Longtime Butte piano teacher Ruth Rotondi, 95, was killed Wednesday in a two-car traffic accident south of Polson that also left four people injured. Rotondi was a passenger in a Subaru northbound on Highway 35 that was sideswiped by an oncoming Oldsmobile that failed to negotiate a turn, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. The Read More…
Rep. Barry Usher, R-Billings, dons an American flag tie on the House floor. THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record Majority Leader Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, sports an American flag tie during a hearing. THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record Rep. Derek Skees, R-Kalispell, laughs before a press conference while wearing an American flag tie. THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record × Continue Read More…
A cigarette butt and some new-age electronic detective work put a former Florence man in the crosshairs of two poaching cases that could end up costing him thousands of dollars and the loss of his hunting privileges. Brady Joe Stamps, now of Libby, faces numerous hunting violations in both Ravalli and Missoula counties, including a Read More…
Billings likely will end up covering the costs for Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the city Wednesday. The visit cost the city roughly $35,000, the majority of that coming from police overtime and other operational costs, which totaled about $27,000. Chris Kukulski, Billings city administrator, isn’t anticipating getting any of it back from the Read More…
Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Wendy Stovall, volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and deputy scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Here at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory we receive a lot of questions related to Yellowstone supereruption “what ifs” and Read More…
The Bitterroot Hot Shots’ firefighting season officially got underway last week while battling a blaze in a Canadian boreal forest and hazing away bears with helicopter water drops. The Darby-based group of elite firefighters hit its halfway mark Wednesday in a 14-day stint working on Alberta’s largest fire. The uncontrolled Chuckegg Creek fire has burned Read More…
OLD FAITHFUL — Vice President Mike Pence recognized the $13 billion maintenance backlog in U.S. National Parks during a visit to Yellowstone. During a trip in which he donned gloves to haul lumber and nail decking, Pence emphasized the Trump administration’s plan to pay for park repairs by committing half of all leasing royalties on federal Read More…
Glacier National Park officials on Thursday identified the man killed in a rollover accident Wednesday as Paul Cadotte, of Starr School. He was 40. Cadotte was killed in a single-vehicle rollover on Two Medicine Road in Glacier National Park shortly after midnight on Wednesday. The driver, 19-year-old Leo Hagan, was arrested for DUI, while additional Read More…
Charlo School Superintendent Steve Love violated election laws during the school district’s recent election, Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices found this week. On April 18, amid a bitter school district election, Love emailed school district staff, calling critics of the school district “dysfunctional” and saying that the two incumbents, Tracy Olsen and Adrian Roylance, were “doing Read More…
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are now offering $10,000 for information that leads to criminal charges in the case of missing tribal member Jermain Charlo. Charlo, a Dixon resident, was last seen in Missoula on June 16, 2018. Since disappearing, she’s become the focus of an ongoing, multi-agency search. In marches and public events Read More…
The No. 1 issue for military spouses is finding employment, Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen Pence, told military families in Billings Wednesday. The brief talk at the Montana Army National Guard in Billings was part of a trip with the vice president to discuss substance abuse and recovery. The couple planned to campaign for U.S. Read More…
It’s going to take more than law enforcement to win the drug war, Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday during the Billings stop where he spoke at a health care center and visited an alternative treatment center for women with children. “I want you to understand that we can’t arrest our way out of this Read More…
Ready with a speaker system and bright pink signs, a group protesting Vice President Mike Pence’s stance on abortion gathered outside of RiverStone Health Clinic as he arrived at the facility on Wednesday. Planning to speak on combating illegal drugs and substance abuse, Vice President Pence was met by a group led by Planned Parenthood Read More…
One Montana man has died and another has been charged in a car accident in Glacier National Park, according to a pair of press releases. Around midnight Wednesday, Glacier County dispatchers received a 911 call about a single-vehicle rollover on Two Medicine Road, according to Glacier National Park. Two Medicine Road enters the park from the Read More…
A Montana man has died in a car accident in Glacier National Park. Around midnight Wednesday, Glacier County dispatchers received a 911 call about a single-vehicle rollover on Two Medicine Road, according to Glacier National Park. Two Medicine Road enters the park from the east and leads to its Two Medicine Ranger Station. First responders Read More…
A Flathead County ballot initiative meant to block a controversial water-bottling plant has survived a legal challenge. Almost exactly a year ago, Flathead County voters overwhelmingly approved Ballot Initiative 17-01. It expanded the Egan Slough Zoning District, whose regulations favor agriculture, to cover the site of Montana Artesian Water Co. That firm’s plans to bottle Read More…
OUTSIDE PACIFIC JUNCTION, Iowa — As the crow flies, or — perhaps more relevant — as the water rises, the Missouri River is 3 miles from Fran Parr’s century-old farmhouse. That distance hasn’t stopped the Mighty Mo from twice so far this year finding its way into Parr’s home, which now sits vacant, stripped down to the studs Read More…
Colstrip Units 1 and 2 will close at year’s end, Talen Energy announced Tuesday in a press release. Talen says the units, previously scheduled to run as late as 2022, aren’t economically viable. The Pennsylvania-base company splits ownership of the units with Puget Sound Energy, of Washington state. Puget must stop using coal power by Read More…
The plume from the Chuckegg Creek fire in northern Alberta. Helena Interagency Hotshots Hotshots from the Helena-Lewis and Clark and Lolo national forests were assigned to Chuckegg Creek near the town of High Level, Alberta, about 460 miles north of Edmonton. Given the large size of the fire at nearly 600,000 acres, the crews are Read More…
There aren’t too many businesses adding jobs amid the rural fields of north-central Montana these days, but Big Sandy Organics is doing just that. Headquartered in the 600-person town between Great Falls and Havre, the 4-year-old business manufactures the Kracklin’ Kamut-brand wheat snack, transforming locally grown large-kernel kamut wheat into a Montana-made product that’s beginning Read More…