News Staff Montana officials sought to downplay a first-of-its-kind trial taking place over the state’s obligations to protect residents from climate change, saying Monday that a victory by the young plaintiffs would not change approvals for fossil fuel projects. Attorneys for Montana’s Republican attorney general laid out their defense following a week of often emotional testimony in … Read more
HELENA – With the recent rain storms the Helena area has been receiving, there’s a potential for more mosquitoes than there’s been in the past few years. In some cases, the storms have created standing pools of water, prime habitat for mosquito larvae, contractors hired to exterminate mosquitoes and larvae within Lewis & Clark County … Read more
BILLINGS – The month of June will be big for rural broadband expansion in Montana, as millions of dollars in federal funding flow into the state. $119 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $47 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have been designated for rural broadband projects across the state, and … Read more
Dogs and a boat were brought in Friday [June 16], in a renewed effort to find a Canadian man who vanished without a trace at Sluice Boxes State Park last month. The dogs were being used to search the park’s trails while the boat was being used to search the creek for 59-year old Ernest … Read more
Missoula Starbucks might soon be the first to unionize in Montana. However, union organizers allege Starbucks stalled as the June 21 election date approaches. Workers filed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to unionize at Starbucks on Brooks Street and Central Avenue last month, and now the corporation is challenging the terms of … Read more
The Little Peeps program in Helena is helping kids in need see a brighter future. Fourteen Helena-area students were given free eye exams and glasses through the Little Peeps program, the first initiative of the nonprofit organization Mountain Health Gives. The free service will be available throughout the summer at Helena Vision Center. If your … Read more
RED LODGE – A man who admitted to shooting and killing three cows with an AR-15 for no apparent reason during a drug and alcohol fueled Halloween last year south of Bridger near the Montana-Wyoming border has been sentenced on three counts of felony criminal mischief. A judge ordered Scott Allen Stemm Jr. Wednesday to … Read more
The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a District Court decision to release the dashcam video of Republican Senate President Jason Ellsworth’s 2021 traffic stop in which he tells the trooper to let him go because he was en route to legislative business in Helena. Ellsworth received a one-year deferred sentence and $435 in fines. … Read more
The Montana Quality Education Coalition added their names to a lawsuit against the state to block a new law creating charter schools. After Gov. Greg Gianforte signed HB 562 in May, the education organization vowed to sue. The Montana League of Women Voters and two teachers, from Billings and Kalispell, are also named plaintiffs in … Read more
The state rested Monday in the 2011 deadly property dispute trial in which Birdseye-area resident John Michael “Mike” Crites was allegedly killed by his neighbor. Leon Ford was charged for Crites’ death in September 2020 following a deacades long dispute between the two men over road access that began in 2002. Crites’ remains were found … Read more