The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to take up the case of a Montana group that doesn't want to disclose its donors and spending, as it seeks to overturn the state's campaign finance laws.
Missoula’s Neptune Aviation has won a federal contract to modify military airplanes for use by the U.S. Forest Service. Last year’s Defense Authorization Act is sending 15 propeller-driven Sherpa aircraft to the Forest Service to carry smokejumpers and for other missions. Neptune Marketing Manager Kevin Condit says the contract is worth $5 million over five years, and means more work for the Missoula company.
A hearing on requiring background checks for gun purchases happens tonight before Missoula’s city council. The advocacy group Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America is backing the proposed city ordinance that would require criminal background checks for gun sales between private parties. Right now, those checks are only required for federally licensed firearms dealers.
Most Indian reservations in Montana have local polling places, but not all of them have satellite voting offices that provide other services. Today Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch directed all counties with reservations to provide satellite offices, if local tribes request them and if they’re required under the federal Voting Rights Act.
A male grizzly bear cub struck and killed on Highway 93 south of Ronan, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes report. A press release says the approximately 100 pound cub was discovered by a passing motorist.
About 13,000 people on the Flathead Reservation were without electricity for several hours longer than expected during a planned power outage this weekend. The Bonneville Power Administration installed about 10 new power poles and upgraded transmission lines at the Salish Kootenai Dam substation site.
A one-time billionaire will have to spend at least another month in jail while a judge decides whether he has finally revealed what happened to the money from a real-estate deal he wasn't supposed to make. Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth was in court Monday in his first public appearance since U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon locked him up April 20th for civil contempt.
Washington state wildlife officials are forming a new panel to review claims for indirect livestock losses caused by wolves. The new panel will recommend compensation for indirect wolf-related losses, such as reduced weight gain, low pregnancy rates and higher than normal losses.