KBLL News Page

Our Sister Station

City told to release power plant documents

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A District Court judge has ordered the city of Great Falls to make public nearly all the documents detailing the financial relationship between the city and a power plant developer.

The Montana Environmental Information Center filed a lawsuit seeking the records nearly three years ago.

MEIC program manager Anne Hedges says the city made bad decisions in working with Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission. The MEIC sought information on the obligations the city of Great Falls made on behalf of its residents in partnering with SME in plans to build a natural gas-fired power plant near Great Falls.

District Judge E. Wayne Phillips had earlier ruled in MEIC's favor, but the city and SME sought to keep secret a 22-inch stack of documents. Phillips agreed to seal five documents and ruled the rest must be released.

PALIN-MISSOULA SPEECH

Teen Challenge group: Palin will give Mont. speech

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Officials with a faith-based addiction recovery group say former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is coming to Missoula in September to fire up a fundraising campaign.

Teen Challenge Montana offers a residential program designed to help women give up drugs and alcohol to lead healthier lives.

Executive Director Jan Henderson says she met Palin during a book signing event in Billings, and asked her to speak in Missoula at a fundraiser for Teen Challenge.

Henderson says Palin agreed, and is slated to speak on Sept. 12 in Missoula. The group is selling tickets for the event for $100.

 

ONCOLOGY CENTER CLOSING

Billings oncology center closing

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A cancer treatment center that opened in Billings in 1987 will close this fall, and its patients will be treated at a new facility.

St. Vincent Healthcare announced Tuesday that the Northern Rockies Radiation Oncology Center will close at the end of October.

The center was a partnership between St. Vincent and Billings Clinic until last year, when Billings Clinic withdrew from the agreement to offer its own radiation services at a new cancer center at its downtown campus.

At the time, both hospitals said the Northern Rockies center would remain open.

On Tuesday, St. Vincent said its cancer patients will begin receiving radiation treatment at Frontier Cancer Centers and Blood Institute. Frontier is a new cancer center being built by a St. Vincent affiliate and scheduled to open in August.

CUSTODIAL INTERFERENCE

Tenn. man waives extradition

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A Tennessee man arrested in Montana has waived extradition in a custodial interference case.

Clifford Skees was arrested at a Missoula motel Monday and appeared in court Tuesday, where he waived extradition to Tennessee. He faces charges of custodial interference after his 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter were not returned to their mother in Sevierville, Tenn., on Feb. 5.

Skees also had warrants accusing him of being a fugitive and failing to appear in court for a Feb. 26 custody hearing.

BROTHERS-MURDER-ARREST

Billings man back in custody over 'My Space' posts

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Prosecutors are asking a judge to revoke the suspended sentence of a Billings man because they say his posts on the Internet site "MySpace" show he violated his probation.

Twenty-three-year-old Christian Joseph Nava was given a five-year suspended sentence in 2006 for his role in the shooting death of Levi Minard. Prosecutors said Minard was killed in 2005 by Nava's older brother, Richard Nava, who is serving a life sentence.

Christian Nava was charged with a felony drug offense earlier this year and was released on a $30,000 bond. But police recently arrested him again after they say he posted comments about drinking heavily with family members and friends. Nava is now being held on a new bond of $25,000.

Suspicious Powder Harmless

Powder in envelope sent to state office no threat

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Authorities say powder released when an envelope burst while being handled by state workers posed no threat.
Police in Butte were also looking for a suspect who could be behind the suspicious letter mailed to the Montana Department of Labor from a Butte address.
Three state workers and a Helena city police officer were isolated for several hours Tuesday while emergency response workers performed an initial test on the substance that ruled it out as a threat to safety. The state lab will conduct more tests to verify the finding.
Other workers on the third floor of the Walt Sullivan building were relocated elsewhere for most of the day, and processing of unemployment insurance filings was slowed.
The state says the envelope burst, as if there were a triggering device to distribute the powder.

Body of Montana soldier arrives in U.S.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Defense officials say the body of a Montana soldier who died in Afghanistan has arrived in the United States.

The body of Army Pvt. Nicholas S. Cook of Hungry Horse arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware early Tuesday.

The Department of Defense says it will not release any more information until Cook's extended family has been notified.

FROZEN BODY-ID

Man whose frozen body found near Essex identified

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Flathead County authorities say a man whose body was found in a snowbank on the southern edge of Glacier National Park was an 18-year-old from Lake Forest, Ill., who had been reported missing in September.

Detectives say it appears Alexander Charles Rettinger committed suicide by huffing helium gas. A helium tank was found near his body, along with a train ticket from Chicago to Seattle.

Detectives say it looks like he got off the train in Essex sometime in late September.

Officials say a man who was out for a walk spotted Rettinger's body near the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex last week.

FATAL LOVE TRIANGLE

Murder charge dropped in fatal Billings shooting

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone County prosecutors have agreed to dismiss a murder charge against a Florida man accused of shooting a romantic rival to death last August.

In exchange, Amasa Niles IV pleaded guilty Tuesday to drug and tampering charges. He was accused of trying to hide the revolver used in the shooting.

Prosecutor Sheila Kolar declined to comment after the hearing and referred questions to County Attorney Dennis Paxinos, who did not return a message left at his office.

Niles was charged with deliberate homicide in the Aug. 26 shooting of Troy Holland in an alley behind a Billings motel. Court records say both men were involved with the same woman and that Holland had arrived at the motel with a baseball bat after seeing Niles and the woman at the motel the night before.

Niles was expected to claim self-defense at his trial, which was scheduled to begin March 30.

 

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

 

REHBERG STAFFER-POACHING

Rehberg's state director faces poaching charges

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A top staff member for Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg is facing poaching charges in Madison County for allegedly taking an elk out of season and abandoning the carcass.

Randy Vogel was named Rehberg's state director on March 1. Two days later, the 57-year-old aide was cited by a state game warden for allegedly poaching a young bull elk near Ennis in November.

Vogel is due to appear in court next week on four charges: harvesting a spike bull elk during closed season, abandoning the carcass in the field, killing more than one elk without authorization and obstruction of a peace officer.

Rehberg spokesman Jed Link says the congressman was not aware of the allegations until after Vogel's appointment.

Link said Tuesday that Vogel has since asked for and been granted an indefinite leave without pay.

INDIANS-CHILD PROTECTION

Tribes, justice officials focus on Indian children

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department's assistant secretary for Indian Affairs says the federal government and tribal law enforcement officers can't simply arrest their way out of the problems that plague Indian country.

Former prosecutor and law professor Larry Echo Hawk says the solution to keeping children safe and tackling the escalating crime rate in Indian communities is the creation of healthy families. He gave the keynote speech Tuesday at the start of a three-day national symposium focused on the protection of children in Indian country.

He says giving the next generation the tools to avoid avenues of crime will help end the cycle.

Organizers say the symposium is the first of its kind.

Some 300 federal and tribal officials are attending the event.

M&M AUCTION

Judge halts auction of M&M equipment, fixtures

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — A District Court judge has granted an order of foreclosure on the M&M Bar in Butte, ending an online auction of the historic bar's contents.

District Judge Kurt Krueger ruled Tuesday that Dan Klemann of Bozeman must give up ownership of the historic Uptown business and provide immediate access to the property. Klemann defaulted on a $350,000 loan acquired from Carl Vander Molen of Bozeman in February 2008 to buy the bar.

Vander Molen sought the foreclosure order.

The Butte-Silver Bow sheriff's office will conduct a foreclosure sale at a date to be determined. An attorney for Vander Molen says his client plans to buy the bar at auction and sell it intact to someone who will reopen the business.

Klemann closed the M&M in September and last month announced an auction of items inside, include a back bar and a safe that had been in the building since the bar opened in the 1890s.

BIGHORN BASIN-OIL

Marathon Oil to drill 25 more wells in north Wyoming

CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Marathon Oil is expanding its operations in northern Wyoming after two years of not drilling any new wells.

Bob Whisonant of Marathon Oil says while most of the easily reached oil in the area has been found since it was discovered in 1912, Marathon plans to drill more wells this year.

The company will add about a dozen new workers this year at its Cody offices and expects to drill new wells across the Bighorn Basin, including in Grass Creek, Spring Creek, the Oregon Basin east of Cody and around Byron and Garland.

Though oil prices are far from their peak before the recession, they remain high enough that the company makes a good return on its efforts in the region.

 

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

FLATHEAD LAKE-TROUT

Tribes up the ante in Montana trout tournament

POLSON, Mont. (AP) — The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are increasing the payouts for this year's Flathead Lake trout fishing tournament in an effort to entice more anglers and reduce the lake trout population.

The state and tribal co-management plan for the lake expires this year, and the tribes want to reduce the number of lake trout by 80,000 in 2011. They're considering a controversial gill-netting plan to reach the goal.

But first, they want to give anglers a chance. The most dedicated anglers could reel in $3,000 or more apiece during the 33-day tourney. People who catch 20 lake trout will get $35. An angler who catches the limit of 50 a day, every day of the tournament would win more than $4,800.

The tournament starts Friday.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com

Town Pump Pump Wrong

HELENA (KBLL) -- Town Pump officials say "approximately 15 to 20" customers are having their cars repaired by a truck line, after after what was supposed to be an underground tank of premium gas was accidentally filled with diesel fuel last Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Maureen Kenneally says a delivery driver for Red Mountain Truck Lines, the company that delivered the fuel, accidentally put 330 gallons of diesel fuel into the Town Pump premium unleaded tank at the company's store at the corner of North Montana and Prospect avenues.

The regular unleaded tank was not effected, according to Kenneally.

Town Pump is replacing their fuel and covering all auto repair costs, and throwing in a gift card and car wash.

Red Lion is reimbursing Town Pump.

The premium tank was back in service by Saturday, after being emptied and re-filled

Because it is heavier then regular gasoline, diesel fuel will clog the fuel filter of a conventional engine, shutting off the fuel flow and stalling the engine.

JOHNSON FILES FOR PSC

HELENA-(KBLL)—Today former Secretary of State Brad Johnson filed to be a candidate for the Montana Public Service Commission in District 5.

Johnson declared that his campaign would be about protecting the rate payers of Montana.

He said, “The Public Service Commission is responsible for protecting the interests of the people of Montana. The people come first every time. We have an obligation to be fair as well. We must keep the interests of the rate payer at the forefront and at the same time preserve an environment in which utility providers can function effectively.”

Johnson added that the principle of fairness should apply to the commission as well. “I believe the people of Montana deserve balance. A Public service commission heavily dominated by ideological partisans is not good for Montana. I offer balance for the commission, and balance is a good thing.”

He concluded, “Low rates for the rate payers, reasonable profits for the providers and balance for the people of Montana. That's a good public service commission, and those are the goals I will work tirelessly to achieve as a member of the PSC.”

 

 Portions Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press

Copyright © 2003-10 KBLL Radio

All Rights Reserved