Montana/Region

Hearing officer awards $175K to harassed MSU-Northern dean

Published on Tue, 04/26/2016 - 3:57pm

HAVRE, Mont. — A hearing officer with the Montana Human Rights Commission has awarded $175,000 to a dean at Montana State University-Northern who complained that the former provost sexually harassed him.

Hearing officer Terry Spear said the university owed Randy Bachmeier damages for emotional distress, the Havre Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pBytp0) reported.

The former Provost, Rosalyn Templeton, denied any wrongdoing.

Earthquake report spurs retrofitting in Utah, Nevada

Published on Tue, 04/26/2016 - 3:56pm

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A new report raising the likelihood of a destructive earthquake striking Salt Lake City in the next half century has underscored the urgency to retrofit more than 30,000 older brick homes and other unreinforced buildings at high risk of collapsing.

Federal agency defends decision not to protect Montana fish

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:08pm
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HELENA, Mont. — A judge should uphold a 2014 decision that a fish found in southwestern Montana streams doesn't need special protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, government fisheries officials said.

U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon is expected to make a decision sometime after June in a lawsuit over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to name the Arctic grayling as a threatened or endangered species.

US won't seek death in Crow Reservation double-killing

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:06pm

BILLINGS, Mont. — Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Wyoming teenager accused of killing a couple who authorities said stopped to help him on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch decided against seeking capital punishment in the case of Jesus Deniz Mendoza after consulting with federal prosecutors in Montana, the agency said in a one-sentence statement.

Feds: University of New Mexico fails in sex assault response

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:04pm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Students often do not know how to report sexual assault and sexual harassment at the University of New Mexico or where to turn for help in a broken system that violates federal law, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

The department, which launched its investigation in December 2014, recommended the university provide training to students and staff with information on how to report attacks. It also urged the school to revise its policies so it can promptly respond to sexual harassment, which creates a hostile campus environment.

Miles City sets record for rainfall on Sunday

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:03pm

MILES CITY — Two storms early Sunday morning brought a record-breaking total of 2.89 inches of precipitation to Miles City, breaking the previous one-day record set June 18, 1964.

Mother Nature decided to catch up on the moisture deficit starting Sunday around 2 a.m. when the thunder and lightning rolled by, followed by rain and hail in alternating waves. The first wave dumped about 2.25 inches of precipitation in about two hours. The second storm added another half inch around 4 a.m.

Three cats in Park County, Wyoming, diagnosed with plague

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:02pm

CODY, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Health says three Park County cats have recently been diagnosed with plague.

So far, it has not spread to humans.

Health department veterinarian Karl Musgrave says the disease can be transmitted to humans from ill animals and by fleas from infected animals.

The Cody Enterprise reports at least six human cases of plague have been confirmed in Wyoming since 1978.

Plague symptoms include fever, headaches, chills and difficulty breathing.

Progressive era inspired Clean Air, Clean Water acts

Published on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 3:01pm

MISSOULA, Mont. — When Leon Billings was first asked to join a Congressional subcommittee on pollution, he was not interested.

"To me, I thought being polluted was having too much alcohol," the Helena native routinely quips to admit that he had known little about the topic which would come to define his career as he helped create bedrock environmental-protection laws. "Sewage engineers talked about this. This wasn't part of a public discussion other than as a localized issue. There certainly wasn't a public consciousness."

Facebook disputes claims of Montana candidate

Published on Fri, 04/22/2016 - 3:21pm
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HELENA, Mont. — In a recent campaign speech, gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte asserted that Facebook passed over Montana for a data center because of the state's business equipment tax.

However, a spokesman for the internet giant said Thursday that Facebook executives never spoke to the Bozeman Republican.

Gianforte made his claims at a news conference at a Clancy lumberyard on Monday, when he unveiled a tax-relief proposal. He said he had discussions with Facebook and others about building data centers in Montana.

Investigator: Woman killed baby girl, put body in dumpster

Published on Fri, 04/22/2016 - 3:18pm

BILLINGS, Mont. — A woman beat to death a 1-year-old girl on a rural Montana Indian Reservation, threw the baby's body into a dumpster and reported her missing before confessing to the crime a day later, a federal investigator testified Friday.

Janelle Red Dog, 42, appeared in tribal court on the Fort Peck Reservation, about 20 miles from the U.S.-Canada border, and was ordered back into custody without bond, court officials said. Tribal prosecutors are expected to charge her by Tuesday, when she is scheduled for another hearing.