Latest Montana Headlines
All the headlines from our Montana Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Montana Woman Fights DUI With Date-Rape Drug Defense
Nov 27 2012 // The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that a Missoula woman charged with drunken driving should have the opportunity to present evidence she was given a date rape drug and that her actions were involuntary. Leigh...
Snag In Montana Church Abuse Lawsuit Negotiations Over Policy Dispute
Nov 26 2012 // Settlement negotiations between hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena may have hit a snag with the church’s insurers refusing to cover the claims. The insurers and the diocese...
State Elections Wrapup: Some Partisan Realignment; 5 Incumbent Insurance Chiefs Win
Nov 8 2012 // Neil Alldredge has been searching for the unifying “theme” in the results of Nov. 6 state elections around the country but he says it has not been easy to identify one. As senior vice president for state and...
State Elections to Decide Insurance Commissioner, Ballot Initiatives, Court Contests
Nov 5 2012 // For the insurance industry, there is more at stake in the Nov. 6 election than who goes to or stays in the White House and Congress. The insurance industry will be watching who wins the gubernatorial races in 11 states,...
Montana School District Settles Rape Lawsuit
Nov 1 2012 // The Billings school district in Montana and its insurance carrier have agreed to pay nearly $91,000 to the family of a former Billings Senior High student who committed suicide in February 2010 after a former teacher was...
Montana Commissioner Orders Man to Pay $168K, Sold Fake Surety Bonds
Oct 26 2012 // Montana’s insurance commissioner has ordered a North Dakota man to pay $168,000 in fines and restitution for selling fake surety bonds for a construction project on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The...
Man Charged With Ninth DUI In Montana
Oct 16 2012 // Authorities in Billings say a 51-year-old Montana man has been charged with his ninth drunken-driving offense. The Billings Gazette reported that James Alan Tate was arrested Wednesday and is being held in the Yellowstone...
EPA Pushes Tough Asbestos Standard for Mont. Town
Oct 1 2012 // A proposed standard for federal cleanup of asbestos contamination in a Montana town concludes that even a tiny amount of the material can lead to lung problems, a benchmark far more rigorous than any in the past and one...
Montana Legal Group Gets $1.2M From Settlement Over Insurance Fees
Sep 21 2012 // State insurance officials say a Montana legal services charity will receive $1.2 million from a law firm that represented plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit over insurance fees. Montana Securities and Insurance...
Former Montana Mill Eyed As Possible Superfund Site
Sep 18 2012 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the former Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. pulp mill in Frenchtown has potentially dangerous levels of dioxins, heavy metals and other hazardous chemicals, a finding that could...
Government Declares Disasters In 4 Mont. Counties
Sep 7 2012 // The U.S. Agriculture Department has declared Broadwater, Gallatin, Jefferson and Silver Bow counties disaster areas, making farmers and ranchers there eligible for low-interest emergency loans. The assistance is meant to...
Montana DUI Program Reaches Milestone
Sep 4 2012 // Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock says 100,000 alcohol breath tests have so far been conducted under the state’s year-old drunk driving enforcement program. The 24/7 Sobriety Program forces repeat DUI offenders...
Montana Accounting Firm Settles Lawsuit Over Investments
Aug 9 2012 // A Montana accounting firm has reached settlements with six current and former farm and ranch owners who said they lost millions of dollars in real estate investments they say the firm advised them to make. The lawsuits...
Montana Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing Premiums
Aug 6 2012 // An insurance agent from Butte, Mont., who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $7,200 of his client’s premiums has been given a three-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay restitution. State Insurance...
Environmentalists To Sue Colstrip Over Pollution in Mont.
Jul 27 2012 // Environmentalists filed notice Wednesday that they plan to sue the six companies that co-own eastern Montana’s Colstrip power plant over alleged pollution violations. The Sierra Club and Montana Environmental...
Dead Cattle, Devastation In Wake Of Western Fires
Jul 27 2012 // Cecil and Delores Kolka thought they escaped the worst of the Ash Creek Fire when the 390-square-mile blaze spared their home and several pastures as it ripped through the couple’s Montana cattle ranch. But when the...
Two Montana Counties Declare Drought Disasters
Jul 23 2012 // Yellowstone and Stillwater county commissions in Montana have declared drought disasters in their counties. Officials say low rainfall and warm temperatures have created conditions that one farmer says are not usually seen...
Tainted Montana Town Reaches Cleanup Milestone
Jul 23 2012 // Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby — a welcome dose of normalcy for a...
Air Company Blames Controllers For Montana Crash
Jul 19 2012 // A federal judge in Utah is asking the Montana Supreme Court to help decide if an air ambulance company can blame air traffic controllers for a deadly crash outside Bozeman in 2007. Because Metro Aviation Inc. settled with...
Montana Agent Pleads Guilty To Stealing Premiums
Jul 19 2012 // An insurance agent from Butte, Mont. who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $7,200 of his client’s premiums has been given a three-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay restitution. State Insurance Commissioner...
