Seeley Lake-area kids will at least have a buffer from the dangerous local wildfire smoke when school resumes. The Missoula County Health Department and school officials are teaming up to place highly efficient HEPA air filters throughout local schools.

A judge has ruled a small population of grizzly bears in Montana and Idaho near the Canadian border can be considered "endangered" even if they are not "on the brink of extinction." U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen's order Monday reversed the 2014 re-classification by U.S. wildlife officials for the 40 to 50 bears of the Cabinet-Yaak bear population under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Updated 8:00 p.m.: Lolo Peak Fire - From the Missoula County Sheriff's office: Effective at 9 p.m. on 8/21/17. Residents on Balsam Root, Folsom and Highland roads have been downgraded to Evacuation Warning status. Residents north of W. Carlton Creek road and east of county maintained rd sign (church polygon on fire operations map) have also been downgraded to Evacuation Warning status. This means these affected residents can return to their homes, but should be ready for a short notice

Montana Representative Greg Gianforte has lost his bid to avoid being booked, photographed and fingerprinted for assaulting a reporter the day before he was elected in May. Judge Rick West ordered the Republican to report to the Gallatin County Detention Center to be booked for the misdemeanor assault charge by September 15.

On Monday Lolo Peak Fire managers said their burnout operations on the Lolo Peak Fire "probably" led to the destruction of two homes and several outbuildings. Tuesday, they took a more circumspect approach. Greg Poncin is Incident Commander on the Lolo Peak Fire. MTPR's Edward O'Brien spoke to Poncin Tuesday at his fire camp outside of Florence.

A timber sale that aims to reduce fire danger has been approved by the Bitterroot National Forest near last year’s Roaring Lion fire site. Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Julie King announced Tuesday that Pyramid Mountain Lumber of Seeley Lake has been awarded a timber contract for the Westside Collaborative Vegetation Management Project on the Darby/Sula Ranger District. The project includes over 2,000 acres of National Forest System lands between Lost Horse Creek and Roaring Lion Creek

Forecasters are predicting a couple more relatively calm days on the Lolo Peak Fire southwest of Missoula. This after firefighters and communities from Lolo south to Florence faced their most severe test when the fire grew explosively Friday night, eating up 9,000 acres in a single day. We’ll have more on what firefighters are expecting in a moment, but for now, let’s go back to Friday night when MTPR’s Beau Baker was reporting from the junction of Highways 12 and 93.

The Secretary of the Veterans Administration visited Montana today, and made an announcement that many veterans will welcome. At an event in Helena, Senator Jon Tester let the news slip before Secretary David Shulkin had a chance to. "The VA Secretary is going to announce at some point in time today — I don't want to take away any of your thunder – some rules that he is going to modify to allow rest homes to be built in rural areas. The Butte boys that are here ..."

Faced with declining enrollment and a budget deficit, the University of Montana is offering early retirement buyouts to some faculty members. Well-known, climate science Professor Steve Running accepted the offer and is set to retire. Running was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team, which was collectively awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for its broad report on the connection between human activities and global warming. Running was a lead author for one of the

Fire crews are expecting a calmer day on the Lolo Peak Fire today. Mike Cole, a fire information officer with the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team gave us this update about 9:00 am Sunday. "Saturday was a very good day and today we expect another one," Cole says.