail, but his attorney said there was no special treatment for the prosecutor and it was held out of concern for his safety. Flathead County Deputy Attorney Kenneth "Rusty" Park's attorney was arrested Friday night after a woman at his home in Kila called authorities. Park was charged with creating reasonable apprehension of bodily injury, which is a crime under the partner or f...
