Montana Republican Steve Daines drops Senate re-election bid minutes before deadline

Trump ally Daines confirms resignation and withdraws bid for a third term, saying: ‘It is time for new leaders’

Republican US senator Steve Daines of Montana dropped his bid for re-election to a third term Wednesday.

Daines withdrew his name just minutes before the deadline for candidates to file for the November election with the Montana secretary of state’s office. Daines confirmed his resignation in a written statement as well as a video posted to social media.

Continue reading...

Smokejumper and union leader aims to win in Montana by focusing on workers

Sam Forstag, who parachutes from planes to fight wildfires, believes pro-worker polices can flip district from Trump ally

Sam Forstag is used to launching himself into heated territory.

As a smokejumper, his job is to jump out of airplanes 3,000 feet in the air and parachute down into the Montana wilderness. Going by air is often the easiest way to access the remote wilderness and combat the wildfires that burn an average of 7.2 million acres a year in the state.

Continue reading...

Montana shooting victims named as manhunt for suspect continues

Suspected gunman still at large and possibly armed after four people were fatally shot at a bar in Anaconda on Friday

Montana’s attorney general on Sunday released the names of the four people who were shot to death in a mass murder at a bar two days earlier.

The victims were Daniel Edwin Ballie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelly, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. All four were residents of Anaconda, Montana, where the quadruple murder took place, a statement from the Montana attorney general, Austin Knudsen, said.

Continue reading...

Police continue to search for Montana gunman who killed four people in a bar

Law enforcement were looking for 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a US army veteran who lived in Anaconda

Authorities continued to search Saturday afternoon for the man accused of killing four people at a Montana bar.

Local, state and federal law enforcement were looking for 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a US army veteran who lived in a small town, Anaconda, next to The Owl Bar, where on Friday morning he allegedly opened fire and killed a bartender and three patrons.

Continue reading...

Four killed in Montana bar shooting that is US’s ninth mass murder of 2025

Manhunt for suspect who lived nextdoor to bar where shooting occurred on Friday morning at about 10.30am

Four people were killed on Friday in a shooting at a Montana bar, prompting a lockdown in a neighborhood several miles away as authorities searched a wooded area for a suspect in the case.

The shooting brought the number of mass murders so far this year in the US to nine, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan resource which defines such cases as killings in which four or more victims are killed.

Associated Press contributed reporting

Continue reading...

Montana park ranger says Senate candidate Tim Sheehy lied about combat wound

Sheehy has claimed he was wounded in Afghanistan, but ranger says he investigated accidental shooting in 2015

A former Montana park ranger has now publicly accused Tim Sheehy – a Republican running for a US Senate seat in the state – of lying about getting shot while at war in Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Washington Post published on Friday, 67-year-old Kim Peach went on the record about how Sheehy – a former US navy seal – actually shot himself on a family trip in 2015 at Glacier national park. Peach’s account explicitly contradicts Sheehy’s claim that he was shot in the arm during military combat, a story that the Republican candidate has shared throughout his US Senate campaign.

Continue reading...

US man, 81, sentenced to six months for creating giant hybrid sheep for hunting

Arthur Schubarth of Montana used tissue and testicles from Marco Polo sheep to clone animal and create hybrid

An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced on Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in central Asia and the US to create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.

The US district court judge Brian Morris said he struggled to come up with a sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana. He said he weighed Schubarth’s age and lack of a criminal record with a sentence that would deter anyone else from trying to “change the genetic makeup of the creatures” on the Earth.

Continue reading...

Trump-backed Senate candidate caught on tape disparaging Native Americans

Tim Sheehy, locked in tight race with incumbent Democrat John Tester, repeatedly referred to Crow tribe at fundraisers

A Republican candidate in a race that could decide control of the US Senate made disparaging comments about Native Americans at campaign fundraising events, according to recordings disclosed in local media.

Tim Sheehy, a wealthy cattle rancher who has been endorsed by Donald Trump in his bid to become senator for Montana, made the remarks repeatedly at a series of gatherings where he boasted of cultivating ties and bonding with members of the Crow Reservation, the official home of the Indigenous Crow tribe.

Continue reading...

Body of man who drowned in Montana national park may have been found

Glacier national park rangers believe they have recovered remains of Siddhant Vitthal Patil, who fell into creek in July

Glacier national park rangers believe they have recovered the body of a man who drowned over the July 4 weekend, park officials in Montana said.

Siddhant Vitthal Patil, 26, of India fell into Avalanche Creek on 6 July, but the creek was running too fast to recover his body.

Continue reading...

Rare white buffalo sacred to Lakota not seen in Yellowstone since birth

Park staff say they have not been able to locate calf, who fulfilled Lakota prophecy and is named Wakan Gli

A rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone national park has not been seen since its birth on 4 June, according to park officials.

In a statement released on Friday, the National Park Service (NPS) confirmed that a white buffalo calf was born in Lamar Valley earlier this month, adding that the park’s buffalo management team had received numerous reports of the calf on 4 June from park visitors, professional wildlife watchers, commercial guides and researchers.

Continue reading...

Heatwaves and wildfires strike across US as tropical storm forms in gulf

Tropical storm due to form in Gulf of Mexico, adding to extreme weather as north-east and midwest bake

Potential Tropical Cyclone One – a slow churning system of low atmospheric pressure in the Gulf of Mexico – was badgering the Texas coast but had not fully developed, meteorologists said on Wednesday.

The storm, which will be named Tropical Storm Alberto when it forms fully, is set to unleash powerful winds, heavy rain and flood threats across the entire southern US, Mexico and Central America. Storm-force winds, which stretch more than 400 miles (640km) from the storm’s center, are already affecting southern Texas.

This article was amended on 19 June 2024 to correct a quotation from Bill Nye.

Continue reading...

Rare white buffalo born at Yellowstone prompts Lakota Sioux celebration

The birth, not yet confirmed by park officials, holds special significance to tribe as ‘both a blessing and warning’

A rare white buffalo has been born in Yellowstone national park, with the arrival prompting local Lakota Sioux leaders to plan a special celebration, with the calf representing a sign of hope and the need to look after the planet.

The white calf was reportedly spotted shortly after its birth, on Tuesday last week, by park visitor Erin Braaten, a photographer. She took several shots of the wobbly baby after spotting it amongst a herd of buffalo in the north-eastern corner of the large park, located in Wyoming and a small slice of Montana.

Continue reading...

Andy Kim wins Democratic primary in race for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat

Congressman bids to replace Menendez, who plans to run as independent despite being charged with accepting bribes

Democratic congressman Andy Kim has won New Jersey’s Senate primary, putting him in strong position for the general election in the blue-leaning state, though the win comes a day after Democratic senator Bob Menendez filed to run as an independent amid his federal corruption trial.

Menendez, who has denied allegations that he accepted bribes to promote the interests of the Egyptian government, has chosen not to seek the Democratic Senate nomination. Kim’s win comes after a bruising battle that led New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy to withdraw from the race in March.

Continue reading...

Mammoth mayhem: elephant escapes circus and roams Montana streets

Animal recaptured without harm, local outlet reports, and is safe with handlers after escaping Jordan World Circus

An elephant escaped from the circus and ambled through the streets of Butte, Montana, before being recaptured without harm, local news reported.

NBC Montana showed a video of the enormous pachyderm walking across a busy multi-lane street in front of stopped cars and gawping drivers. A later picture showed the elephant standing on a suburban house’s lawn.

Continue reading...

US rancher used tissue and testicles to breed ‘giant’ sheep to sell for hunting

Arthur Schubarth, 80, pleads guilty to trafficking in ‘audacious’ and unlawful scheme to cross-breed sheep for lucrative sale

A Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep killed by hunters in central Asia and the US to breed “giant” hybrid sheep for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas, according to court documents and federal prosecutors.

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana, pleaded guilty to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife during an appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Great Falls.

Continue reading...

No license to stroll: Pierce Brosnan cited for off-limits walk at Yellowstone park

James Bond star in hot water for stepping out of bounds at hot springs area in US national park – and must appear in court

Pierce Brosnan, whose fictitious movie character James Bond has been in hot water plenty of times, is now facing heat in real life, charged with stepping out of bounds in a thermal area during a recent visit to Yellowstone national park.

Brosnan walked in an off-limits area at Mammoth Terraces, in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana border, on 1 November, according to two federal citations issued this week.

Continue reading...

US judge blocks Montana’s TikTok state ban: ‘oversteps state power’

In a preliminary injunction on Thursday, Judge Donald Molloy said first-of-its-kind ban violates free speech rights of users

A US judge has blocked Montana’s first-of-its kind state ban on the use of short-video sharing app TikTok from taking effect on 1 January, saying it violated the free speech rights of users.

In a preliminary injunction on Thursday, US district judge Donald Molloy said the law “oversteps state power and infringes on the constitutional rights of users”.

Continue reading...

Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills

About 60% of oil and gas operations protected from protest due to money spent on lobbying, says Greenpeace USA report

Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.

Eighteen states including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia and the Dakotas have enacted sweeping anti-protest laws which boost penalties for trespass near so-called critical infrastructure, that make it far riskier for communities to oppose pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, water and the global climate.

Continue reading...

‘Not accurate’: Republican wrong to say Montana has more bears than people

Expert says Senate candidate Tim Sheehy’s estimate wildly off as there are 1.12 million people in state and ‘nowhere close to that number of bear’

In the compendium of false claims, an offering from Tim Sheehy, a Montana 2024 Republican Senate candidate, is readily disprovable.

In an interview with Breitbart, the former Navy Seal observed that the state, which he referred to as “flyover country”, did not typically have much in political power – a situation that could change with the balance of power in the US Senate races next year.

Continue reading...

Mystery surrounds case of US teen who re-emerged after going missing in 2019

Alicia Navarro, who police said had not been harmed and does not face charges, disappeared days before her 15th birthday

When Alicia Navarro disappeared in 2019 from her home in a Phoenix suburb, days before her 15th birthday, she left a signed note promising she would return.

“I will be back, I swear,” the note read. “I’m sorry.”

Continue reading...