News you can use
News you can use
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HELENA — A U.S. House candidate in Montana is benefiting from a political action committee he created, leading at least one opponent and some experts to question the legality of the peculiar arrangement. Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL who is seeking the Republican nomination for Montana's lone congressional seat, created the Special Operations for America (SOFA) super PAC to back Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. The committee now backs candidates who support the military — and their first candidate is Zinke, a 52-... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The father of a victim in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings urged Montana lawmakers Thursday to pass legislation requiring the state to turn over records that would help prevent the mentally ill from buying guns. A panel of lawmakers is considering whether to recommend to the Legislature next year changing a law that prohibits the state from submitting the names of people involuntarily committed to mental facilities for federal gun background checks. Virginia now has a similar requirement to turn over those r... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court says a legislative referendum to end Election-Day voter registration can go on the 2014 ballot. But the justices ruled in a 5-1 decision Wednesday the attorney general's office must first revise the ballot statement to clarify that the change is not required by the federal National Voter Registration Act. Montana has allowed voters to register or change their registrations on Election Day since 2005. The referendum approved by the 2013 Republican-led Legislature for the November b... Full story
HELENA (AP) - Montana Senate President Jeff Essmann says he will ask a state senator to step back from his legislative duties after being arrested on allegations of pushing his wife. Republican Sen. Jason Priest of Red Lodge pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of partner or family assault and resisting arrest. He was arrested Saturday night and released Monday after posting $1,500 bond. Essmann says the allegations against Priest are a matter of serious concern. The Billings... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena planned to file for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up. Diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers, resulting in the deal to resolve the abuse claims. The settlement details are being worked out, b... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A long execution in Ohio that left the condemned inmate gasping and snorting illustrates the dangers of using untested drug combinations in lethal injections, said a civil-rights group suing Montana over its execution method. Montana last year changed its lethal-injection method from a combination of three drugs to two, but there hasn't been an execution in the state since the change and the combination of those two drugs is untested in the U.S., said American Civil Liberties Union of Montana attorney Anna Conle... Full story
HELENA, Mont — A former Montana judge who was investigated for forwarding a racist email involving President Barack Obama sent hundreds of other inappropriate messages from his federal email account, according to the findings of a judicial review panel released Friday. Former U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull sent emails to personal and professional contacts that showed disdain for blacks, Indians, Hispanics, women, certain religious faiths, liberal political leaders, and some emails contained inappropriate jokes about s... Full story
HELENA — The number of Montanans who signed up for health coverage through the online marketplace that is a key part of President Barack Obama's health overhaul increased nearly tenfold in December, according to new federal health data released Monday. From Oct. 1 through Dec. 28, a total of 13,151 Montana residents chose health plans through the federal exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That is compared to the 1,382 people who had signed up in October and November, the period when p... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Prosecutors are recommending no prison time for a Blackfeet woman who pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to defraud and embezzle from a federally funded program for troubled youth on the northwestern Montana Indian reservation. Charlotte New Breast is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris on a charge of aiding and abetting theft from an organization receiving federal grant funds. New Breast, 53, was the administrative assistant for the now-defunct Po'Ka Project, which c... Full story
HELENA nt. (AP) — The state Supreme Court has reversed an earlier ruling that made it difficult for individuals to file legal challenges against government agencies that ignore Montana's open meetings and open records laws. The 6-0 ruling Thursday says a person can sue an agency for violating the state constitution's right-to-know and right-to-participate provisions, even if that person doesn't have a direct personal interest in the matter. That undoes a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that required a person to first prove he w... Full story
HELENA — An estimated 17,000 small businesses in Montana will be exempt from paying the state's business equipment tax under a new law that takes effect on Wednesday. The reduction in the business equipment tax is one of a handful of bills passed by the Legislature last spring that become law with the new year. Starting Wednesday, businesses will be exempt from paying taxes on their first $100,000 in equipment. That means if a small business has less than $100,000 in equipment, it won't have to pay any of the tax. P... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Federal prosecutors oppose a former medical marijuana lobbyist's request to be removed from probation so he can tend to his sick mother without restrictions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thaggard said Thursday in response to Tom Daubert's request that early termination is reserved for rare cases of exceptionally good behavior. Thaggard says the health of Daubert's 83-year-old mother and his desire to resurrect his consulting career do not justify ending his five-year probation sentence after only one year. U...
HELENA - U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' surprise announcement that he will not seek a seventh term in 2014 was Montana's top news story of 2013, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of state editors. This year's list includes maneuvering ahead of the 2014 elections, the pushback against anonymous campaign funding and the headaches surrounding the nation's health care overhaul. It highlights crime-fighting efforts in Indian Country and in the oil patch, along with notable... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Gov. Steve Bullock joined other Montana political leaders Friday in lauding Max Baucus' 35-year career in the U.S. Senate, but the Democratic governor deflected questions on a possible replacement if Baucus is confirmed as the next ambassador to China. Bullock Chief of Staff Kevin O'Brien acknowledged the governor will likely have to appoint a replacement for Baucus, but he shed little light about whom Bullock was considering. "Today is about Max, his commitment to public service and the state of Montana. It a... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park's supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study. By measuring seismic waves from earthquakes, scientists were able to map the magma chamber underneath the Yellowstone caldera as 55 miles long, lead author Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah said Monday. The chamber is 18 miles wide and runs at depths from 3 to 9... Full story
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two judges will be sworn in to the federal bench, easing a shortage on the U.S. District Court of Montana but leaving vacancies in the state's busiest and highest courts that will take at least three months to fill. Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday and District Judge Susan Watters of Billings on Thursday to the federal court system. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen is currently the only active full-time federal judge in the state. Morris, 50, and W... Full story
MISSOULA (AP) — Cody Johnson was head over heels for his new wife, but Jordan Graham was having serious doubts that came to a head when Johnson fell to his death during an argument on a steep cliff in Glacier National Park, prosecutors said Monday. The murder trial of Graham, 22, began in U.S. District Court in Missoula. Federal prosecutors say the woman from Kalispell, Mont., intentionally pushed Johnson the night of July 7, just eight days after their marriage, then lied to family, friends and the police for days by s... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The bride was having second thoughts eight days after the wedding, sparking an argument between the newlywed couple that carried from their Kalispell home to a popular trail in Glacier National Park. Only Jordan Graham left the park alive the night of July 7. Now it will be up to a jury to decide what happened and whether the 22-year-old woman should be convicted of murder in the death of Cody Johnson. Graham's trial begins Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula with jury selection and is expected to last o... Full story
HELENA — Environmental regulators have asked a judge to approve an agreement with Fort Belknap Indian Reservation officials to fix years of "chronic violations" in how the reservation's water supply is treated and monitored. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the motion to approve the proposed consent decree Thursday with the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes and the tribal-owned Prairie Mountain Utilities, which operates the central Montana reservation's five water-supply systems. The agreement, which has been in the w... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is dropping group health insurance plans for its 200 employees in parishes, schools and social services across western Montana, a spokesman for the diocese said. Instead, the diocese will help those workers find individual insurance coverage on the market, and compensate them within limits when they purchase their own plans, diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said Wednesday. The diocese plans to make the change by January, he said. Across the nation, some religious groups and sc... Full story
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Some 212 people in Montana signed up for health insurance in the first month of the U.S. government-run online marketplace that has been plagued by technical problems, federal officials said Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the first nationwide and state-by-state enrollment numbers for the insurance exchanges since their Oct. 1 debut. Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 2, 2,683 people in Montana completed applications for coverage for 5,202 people, according to the federal agency'... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A Rocky Mountain College art student who flunked and dropped math classes required to earn a degree is suing to force the school to allow her to substitute two non-math courses so she can graduate. Hannah Valdez's disabilities prevent her from passing two basic math courses — including algebra, calculus, statistics or trigonometry — that are part of the Billings college's general education requirements to graduate with a bachelor of art degree, she said in her federal lawsuit. Valdez's disabilities inclu... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Investigators twisted the statements of a newlywed bride to make it appear as though she deliberately pushed her husband to his death in Glacier National Park, an attorney for the Montana woman claimed. FBI investigator Stacey Smiedala also sent a Kalispell police detective from the room so he could "shape" Jordan Graham's initial 1 ½-hour interrogation on July 16 without having to record it, as is required in all Montana investigations, attorney Michael Donahoe said in court filings late Friday. As a re... Full story
HELENA — NorthWestern Energy officials are saying their planned $900 million purchase of 11 hydroelectric dams will mean decades of stable customer rates after an initial increase. NorthWestern CEO Bob Rowe and vice president of supply John Hines outlined the utility's agreement to buy the PPL Montana dams to an interim legislative committee on Friday. The deal must be approved by state and federal regulators. Hines says the acquisition will mean an initial increase of about 5 percent, or $4 per month, on a typical r... Full story
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Blackfeet tribal leader and state Sen. Shannon Augare has pleaded guilty in federal court to misdemeanor charges after he fled a sheriff's deputy who stopped him for drunken driving. Augare entered the plea Thursday after U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong ruled Augare's conviction on the same charges last month in tribal court did not end the federal case. Strong ordered Augare to pay $1,250 in fines and to attend a treatment class. Augare apologized and told the judge he accepted full responsibility. H... Full story
