Category — Billings, Montana

The Stillwater Mining Company says it is negotiating its contract with the Ford Motor Company. The current contract expires at the end of the year and includes minimum prices Stillwater receives for its Platinum Group Metals from Ford.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) State Superintendent Jim McBride says technical problems almost caused him to “pull the plug” on the statewide standardized test, but he has decided to see through this year’s online assessment.

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GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) The Campbell County Commission appears to have exceeded its authority when it dissolved several county boards. A state Attorney General’s opinion says the commission cannot dissolve the county library board because state law requires that and other boards.

This morning is going cool down to 26 degrees, while that sounds a little on the cool side, last year at this time the temps was almost as far down as the stock market.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper who amassed a $53.5 billion fortune and bought a major stake in the New York Times, became the first person from a developing nation to be named the world’s richest person.

HELENA - More details have been released about a Montana soldier who was killed in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense said Wednesday that 19-year-old Private Nicholas Cook of Hungry Horse was killed when insurgents opened fire on his unit in Konar province on March 7.

BILLINGS - A Skyview High School student is facing a felony charge for his role in a Heights fight that sent one teen to the hospital. The Yellowstone County Attorney’s office has filed one count of felony assault with a weapon against 16-year-old Zachary Lee Lindsey.

BILLINGS - It’s hard to tell now, but nearly two months ago, a day of fun in the snow before heading back school, turned Alyssa Root’s life upside down.

The 356-65 roll call Wednesday by which the House rejected a resolution directing the president to remove U.S. military forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Authorities say at least a dozen drug cases have been dropped in San Francisco Superior Court amid questions about evidence handling at the city crime lab.

DENVER (AP) Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter held his first news conference after a bike accident last week and says he’s in pain, but recovering. The governor signed 28 bills on Wednesday, most of them to fix this year’s budget. He also met with his staff at the Capitol.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The New Jersey Supreme Court’s disciplinary committee has publicly reprimanded a lower-court judge who belittled an immigrant defendant’s poor English skills and compared another defendant to O.J Simpson.

WEST CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) - Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town. An unknown person dubbed The Midnight Knitter by West Cape May residents is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness.

BILLINGS - The unemployment rate is climbing in Montana but it’s still below the national rate.. In January, unemployment rose to 6.8 percent, up from 6.7 percent in December.

GREAT FALLS - With all the attention both of them have received in recent years in this part of the country, you’d think they’d be well acquainted.

OGDEN, Utah (AP) - Anthony Johnson scored 34 of his career-high 42 points in the second half, leading Montana back from a 22-point deficit and into the NCAA tournament with a 66-65 win over Weber State on Wednesday night in the Big Sky tournament championship.

BILLINGS - After three weeks of testimony in the triple murder trial of Richard Covington, the state called its final two witnesses Wednesday morning.

BILLINGS - A Billings woman is healing through learning while undergoing physical therapy at St. Vincent Healthcare. In January, Alyssa Root, was on winter break from the University of Missoula and decided to go snowboarding at Red Lodge Mountain.

BILLINGS - We started out with a little bit of light rain and snow flurries this morning, but we are in the extreme outer bands of a much bigger storm centered in South Dakota. This means we could still see a stray rain drop or snow flake as the day goes on in Billings.

RED LODGE - A homicide charge against a former Billings minister accused of killing his wife two decades ago has been dropped.

HELENA - The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased slightly by 0.1 points in January to 6.8% while the national unemployment rate fell from 10% to 9.7% in January.

NEW YORK (AP) A former New York state investment officer has admitted helping channel hundreds of millions of dollars in public pension fund money to politically connected investment firms in a “pay-to-play” scheme.

WASHINGTON (AP) Anti-war lawmakers are getting a chance to make their case before facing almost certain defeat of a House resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) The self-dubbed “Jihad Jane” who thought her blond, all-American profile would help mask her plan to kill a Swedish cartoonist is a rare case of a U.S. woman inciting foreign terrorism and shows the latest evolution of the global threat, authorities say.

QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (AP) A boyfriend of the American woman charged in a foreign terrorism plot says she never showed any Muslim or other religious leanings.

Update: GREAT FALLS - Two men are in custody this morning after an alleged shooting at a University of Great Falls apartment complex.

BOZEMAN - The City of Bozeman has taken its bid to be a test city for Google’s ultra high-speed Internet online. The City announced in a press release Wednesday that it added information related to the Google Fiber for Communities project to its Web site.

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) Despite the lagging economy, Wyoming residents face serious new increases on their utility bills.

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) A jury has acquitted a Rock Springs woman accused of attempted murder charges, instead finding her guilty of aggravated assault and battery.