Missoula authorities are searching for a woman who walked away from the Missoula Correctional Services’ Pre-Release Center Friday night. According to a news release, Jessica Stejer walked away from the center’s designated smoking area at 9:30 p.m. She was last seen wearing a tank top and blue leggings and was on foot. Stejer is a Read More…
National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive at the Lolo Peak fire Saturday to staff security checkpoints around the busy firefighting area. Highway 12 remains closed at Highway 93, but the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office issued a “rumor control” plea: “Please note, residents east of Travelers Rest are not under an evacuation order and Highway Read More…
More than half of Montana is in some stage of drought, according to weather data released Thursday. The U.S. Drought Monitor lists nearly all of Montana in drought or trending toward drought, with the exception of a sliver of the southwest corner of the state. Only 2.7 percent of Montana is experiencing normal conditions. Drought Read More…
Former Montana legislator Wesley Prouse is out of jail after agreeing to release financial documents related to penalties from a political corruption lawsuit. Prouse has a week to produce financial documents showing whether he has the wherewithal to pay a $59,066 penalty owed to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. The Shepherd man was jailed Read More…
The Montana Department of Revenue will continue to fight a court ruling that money from a tax credit program can benefit religious schools. District Judge Heidi Ulbricht ruled in May that the department incorrectly excluded religious schools from the program, which is funded by donations that can be offset by up to $150 in nonrefundable Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court has declined to intervene in the case against a university student implicated in the overdose death of a Billings woman. Attorneys for Daniel McGrail had asked the state’s high court to intervene in the Gallatin County case and order a Bozeman judge to dismiss the felony drug distribution charge against him, Read More…
As many as 400 homes were told to evacuate late Wednesday night after the Lolo Peak fire blew up, forcing the closure of the previous shelter for evacuees, according to the American Red Cross. The former shelter at the Florence-Carlton Community Church is now in an evacuation area. The new shelter is at the University Read More…
A Shepherd man charged in the New Year’s Eve death of a Glasgow woman has admitted to her killing under a plea agreement that calls for 70 years in prison. Jay Witkowski, 29, changed his plea Wednesday in the 17th Judicial District Court in Glasgow for deliberate homicide in the killing of 31-year-old Evelynn Garcia. Read More…
During a stop in Butte Wednesday, Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte said he wants Congress to “put funding back in” for the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the House of Representatives’ newest members, Gianforte sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources as well as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Travis Hall, Read More…
BILLINGS — A sprawling central Montana nature reserve has purchased a 46,000-acre ranch bordering a federal refuge as it advances toward its goal of establishing a Connecticut-sized park where bison and other wildlife can roam freely. The American Prairie Reserve announced Wednesday it had purchased the Two Crow Ranch about an hour north of Lewistown Read More…
BILLINGS — A federal appellate panel has reversed a lower court ruling that condemned a group of mining claims in northwest Montana owned by a group of investors including former Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer and other investors in Optima, Inc. sought $10 million from the owners of the proposed Montanore gold and silver mine as Read More…
Montana has missed its chance to weigh in on a Washington utility’s early plans for shuttering half of the Colstrip Power Plant, say lawyers for regulators overseeing the matter. In Washington, where Puget Sound Energy is laying out its multi-year plan for future rates and the shutdown of Colstrip Units 1 and 2, legal staff Read More…
BATON ROUGE, La. — A neo-Nazi website’s publisher said Wednesday that he has “effectively been completely banned from the internet” after mocking the victim of a deadly car attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. “Clearly, the powers that be believe that they have the ability to simply kick me off the internet,” Andrew Read More…