News you can use
News you can use
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HELENA - Former Republican Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger said Wednesday his decision to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014 as a Democrat was sealed by last month's federal government shutdown and Congress' inability to work together. Bohlinger, 77, made the surprise announcement Tuesday at a Lewis and Clark County Democratic Central Committee party dinner. He confirmed his decision to The Associated Press Wednesday morning at his Helena home. He had been considering a run for months,... Full story
HELENA (AP) — State Sen. Shannon Augare will plead guilty to charges of drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction of a peace officer if a magistrate judge rejects a request to dismiss the federal charges, his attorney said Tuesday in a court filing. A change of plea would allow Augare, a Blackfeet tribal council member, to avoid defending himself in U.S. District Court against the same charges he pleaded guilty to in tribal court last month in connection with a May 26 traffic stop. His trial had been scheduled to b... Full story
HELENA — Federal prosecutors no longer have jurisdiction to try a state senator and Blackfeet tribal leader on drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction charges after he pleaded guilty to the same crimes in tribal court, his attorney said in a new court filing. Joe McKay, the attorney representing Browning Democrat and Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member Shannon Augare, asked a federal magistrate judge to dismiss the charges against Augare on Friday, just days before his federal trial is to begin Thursday. A f... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Montana's entire congressional delegation may have taken a hit in their approval ratings because of the 16-day federal government shutdown, the director of a new Montana State University-Billings poll said Friday. The poll, conducted during the shutdown earlier this month, asked state residents their views on several national and state issues and to assess the performance of their elected leaders. Most respondents said they opposed President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, but even more people, r... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs is offering to mediate in a dispute that has split the governing body of the Blackfeet Indian tribe into two factions, but the tribal chairman said Friday he hopes to resolve their problems internally. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council fractured this week after Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. unilaterally suspended two members and reinstated three others who had been previously suspended. The result has been a leadership struggle between the rival factions. Sharp said he has c... Full story
HELENA - A state senator and suspended Blackfeet leader has pleaded guilty in tribal court to charges similar to those he faces in federal court over fleeing a sheriff's deputy who stopped him for erratic driving. Shannon Augare's surprise tribal court appearance and guilty plea Wednesday is the latest twist in a case that has become a testing ground for federal versus tribal jurisdiction in prosecuting American Indians for misdemeanor crimes. It is unclear what effect Augare'... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Montana lawmakers who say term limits have reduced their effectiveness looked Wednesday to other states for ideas on how to strengthen their branch of government. The Legislature is supposed to be equal to the state's executive and judicial branches, but it has been weakened by eight-year term limits on lawmakers, Republican Senate President Jeff Essmann of Billings said. That frequent turnover in legislators results in the entire body lacking a deep knowledge of government agencies, issues and problems, he s... Full story
HELENA — The Chippewa Cree Tribe has declared a financial disaster due to the federal government shutdown. Spokesman Wade Colliflower said Tuesday if the budget stalemate in Congress isn't resolved by Thursday, the tribal government will completely shut down. The exception will be the Rocky Boy's reservation's police department and health clinic, which will be fully staffed. Colliflower says senior citizens will receive meal deliveries, propane and firewood as the weather turns colder. But nearly all other tribal offices a... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A Blackfeet tribal councilman and state senator accused of fleeing an officer during a traffic stop has refused a request by the tribe's chairman to remove himself from his duties until his legal troubles are behind him. Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. made the request of Sen. Shannon Augare, D-Browning, in a letter Friday, asking Augare to "respectfully step away" from tribal business so he can be involved in defending himself against the charges he faces. They will "determine what avenue is to be taken" regarding A... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The government shutdown is slowing the wheels of justice in federal courts by delaying civil cases, forcing prosecutors to operate with skeleton staffs and raising uncertainty about the system's immediate future if the stalemate continues past Thursday. That's when federal courts officials expect the reserve funds they have been using since the Oct. 1 start of the shutdown will run out. Criminal cases, which are required by law to go to a speedy trial, are still moving ahead, as are most bankruptcy cases and a... Full story
HELENA (AP) — Before Tuesday's launch, Montana insurers and state officials weren't exactly sure what would happen when a key component of the nation's new health care law kicked in and people could sign up for insurance plans through a new online marketplace. Would there be a rush to enroll in the insurance exchange? Would people sit back and wait to see what happens? Would there be kinks in the system? All of the above, as it turns out. A crush of people jammed the federal government website that featured insurance plans f... Full story
HELENA — Five people who are accused of embezzling federal stimulus aid from Montana's Chippewa Cree tribe are to appear in court Thursday on a new indictment after a tribal leader was dismissed as a defendant. Former state Rep. Tony Belcourt, his wife Hailey and three others are still accused of diverting some of the $33 million in federal funding the tribe received in 2009 and 2010 for construction of a water pipeline to the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Tony Belcourt is CEO of the Chippewa Cree Construction Corp., w... Full story
HELENA (AP) — A federal judge says the U.S. government has the jurisdiction to prosecute misdemeanor driving offenses on Indian reservations. U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong said in a ruling Tuesday that the U.S. government and tribal government share jurisdiction in victimless crimes involving enrolled tribal members. Strong's ruling dismisses a request to throw out charges against Blackfeet tribal leader and state Sen. Shannon Augare. Augare is accused of drunken driving and fleeing a Glacier County sheriff's deputy d... Full story
HELENA (AP) — One of the six people charged with embezzling money from a Blackfeet program for troubled youth has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Charlotte New Breast was the administrative assistant for the now-defunct Po'Ka Project. Under the agreement filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, she will plead guilty to theft from a tribal government receiving federal funds. The charge carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors plan to dismiss 23 charges of c... Full story
HELENA (AP) — The chairman of the Blackfeet Indian tribe says the U.S. attorney for Montana broke the trust of the tribe when he decided to prosecute a tribal council member and state senator accused of fleeing a traffic stop on the reservation. The federal prosecution of Democratic Sen. Shannon Augare for reckless and drunken driving and obstruction of a peace officer is an incursion into tribal sovereignty, Chairman Willie Sharp Jr. wrote to U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter in an Aug. 14 letter recently obtained by The A... Full story
HELENA — Montana is on track to recover the jobs lost during the recession later this year, but low productivity and an aging workforce could threaten future economic growth, state officials said Friday. The Department of Labor and Industry's new Labor Day report predicts the state's unemployment rate, now at 5.3 percent, will continue to decline through the next year to between 4 and 5 percent. The national unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in July. "This report makes it c... Full story
BILLINGS — A Montana judge apologized Wednesday for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her — remarks that prompted protests and a petition for his resignation. District Judge G. Todd Baugh made the comments Monday while sentencing former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to a 15-year prison sentence then suspending all but 31 days and giving him credit for one day already served. Yellowstone County off... Full story
HELENA . (AP) — Reinforcements arrived in western Montana as dry thunderstorms and high wind gusts forecast for Thursday made it tougher to predict which way a pair of wildfires threatening 1,200 homes would turn. Since topping the nation's priority list Wednesday, the number of people assigned to the two fires west of the town of Lolo has jumped from 260 to 508, and air and engine support has also increased. That includes Montana National Guard helicopter crews and troops assigned to relieve local authorities at r... Full story
BOZEMAN (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is making decisions that should be left to Congress or the people, from wiretapping to "inventing" new classes of minorities, Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday. In an apparent reference to the court's recent decisions on gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples, Scalia said it is not the function of the courts to create exceptions outside the Constitution unless a majority of people agree with them. "It's not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special p... Full story
GREAT FALLS — Seven framed pictures hang on a wall of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Great Falls, each bearing the name of an operation that is part of a major push to root out corruption and theft from federal programs in Montana's Indian Country. The 2-year-old Guardians Project is the only one of its kind in the nation, and it aims to curb the theft of federal money intended for Montana's seven Indian reservations. So far, the project has netted the indictments of 25 people, including six arraigned Thursday on fraud, c... Full story
GREAT FALLS — Six people who oversaw a Blackfeet program for troubled youth were arraigned Thursday on charges they embezzled from the $9.3 million project and doctored invoices to embellish the tribal contributions needed to keep the federal money flowing. The indictments kept under seal until Thursday include the two former leaders of the Po'Ka Project, director Francis Onstad, 60, and assistant director Delyle "Shanny" Augare, 57. Po'Ka means "child" in the Blackfeet n... Full story
GREAT FALLS — Six people who oversaw a Blackfeet program for troubled youth were arraigned Thursday on charges they embezzled from the $9.3 million project and doctored invoices to embellish the tribal contributions needed to keep the federal money flowing. The indictments kept under seal until Thursday include the two former leaders of the Po'Ka Project, director Francis Onstad, 60, and assistant director Delyle "Shanny" Augare, 57. Po'Ka means "child" in the Blackfeet native language Augare is the father of Blackfeet T... Full story
GREAT FALLS (AP) — Six people who oversaw a Blackfeet program for troubled youth have been arraigned on charges they embezzled money from the $9.3 million project. They also are accused of doctoring invoices to embellish the tribal contributions needed to keep the federal money flowing to the now-defunct Po'Ka Project. The indictments kept under seal until Thursday include former program leaders Francis Onstad and Delyle "Shanny" Augare. They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong in Great Falls along with Gary C... Full story
HELENA (AP) — One of the two men accused of kidnapping and killing a Sidney High School teacher wants state prosecutors to turn over information from the personnel files of the law-enforcement officers who investigated the case. In addition, Michael Keith Spell's attorneys want District Judge Richard Simonton to order prosecutors to hand over the criminal histories of co-defendant Lester Van Waters Jr. and a jailhouse informant, any deals prosecutors made with witnesses and any witness testimony given to the grand jury. D... Full story
HELENA — A federal investigation is underway into allegations of mismanagement and misspending by the managers of a now-defunct Blackfeet tribal program for troubled youth that received $9.6 million in federal grants over six years. The investigation was prompted by a Blackfeet Tribal Business Council resolution asking federal authorities to look into allegations of the misuse of federal grant money, credit cards, property procured for the program and the direct or in-kind contributions the tribe was supposed to make to t... Full story
