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<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' approval rating is taking a dip following a high profile push for health care reform. A survey released Monday shows that just 44 percent approve of the job performance ... That is down from two years ago when the same Montana State University-Billings poll showed Baucus with a 64 percent approval rating. The poll also found that a vast majority support the hunting of wolves in the state — and that most oppose any effort to legalize marijuana in the state.

A landmark health care reform bill narrowly cleared the House over the weekend with a 220-215 vote and now the measure heads to the Senate where its future seems much more uncertain. The House plan calls for 36,000,000 uninsured Americans would get coverage. The bill would cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years, but it will cut $400 hundred from Medicare expenses. While some are very pleased with the newly passed plan, others are still finding faults, with one Montana legislator saying that the state can't afford the measure.

A Troy man shot and killed a grizzly in the Cabinet Mountains and state wildlife officials say he did it in self defense. Fish, Wildlife and Parks reports the man was hunting mule deer on Dad Peak on last Friday. He told officials he spooted two grizzlies about 50 yards ahead of him. The man said he yelled at them and waved his gun. But he says the bears started to move toward him. That's when the man realized there were three bears. He said he yelled again and hoped the animals would run off. But the larger bear reportedly...

The Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum, which opened its doors earlier this year, boasts this country’s second-largest set of displayed dinosaur remains. The record is still held by the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. Both are located in Montana near a rich cache of world-famous fossils. The Glendive Museum stands apart, however, in that it presents dinosaurs as having been drowned and their remains preserved in the massive worldwide flood described in the Bible. This view has prompted reactionary comments from mainstream scientists ...

A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game. The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game in Helena in...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement following the introduction of H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s new Health Care Bill. The 1,990-page bill was introduced this morning, and Rehberg posted it on his website, inviting Montanans to join him in reading it.

House Democrats unveil a new health care reform bill Thursday, prompting Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg to call an emergency Town Hall meeting for Saturday in Billings. Rehberg's office says Montanans have a right to know what's in the new House bill and what's missing.

Michael Hilton, the mysterious figure at the center of a failed plan by American Police Force to take over the vacant 464-bed detention center in Hardin, did not show up for a scheduled court hearing today in California. Hilton had been ordered by a judge in Superior Court of Los Angeles to appear in court and to disclose his assets to a plaintiff who has a civil judgment of almost $700,000 against him. The judge issued a bench warrant for Hilton, who is now subject to arrest for his failure to appear, said Cris Armenta, an attorney representing the plaintiff,...

HELENA, Mont. -- A jury on Wednesday found that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers the product can pose, awarding a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son in a baseball game. The family of Brandon Patch argued that aluminum baseball bats are dangerous because they cause the baseball to travel at a greater speed. They contended that their 18-year-old son did not have enough time to react to the ball being struck before it hit him in the head while he was pitching in an American Legion baseball game...

Montana this month issued its first license for an industrial hemp-growing operation to a woman who said she wants to develop a domestic market for the plant despite federal law barring its cultivation. Laura Murphy, of Bozeman, was the first to apply for the two-year license since the state Legislature approved hemp's commercial cultivation in 2001. Federal law prohibits such activity, but the license issued by the Montana Agriculture Department on Oct. 14 could challenge whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is willing to override the state. Hemp is similar to illegal marijuana but without the mind-altering ingredient of the...

Earth First! made headlines with its tree-spiking in the 1980s, but the guy who helped make the anti-logging tactic famous didn't invent it. Mike Roselle even titled one chapter of his new book "Why I Quit Spiking Trees." In it, the co-founder of Earth First!, the Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society described how the practice brought old-growth timber cutting to national awareness, but became a public relations disaster for the protesters. "I think the Wobblies can take credit for it if they want, but it's been around as long as logging," Roselle said, referring to the Industrial Workers...

Sebelius Says U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s DemandThursday, October 22, 2009 By Chris Neefus      ....... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebilius why the United States should get vaccinations ahead of people in other countries, including those in countries that are producing the vaccine for the United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)When Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) had his turn to question Sebelus, he raised the issue of whether the United States was "entitled" to the vaccine more than other nations. "Why should we be more entitled, the U.S. be more   entitled to...

When Obama first started his presidential campaign... I really didn’t believe that the American People could be hoodwinked into following someone with basically nothing more to offer than raw emotion, a gift for public speaking, and a thinly veiled socialist agenda... How could that possibly work in America? I understand the discontent with the previous administration, but, this seemed to be a little extreme. Then I noticed that the Children of America were following the Pied Piper of Hamlet playing his magic flute from behind the teleprompter and it caught my attention... Where is this guy leading them? So, I...

Link only - Baucus Ballistic, According to ABC News

The Dillon ranchers who lost more than 120 buck sheep in an August wolf attack last week lost 23 lambs from the same area when wolves struck again. Kathy Konen said this week that despite the presence of a herder and guard dogs, wolves struck the herd sometime in the early morning hours Oct. 17. She and husband Jon Konen lost 23 weaned lambs. "They're in the area, and they've killed once," she said of wolves. "We knew they would come back and kill again." The Konens in August lost 122 sheep to wolves in the same pasture in the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three U.S. states said on Tuesday they plan to sue FedEx Corp, accusing the second-largest U.S. package delivery company of violating labor laws by illegally classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees to save money. The attorneys general of New York, New Jersey and Montana intend to begin litigation against FedEx Ground Package System Inc after October 27, saying the unit of Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx has caused a "serious injustiice."... Anne Milgram and Steve Bullock, the attorneys general of New Jersey and Montana, joined Cuomo in the litigation threat. In a statement, FedEx said it...

LIVINGSTON, Mont. -- A hunter attacked by a grizzly bear in southern Montana also had the misfortune of being shot in the arm by a companion trying to stop the attack. The incident last Saturday resulted in the bear being killed, the attacked hunter surviving and no charges against the companion for shooting his friend. Park County Sheriff Allan Lutes says his office looked into the shooting of the hunter and found no negligence, with the other hunter trying to save his friend and killing the bear. "It doesn't point to anything but an accident," Lutes said. However, the U.S....

A convicted con artist from California who roiled a southeastern Montana community with his unlikely bid to take over its empty jail says he intends to return to the state to pursue a military training center. *snip* The company struck a deal last month with unwitting officials in rural Hardin, Mont. to take over its never-used, 464-bed jail. The plan unraveled after media revelations about Hilton's criminal past sparked an investigation by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. In his first interview since the jail proposal's collapse, Hilton tells The Associated Press that his intentions had been honest but his "tainted"...

BILLINGS, Mont. - Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock has dropped his investigation into a California company following its attempted take over of an empty Montana jail. The company, American Police Force, had missed a Monday deadline to provide documents sought by Bullock's office after revelations that company founder Michael Hilton had a lengthy criminal background. But because American Police Force has since pulled out of its bid to take over a 464-bed jail in rural Hardin, Bullock said Tuesday he was ending the investigation. Bullock said Hilton's failure to answer questions about the project "speaks volumes about his company's legitimacy."

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said Tuesday that she'd support a sweeping Senate Finance Committee bill overhauling the U.S. health-care industry, giving Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a sought-after Republican vote on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. In highly anticipated comments on the $829 billion, 10-year bill, Snowe said the bill wasn't all she wanted. "Far from it," she told fellow senators during what is likely to be the committee's last work session on Baucus's bill. "But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress...

What if you, and every member of your family, had the chance to save $4,000 each?. Would you be interested? Under the terms of what's being called "the Baucus bill" -- Washington-speak for the bill the Senate Finance Committee will vote on tomorrow -- that is how much you could save by dropping your health insurance. People might have thought that health care reform would lead to an increase in the number of people getting health insurance coverage. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office claims the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill will reduce the number of uninsured in 2019 by...

When two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through the main thoroughfare of Hardin, Mont., last week, people took notice. "How many police forces have Mercedes?" said Charlene Warren, a local business owner who has lived in Hardin for more than half a century. "That threw up a red flag." And speaking of flags, it did not go unnoticed that the emblem on the sides of the SUVs bore a strong resemblance to the Serbian national flag. Furthermore, those "police department" cars were rolling through Hardin, a small southeastern Montana town of 3,600...

We welcome anyone to visit our town! There are no commandos in the streets. There is no fence or gate being built around Hardin. People are free to come and go as they please. APF is not running our town or our police force.

If you think it's cold now in Montana and the Dakotas, just watch what happens! Friday, an even stronger surge of cold air will come down from the Arctic, sending temperatures plummeting to unprecedented levels for this time of year. In Montana and the western Dakotas, temperatures will not rise out of the 20s Friday and Saturday which is roughly 35 degrees below normal.

After trying in vain for two years to fill a 464-bed jail, it appeared deliverance was finally at hand for officials in this remote Montana town. They had struck an agreement with a California company to take over their never-used facility. But those plans have been placed on hold following news that Mike Hilton, lead figure of the newly minted American Police Force, of Santa Ana, Calif., has a history of fraud that includes several years in jail and three civil judgments against him for more than $1.1 million. "We won't move forward. I don't think any of us want...

HELENA - Michael Hilton, the self-styled "Captain Mike" and California felon who founded the private security firm seeking to run an empty jail in Hardin, has been summoned back to court in California over an unpaid judgment in a fraud lawsuit. California Superior Judge Andrew Kauffman on Friday ordered Hilton, who has also gone by more than a dozen aliases, to appear at an Oct. 29 Los Angeles County hearing where he's been asked to provide a stack of financial documents, including details of who has paid for his recent trips to Hardin. Hilton and several of his former associates...

As Montana bars dealt with their first smoke-free weekend since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, ingenuity ruled. In Missoula, according to a great piece by Michael Moore in the Missoulian, the Rhino Bar gave smokers their very own place to light up: a Butt Hutt, created by Dave Golden of Well Done Welding and Jim Bell, a general contractor. Moore describes the hut as a 4-by-8-foot “metal smoking dugout” in the alley behind the Rhino in Missoula. The no-smoking laws spark the type of debate that never seems to get extinguished. Pro-smokers argue that the bans hurt...

The healthcare reform bill apparently poised to clear the Senate Finance Committee would raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 and thereby violate President Obama’s campaign promise to protect middle-income Americans from tax increases, asserted Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Cornyn, a member of the Finance Committee, on ABC's "This Week,” told host George Stephanopoulos “the president can’t keep his promise under the bill that’s currently pending in the finance committee or any of the other bills that are currently in front of us.” Committee Democrats last week cleared the way for the healthcare reform bill sponsored by Chairman Max...

A sobbing spokeswoman for the secretive company occupying the Hardin jail welcomed an investigation by Montana's attorney general Friday and expressed concerns for her own safety amid rumors about her company. Becky Shay, in a 45-minute, wide-ranging press conference during which she occasionally broke into tears, said the California-based American Police Force welcomed an information request made Thursday by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock. Meanwhile, an attorney involved in the project cut ties with APF Friday and a second company, once named as a subcontractor, denied any involvement. Shay said she hadn't been formally served papers by the attorney...

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Second Amendment Foundation today joined with the Montana Shooting Sports Association in a federal lawsuit filed in Missoula to validate the principles and terms of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA), which takes effect today, Oct. 1 Lead attorney for the plaintiffs' litigation team is Quentin Rhoades of the Missoula firm of Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, PC. The MFFA litigation team also includes other attorneys located in Montana, New York, Florida, Arizona and Washington. "We're happy to join this lawsuit," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, "because we believe this issue should be decided...

A Montana lawsuit filed on Thursday challenges federal authority to regulate guns manufactured and sold within the state, an argument that would effectively invalidate federal firearm laws in Big Sky Country if adopted by the courts. The lawsuit arose out of a state law signed by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer that took effect on October 1. It says that firearms, ammunition, and accessories manufactured entirely inside Montana are not subject to federal regulation, including background checks for buyers and record-keeping requirements for sellers. They would remain subject to state regulation, and machine gun manufacturing is not permitted. This is part...

In this Friday, Sept. 24, 2009 picture, Albert Peterson with the Two Rivers Authority stands outside an empty jail that Hardin, Mont. built for $27 million. The authority wants a California security company, American Police Force, to take over the facility. Michael Hilton pitched himself to the city as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur - a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow. But now a much different picture of Hilton is emerging from public documents and interviews with his associates and legal adversaries. (AP...

HARDIN, Mont. (CBS/AP) This is the strange story of how American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town's nonexistent police force. After arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a police department that has never existed, representatives of the obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin's jail, which has no prisoners.

In this Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 picture, Michael Hilton stands outside the city offices after meeting with Hardin, Mont. officials. Hilton pitched himself to the city as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur - a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow. But now a much different picture of Hilton is emerging from public documents and interviews with his associates and legal adversaries. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) (Matthew Brown, AP / September 25, 2009)BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Michael Hilton showed up in Hardin, Mont., last week, presenting...

CODY, Wyo. - Michael Hilton of American Police Force arrived in Hardin with promises of Mercedes police cars and expertise in operating prisons. He delivered the cars last week, but may have learned about prisons following a 1993 conviction for grand theft. Public records from police and state and federal courts in California show that Michael Anthony Hilton, using that name and more than a dozen aliases over several years, is cited in multiple criminal, civil and bankruptcy cases, and was sentenced in 1993 to two years in state prison in California. Hilton pleaded guilty in March 1993 to 14...

Tons of readers are asking about the American Police Force jail contract in Hardin, Montana.Neil Katz at CBS News reported: This is the strange story of how American Police Force, a little known company which claims to specialize in training military and security forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural Montana town’s nonexistent police force.After arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a police department that has never existed, representatives of the obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin’s...

Below is a posting at Resistnet of someone in the town of Hardin, Montana witnessing BO's thugs taking over a town with a civilian police force with the purpose of forcing people to take the swine flu vaccination. The private police force has plans for thirty other town across the U.S. according to the eyewitness account. The eyewitness account is verified by an article at http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/61320122.htmlFrom: A Good Friend in Montana Subject: OUT OF TIME: CITY OF HARDIN, MT NOW BECOMING A POLICE STATE! TV Ch8 Verified This came to me from a faithful watchman! WE ARE OUT OF TIME!...

BILLINGS - American Police Force officials showed up in Mercedes SUV's that had "Hardin Police" stenciled on the vehicles. The twist, the city of Hardin doesn't have a police department. Two Rivers Authority officials say having APF patrol the streets was never part of their agenda. "I have no idea. I really don't because that's not been a part of any of the discussions we've had with any of them," said Two Rivers Authority's Al Peterson. As it stands now the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department is contracted to patrol the city and APF has no jurisdiction. If that was...

Free Speech: The Senate votes against transparency as the administration silences a private insurer for exposing the president's health care proposal. Meanwhile, AARP is allowed to tout reform as it awaits payday. We weren't surprised when the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office to complete its cost analysis of the health care bill pushed by Montana Democrat Max Baucus and to put the bill online in its original wording. Instead, the Senate panel passed another amendment to require the committee to post the full bill online in "conceptual"...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) faced an early test of his leadership Wednesday after fellow Democrats challenged the $80 billion deal he struck with drug makers to help pay for health-care reform. Nearing the end of a 13-hour opening day of work on Baucus's bill to overhaul the nation's health-care system, several committee members pressed Tuesday night for an amendment extracting larger company rebates on medications the government purchases for low-income senior citizens. The proposal jeopardizes an agreement that Baucus and the Obama White House struck to limit the drug industry's exposure over the next 10 years to...

Republican lawmakers rebuked the Obama administration Tuesday for telling health insurance companies to stop warning elderly customers they'll lose benefits in health care legislation, which some equated to a gag order. At least one prominent insurer has misrepresented the pending bills to frighten older Americans, the administration says. But GOP leaders said the companies, whose income could be reduced by the legislation, are entitled to free speech and political debate. Tuesday's exchanges came as a Senate committee began debating a health care bill most Republicans oppose. President Barack Obama supports the bill's main provisions, and the flap over insurance companies'...

Memo to President Barack Obama: It's a tax. Obama insisted this weekend on national television that requiring people to carry health insurance — and fining them if they don't — isn't the same thing as a tax increase. But the language of Democratic bills to revamp the nation's health care system doesn't quibble. Both the House bill and the Senate Finance Committee proposal clearly state that the fines would be a tax. And the reason the fines are in the legislation is to enforce the coverage requirement. "If you put something in the Internal Revenue Code, and you tell the...

Look at all those empty seats as Sen. Max Baucus stands alone in Senate Committee Room! Alone! No one joined Baucus to help push his "compromise!" Curt has the full story on the much vaunted "compromise" health bill introduced today by Sen. Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. This was the bill Dems hoped would attract some GOP support and they couldn't even get Maine's Olympia Snowe to support it. Worse yet, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) plans to vote against it for raising taxes on middle class coal miners in his state. This bill has so little support...

Today, The Montana Standard launches a new weekly columnist for its editorial page Byron York will serve as a conservative voice every Tuesday... York, a staunch conservative, presents his arguments in a thoughtful, measured fashion, rather than resorting to cheap personal attacks on President Obama and others in the Democratic Party that seem to be the hallmark of the GOP these days, said Standard Editor Gerry O'Brien.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus formally unveiled a 10-year $856 billion bill that would extend health insurance to tens of millions of Americans not now covered, moving an important step forward on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The sweeping measure is designed to steer a more moderate course on health policy than other major bills moving through Capitol Hill, and doesn't propose to create a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as proposed in rival House legislation and favored by many liberals. Instead, the Montana Democrat is proposing to expand coverage by creating...

A federal education grant will soon be used to introduce Arabic language and culture into Missoula high schools. The five-year, $764,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education comes to Missoula schools with the help of University of Montana.

Barack Obama offered this "olive brancn" to Republicans during his health care overhaul speech to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday. After spending most of the speech deriding his opposition, Obama finally got to the subject of tort reform which the White Nouse had promised Obama would pursue to get Republicans on board.

Some breathed a sigh of relief that a new health care bill introduced by Sen. Max Baucus does not include government insurance. This solace is premature. The Montana Democrat's bill proposes new regulations that would doom the private insurance industry. The lion's share of President Obama's Wednesday address to Congress pushed Mr. Baucus' plan. Because a direct government takeover of health care sparked violent public protests, the new strategy is to take smaller bites out of private care. The president still promises more service for less cost with greater government involvement, which is impossible. It takes chutzpah for Democrats to...

Some breathed a sigh of relief that a new health care bill introduced by Sen. Max Baucus does not include government insurance. This solace is premature. The Montana Democrat's bill proposes new regulations that would doom the private insurance industry. . . .