Montana/Region

State logs more than 350 cases

Published on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 3:30pm

HELENA (AP) — Montana testing confirmed more than 350 cases of COVID-19 over the weekend while the state reported its 47th death due to the respiratory virus. 

A woman in her 90s died at a Billings hospital on Saturday, the Yellowstone County health department said Monday. The woman’s death was the 18th in 20 days in the county. Fifteen of those deaths are tied to an outbreak at Canyon Creek Memory Care in Billings, officials have said.

Ronan couple struggles to recover from COVID infection

Published on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 3:27pm
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MISSOULA (AP) — She still coughs, but now mostly at night. Heather Roan Robbins can smell things again, just not as sharply as before.

“Our idea of a wild time is getting takeout and sitting by the lake,” she said.

Four months later, life is still not the same for Roan Robbins and her wife, Wren Walker Robbins. They’re not sure if it will ever be again.

The Ronan couple suffered through and survived the early onslaught of COVID-19 in March and April after Heather, an astrologist, returned from an annual working trip to New York City.

Some police resist enforcing coronavirus mask mandates

Published on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 3:26pm

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Lang Holland, the chief of police in tiny Marshall, Arkansas, said he thinks the threat of the coronavirus has been overstated and only wears a face mask if he’s inside a business that requires them. He doesn’t make his officers wear them either. 

So the day after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson  signed an order requiring masks to be worn in public throughout Arkansas, Holland made it clear his department wasn’t going to enforce the mandate in the Ozarks town of about 1,300, calling it an unconstitutional overreach.

Summer camps face options: Close, go virtual or balance risk

Published on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 3:00pm

KALISPELL (AP) — For the first time in the 75-year history of Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp, the paddles that propel canoes, kayaks and paddleboards around the lake are clean. After every outing, used paddles are placed in the oar equivalent of a laundry hamper, wiped down and sanitized.

It’s not something that immediately came to mind for camp director Margie Fiedler when she considered what changes would be made this summer.

Northern Cheyenne tribal members policing reservation

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:28pm
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LAME DEER (AP) — Dozens of Northern Cheyenne who have assumed the role of law enforcement in Lame Deer marched from a camp they’ve kept in place since the rise of COVID-19 to the Little Wolf Capitol Building, demanding support from their leadership.

The march began Wednesday morning, and to the beat of drums and Bob Marley blasting from a speaker, when a string of soldiers in the Northern Cheyenne Traditional Military Societies and their supporters started from the U.S. Highway 212 roundabout.

Wyo. stocks 6,000 catfish in ponds

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:25pm

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently stocked 6,000 channel catfish into 19 community fishing ponds statewide. The fish are considered “jumbo-sized” at 13 to 14 inches.

The catfish come from the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk from their in-house aquaculture program. It is the first time Game and Fish has worked with the Women’s Center aquaculture facility to raise and provide fish for the state, and the collaboration has benefits for anglers.

Campbell says the catfish acquired from the Women’s Center are much larger than the typical stocking size.

Trump administration agreement gives more help to US uranium

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:25pm

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Two U.S. government agencies agreed Thursday to keep state regulators primarily in charge of regulating groundwater pollution from uranium mining in the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to prop up the ailing industry.

The agreement signed in Wyoming, the top uranium-producing state, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency won’t stipulate how uranium mines should comply with certain U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license requirements.

Montana care home sees 15th death; more virus tests pending

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:24pm

BILLINGS (AP) — A senior home in Montana that has been pummeled by a coronavirus outbreak that infected nearly every resident has seen another death as the number of confirmed virus cases to date topped 3,000 statewide on Friday. 

Health officials confirmed 129 additional cases of the virus, one of the highest daily totals yet. Yellowstone County, which includes Billings, again accounted for the highest number of new cases, with 40.

S.D. federal virus funds go to law enforcement

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:16pm

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — As South Dakota looks to use $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds, one of the largest expenditures has been for law enforcement.

Region Shorts

Published on Fri, 07/24/2020 - 3:15pm

Body of Ronan man recovered from Flathead River

POLSON (AP) — The body of a Ronan man has been recovered from the Flathead River in northwestern Montana five days after he was swept away while he and a friend were cliff jumping, Lake County officials said.

The body of Dayton Conrad, 21, was recovered at about 11 p.m. Thursday, Sheriff Don Bell said Friday.

Conrad and a friend were jumping into the water from Buffalo Cliffs west of Polson last Saturday when Conrad was swept under water by the current.