Weekly News Roundup
For week ending June 23, 2024
Red Lodge Police Seek Public's Help Identifying Speeding Motorcyclists
By Denise Rivette According to Carbon County Sheriff’s Office social media, the Red Lodge Police Department (RLPD) is asking for the public's help in identifying two motorcycle riders in relation to a pursuit on June 16, 2024. Both subjects were riding black Harley-Davidsons at “high rates of speed through Carbon County.”
Standing Room Only: Beartooth Books' Burned Over! Signing Event a Great Success -- video included
By Denise Rivette Last Saturday, people came together at the Roosevelt Center at an event sponsored by Beartooth Books to support and learn more about the subject of Burned Over!, a book written by A.J. Otjen that tells the excrutiating and uplifting story of Dan Steffensen’s ordeal and aftermath of being caught in a firefighter’s worst nightmare: a burnover.
Community Group Challenges Proposed Toxic Landfill in Shepherd
By Denise Rivette A community group named Stop The Shepherd Landfill filed a lawsuit June 18 in Yellowstone County District Court challenging a license the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently issued to Pacific Steel and Recycling to build a 90 acre landfill for auto shredder residue north of Billings in Shepherd, Montana. The group claims the landfill site will store toxic pollutants and the impacts were not adequately analyzed.
Montana's Federal Delegation United, If Not Together, On Reaction to Veterans Affairs Staffing Cut
By Denise Rivette Senator Jon Tester, Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter of protest to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Under Secretary for Health while Senator Steve Daines and Representatives Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke sent their own protest letter to the secretary of the VA objecting to the proposed staffing cuts at VA Montana.
The Threat of Terrorism in America Has Returned
By Denise Rivette Will Selber, a recently retired strategic-level terrorism analyst for the United States, has provided his analysis (link below) of the threats of Islamic terrorism to the U.S. in the wake of the arrest on June 11 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of eight Tajik nationals with ties to the Islamic State. “Most importantly,” he writes, “some of the men crossed the southern border, requested asylum, and passed the initial screening. It wasn’t until members of the American intelligence community sniffed out some extremist rhetoric on social media that federal law enforcement scrambled to apprehend the men.”
Senate Passes Fort Belknap Water Compact Settlement That Includes Milk River Project Rehab Funds
By Blair Miller for the Daily Montanan With late-season irrigation now under threat along the Hi-Line after the failure of the St. Mary Canal earlier this week, the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to pass a long-awaited water compact settlement with the Fort Belknap Indian Community that includes $275 million to rehabilitate the canal as part of the Milk River Project.
Who Made Who Great?
By Darrell Ehrlick for the Daily Montanan Today, as the calendar would have it, is my day to write a column, as is the case most Thursdays. The calendar also reads June 20, 2024. Not a day that should trigger much fanfare, but for me, a date with deep historical significance.
Irrigators Along Hi-Line Likely to Close Season Early Due to St. Mary Breach
By Nicole Girten for the Daily Montanan The Milk River Project, which is part of a system that delivers drinking water to 18,000 people and more than 700 farms, will shut down early this year following the breach of 110-year-old pipes near Baab. Christopher Gomer with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday the irrigators along the Hi-Line will have about 30 days of water left from Frenso and Nelson reservoir storage but after that will have an early shutdown this year.
Yellowstone National Park Gets $22M Grant For Road, Pedestrian Safety Construction
By Blair Miller for the Daily Montanan YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt was in Yellowstone National Park Tuesday to announce a new $22 million grant to widen the road and add parking and a pedestrian trail in a canyon south of Mammoth that Bhatt and park officials say is key to movement between the north and south sides of the park.
Fire Outlook Worse Than 2023, but Still Considered Normal
By Nicole Girten for the Daily Montanan Montanans should expect to see more smoke this summer and early fall than last year, but officials say it’s predicted to remain a normal fire season for the state, albeit with likely at least 25% more activity than 2023.
Montana Aiming for SCOTUS Appeal of Decisions That Struck Down Voting Laws
By Blair Miller for the Daily Montanan The State of Montana wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the Montana Supreme Court’s March decision striking down four voting laws passed by the 2021 Legislature, and a filing last week shows the state plans to advance portions of the controversial
Tester to Introduce Bill Cracking Down on Chinese-Made Drones
By Keila Szpaller for the Daily Montanan U.S. Senator Jon Tester will introduce a bill Thursday to crack down on Chinese-made drones in a bid to protect privacy and increase national security. A version of the Countering CCP Drones Act has had bipartisan support in the U.S. House but has met resistance from the Chinese company it targets, Da-Jiang Innovations.
Addiction Treatment Homes Say Montana’s Funding Fixes Don’t Go Far Enough
By Katheryn Houghton for KFF Health News Montana health officials have started a voucher system to help people with substance use disorders move into transitional housing as they rebuild their lives. But those who run the clinical houses said the new money isn’t enough to fix a financial hole after a prior state revamp.
The Forgotten Pioneers: Walker Browning and Billings’ Black Community
By Lori Moss for the Daily Montanan Society has mythologized the West as a romantic and heroic era full of optimism, largely told from the white man’s perspective. However, the history of westward expansion was a diverse undertaking filled with discrimination and hardships. African Americans, whites and other minority groups went west for homesteads, employment and gold. Native Americans suffered forced assimilation and land grabs so others could reap benefits.
‘Catastrophic’ Failure of St. Mary Siphon Leads to Localized Flooding in Babb
By Amanda Eggert for Montana Free Press A piece of infrastructure used to divert water from the St. Mary River to the North Fork of the Milk River has suffered a “catastrophic failure,” according to Milk River Project personnel. The failure involves the St. Mary River Siphon, which is composed of a pair of 90-inch riveted steel barrels that traverse a 3,200-foot section of the