News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1 - 12 of 12
KALISPEL When Sara Weaver saw her father Randy struck in the shoulder by a government sniper's bullet in the Idaho wilderness in August 1992, she began to sprint back to the family's cabin on a mountaintop called Ruby Ridge. As the 16-year-old closed in, her mother, Vicki, opened the cabin door and stood behind it, holding Sara Weaver's 10-month-old sister in her arms. Just then, a sniper's bullet struck her mother in the head, killing her. AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios Sara Weaver walks her horse at her ranch outside...
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of people in Washington and California who fled encroaching flames from wildfires were allowed to return to their homes Friday, and in Washington many were to find out whether their property was spared by a huge blaze that burned out of control for much of the week. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Flames in a smoldering field inch toward a firefighter Wednesday, near Cle Elum, Wash. Crews fighting the large blaze in central Washington hope to increase containment levels by Wednesday evening, but are k...
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday that one of her biggest fears when she became chief executive of the state two years ago was a devastating wildfire. That concern came to life this year as nearly 1 million acres of Arizona burned in wildfires that included the largest such blaze in the state's history. "One percent of the total land mass of Arizona has already burned in this fire season alone, and the season is not over yet," said Brewer, speaking at the Western Governors' Association a...
SUPERIOR — Longtime guidance counselor Dan Lucier studies hallway-mounted photos of past graduating classes at Superior High School, pointing to the teenagers who joined the military. There are usually one or two in each class of about 30 students who graduate from the one-story wooden school in Superior, a town of 900 residents in the forested northern Rockies. But the class of 2003 was the most striking for its military service, coming two years after the attacks of Sept. 11 and just months after the country went to war w...
KALISPELL — With its jagged peaks, glistening lakes and lush valleys, the Inland Northwest — stretching from eastern Washington to Montana's Glacier National Park — is a stunningly beautiful and remote part of the country. It also is a cradle for sometimes-violent anti-government activity — a reputation most recently rekindled by the search for David Burgert. The former Kalispell militia leader is accused of opening fire on sheriff's deputies on a remote logging road in Lolo National Forest. After a lull following the demise...
MISSOULA — A Montana fugitive and ex-militia leader has been on the run since a Sunday shootout with deputies, but the trail has gone cold. Missoula County Sheriff Carl Ibsen said Thursday that deputies were trying to develop leads to find David Burgert, who authorities say ran off into the Lolo National Forest after exchanging shots with deputies following a low-speed car chase. Police think Burgert is hiding somewhere in the mountains near the Montana-Idaho border, an area of towering peaks, low brush and thick pine f...
MISSOULA — Fugitive and former Montana militia leader David Burgert is one of a new breed of anti-government activists who display particular hatred of law enforcement, police and militia experts say. Burgert apparently carefully planned for a gunfight with Missoula County sheriff's deputies on Sunday, then escaped into the heavily forested mountains of western Montana. The 47-year-old parolee remained on the run Thursday. Burgert, Sheriff Carl Ibsen said in a statement, "harbors great animosity for law enforcement and g...
LOLO — Former militia leader David Burgert has found a perfect location to carry on his private battle with law enforcement officers: a remote corner of the Rocky Mountains on the Montana-Idaho border that is heavily forested and lightly populated. The hunt for Burgert, 47, moved into its fourth day Wednesday with no sign of the practiced survivalist whose mother said he slipped into paranoia after repeated run-ins with Montana law enforcement. Court documents and interviews with law enforcement officials painted a picture o...
BILLINGS — A 3-year-old child witnessed the killing of three people in a remote area of Montana's Crow Indian Reservation and named a family member as the shooter, according to an FBI affidavit. Sheldon Bernard Chase, 22, was captured in Washington state and made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno in Spokane on Thursday. He was ordered held on three counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his grandmother, cousin and cousin's boyfriend at their rural home on Tuesday. He faces life in p...
MISSOULA — Montanans like to call their state "Big Sky Country," or "The last, best place." Nowhere in these descriptions are there hints of crowds. AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios This photo shows downtown Kalispell,. Montana is set to reach a major milestone later this year when the state tops one million residents for the first time, according to projections by the U.S. Census. Yet Montana is set to reach a major milestone later this year when the state tops one million residents for the first time, according to p...
Each year major wildfires in the West are fought like military battles, with firefighters deploying by ground and air, bombers dropping retardant on flames and incident commanders plotting strategy behind the lines. These often epic campaigns are largely the result of the Great Fire of 1910. The largest in U.S. history, it burned an area the size of Connecticut, wiping out whole towns and killing 86 people in remote areas o f Idaho, Washington and Montana. This is the 100th anniversary of the Aug. 20-21 firestorm that ended...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly failed to make a decision about protecting the rare pygmy rabbit in eight Western states, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by an environmental group. We s t e r n Wa t e r s h e d s Project's lawsuit, which was filed last week, wants the agency to make a decision on whether to grant endangered species protection to the tiny rabbits. Courts had previously demanded the decision, which is long overdue. "This case will be settled very quickly by the U.S. Fish and...
