Judge Nic Madge said ordinary kitchen knives were causing a “soaring loss of life”, rather than more heavily regulated large-bladed weapons. He was speaking at Luton Crown Court at a ceremony to mark his retirement. Knife crime rose by 22% in England and Wales in 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics. “Kitchens contain Read More…
In Montana’s crowded U.S. House Democratic primary, former land-trust director Grant Kier of Missoula and Billings attorney John Heenan are raising the most money – but their fundraising profiles are much different. Through mid-May, Kier had raised the most money from donors, at almost $760,000, with nearly two-thirds of that amount from Montanans. But he Read More…
The next big Republican Senate primary is in Montana, where voters will choose Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s opponent on Tuesday. The GOP contest in Big Sky Country was a sleepy affair for much of this year, lacking the verbal ax throwing that animated similar contests in Indiana and West Virginia this spring. “It kinda starts Read More…
HELENA – One of the most hotly contested local races in the June 5 primary election will be for the Democratic nomination in Montana House District 81, covering parts of Helena and the Helena Valley. State Sen. Mary Caferro and Helena city commissioner Rob Farris-Olsen are running for the open seat. The primary will likely Read More…
Manhattan gun holster and tactical accessory maker Blackhawk! was named the state’s Manufacturer of the Year by the Montana Chamber of Commerce. “Our team is deeply honored and very excited to receive this recognition,” said Blackhawk Factory Operations Manager Lamont Kotter in a release. “This is a testament to the great work our employees do Read More…
HELENA – A political group that wants to elect more scientists is making the first major outside-money buy in Montana’s crowded Democratic U.S. House primary, supporting former land-trust director Grant Kier. The 314 Action Fund reported spending $52,000 in the past two weeks on direct mailers supporting Kier, one of five candidates competing for the Read More…
Matt Bell, a Democrat challenging three-term Montana House incumbent Kimberly Dudik is apologizing for making false statements in a mailer voters received last week. “I’m really sorry, I’m really embarrassed that I let this happen,” Matt Bell says. Matt Bell’s mailer claimed endorsements from Montana Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood and the state’s largest labor union. Read More…
The Pentagon is working behind-the-scenes on a plan to get NATO allies to play a far more significant, boots-on-the-ground role in maintaining security in Iraq as the U.S. military revamps its anti-Islamic State mission into a longer-term stabilization campaign. Pentagon sources have told The Washington Times that Defense Secretary James N. Mattis intends to present Read More…
The White House is aggressively stepping up its fight for tighter border enforcement, blaming former President Obama’s “catch-and-release” policies and legal loopholes promoted by congressional Democrats for the surge in fraudulent asylum claims and youth smuggling into the U.S. “When you want to talk about what’s cruel and what’s inhumane, we should talk about the Read More…
(CBS News/CBSNewYork) – The wireless industry is in a race to roll out 5G service. The network is supposed to be up to 100 times faster than current data speeds, but it requires cellphone tower equipment to be closer to users than before. Wireless companies in the U.S. say they’ll have to install about 300,000 Read More…
When a small group of alarmed White House aides caught wind that Sen. Heidi Heitkamp — one of the most endangered Democrats up for reelection in 2018 — would be attending President Donald Trump’s bill signing last week, they raced to stop it. Word eventually reached Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has made unseating Read More…
On May 26th, 2018, law enforcement was advised to be on the lookout for a suicidal subject driving a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup in Albany County Wyoming. The subject and vehicle were located on Vedauwoo Road (Forest Service Road 700) in the Medicine Bow National Forest approximately 12 miles east of Laramie, Wyoming by a Read More…
The big primary election day for Montana this year is June 5th, but with a week to go, turnout in Missoula looks sparse. According to Missoula County Elections administrator Dayna Causby, Missoula County usually has around a 60 percent turnout, but that is not the way this election is trending. “So far, out of the Read More…
California’s primary elections on June 5 will be one of the most consequential — and bizarre — contests of the entire primary season. The Golden State is crucial to Democrats’ effort to retake the House — Republicans currently hold a whopping seven districts Hillary Clinton won, and Democrats are eager to pry them away. The Read More…
WHITEFISH – From the outside, the house looks like a modern addition to the farmland, a modest, two-storied building with a slanted roof; the wood and metal visible give it a clean feel, but nothing too different from other homes in the valley. Then you get closer – inside-the-walls closer. The walls that are at Read More…
HELENA – Democratic U.S. House candidate John Heenan has been touting his record as a “consumer lawyer,” representing people wronged by banks, insurers and other corporate bad actors. “I have the privilege of representing widows when insurance companies deny their claims, people suffering from cancer when insurance companies deny their claims,” he told MTN News Read More…
When a local radio host asked Montana Senate candidate Matt Rosendale what differentiated him from the other GOP candidates earlier this year, he had a quick response. “Piece of cake. Rancher,” he told radio host Aaron Flint in January. “I’m a businessman. I’m a former legislator, and I’m an executive. And I’ve been very effective Read More…
BUTTE – A bipartisan group of state lawmakers are in Butte this week to tour the Mining City and address a policy issue in the Legislature: the development of a clear sexual harassment policy. “It’s kind of a tough issue because it’s all about sex. So nobody wants to talk about it or deal with Read More…
Families heading to Yellowstone National Park this weekend can expect to see an increase at the gate. “Yellowstone, like other parks in the national parks in the system is having a slight entrance fee increase,” said YNP Public Information Officer Jody Lyle. “Starting June 1, it will be $35 per vehicle to enter Yellowstone National Read More…
Democrats are quietly fighting their biggest political battle in a decade for state legislative races as they aim to flip control of up to a dozen chambers. The effort could position the party to play a bigger role in redrawing U.S. House districts after the 2020 census and could help boost turnout for candidates running Read More…
Video footage from a Texas state trooper’s body camera refuted sexual-assault claims a woman made against the trooper after she was pulled over for allegedly driving while intoxicated, CBS Dallas station KTVT reports. Sherita Dixon-Cole, 37, accused the trooper of raping her during the traffic stop south of Dallas over the weekend. The Texas Department Read More…
The owners of the National Football League have concluded, with President Trump, that true patriotism is not about bravely standing up for democratic principle but about standing up, period. Rather than show a little backbone themselves and support the right of athletes to protest peacefully, the league capitulated to a president who relishes demonizing black Read More…
A South Carolina Democrat who has admitted to physically abusing his former wife in the 1970s has refused to drop out of next month’s congressional primary despite a call from his state’s Democratic Party to do so and the resignation of his campaign manager. The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Monday that Archie Parnell, Read More…
President Trump is in no danger of being impeached and removed from office. I say this with confidence despite having no knowledge of what Special Counsel Mueller and his team may find. That’s because impeachment is a political process rather than a legal process. As a result, things that happen outside the world of government Read More…
BISMARCK — A panel examining North Dakota’s ballot measure system forwarded four proposals Tuesday, May 22, but efforts to amend the policy-by-petition process may just be getting started. The Initiated and Referred Measures Study Commission wrapped up its work at the state Capitol Tuesday. Its recommended changes now move to Legislative Management, the committee that Read More…
LANDER (WNE) –- The Wyoming Legislature will look at a measure to create a trust fund to maintain its voting systems going forward. The 2016 election saw an unprecedented number of attempts to interfere with states’ voting systems, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Wyoming was not among the 21 states that reported attempted Read More…
CHEYENNE (AP) — Block Chain Gang LLC, Crypto Cowboy, Something Something Blockchain LLC: Based on the names of dozens of new companies registering to set up shop in Wyoming, the state’s effort to lure the latest tech craze appears to be paying off. Proponents say blockchain — the ledger where transactions of digital currencies, such Read More…
Wyoming Wednesday approved its first grizzly bear hunt in 44 years. State wildlife commissioners voted unanimously to do so. Commissioner Mike Schmid commended the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for it’s work drafting the management plan. “They’re going to manage these animals well, and just like they have everything else in this state, so I Read More…
Seonki Jo, who was brought to America from South Korea at age 3, has lived in Duluth, Georgia, nearly all his life. When it came time for him to begin his college search, he wanted to stick close to home. But, he found, he couldn’t. Georgia not only banned undocumented immigrants like Jo, who in Read More…
KALISPELL, Mont. — According to Montana foster care workers, 3,952 kids are in foster care, and they say that number is increasing. The problem is the number of foster families is not. Youth Dynamics care manager Mary Wolf sees kids in need all the time. “Most of the youth we work with have a diagnosis Read More…
Montana State University’s president says renovating Romney Hall isn’t sexy, it’s mundane deferred maintenance. At the Montana Board of Regents meeting Wednesday in Havre, MSU President Waded Cruzado defended the Bozeman campus’ request to the governor and 2019 Legislature for $32 million to modernize the historic building and turn it into classrooms. Given the huge Read More…
Montana’s GOP Senate primary is ramping up in the final stretch, as candidates jockey to face Sen. Jon Tester (D) in November. State Auditor Matt Rosendale, who was recruited by the GOP after several top-tier contenders passed on the race, is still seen as the front-runner, with national outside groups putting up more than $1.8 Read More…
A Glendive woman who claims the Bureau of Indian Affairs violated a tribal order when it handcuffed her and removed her two grandsons from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in which she is seeking $1 million in damages. BIA agents used an “invalid Minnesota warrant” to seize Patsy Read More…
Since the beginning of 2016, in a two-and-a-half year span, Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls have added six new hotels with 500-plus rooms and more than 300,000 total square feet, counting four completed hotels and two scheduled for completion this summer. Now another new hotel is coming to Kalispell with the recent application of My Read More…
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals released an opinion this week in a longstanding debate over Montana Political Practices law. Montana Attorney General’s office spokesman Eric Sell explains. “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion yesterday [May 22] upholding Montana’s campaign disclosure laws, these were laws passed by the 2015 legislative session called Read More…
When U.S. House candidate Jared Pettinato spoke to area residents during his time in Richland County last week, the Democrat’s message was different than what is usually heard in eastern Montana. While other candidates talk about the importance of oil in eastern Montana, Pettinato pointed to wind and trees as being vital to Montana’s economic Read More…
The man the Belgrade School Board wanted to lead the district as superintendent has turned down the job leaving trustees to go back to the drawing board. It is unclear why Tony O’Brien, a superintendent in Newcastle, Okla., turned down the job, two trustees said Wednesday. The board voted 6-1 to offer the post to Read More…
Democrat House candidate Lizzie Pannill Fletcher is projected to win the Texas primary runoff, giving national Democrats their preferred candidate in the race to unseat Rep. John CulbersonJohn Abney CulbersonFive races to watch in the Texas runoffs Democrats are geared up for primary runoff D-Day in Texas The Hill’s Morning Report — Sponsored by CVS Read More…
BILLINGS – With two weeks to go to Montana’s June 5 primary, 18,184 voters in Yellowstone County have already made their choice. County Elections Administrator Bret Rutherford said Tuesday the returns have been strong and he’s expecting around 36,000 to be returned before election day. Absentee ballots were mailed to 66,000 addresses on May 11, Read More…
HELENA – Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, along with the attorneys general of Ohio and Washington, led a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general calling on congressional leaders to promptly pass measures to help hold opioid manufacturers accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic and stem diversion. The coalition sent a Read More…