The Montana House of Representatives is closer to voting on new rules that will govern how big bills move through the legislative process this session. Regulators in Washington state declined to reconsider their rejection of the proposed sale of Avista Corp. to a Canadian utility. Preliminary data indicates the number of traffic fatalities on Montana roads last year was the lowest it's been in nearly 70 years.

On the opening day of the 66th Montana Legislature, Republican lawmakers in the Montana House have struck a deal meant to head off a potential rift between the majority party's conservative and moderate factions. The National Park Service says it's taking the extraordinary step of using entrance fees to pay for staffing at its highly visited parks in the wake of the partial government shutdown. A former Missoula resident whose rape conviction was overturned after he spent years in prison has

A high wind warning is in effect for the Rocky Mountain Front and the plains to the east through Friday afternoon. Two Gallatin County men in their mid-30s were injured when a small airplane struck a power line in southwestern Montana. Montana officials say there's not much they can do about a recent outage by national telecommunications company CenturyLink. The Montana Democratic Party’s new executive director is no stranger to state politics. Monica Lindeen replaces Nancy Keenan, who led the

Wildlife managers on the Flathead Reservation are seeking information on two grizzly bear shootings in October, and offering a reward for it. Authorities in western Montana have released the names of two commercial truck drivers who died after a series of collisions on icy Interstate 90. Supporters of more advanced brakes on trains hauling explosive fuels are pushing back against a Trump administration decision to scrap their mandatory use following the revelation that derailment risks were

More former high school students are joining a lawsuit accusing an athletic trainer of sexual abuse them and an eastern Montana school district of failing to protect them. Figures show that November was not an abnormally busy month for Yellowstone National Park. Idaho has signed an agreement with federal authorities to increase logging and restoration work on millions of acres of U.S. Forest Service lands that experts say are increasingly plagued with insect infestations and destructive

Democratic state Representative Kimberly Dudik of Missoula has announced her candidacy for attorney general in 2020. The publisher of a neo-Nazi website accused by a Jewish woman in Whitefish of orchestrating an anti-Semitic harassment campaign against her is asking a magistrate judge to push back their January trial date. A southwestern Montana man whose girlfriend has been missing since late July is charged with evidence tampering for cleaning up blood in his apartment.

Federal agents say human remains have been found on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in northwestern Montana where a woman was reported missing last year. A Missoula man has pleaded guilty to stabbing two people to death, dismembering their bodies and then trying to dissolve them in tubs filled with acid. The new head of the Montana Stockgrowers Association says ranchers here are heading into better economic territory in 2019.

Police in multiple Montana cities including Missoula and Havre received reports of bomb threats Thursday morning in what appears to be a nationwide scare. A Montana man was sentenced to 15 years in the state prison for squatting in the home of a military service member deployed to Iraq. Federal investigators say tests results on a public water system serving 1,300 residents on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation have indicated fecal material contamination in excess of safety standards. A former

The 2018 Farm Bill is now headed to President Trump’s desk. The Montana Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by three taxi and limousine companies that sought to strike down a law allowing ride-sharing companies like Uber to operate in the state. A 46-year-old man has died after his vehicle crashed while fleeing Montana police.

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the northern Rocky Mountain Front and a winter storm warning for other parts of northwestern and southwestern Montana. Both of Montana’s senators voted for the farm bill, a multibillion-dollar legislative package to fund agriculture and food aid programs, which the Senate passed Tuesday. The Montana Supreme Court has overruled Attorney General Tim Fox's legal opinion that the governor can't unilaterally approve large conservation