Montana Public Radio evening newscast for August 16, 2019.

An Army veteran pleaded not guilty to assaulting a 13-year-old boy who the suspect said refused to remove his hat during the national anthem at a rodeo in Superior earlier this month. The University of Montana is expecting freshmen enrollment to increase this year, possibly marking a turning point away from years of decline.

A former high school athletic trainer in Miles City who has acknowledged sexually abusing dozens of teenage boys has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. The United States Census Bureau is taking a count of buildings in Montana. It’s part of the preparation to collect census data next year.

Some Montana residents are cleaning up after a series of weekend thunderstorms that brought large hail, heavy rain and strong winds that downed trees and power lines and damaged buildings and vehicles. An appeals court has upheld a Montana law requiring nonprofit groups to register with the state as political committees if they run ads that refer to a candidate or ballot issue.

Firefighters on two of the biggest wildfires in Western Montana report getting some benefit from wet weather in the last 24 hours. Montana authorities say a volunteer firefighter told two teenage girls they had to leave their home because of a wildfire, then gave them alcohol and sexually assaulted them.

An attorney says a Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem at an event in Superior believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do. Wet thunderstorms expected to sweep western Montana through the weekend could provide wildland firefighters their best reprieve of the season yet. Montana authorities say unidentified human remains have been found near the Continental Divide west of Helena.

Another 25 to 30 homes could be evacuated about 15 miles east of Lincoln if the fast-growing Horsefly Fire continues moving east-southeast. Twelve counties around Montana have now instituted burning restrictions because of dry conditions, low humidity and warm temperatures. The body of the man who drowned in a Glacier National Park lake was recovered today.

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said today that people in 27 of the 77 homes in the Flesher Acres subdivision east of Lincoln have complied with the evacuation orders issued about 24 hours ago. Boaters on Flathead Lake might see a strange sight this week: small submarines surfacing at various locations.

Officials are marking the 70th anniversary of a tragic fire north of Helena that killed 13 firefighters and prompted the U.S. Forest Service to rethink fire training, safety and research. Broadwater county is seeking help to pay for prosecuting a man charged with accountability to the May 2017 shooting death of a sheriff's deputy.

The cause of the North Hills fire was someone shooting at exploding targets. The Type 2 incident management team that’s been managing the North Hills Fire was re-assigned at 6:00 p.m. to the Nevada Creek Fire, a lightning fire started mid-day yesterday on the Powel-Lewis and Clark county line about 20 miles north of Elliston. A new very active fire, the Black Diamond Fire, is burning southeast of the Highway 200 - Highway 279 junction in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.