News you can use
News you can use
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(This story is reprinted with the permission of Lee Newspapers.) HELENA — A young man shot and killed himself after a 21-hour standoff with Havre police three weeks ago, and it got barely a notice in the statewide press. Yet this young man — Robert Thomas, a former prison inmate who had “absconded” during his parole — wasn’t just any young man. He was the central figure in a twisting and often tragic saga that began 12 years ago in the Missoula Juvenile Detention Facility, when Thomas and several other juvenile inmates acc...
Don't widen chasm between rich, poor Editor: If you are concerned about our country's future, act now. By Nov. 23, Sen. Max Baucus and the other 11 members of the supercommittee must submit their proposals for reducing by $1.5 trillion the federal deficit. On the table for cuts is all that we love — national parks, schools, public safety and roads, libraries — and all the government programs that protect our most vulnerable neighbors — Medicaid, SSI, Meals on Wheels, subsidized housing. The result of cuts to our safety-net pr...
The Montana Board of Regents put a framework in place Thursday that would allow for cuts of up to 5 percent in the university system, the first of the state agencies to publicly heed the governor's request to do so. The board decided unanimously during a conference call to honor Gov. Brian Schweitzer's request to start planning for such cuts, even though it has unique constitutional authority among executive branch agencies to establish its own budget. The board recognized the cuts are needed as Montana grapples with...
The Board of Regents will evaluate budget cuts of up to 5 percent for the state's colleges and universities at a meeting this week. The regents have decided to join other state agencies that are drafting the proposed budget cuts following a request from Gov. Brian Schweitzer — even though the university system has the authority to establish its own spending priorities. "The regents want to be responsible leaders in the state and contribute as much as possible," Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns said of the effor...
A rare tornado tore through a farmhouse and killed two people inside, leaving nothing but the house's foundation and a few twisted vehicles as it swept through Montana's remote and sparsely populated northeastern corner. A teenage boy and a man in his 40s were killed on the farm when the tornado touched down Monday evening about 13 miles west of Reserve, Sheridan County Sheriff Patrick Ulrickson said. A 71-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Plentywood and will be transported to Billings, he said....
U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg said Monday that he could support U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's plan to expand wilderness and increase logging - but only with more assurances that the logging will occur. Rehberg, who has held 22 meetings on the measure, said he doesn't think Tester's plan accomplishes its intended goals the way it's written. Tester's bill would create more than 600,000 acres of wilderness, mostly in southwestern Montana's Beaverhead- Deerlodge National Forest, and mandate 70,000 acres of logging in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge...
A feud between two neighbors that spilled onto the floor of the Montana House is now headed to the Supreme Court. Robert F. Cooper's lawsuit against Republican Rep. Bill Glaser of Huntley says Glaser called him a "kook" who had been imprisoned in Japan for threatening a military officer and institutionalized at the state mental hospi tal in Warm Springs. Glaser did not mention Cooper by name when he criticized him over a letter he arranged to have distributed in the House in March 5. Cooper's letter described his fa i l e d...
A Montana physician who saw about 150 patients over 14½ hours during a medical marijuana clinic last year will be fined $2,000 for providing substandard care, the first time a doctor in the state has been disciplined in a marijuana case. The s tat e Board o f Medical Examiners' action follows a stern warning issued by the board to doctors who participate in the "cannabis caravans" that travel around the state registering medical marijuana patients. The board cautioned those doctors not to let their standards of care slip,...
A civil rights advocacy group filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of seven gay couples demanding the state provide them the same rights married couples have in making decisions affecting their family's health care, finances, inheritance and other matters. The American Civil Liberties Union claims in the lawsuit that the state is violating the Montana Constitution by denying those rights to gay couples in committed relationships. The 14 plaintiffs aren't challenging an amendment to the state constitution that bans same-sex...
A judge who denied convicted murderer Barry Beach's petition for a hearing on what Beach calls new evidence in the case said he won't assign a new judge to the case. Beach, who is serving 100 years in prison for the 1979 murder of 17-yearold Kim Nees of Poplar, is seeking a new trial, arguing that testimony by others during a state board of Pardons and Parole hearing in 2007 connected a group of girls to the murder. However, the board called that testimony double and triple hearsay that would not have been admissible in...
A key union leader for Montana state and university employees says he will not bargain another salary freeze with the governor — drawing a line in the sand amid what is expected to be a very tight budget process. The gove rno r ' s o f f i c e responded by saying that tough economic times means everyone — including state employees — need to have reduced expectations. Budget Director David Ewer did not rule out the possibility of a pay freeze. Eric Feaver, the forceful voice at the legislature and elsewhere for an influ...
The state Board of Regents is still searching for ways to trim the university system budget, but Chairman Stephen Barrett said tuition increases aren't being considered. "To no one's surprise here, it's going to be a more tight and difficult year than we expected," Barrett said Thursday, the first of two days the regents were meeting in Helena. Gov. Brian Schweitzer last week asked state agencies to find ways to cut their budgets by 5 percent in 2011, if necessary. That amounts to $7.5 million for a university system that is...
U. S. Sen. Jon Tester released some changes Thursday to his logging and wilderness bill, beating back a Washington, D.C.- based rewrite of the carefully crafted Montana compromise. Tester said the bill would die without the logging mandates a Senate committee removed from his plan. He has put them back in the bill, another step in what he characterized as a long road to declare the first new wilderness areas in decades. "The process to get a bill through, even if it is a simple bill, always takes time and there is always...
Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday he wants ideas from the public on how the state can save money without reducing services, and he promises to implement the plan that gets the most votes. Schweitzer said ideas will be collected over the Internet through the end of March, then four finalists will be put up for a public vote on the state Web site. The person who submitted the top vote-getter will receive a palladium coin worth $400 donated by Montana's Stillwater Mine, Schweitzer said. There are some catches. The idea has...
Montana's 54 state parks reported a record 2 million visits in 2009. State Parks Administrator Chas Van Genderen said water-based parks were the most popular, with more than a million visits, up 15 percent from 2008. Parks along Flathead Lake and Spring Meadow Lake State Park near Helena reported record-breaking seasons. Pictograph Cave near Billings and other parks with cultural features attracted more than 600,000 visits, a 12 percent increase while parks with outstanding natural features, such as Lewis & Clark Caverns...
A Montana advocacy group is shutting down its traveling medical marijuana clinics amid criticism that the so-called cannabis caravans have added thousands of people to the state registry without conducting thorough patient screenings. The Montana Caregviers Network has hosted the one-day clinics in hotels and conference centers across Montana for more than a year. For a $150 fee, the group brought together those seeking to become medical marijuana patients with doctors willing to prescribe pot. Starting next week, the group...
Gov. Brian Schweitzer is asking state agency directors to prepare contingency plans for cuts of up to 5 percent by the end of the month because the state government budget is getting tight. He also told them Friday that they may have to reduce baseline spending for the next two-year budget period that starts in 2011. The governor has issued several notices of relatively small cuts in recent weeks. But the potentially biggest will come now that projected budget reserves are now essentially gone — giving him broad authority t...
Varied background makes Seidel best choice for House Editor: I'm writing to support the election of Dana Sapp Seidel to House District 34. Dana is the best choice because of her varied background and proactive commitment to all citizens in District 34, the Hi-Line and Montana. She is able to do this as she is a daughter of a banker, has married into a farm family and is a registered nurse. As a daughter of a banker, Dana can relate to and support the small business concerns in Montana. Having married into a farm family she ca...
A judge's ruling to restore federal protections for the Rocky Mountain gray wolf has scuttled settlement talks between the parties involved in the lawsuit that had been scheduled for next week. Instead, organizers will likely have to wait until the furor has died down from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's Thursday ruling before gauging interest in trying again, people involved with the planning said Friday. Some are skeptical that there's not much point to the talks now. After Molloy's ruling, Idaho wildlife officials...
A state agency that sued The Associated Press over a request to see documents on alleged sexual misconduct of prison employees must hand over the records, a Helena judge decided in the constitutional right-to-know case. The issue stems from the resignation of four female Montana State Prison employees and the departure of one male employee after allegations surfaced of employee sexual misconduct with a male inmate in late 2008. The AP later sought the investigation documents — prompting the state to sue the news o...
Fourteen employees in the governor's budget office recently received pay raises, even as most state employees are in the midst of a two-year pay freeze. The budget director said he isn't filling a job. He reassigned that person's duties, and the move will save the state $45,000. "I have reorganized the entire office," Budget Director David Ewer said Tuesday. "People are being paid to do more." The raises, ranging from 2 percent to 19 percent, took effect Nov. 2. The Montana Public Employees Association and other unions...
State budget cuts could be getting far more severe following an order Tuesday from the governor that agencies prepare contingency plans for 5 percent spending reductions, a move that surprised legislative leaders who were not told of the plans. Gov. Brian Schweitzer made the announcement following a string of reports showing the state budget picture is getting worse, not better. A report due out today is expected to make an even gloomier forecast. Schweitzer said state law gives him the authority to cut spending if projected...
A sharply divided Montana Supreme Court has upheld a state law that requires someone planning to sue a bar over liability in a drunken driving crash to notify the bar within 180 days of the crash. The Supreme Court issued the 4-3 ruling on Dec. 23 in a lawsuit filed by C a r y a n d Terra Rohlfs over a June 2006 drunken driving crash that seriously injured Cary Rohlfs. The driver, Joseph Warren, had been drinking for much of the day at the Stumble Inn in Victor. The Rohlfs sued the bar just over a year after the crash,...
Medical marijuana applicants wi l l h ave t o prove they are Montana resid e n t s b e fo r e t h ey c a n b e added to the patient registry after health officials turned up several applications from people who live out of state. Starting Monday, new applicants and patients seeking renewals will have to provide a driver's license or state-issued identification number on their applications, state Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesman Chuck Counci l said Wednesday. Health officials decided to change their...
The Montana Supreme Court said Thursday that nothing in state law prevents patients from seeking physician-assisted suicide, making Montana the third state that will allow the procedure. Patients and doctors had been waiting for the state's high court to step in after a lower court decided a year ago that constitutional rights to privacy and dignity protect the right to die. The Montana Supreme Court opinion will now give doctors in the state the freedom to prescribe the necessary drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill...
