5 things to know about Montana today

Your daily look at news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today.

NUNS ASK FOR NEW ROUND OF NEGOTIATIONS IN SEX-ABUSE CASE:

Attorneys for an order of nuns plan to ask a judge Thursday for a new round of negotiations to settle claims of child sex abuse by priests and nuns in Montana, a request that comes less than three weeks before the first trial. The first three plaintiffs who say they were abused as children in western Montana are scheduled to go to trial July 14. Additional trials with similarly small groups of plaintiffs are planned but not yet scheduled against the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province.

TRIAL DATE SET IN EXCHANGE STUDENT SLAYING:

A Montana judge has tentatively set a Jan. 5 trial date for a 24-year-old Missoula man charged with shooting and killing a German exchange student in his garage. District Judge Ed McLean says Markus Kaarma's deliberate homicide trial could be moved to December if a larger courtroom became available sooner.

JUDGE SETS DEADLINE FOR LYNX RECOVERY PLAN:

A federal judge said a January 2018 deadline proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reasonable to complete a long-delayed recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx in the Lower 48 states. Wildlife advocates had asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to push the government into faster action on the snow-loving big cats, which were added to the list of threatened species in 2000.

DOCUMENTS DETAIL FREQUENCY OF OIL TRAINS FREQUENCY IN MONTANA:

Railroad records show more than a dozen volatile oil train shipments traverse Montana weekly en route to out-of-state refineries. The documents show oil trains have passed through at least 30 of Montana's 56 counties. Roosevelt County topped the list, with 20 trains in a single week.

HUNDREDS OF EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ATTEND FIRE CHIEF'S FUNERAL:

Fire departments from across the state sent representatives to attend the funeral of Three Forks Fire Chief Todd Rummel. A procession of 114 fire and emergency vehicles passed under a giant American flag hung from two ladder trucks as it made its way through the streets of Three Forks. Rummel died a week ago in a highway collision that killed a family of five from Townsend. The funerals for Matthew Boegli, Crystal Ross and their three children are scheduled for Thursday in Helena.