HELENA — Two residents of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation have been sentenced in separate cases related to an ongoing federal investigation into corruption on reservations across Montana.

Sandra Marie Sanderville, 58, of Browning, was sentenced Thursday to 2 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty in February to theft from an Indian government receiving federal grant funds.

4:37 p.m. A pig with was seen running down an alley on Fourth Avenue East. It was returned to its owners.

12:51 a.m. Kids were reportedly shooting fireworks out the window of a car traveling down Sixth Street West. They were returned to their parents.

Officials still unclear when road will be open to the top

The first time “Let the Games begin” was announced, it was to a few hundred athletes and spectators at the inaugural Olympic Games in Greece in 776 BC. Five centuries later it was proclaimed again as gladiators fought and died to entertain and pacify thousands of bread-hungry citizens in the Roman Coliseum. On Thursday it […]

Montana fish and wildlife commissioners are willing to consider a possible compromise that would limit a section of Whitefish River to electric motors and manually powered watercraft during the summer. The state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission voted Thursday to amend the proposal notice and extend the public comment period seeking input on a seasonal closure, […]

President Barack Obama’s historic decision to act on carbon emissions will undoubtedly emit years of ideological political rhetoric. The proposal is several hundred pages but calls for a state-based solution to reducing 2005 carbon emissions by 30 percent from coal plants over the next 16 years.

Congress ignores carbon pollution but routinely doles out hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds for weather-related mitigation like super-storm disaster relief, fierce forest fires and selective crop insurance.

The latest broadside in the global warming discussion hits close to home. A new study shows that climate disruption and warming has increased the likelihood that native westslope cutthroat trout in the upper Flathead River will breed with introduced rainbows. The result: more hybrid cuttbows and fewer native trout.

Rainbows were introduced into the Flathead more than 100 years ago, but the rate of hybridization has increased significantly in the last 30 years. The study suggests why. Rainbows prefer to spawn earlier in the spring than cutthroat, but climate change has compressed snowmelt and runoff into a shorter period, leading to more commingling on the redds.

EVERGREEN – At the Veterans Food Pantry, the shelves sag under the weight of canned goods, and the back room has a mountain of donated clothes waiting to be sorted.

It looks like a lot, both the amount of food and clothes, but founder Allen Erickson knows it’s unwise to assume it will last.

“We’ll go through it all,” he said, walking among the shelves.

The food pantry and clothing thrift store serve the struggling veteran population in the Flathead; it’s a place they can come and recharge, feel safe and engage with others who understand what they’ve been through.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Ten western governors met Tuesday with Gina McCarthy, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to talk about cleaner power plant rules proposed by the Obama administration — including cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from coal. A sampling of what some governors have to say about it:

ARIZONA: GOP Gov. Jan Brewer objects to the EPA plan and believes the agency has overstepped its authority, her spokesman has said. Arizona state lawmakers passed a law in 2010 that bars new state rules or regional agreements to reduce greenhouse gases unless the Legislature approves. It’s unclear how the EPA proposal will play out in Arizona.

COLORADO: Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said it was “refreshing” that McCarthy has been looking for input from governors on the EPA proposal. He noted that Colorado is moving to diversify its energy portfolio into an “all-of-the-above” approach. On climate change, he said, “I do think that climate change is being caused by mankind’s activity.”

HELENA — A Montana man convicted in the beating death of a high school classmate will learn whether he gets another shot at freedom after 30 years of protesting his innocence.

The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole decides Wednesday whether to accept 52-year-old Barry Beach’s clemency application.

Chairman Mike McKee has said a hearing will be held if the application is accepted, followed by a recommendation to Gov. Steve Bullock.

Beach is serving a 100-year murder sentence for the 1979 slaying of Kim Nees in Poplar. Both were 17.

Beach was freed for 18 months when a judge ordered a new trial after hearing testimony that Nees may have been killed in an out-of-control fight among girls.

The Montana Supreme Court overturned that decision and he returned to prison last year.

WASHINGTON – Republican tea party forces are rejoicing and the party establishment is somber or altogether silent in the wake of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s primary defeat at the hands of political neophyte David Brat, an unflinching foe of loosening immigration laws.

Speaker John Boehner praised Cantor as “a good friend and a great leader, and someone I’ve come to rely upon on a daily basis” in a statement that steered clear of the issue that Brat put at the center of his campaign and has divided the party for years.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Senators from the Dakotas are among those making another attempt to have the bison declared the national mammal, citing the animal’s historical significance and importance to Native Americans.

South Dakota’s Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson said the goal is to recognize its cultural, ecological and economic impact.

“The bison has played an important role in our nation’s history, holds spiritual significance to Native American cultures, and remains one of our most iconic and enduring symbols,” Johnson said in a statement.

?A Bigfork man has been charged with animal cruelty after his neighbor’s horse got stuck in a fence and died last August.

Serra Valentine says she had asked her neighbor, Gary Cuthbertson, 80, to watch her horses last August when she traveled to California to tend to her dying father. But Cuthbertson said there was “no agreement of any kind” between the two neighbors and that he’s innocent.

COLUMBIA FALLS – Firefighters returned to the site of the Plum Creek Timber Co. explosion early Wednesday morning to fight a residual fire that flared up in a second building near the fiberboard plant. Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen said the fire was buttoned up shortly after the 4 a.m. emergency response, but firefighters from his department will remain on standby as a precaution.

“We’re just here in case something flares up,” he said.

DEER LODGE — Montana’s parole board on Wednesday rejected a clemency application from Barry Beach, meaning he will continue to serve a 100-year prison sentence for the 1979 slaying of a high-school classmate on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

The decision from the state Board of Pardons and Parole marked the fourth time since 1994 that the panel has rejected a bid for executive clemency by Beach.

Beach has argued police in Louisiana coerced the 1983 confession used to convict him in the beating death of 17-year-old Kim Nees of Poplar.

Hundreds of supporters have taken up his cause, including Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns. The New Jersey-based prisoner advocacy group Centurion Ministries also has worked to free him.

In his latest application, Beach did not argue his innocence. Instead, he said circumstances have changed since his last clemency application was denied in 2007.

An offender whose application previously was denied may apply again only if there is a substantial change in circumstances.

Board chairman Mike McKee said the three-member panel agreed unanimously circumstances had not changed.

Beach’s popularity grew — the board received 500 letters from his supporters compared with approximately 25 letters opposing his release — but the facts remained the same, McKee said.

“What’s popular is not always right,” McKee said. “We have a lot of people who are long on opinion and short on facts, and that’s the bottom line.”

A key factor in the decision was that Beach has not admitted to committing the brutal killing, board members said.

“It’s certainly something we as board members feel is necessary to true rehabilitation — accountability. And that’s not here,” board member Pete Lawrenson said.

A group of Beach supporters afterward accused the board of trying to coerce Beach into admitting something he didn’t do.

“It’s been 30 years, and that’s far more than a lot of people serve for murder,” said Joyce Ranum of Great Falls. “We just see this as a huge injustice here.”

Department of Corrections officials said Beach would hold media interviews later Wednesday at the Montana State Prison.

Beach argued the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that juvenile offenders no longer can be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, reflecting new scientific findings that young criminals have the capacity to change.

Plus, supporters say Beach showed model behavior in prison and when he was free for 18 months after a judge ordered a new trial for him. Witnesses told the judge that Nees might have been beaten to death in an out-of-control fight among a gang of girls.

The Montana Supreme Court overturned that decision last year, sending Beach back to prison to finish his sentence.

Parole board members knocked down Beach’s arguments, saying the Supreme Court decision did not apply to this case. They said the trial judge chose to impose the 100-year term, and wasn’t forced to by state law.

With good behavior, Beach could get out of prison in 2036, McKee said.

Beach’s good behavior outside prison does not prove he has been rehabilitated, accountability does, the parole board ruled.

Earlier this year, Gov. Steve Bullock wrote the board a letter saying Beach should have the opportunity for rehabilitation outside prison. It was the first time in memory a sitting governor had written such a letter.

Bullock would have made the final determination on clemency had the board made a recommendation to him. He said in a statement he was disappointed with the panel’s decision.

“Since Mr. Beach committed his crime as a juvenile, served over 30 years and conducted himself appropriately both inside and outside of prison, I believe there’s a strong argument for him to remain under state supervision as a parolee,” the governor said.

Attorney General Tim Fox, however, said the board’s decision was the correct one.

“Thirty-five years after the murder of Kim Nees, Montana’s law enforcement community hopes this matter can now be finally laid to rest, and that Kim Nees’ family can heal, find peace and move on,” Fox said in a statement.