On tonight's evening newscast: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from non-tribal farmers and ranchers seeking to gain control of an irrigation project on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
It was another active fire week in western Montana. Fires forced evacuations in Sanders County, closed part of Highway 2, and put the town of Essex on alert. Nowhere in western Montana escaped the choking smoke produced by dozens of fires burning in the state and in neighboring Idaho and Washington.
About a hundred people remain poised to evacuate as swirling winds continue fueling the Sheep Fire near Essex, just south of Glacier National Park.
In Sanders County, evacuations have been underway over the past two days due to three fires burning in the Bull River drainage.
In Lincoln County, a new closure is in effect today in the area of the 40 acre Barnaby fire.
On the 2,700 acre Sucker Creek Fire burning six miles northeast of Lincoln, firefighters are bracing for increased fire activity as Red Flag conditions threaten winds up to 40 mph in the area.
One of Montana's top wildfire officials says the state is doing 'okay' in terms of having the resources it needs to fight fires.
A Great Falls judge has found a former Livingston lawmaker guilty of corruption in a civil lawsuit filed by the Commissioner of Political Practices.