Montana/Region

Judge to hear arguments on disclosing secret Superfund talks

Published on Mon, 11/28/2016 - 4:15pm

HELENA, Mont. —€” An attorney for a Montana newspaper and an advocacy group will try to persuade a federal judge to strike down a 14-year-old court order that made settlement talks on how to clean up the nation's largest Superfund site confidential.

The Montana Standard petitioned to intervene in the ongoing case between the U.S. Department of Justice and Atlantic Richfield Co. after the newspaper was denied a public record request for information about settlement negotiations related to mining pollution in Butte.

Missoula's mayor reveals treatment for alcoholism

Published on Mon, 11/28/2016 - 4:14pm

MISSOULA, Mont. — Missoula Mayor John Engen says he has been absent from his job for the past month because he was in a treatment program for alcoholism.

Engen revealed in a letter distributed to media that he returned to work on Monday after checking into a 28-day inpatient program in October.

Earlier this month, Engen's staff said the mayor would be out of the office for several weeks for medical reasons.

Montana ski resorts report good crowds opening weekend

Published on Mon, 11/28/2016 - 4:13pm

HELENA, Mont. — Ski season is underway at a pair of Montana resorts.

The Red Lodge Mountain and Big Sky ski resorts opened for the season this past holiday weekend.

The resorts both reported good crowds looking to get in their first runs of the season.

Limited snowfall leading up to the weekend forced the resorts to scale back the number of runs they could offer. But the resorts are working hard to make snow and open more terrain.

Farmers in Wyoming, Montana see record sugar beet harvests

Published on Mon, 11/28/2016 - 4:12pm

BILLINGS, Mont. — Record sugar beet harvests will keep refineries busy making sugar longer than usual.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the worldwide demand for sugar will outpace supply, reported the Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/2fBIfTG).

Randall Jobman of Western Sugar Cooperative says farmers in Montana and Wyoming saw record yields.

Scientists go big with first aquatic species map for US West

Published on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 3:59pm
Article Image Alt Text

BOISE, Idaho — It sounds like a big fish story: a plan to create a biodiversity map identifying thousands of aquatic species in every river and stream in the western U.S.

But scientists say they're steadily reeling in that whopper and by next summer will have the first Aquatic Environmental DNA Atlas available for the public.

Boise-based U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist Dan Isaak is leading the project and says such a map could help with land management decisions and deciding where to spend limited money and resources.

Registered sex offender charged with raping 15-year-old girl

Published on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 3:56pm

BOZEMAN, Mont. — A transgender registered sex offender is charged with raping a 15-year-old Belgrade girl.

Documents filed in District Court in Bozeman last week say the girl's mother told investigators that she consented to her daughter's relationship with 28-year-old Aliea Rose Brown, knowing she was a convicted sex offender previously known as Albert Allen Brown.

Ransomware attack on Bigfork schools; fix in works

Published on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 3:55pm

BIGFORK, Mont. — School officials in Bigfork have been trying to work around a ransomware computer attack that has left them unable to access student records and other files, and say they don't intend to pay the attackers in exchange for a quick fix.

They expect to fix the problem on their own before the current grading period ends next week.

The attack encrypted and locked computer files so they couldn't be opened. The malicious software got into the system through an email attachment, the Daily Inter Lake reports.

Judge blocks Montana logging project in Canada lynx habitat

Published on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 3:53pm

HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge blocked a logging project northeast of Yellowstone National Park until federal officials analyze the effects of the project on Canada lynx that live in the area.

A wildlife advocacy group that sued to stop the Greater Red Lodge Habitat and Vegetation Management Project in the Custer National Forest hailed the decision as a victory for the threatened species.

"Lynx do not survive in areas with massive subsidized clearcutting," Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director Mike Garrity said in a statement.

Bullock proposes using state wildfire fund for other efforts

Published on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 3:52pm

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Gov. Steve Bullock is looking to Montana's wildfire suppression fund to help make up budget shortfalls caused by the state's declining revenues.

The Democratic governor's proposed budget for the next two years earmarks about $25 million from the wildfire fund for other state forestry programs, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported Friday (bit.ly/2gHp5AM).

By using the wildfire funding, the general fund balance can move toward a planned $300 million budget surplus.

Feds deny Montana request to delay driver's license law

Published on Wed, 11/23/2016 - 1:53pm

HELENA, Mont. — Montana residents won't be allowed to use their driver's licenses to access military bases, nuclear power plants and federal facilities starting Jan. 30, and they'll need another form of identification to board commercial aircraft a year after that, federal officials said Tuesday.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent Montana Gov. Steve Bullock a letter rejecting the governor's request to delay implementation of the federal Real ID Act of 2005.