Montana/Region

Yellowstone Park launches app to help visitors get around

Published on Thu, 06/02/2016 - 3:46pm

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -€” The great outdoors are getting a little more high-tech as Yellowstone National Park has created an app to help guide visitors through the park.

The app will provide information about visitor centers, dining and lodging, shopping and services, self-guided tours, historic places and natural features. Users can also view an interactive park map that uses location services to show park visitors where they are at all times.

Montana officials investigating after finding dead grizzly

Published on Thu, 06/02/2016 - 3:45pm

KALISPELL, Mont. — Montana wildlife officials are investigating after a dead grizzly bear was found near Hungry Horse Reservoir.

The bear was found over the weekend near Wounded Buck Creek. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens retrieved the grizzly.

FWP spokesman John Fraley says the case is being investigated and no further information can be released at this time.

Grizzlies are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

New book documents deaths in Glacier National Park

Published on Thu, 06/02/2016 - 3:43pm

 

KALISPELL, Mont. — A new book documents all 264 human deaths in Glacier National Park since the park was created in 1910.

Randi Minetor's "Death in Glacier National Park" categorizes the different causes of the fatalities, including avalanches, suicides, murders, exposure to weather and vehicle accidents.

The most common cause of death is drowning.

Montana tribe's online lending company splits with partner

Published on Wed, 06/01/2016 - 4:27pm

 

HELENA, Mont. — An online lending company owned by Montana's Chippewa Cree Tribe is parting ways with its non-Native American partner.

Plain Green CEO Jay Abbasi said Wednesday the company decided to leave its Texas-based partner, Think Finance Inc. Officials with Think Finance did not have an immediate comment.

Two women in Vermont are suing Think Finance and Plain Green officials over what they claim are predatory loan practices that violate federal and state laws. The company officials deny the allegations.

3 arraigned in connection with prison drug smuggling case

Published on Wed, 06/01/2016 - 4:26pm

HELENA, Mont.  — A Montana State Prison inmate, a former inmate and a former prison laundry worker have been arraigned on federal drug distribution charges that prosecutors say came to light during an investigation into drug smuggling at the prison in Deer Lodge.

Park Service considers visitor caps, expects record crowds

Published on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 3:59pm
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HELENA, Mont. — As the National Park Service kicks off a centennial summer expected to draw record crowds, the agency is seriously considering caps on how many people pass through some of the country's most iconic landscapes and historical sites each day.

Park managers have begun looking at whether, when and how best to manage the impact of more people on the parks, their features and the visitors' experience.

'Jurassic Park' paleontologist retiring from museum he built

Published on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 3:58pm
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BOZEMAN, Mont. — Jack Horner, the paleontologist who discovered the world's first dinosaur embryos and found that dinosaurs had nests and cared for their young, is leaving the Montana museum he spent decades filling with fossils from across the globe.

Campers in national forests worried about target shooting

Published on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 3:56pm

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Campers in Montana's national forests are getting skittish as more sportsmen take advantage of rules that allow target shooting, even though they comply with the rules.

The rules bar target shooting 150 yards of a residence, a building, or campsite or developed recreation site. But for some campers, that's way too close.

Campers point to trees that have been shredded with bullets not far from group campsites.

Teacher shortage in northern Montana has officials worried

Published on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 3:55pm

HAVRE, Mont. — A shortage of teachers in northern Montana has officials worried after superintendents from three rural Montana districts told the Montana University Board of Regents that teachers are unwilling to relocate to northern Montana and school officials have problems filling primary and secondary school teacher positions.

One school official says he's looking for applicants who understand the region because many potential teachers from outside the area have a hard time adjusting to working in small schools.

Mineral County deputies, dispatchers, jailers on strike

Published on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 3:54pm

SUPERIOR, Mont. — Mineral County's sheriff's deputies, detention officers and 911 dispatchers are on strike after working for nearly 11 months without a contract.

Teamsters Local 2 business representative Shawn Fontaine says the union notified the Mineral County Commissioners on Friday that its 16 members intended to strike, beginning Monday morning.

Sheriff Tom Bauer, Undersheriff Mike Boone and clerk Roni Phillips are staffing the jail, dispatch center and handling public safety and coroner duties.