BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A $100-per-person charge for foreigners entering Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and other popular national parks is stoking apprehension among some tourist-oriented businesses that it could discourage travelers, but supporters say the change will generate money for cash-strapped parks.
The new fee was announced Tuesday by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and takes effects Jan. 1. Foreign tourists also will see a sharp price increase for an annual parks pass, to $250 per vehicle. U.S. residents will continue to be charged $80 for an annual pass.
The change in policy puts the U.S. in line with other countries that charge foreigners more to see popular attractions.
At the Whistling Swan Motel just outside Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, owner Mark Howser estimates that about 15% of his customers are foreigners. They come from Canada, China, India, Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere, said Howser, who also runs a bakery and general store.
Those visitors already pay up to $35 per vehicle to enter the park. Adding the $100-per-person charge for foreigners, Howser said, “is a sure-fire way of discouraging people from visiting Glacier.”
“It’s going to hurt local businesses that cater to foreign travelers, like myself,” he said. “You’re discouraging them from seeing something in the country by attaching a fee to that experience.”
A Yellowstone tour operator, Bryan Batchelder with Let’s Go Adventure Tours and Transportation, said the charge represents “a pretty big hike” for the roughly 30% of his clientele that are foreigners. That percentage has been going up in recent years after Batchelder switched to a new booking service.
Next summer, he said, will reveal how the new charge plays out among foreign visitors. “They’ll probably still come to the country, but will they visit national parks?” Batchelder asked.
The charge also will apply at Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Zion national parks.
Interior officials described the new fee structure as “America-first pricing” that will ensure international visitors contribute to maintaining parks.
For Yellowstone park alone, the $100 charge could generate $55 million annually to help fix deteriorating trails and aging bridges, said Brian Yablonski with the Property and Environment Research Center, a free market research group based in Bozeman, Montana.
If the charges for foreigners were extended to park sites nationwide, Yablonski said it could generate more than $1 billion from an estimated 14 million international visitors annually.
“Americans are already paying more than international visitors because they are paying taxes,” Yablonski said. “For international visitors, this is kind of a no-brainer, common sense approach.”
Many other countries charge international visitors an extra fee to visit public sites, said Melissa Weddell, director of the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research. Foreign visitors to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, for example, pay $200 per adult, while Ecuadorian nationals pay only $30, according to tourist websites for the islands.
A coalition of current and former employees park service denounced the new charge.
“In a year where national park staff have already been cut by nearly 25%, we worry this will be yet another burden for already overworked employees,″ said Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
“National parks should be available and accessible to all, or America’s best idea will become America’s greatest shakedown,″ she said.
Gerry Seavo James, deputy campaign director for Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, said Trump and his administration have worked for nearly a year to undermine the park service, slashing its budget and firing thousands of staff.
“Gouging foreign tourists at the entrance gate won’t provide the financial support these crown jewels of our public lands need,” he said. “Without that support, we run the risk of our true common grounds becoming nothing more than playgrounds for the super-rich.”
Interior Department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace said the agency previously did not collect data on international visitors but will start doing so in January.
Republican lawmakers in July introduced a bill in Congress that would codify the surcharge for foreign visitors to national parks. It’s sponsored by West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore and Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as interior secretary during Trump’s firs term.
“President Trump and Secretary Burgum are putting Americans first by asking foreign visitors to pay their fair share while holding entrance fees steady for the American people,” Zinke and Moore said in a statement Wednesday.
Daly reported from Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
First, Ukrainian survivors recount deadly bus attack. Then, Montana’s fight to block public land sales. And, a look at the rooms left behind after school shootings.
The old license plates read “Big Sky Country,” but inside Montana, there’s an unofficial state motto: “the last best place.” Hemmed by the Plains and the Pacific Northwest, Montana is a patchwork of golden prairies and green mountains, with rivers that run through it. And thelast best place suggests a warding off of the onslaught of outside forces. So this year, when Washington, D.C., politicians suggested selling off public lands for development as part of the so-called “big beautiful” budget bill, Montanans of all political stripes stood in opposition. Is this a rare example of modern bipartisanship, proof that there are some issues that can knit Americans together? Or are these frontierfolk just delaying the inevitable?
Montana’s landscape beguiles as it unfolds: the kind of sheer beauty that could stop traffic, if there were traffic to stop.
The scale is hard to exaggerate. It’s a state roughly the size of California with, roughly, the population of Greater Fresno — just north of one million. Montanans speak fondly of their neighbors, who might live 50 miles away.
As for the land itself, it’s not mere real estate. It’s there for recreation, a corridor for wildlife, it’s symbolic, too: the open frontier as an emblem of freedom and possibility. It’s something deeper, sacred even.
Bryan Mannix: …Like, spiritual, right? So like, some people find that in church or in other ways. And for me it’s just being out where your feet are on the ground and actually connecting with this space. And then if you spend enough time in those spaces and on that landscape it’s like land is kin, right? It starts to feel like–
Jon Wertheim: Land is kin?
Bryan Mannix: Yeah.
Bryan Mannix is a rancher who, along with his uncle Dave and cousin Logan, raise cattle in western Montana. They’ve been on this plot since 1882, when their forebears first homesteaded here. With lineage comes perspective.
Jon Wertheim: As ranchers, you guys have talked about f– feeling like you’re– you’re stewards of the land more than you’re owners of the land. What’s– what’s the difference?
David Mannix: It’s not ours; it’s just our turn.
Bryan Mannix: …you’re gonna steward that land, you’re gonna treat that land in a way that maybe doesn’t maximize your life, but is better for multiple generations of human beings. Because this place is going to outlast all of us by a long ways.
Montana rancher Bryan Mannix
60 Minutes
The Mannixes’ operation relies on a mix of land, around 55,000 acres all told, more than three Manhattans. It’s land they own; private land they lease from others; plus federal plots they pay a relatively small fee to use. So earlier this year, when members of Congress proposed the wholesale selloff of tracts of public land, the first serious effort of its kind in more than four decades, the Mannixes, well, bridled.
Bryan Mannix: Yeah, to me it’s worrisome because I think that you can have a very nuanced conversation about management. But whether or not should we have these lands as public lands to me is a no brainer.
The federal government owns and manages about 640 million acres of American land, most of it in the West and Alaska. Yes, those breathtaking national parks, but also huge tracts for conservation, recreation, and money-makers like ranching, mining, and logging.
The Trump administration, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, have made clear: federal lands could be generating much more value, if there were better management, fewer regulations and more vigorous extraction.
But Utah Sen. Mike Lee went further this year, putting forward his measure as part of the “big, beautiful” budget bill that proposed selling public land — as much as three million acres — across the West.
Lee’s proposal did not list specific parcels. But he and some Republican colleagues reasoned: selling land would address America’s housing shortage and also help pay down the nation’s debt.
Jon Wertheim: If the public land that you use were sold off, could you run your business?
David Mannix: The answer is yes, but it would be something less than what it is now.
Logan Mannix: If we lost our public leases we would lose a significant amount of income. So absolutely, it would impact us.
In Montana, selling public land was perceived as an attack on a way of life already under stress. In recent years, the moneyed class has descended – westward-ho! Exclusive enclaves like the Yellowstone Club — studded with eight-figure residencs — have been proliferating. In the last five years alone, home prices in the state have vaulted nearly 70percent. So much private land is being sold and developed. Construction, sprawl, for sale signs — they’re everywhere: in Big Sky; in Bozeman — Bos Angeles, they call it; in the remote Ruby Valley…
Donna McDonald: When we all come together…
Which is where we met Donna McDonald, a hunting and fishing guide; John Helle, a sheep rancher; Chris Edgington, a fly fisherman; and river health advocate Emily Cleveland, a conservationist. They come from across the state and across the political spectrum. They find common cause in a devotion to public lands.
Jon Wertheim: Could you run your business if the public lands were sold off?
Donna McDonald: No. There p– would not be a business to run.
John Helle: From the ranching community to the guiding community to– the wildlife that– the hunters and the anglers use, spend a lotta time on– on public lands.
Montanans find common cause in a devotion to public lands.
60 Minutes
In some states, the vast majority of the territory is federally owned. Montana is about 30 percent. How did we get here? As the nation expanded in the 1800s — and as Native Americans were forcefully removed — some land was settled by homesteaders or sold to industrialists. But much fell to the federal government.
Donna McDonald: Further out that way… Good work. Good work.
McDonald, who grew up in this valley, makes a living taking guests out on the private and public lands that surround her property. She invited us to do some fishing.
Jon Wertheim: How l– how long have you been doin’ this?
Donna McDonald: I can’t remember not doin’ it, Jon.
Jon Wertheim: You’re out on the river. It’s–
Donna McDonald: You know–
Jon Wertheim: –a nice day. You’re in nature.
Donna McDonald: Right. And it’s worth saving.
Preservation is often, literally and figuratively, a grassroots endeavor.
Donna, John, Chris and Emily sit on the Ruby Valley Strategic Alliance, one of many local land management groups across the state and the West.
At a time of hyper-polarization, these folks — the Birkenstock crowd and the cowboy boot crowd—do something radical: they respect their differences, and get along.
Donna McDonald: Well, it’s kinda like when neighbors get together to build a fence. We can stand there and argue about where to put the post or we can roll up our sleeves and build the fence together.
Jon Wertheim: Little glimpse into Montana?
Donna McDonald: Yep.
John Helle: Well I think we finally came to realize that we all had kinda the same goals in mind you know, save the– some of the last best places here.
Donna McDonald: And now we have more tree growth…
Montana land
60 Minutes
In response to the land sale proposal, hunters and hikers locked arms. ‘Not one acre’ became a rallying cry. The Ruby Valley Group spoke out publicly, and lobbied Montana’s two senators and two congressmen, all Republicans.
Donna McDonald: That was an easy one to all come to agreement on…
Jon Wertheim: Not– not a lot of dissent.
Donna McDonald: No, no. We all realize the importance of the public land. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Jon Wertheim: I suspect there’s some people saying, “Wait a second. You’ve got all this land. What’s wrong with converting that into housing and using it in other ways?”
Emily Cleveland: Yeah, I think a lot of our public lands aren’t– really close to infrastructure that would be necessary for wide-scale housing developments. And selling public lands to generate income and revenue is just– is just not something that makes sense.
Chris Edgington: I think it’s a slippery slope.
Donna McDonald: It is.
Jon Wertheim: What do you mean?
Chris Edgington: I mean– if we sell this chunk or that chunk, I mean, where d– where would it end?
Which is precisely the case they made to their representatives, like Ryan Zinke.
Jon Wertheim: We kept hearing you– you have zero political future in this state unless you oppose the– the sale of public lands.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: I think Montanans are very passionate about the public lands, because we live out here.
Jon Wertheim: You heard pretty clear on this one.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: I think it’s absolutely crystal clear.
Zinke grew up in Whitefish, Montana and served as a secretary of the interior during President Trump’s first term. Now, he represents western Montana in the house. He called the land sale proposal his San Juan Hill, a nod to Teddy Roosevelt, noted conservationist… Rough translation: over my dead body.
Rep. Ryan Zinke and Jon Wertheim
60 Minutes
Rep. Ryan Zinke: Public lands is not, to me, on a balance sheet. Public lands is our inheritance- of this great nation. And we’re blessed with it. There is no other country on the face of the planet that has the public land experience that we do.
On this issue, Zinke’s no ideologue. On a case-by-case basis, within the existing laws, he says he’s open to rethinking public land use. What he does oppose: wholesale selloff.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: You could sell the entirety of the federal estate, it’s not gonna get you out of debt.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: If you have a hotel, and the hotel is being mismanaged, you don’t sell the hotel. You get new management. And then if you sell the public land, you sell it all, right? Have you changed why you’re in debt? No, you’ve just sold your assets.
Jon Wertheim: People supporting this say, “What’s the harm of unlocking some of this so we can build affordable housing?” Why– why are those people wrong?
Rep. Ryan Zinke: If we wanna discuss, you know, reality– you know, selling all our public land for housing one it doesn’t– won’t solve the housing crisis. And secondly– you know, public land itself… if it’s managed well, you should be able to bring timber off of it. You should be able to graze. Energy– oil, coal, gas, all– a lot of that comes from our public lands.
Zinke was instrumental in getting the land sale proposal killed in the House. He then coordinated with his colleagues in the Senate, where Mike Lee had crafted a special carve out exempting Montana. But that didn’t win over the state’s delegation. The measure was abandoned.
In a statement to “60 Minutes,” Sen. Lee said in part, quote, “the federal government controls more land than it can manage, hurting the growth and prosperity of American families and their communities.”
Perhaps more than any other state, Montana stood in the breach, thwarting the sale efforts, though there is widespread expectation public land sales will come up again in Congress.
Jon Wertheim: This is an era where party unity in– in the Republican party is strong. You– you went against the grain here. You stuck your neck out.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: It’s a red, white, and blue issue. It’s not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an American issue. And once you sell land, you’re not gonna get it back.
On this point in particular, Zinke has seen his state transformed.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: Well, behind us is the Yellowstone River and below us, the Yellowstone dumps into the Missouri.
Jon Wertheim: What’s changed?
Rep. Ryan Zinke: When I grew up, you know, there were less people. You see all these houses in there. There wasn’t maybe one or two houses in this whole valley along the river.
Zinke knows, changes to land bring changes to culture. Locals complain they no longer know their neighbors. No trespassing signs suddenly abound. Montanans, like the Mannixes, are tracking the public lands issue closely. If an unsentimental government gets in on the sale, there reallygoes the neighborhood.
Logan Mannix: Often what we see is the most valuable thing to do with this land probably forever now will be to chop it up, and sell it in small chunks for people to have a little piece of paradise. And I think that’s gonna be true whether it’s a ranch that sells or public land that sells.
To borrow a phrase, this land is your land; this land is my land … people here just hope it stays that way.
Produced by David M. Levine. Associate producers, Kate Morris and Meghan Lisson. Broadcast associate, Mimi Lamarre. Edited by Sean Kelly.
A Montana town’s “pedophile bonfire” sounds like a headline-making event, but it isn’t in the state’s local news. There is a good reason for that: It isn’t real.
After the House Oversight Committee’s Nov. 12 release of about 20,000 pages of documents involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, social media users speculated about the files’ mentions of President Donald Trump. It was in that context that social media users spread news of disappointed former Trump supporters staging a fiery small-town demonstration..
“BREAKING: A Montana town that voted 89% for Donald Trump a year ago is holding a ‘Pedophile Bonfire’ event in their public park tonight for anyone who wants to come burn their Trump flags and MAGA hats,” read a Nov. 15 X post by left-leaning commentator Brian Krassenstein. It attracted 918.2K views as of Nov. 21.
But this faux memorabilia-burning demonstration news originated Nov. 13 from a satirical X account and website called The Halfway Post, which describes itself as posting “halfway true comedy and satire.”
There are no credible news reports from Montana, which supported Trump in 2024, about such a bonfire.
Although we found some social media videos and news stories showing people burningMAGA hats in response to the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files in recent months and weeks, we did not find news of a bonfire.
We rate the claim that a Montana town held a “pedophile bonfire” in a public park in November to burn Trump merchandise Pants on Fire!
Daren Christopher Abbey attacked Dustin Kjersem with a block of wood, an axe and a screwdriver after they met at Kjersem’s campsite near Big Sky, Montana, in October 2024, according to prosecutors. An autopsy showed Kjersem sustained “multiple chop wounds,” including to his skull.
The defendant later admitted to taking Kjersem’s guns, cooler, cellphones and other belongings and concealing evidence.
Dustin Kjersem
Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office
Abbey was linked to the murder scene by DNA found on a beer can inside the tent. He claimed the killing was in self-defense after Kjersem threatened him. Abbey also said he did not report the fight because he had a felony record, but acknowledged he took a cooler of beer and guns from the crime scene and then returned the next day to look for a beanie he believed he might have left there. He told investigators he also took two cellphones and items out of Kjersem’s truck, charging documents said.
Authorities said there were inconsistencies in his story, and pointed to multiple chop wounds in the attack.
The victim’s girlfriend and another friend found his body and reported it as a possible bear attack. It turned into a homicide investigation after wildlife agents found no sign of a bear in the area.
Kjersem had two children and worked as a self-employed contractor, building homes and learning other trades, according to his sister, Jillian Price. She said her brother was a skilled tradesman and a doting father.
Abbey told authorities that he arrived at the campsite intending to stay the night and was welcomed by Kjersem, who didn’t know him, according to Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer.
Following a six-day trial the jury found Abbey guilty on Monday of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence, court records show. He did not testify during the trial.
Abbey’s defense attorney, Sarah Kottke, said Wednesday that he will decide whether to appeal after he’s sentenced on Dec. 30 before state District Judge Peter Ohman.
“This was a tough case and asserting an affirmative defense comes with multiple hurdles, especially when it happens in such a remote area with no witnesses to the events that took place,” Kottke said in an email.
An inmate information document from Gallatin County last year said the defendant listed an organizational affiliation with white supremacists. State Department of Corrections records said his tattoos included an iron cross with a swastika.
Deliberate homicide is a capital offense in Montana but prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case, said Jack Veil with the Gallatin County Attorney’s Office.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to recommend the governor spare the life of a man scheduled to be executed next week for the 2001 stabbing death of a man during a botched robbery.
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt must now consider whether to commute the death sentence of Tremane Wood, 46, to life in prison. Stitt has granted clemency only once during his nearly seven years in office, to death row inmate Julius Jones in 2021. He has rejected clemency recommendations in four other cases. A total of 16 men have been executed during Stitt’s time in office. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the board’s decision.
Wood is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week for his role in the killing of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker from Montana, during an attempted robbery at a north Oklahoma City hotel on New Year’s Eve in 2001.
Wood’s attorneys don’t deny that he participated in the robbery but maintain that his brother, Zjaiton Wood, was the one who actually stabbed Wipf. Zjaiton Wood, who received a no-parole life sentence for Wipf’s death and died in prison in 2019, admitted to several people that he killed Wipf, said Tremane Wood’s attorney, Amanda Bass Castro Alves.
Castro Alves said Tremane Wood had an ineffective trial attorney who was drinking heavily at the time and who did little work on the case. She also said trial prosecutors concealed from jurors benefits that witnesses received in exchange for their testimony.
“Tremane’s death sentence is the product of a fundamentally broken system,” Castro Alves said.
Prosecutors painted Wood as a dangerous criminal who has continued to participate in gang activity and commit crimes while in prison, including buying and selling drugs, using contraband cellphones and ordering attacks on other inmates.
“Even within the confines of maximum security prison, Tremane Wood has continued to manipulate, exploit and harm others,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said.
Wood, who testified to the panel via video link from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, accepted responsibility for his prison misconduct and his participation on the robbery, but denied being the one who killed Wipf.
“I’m not a monster. I’m not a killer. I never was and I never have been,” Wood said.
“Not a day goes by in my life that I do not think about Ronnie and how much his mom and dad are suffering because they don’t have their son any more.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A group of Montana doctors and nurses is suing the national company that runs a rigorous, often mandatory monitoring program for health care providers grappling with addiction. The case is the latest instance of public criticism about how the state-mandated program for more than 60,000 medical licensees operates.
The class-action lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Missoula division of Montana’s federal district court on behalf of one doctor and 10 nurses around the state. Those plaintiffs, the filing said, were “subjected to punitive, expensive, and clinically unwarranted monitoring practices” by the Virginia-based contractor Maximus, Inc. The lawsuit said it seeks to represent all “similarly situated” individuals, including all current and past participants of Maximus’ program.
In their initial complaint, attorneys for the plaintiffs accused Maximus of creating arbitrary sanctions for participants, failing to follow clinical recommendations, shielding documents and records from review, and “keeping participants in the program for indefinite periods without clinically-justified extensions of monitoring.”
In the same filing, attorneys for the plaintiffs also said that the drug tests and peer support groups required by Maximus are “exorbitantly expensive” for participants, alleging that the contractor is prioritizing profits over clinical best practices for supporting addiction recovery.
“Maximus runs the program as punitive, invasive, and punishingly expensive, all to the detriment of its participants,” the lawsuit said.
A spokesperson for Maximus, Inc., declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday. The company has not filed any legal responses to the initial complaint, according to the federal case records.
Maximus was hired by the Department of Labor and Industry to run the Montana Recovery Program beginning in 2023, after a tumultuous transition between vendors. The Montana Professional Assistance Program, the prior nonprofit that ran the professional support and monitoring program for decades, dissolved after losing the state contract in 2021.
State law directs licensing boards to establish monitoring and assistance programs as part of their oversight of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and, more recently, chiropractors and veterinarians. Though not treatment providers, professional assistance programs around the country are often tasked with establishing drug testing, peer support and workplace guidelines for medical providers with a history of addiction or mental health issues.
An August audit conducted by nonpartisan legislative staff members found that dozens of Montana participants polled by auditors reported much lower satisfaction with Maximus compared to previous program operators. Several participants contacted auditors directly, the report said, describing Maximus’ program as “punitive rather than supportive.”
The federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday reiterated many of those complaints. In one section of the initial complaint, attorneys said the program arbitrarily marked participants as noncompliant, leading to a loss of participant trust, sanctions and “prolonged monitoring and indefinite retention in the program.”
Another part of the lawsuit alleged that plaintiffs regularly had to pay $300 for one drug test, followed by additional tests in the same week, a practice attorneys said was “not clinically indicated and unnecessary.” The complaint said the frequency and cost of the testing established by Maximus could be “potentially for financial gain.”
Gregory Pinski, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, did not make the nurses or doctor named in the lawsuit available for an interview Wednesday afternoon.
The complaint comes as officials within Gov. Greg Gianforte’s labor department work to review existing state laws about professional assistance programs for medical providers and reconsider the scope of the contract Maximus was hired to execute.
An advisory council tasked with carrying out that assessment met for the first time in early October. The group came away with a recommendation to extend Maximus’ contract for a year while the labor department solicits public comment about the program, researches other models and searches for a suitable vendor to meet the state’s needs. Maximus’ current contract is slated to end in December.
As of Wednesday, the advisory group has not released a public notice about another meeting.
This story was originally published by the Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Authorities were investigating the death of a rail conductor who was hit by a passing train Sunday in Montana, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The conductor worked for BNSF Railway, the agency said in a post on social media. BNSF Railway operates one of the largest freight railway networks in the U.S.
The incident occurred at about 9:40 a.m. in Columbus, a town of about 2,000 people 40 miles southwest of Billings.
Emergency response officials weren’t sure what happened other than that an individual was between two trains, said Nick Jacobs, Columbus Fire Rescue’s assistant chief. One train was parked on one track and the other train was moving on another track, he said.
“And the moving one struck him somehow,” Jacobs said.
BNSF investigators were on scene, as well as Columbus Police and Stillwater County Sheriff deputies, CBS affiliate KTVQ reported. The NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration officials were also at the scene, Jacobs said.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, Columbus police and Stillwater County Sheriff deputies are on the scene of an train-related accident Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Columbus, MT.
Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP
A spokesperson for BNSF said the company was referring all questions to the NTSB.
The identity of the deceased was not immediately released.
The accident caused an hours-long road closure at one of the busiest crossings in the area, KTVQ reported.
“You can see how fast the cars build up here,” nearby resident Robert Carlson told the station. “It’s unusual, but, you know, where trains are concerned, you never know when there’s going to be a problem or accident or collision.”
A report by the Federal Railroad Administration last year found BNSF was generally striving to improve safety on a consistent basis, but that message didn’t always reach front-line workers who often didn’t feel comfortable reporting safety concerns for fear of being disciplined.
The agency prepared the report as part of an effort to review all major railroads to address safety concerns after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023. Last year, Norfolk Southern agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to the derailment.
Since Canvas Stadium opened, the CSU Rams football program has tried the SEC route. It’s tried The Urban Meyer Family Tree. It’s tried a safe, steady hand with Mountain West bona fides. None of those paths have led to a consistent conference championship contender whose results have matched the ambitions of CSU’s $220 million football home.
So with Jay Norvell out, where does Rams AD John Weber turn now? Here are nine candidates CSU should have on his short list:
Tony Alford, Michigan running backs coach/run game coordinator: If it’s about family, nobody bleeds green the way Alford, who played running back at CSU from 1987-90, still does. At 56, he’s been looking for a chance to put a stamp on a program of his own.
Matt Lubick, Kansas co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach: Speaking of keeping it in the family, the son of CSU icon Sonny Lubick remains a fan favorite at age 53. Time to come home?
Jay Hill, BYU defensive coordinator/associate head coach: Not young (50), but we already know what his Cougars can do (and have done) to CU. Bonus: Has head coaching experience, posting a 68-39 record as the top man at Weber State from 2014-22.
Jason Candle, Toledo: Matt Campbell’s successor was supposed to find his Iowa State a while ago, having produced four seasons of at least nine wins with the Rockets since 2017. He’s still there. Although, as he’s got a contract through 2028, so he probably won’t come super-cheap.
Collin Klein, Texas A&M offensive coordinator: At 36, the former Loveland High star and Heisman Trophy finalist is a rising star and a good guy, to boot. If Rams fans want to “lock the gates” for local recruits, this could be the guy.
Klint Kubiak, Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator: Proud CSU alum. Name recognition. Pedigree. Gravitas. Even better if dad, Gary, comes north to help out.
Brent Vigen, Montana State coach: Yes, there’s a lot of Wyoming Cowboys mileage on that resume. But there’s also a ton of winning
DeSean Jackson, Delaware State coach: Want NFL star power? Want ESPN to pay attention to the Rams? Want Deion Sanders to feel a little jealous? It’s a Hail Mary, sure. But ask Rick George how those can pay off.
Chuck Martin, Miami of Ohio coach: If you can’t beat ’em, right? Martin’s posted a 21-11 mark since the start of the ’23 season and as a former Brian Kelly assistant, he can call in some big names. Then again, as a former Kelly assistant, he might be looking for a bigger landing pad than FoCo.
Big crowds of protesters are expected Saturday in thousands of places around the U.S. in opposition to what some are characterizing as increasingly authoritarian practices by President Donald Trump.
Some conservative politicians have condemned the protests as “Hate America” rallies, while others say that it represents a “patriotic” fight for First Amendment rights.
Here is what to expect on Saturday.
Organizers aim to boost political engagement
Ezra Levin, a leading organizer of Saturday’s protests, said the demonstrations are a response to what he called Trump’s “crackdown on First Amendment rights.”
He said those steps cumulatively represented a direct threat to constitutionally protected rights.
Protests are planned for more than 2,500 locations nationwide — from the country’s largest city, New York, to small unincorporated, rural communities like East Glacier Ridge, Montana, with roughly 300 residents.
Organizers will consider the day a success, Levin said, if people are galvanized to become more politically involved on an ongoing basis.
Mostly peaceful protest in June
The last “No Kings” protest took place on June 14 in thousands of cities and towns across the country, in large part to protest a military parade in Washington that marked the Army’s 250th anniversary and coincided with Trump’s birthday. “No Kings” organizers at the time called the parade “coronation” that was symbolic of what they characterized as Trump’s growing authoritarian overreach.
Confrontations were isolated and the protests were largely peaceful.
Police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted the week prior and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the formal event ended. Officers in Portland also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.
Four months later, no one has been charged. Experts have said state gun laws may shield both the shooter and the man who brandished a rifle but didn’t fire shots.
Jamie Carter, an organizer of Saturday’s rally, said Utah activists considered not participating in this round of “No Kings” demonstrations, but “we also felt that we really had to get back out there.”
Organizers are not affiliated with the groups who put on the June demonstration that turned deadly. Safety volunteers will be present but unarmed, and all have received de-escalation training, said Carter, of Salt Lake Indivisible. Attendees have been asked not to bring weapons.
“We really want this to be a very uplifting, happy event of people coming together in a community to kind of try to erase and replace some of the bad memories,” she said.
Trump’s crackdown against protests, especially in Democratic cities, has intensified since the June marches. He has since sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn. His efforts to deploy troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, have stalled in federal court.
Organizers in Chicago are expecting tens of thousands of demonstrators at a popular Lake Michigan park, followed by a downtown march.
Federal immigration agents have arrested more than 1,000 people in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, with increasingly aggressive tactics since September. Protests have been frequent and well attended in recent weeks, and have boiled over in intense clashes outside a suburban federal immigration processing center.
“People are angrier. It feels so much more immediate,” said Denise Poloyac with Indivisible Chicago. “They’re very concerned about what’s happening in Chicago and around the country.”
The “No Kings” organizers have led numerous virtual safety trainings leading up to the protests with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is listed as an official partner on the “No Kings” website.
The trainings informed viewers about their rights during protests — such as whether you are required to carry ID or if wearing a mask is allowed (both vary according to each state) — and emphasized de-escalation techniques for encounters with law enforcement.
Each official protest has a safety plan, which includes designated medics and emergency meeting spots.
Mixed response from elected officials
The protests have already drawn swift condemnation from some of the country’s top politicians, with House Speaker Mike Johnson dubbing the event the “Hate America rally” at a news conference on Wednesday.
Some state leaders, like Texas‘ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, have decided to activate the National Guard ahead of the protests.
“Texas will deter criminal mischief and work with local law enforcement to arrest anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property,” Abbott said in a statement.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom struck a more optimistic tone, saying he hopes Californians turn out in large numbers and remain peaceful. He said Trump “hopes there is disruption, there’s some violence” that he can exploit.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Texas; Terry Chea in San Francisco; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials rejected a company’s bid to acquire 167 million tons of coal on public lands in Montana for less than a penny per ton, in what would have been the biggest U.S. government coal sale in more than a decade.
The failed sale underscores a continued low appetite for coal among utilities that are turning to cheaper natural gas and renewables such as wind and solar to generate electricity. Emissions from burning coal are a leading driver of climate change, which scientists say is raising sea levels and making weather more extreme.
President Donald Trump has made reviving the coal industry a centerpiece of his agenda to increase U.S. energy production. But economists say Trump’s attempts to boost coal are unlikely to reverse its yearslong decline.
The coal-fired generation unit at Rawhide Energy Station in northern Colorado is seen Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver).
The coal-fired generation unit at Rawhide Energy Station in northern Colorado is seen Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver).
The Department of Interior said in a Tuesday statement that last week’s $186,000 bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC) did not meet the requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act.
Agency representatives did not provide further details, and it’s unclear if they will attempt to hold the sale again.
The leasing act requires bids to be at or above fair market value. At the last successful government lease sale in the region, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy paid $793 million, or $1.10 per ton, for 721 million tons of coal in Wyoming.
President Joe Biden’s administration sought to end coal sales in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, citing climate change.
A second proposed lease sale under Trump — 440 million tons of coal near an NTEC mine in central Wyoming — was postponed last week following the low bid received in the Montana sale. Interior Department officials have not said when the Wyoming sale will be rescheduled.
NTEC is owned by the Navajo Nation of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
A mechanized shovel loads coal into a haul truck at the Spring Creek mine, in this Nov. 15, 2016 photo, near Decker, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
A mechanized shovel loads coal into a haul truck at the Spring Creek mine, in this Nov. 15, 2016 photo, near Decker, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
In documents submitted in the run-up to the Montana sale, NTEC indicated the coal had little value because of declining demand for the fuel. The Associated Press emailed a company representative regarding the rejected bid.
Most power plants using fuel from NTEC’s Spring Creek mine in Montana and Antelope mine in Wyoming are scheduled to stop burning coal in the next decade, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
Spring Creek also ships coal overseas to customers in Asia. Increasing those shipments could help it offset lessening domestic demand, but a shortage of port capacity has hobbled prior industry aspirations to boost coal exports.
The coal-fired generation unit at Rawhide Energy Station in northern Colorado is seen Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver)
The coal-fired generation unit at Rawhide Energy Station in northern Colorado is seen Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver)
Senators voted 50-46 Thursday to repeal a land management plan for a large swath of Alaska that was adopted in the final weeks of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. Lawmakers voted to roll back similar plans for land in Montana and North Dakota earlier this week.
The timing of Biden’s actions made the plans vulnerable to the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to terminate rules that are finalized near the end of a president’s term. The resolutions require a simple majority in each chamber and take effect upon the president’s signature.
Trump ordered approval of the Ambler Road project earlier this week, saying it will unlock access to copper, cobalt and other critical minerals that the United States needs to compete with China on artificial intelligence and other resource development. Copper is used in the production of cars, electronics and even renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines.
The road was approved in Trump’s first term, but was later blocked by Biden after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.
(AP Graphic)
The Biden-era restrictions also included a block on new mining leases in the nation’s most productive coal-producing region, the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. On Monday, the Trump administration held the biggest coal sale in that area in more than a decade, drawing a single bid of $186,000 for 167.5 million tons of coal, or about a tenth of a penny per ton.
Trump has largely cast aside Biden’s goal to reduce climate-warming emissions from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels extracted from federal land. Instead, he and congressional Republicans have moved to open more taxpayer-owned land to fossil fuel development, hoping to create more jobs and revenue. The Republican administration also has pushed to develop critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, gold and zinc.
A decision on whether to accept the recent bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. is pending, and the lease cannot be issued until the Montana land plan is altered. The dirt-cheap value reflects dampened industry interest in coal despite Trump’s efforts. Many utilities have switched to cheaper natural gas or renewables such as wind and solar power.
Administration officials expressed disappointment that they did not receive “stronger participation” in the Montana sale. In a statement, Interior Department spokesperson Aubrie Spady blamed a “decades long war on coal” by Biden and former Democratic President Barack Obama.
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana said the repeal of the land-management plan in his state was “putting an end to disastrous Biden-era regulations that put our resource economy on life support.”
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska called the Biden-era plan for 13 million acres in the central Yukon region “a clear case of federal overreach that locks up Alaska’s lands, ignores Alaska Native voices … and blocks access to critical energy, gravel & mineral resources.”
The GOP legislation “restores balance, strengthens U.S. energy & mineral security and upholds the law,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum points to a map of Alaska as he speaks before President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democrats urged rejection of the repeals, arguing that Trump’s fossil fuel-friendly agenda is driving up energy prices because renewable sources are being sidelined even as the tech industry’s power demands soar for data centers and other projects.
“We are seeing dramatic increases in the price of energy for American consumers and businesses and the slashing of American jobs, so that Donald Trump can give an easy pass to the fossil fuel industry,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
Last week, the administration canceled almost $8 billion in grants for clean energy projects in 16 states that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won in the 2024 election.
Ashley Nunes, public lands specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, said Republicans were unleashing “a wholesale assault on America’s public lands.” Using the Congressional Review Act to erase land management plans “will sow chaos across the country and turn our most cherished places into playgrounds for coal barons and industry polluters,” she said.
(Reuters) -The Trump administration has postponed a scheduled sale of coal leases on federal lands in Wyoming two days after a disappointing auction in Montana, an Interior Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The Bureau of Land Management, a division of Interior that manages 245 million acres of federal lands, had been expected to keep processing permits and leases for oil, gas and coal operations during the government shutdown, according to contingency plans published last week.
A sale of 3,508 acres of federal coal reserves in Wyoming’s Campbell and Converse counties had been scheduled for Wednesday morning. The lease area contains 365 million tons of recoverable coal. Interior said it would post a new date for the sale but did not give a reason for the postponement.
BLM held a lease sale for 1,262 acres in Big Horn County, Montana on Monday that attracted one bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which operates the nearby Spring Creek Mine.
The bid of $186,000 for a lease with an estimated 167.5 million tons of recoverable coal equates to less than a penny per ton. The Interior Department blamed the administrations of former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, both Democrats, for the weak industry interest.
“While we would have liked to see stronger participation, this sale reflects the lingering impact from Obama and Biden’s decades long war on coal which aggressively sought to end all domestic coal production and erode confidence in the U.S. coal industry,” the Interior Department said in a statement.
“Fortunately, President Trump and his Administration are rebuilding trust between industry and government as part of our broader effort to restore American Energy Dominance.”
Obama and Biden had toughened environmental regulations on coal to reduce pollution and climate impact, and encourage a transition to renewable energy sources.
BLM has not yet accepted the NTEC bid because under the leasing process it first must determine whether it represents fair market value.
NTEC had argued in sale documents that the fair market value of the coal should be close to the minimum bid of $100 per acre required by law. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump has vowed to revive coal leasing on federal lands so coal can fuel more of the nation’s soaring electricity demand tied to artificial intelligence.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Diane Craft)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials in the coming days are set to hold the government’s biggest coal sales in more than a decade, offering 600 million tons from publicly owned reserves next to strip mines in Montana and Wyoming.
The sales are a signature piece of President Donald Trump’s ambitions for companies to dig more coal from federal lands and burn it for electricity. Yet most power plants served by those mines plan to quit burning coal altogether within 10 years, an Associated Press data analysis shows.
Three other mines poised for expansions or new leases under Trump also face declining demand as power plants use less of their coal and in some cases shut down, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor.
Those market realities raise a fundamental question about the Republican administration’s push to revive a heavily polluting industry that long has been in decline: Who’s going to buy all that coal?
The question looms over the administration’s enthusiastic embrace of coal, a leading contributor to climate change. It also shows the uncertainty inherent in inserting those policies into markets where energy-producing customers make long-term decisions with massive implications, not just for their own viability but for the future of the planet, in an ever-shifting political landscape.
Rushing to approve projects
The upcoming lease sales in Montana and Wyoming are in the Powder River Basin, home to the most productive U.S. coal fields.
Officials say they will go forward beginning Monday despite the government shutdown. The administration exempted from furlough those workers who process fossil fuel permits and leases.
Democratic President Joe Biden last year acted to block future coal leases in the region, citing their potential to make climate change worse. Burning the coal from the two leases being sold in coming days would generate more than 1 billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, according to a Department of Energy formula.
Trump rejected climate change as a “con job” during a Sept. 23 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, an assessment that puts him at odds with scientists. He praised coal as “beautiful” and boasted about the abundance of U.S. supplies while deriding solar and wind power. Administration officials said Wednesday that they were canceling $8 billion in grants for clean energy projects in 16 states won by Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
In response to an order from Trump on his first day in office in January, coal lease sales that had been shelved or stalled were revived and rushed to approval, with considerations of greenhouse gas emissions dismissed. Administration officials have advanced coal mine expansions and lease sales in Utah, North Dakota, Tennessee and Alabama, in addition to Montana and Wyoming.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday that the administration is opening more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) of federal lands to mining. That is an area bigger than New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
The administration also sharply reduced royalty rates for coal from federal lands, ordered a coal-fired power plant in Michiganto stay open past planned retirement dates and pledged $625 million to recommission or modernize coal plants amid growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers.
“We’re putting American miners back to work,” Burgum said, flanked by coal miners and Republican politicians. “We’ve got a demand curve coming at us in terms of the demand for electricity that is literally going through the roof.”
The AP’s finding that power plants served by mines on public lands are burning less coal reflects an industrywide decline that began in 2007.
Energy experts and economists were not surprised. They expressed doubt that coal would ever reclaim dominance in the power sector. Interior Department officials did not respond to questions about future demand for coal from public lands.
But it will take time for more electricity from planned natural gas and solar projects to come online. That means Trump’s actions could give a short-term bump to coal, said Umed Paliwal, an expert in electricity markets at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
“Eventually coal will get pushed out of the market,” Paliwal said. “The economics will just eat the coal generation over time.”
The coal sales in Montana and Wyoming were requested by Navajo Nation-owned company. The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC) has been one of the largest industry players since buying several major mines in the Powder River Basin during a 2019 bankruptcy auction. Those mines supply 34 power plants in 19 states.
Twenty-one of the plants are scheduled to stop burning coal in the next decade. They include all five plants using coal from NTEC’s Spring Creek mine in Montana.
In filings with federal officials, the company said the fair market value of 167 million tons of federal coal next to the Spring Creek mine was just over $126,000.
That is less than one-tenth of a penny per ton, a fraction of what coal brought in its heyday. By comparison, the last large-scale lease sale in the Powder River Basin, also for 167 million tons of coal, drew a bid of $35 million in 2013. Federal officials rejected that as too low.
NTEC said the low value was supported by prior government reviews predicting fewer buyers for coal. The company said taxpayers would benefit in future years from royalties on any coal mined.
“The market for coal will decline significantly over the next two decades. There are fewer coal mines expanding their reserves, there are fewer buyers of thermal coal and there are more regulatory constraints,” the company said.
In central Wyoming on Wednesday, the government will sell 440 million tons of coal next to NTEC’s Antelope Mine. Just over half of the 29 power plants served by the mine are scheduled to stop burning coal by 2035.
Among them is the Rawhide plant in northern Colorado. It is due to quit coal in 2029 but will keep making electricity with natural gas and 30 megawatts of solar panels.
Aging plants and optimism
The largest U.S. coal company has offered a more optimistic take on coal’s future. Because new nuclear and gas plants are years away, Peabody Energy suggested in September that demand for coal in the U.S. could increase 250 million tons annually — up almost 50% from current volumes.
Peabody’s projection was based on the premise that existing power plants can burn more coal. That amount, known as plant capacity, dropped by about half in recent years.
“U.S. coal is clearly in comeback mode,” Peabody’s president, James Grech, said in a recent conference call with analysts. “The U.S. has more energy in its coal reserves than any nation has in any one energy source.”
No large coal power plants have come online in the U.S. since 2013. Most existing plants are 40 years old or older. Money pledged by the administration to refurbish older plants will not go very far given that a single boiler component at a plant can cost $25 million to replace, said Nikhil Kumar with GridLab, an energy consulting group.
That leads back to the question of who will buy the coal.
“I don’t see where you get all this coal consumed at remaining facilities,” Kumar said.
Gruver reported from Wellington, Colorado. Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ben Verbrugge is a freelance sportswriter with a journalism degree from CSU Dominguez Hills. He is a member of the Los Angeles media and spends most of his time covering the NBA, NFL, and MLB. When not writing, he is either playing or watching sports.
🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Top-10 teams collide for the Little Brown Stein on Saturday night as the No. 10 Idaho Vandals (2-2) take on the No. 4 Montana Grizzlies (3-0) in their Big Sky Conference opener at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Keali’i Ah Yat #8 of the Montana Grizzlies looks on during the fourth quarter of a game against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at Dana J Dykhouse Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Brookings,… Keali’i Ah Yat #8 of the Montana Grizzlies looks on during the fourth quarter of a game against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at Dana J Dykhouse Stadium on December 7, 2024 in Brookings, South Dakota.
Both of Idaho’s losses have come by a field goal against FBS competition, including a 31-28 defeat at San Jose State on Sept. 20. The Vandals are 2-0 within the FCS with wins at home over St. Thomas (37-30) and Utah Tech (20-6). Idaho led 28-21 with 9:17 to go at San Jose State before the Spartans came back to win on a 48-yard field goal with eight seconds to go. Joshua Wood threw for 232 yards and two scores in the loss. The Vandals are the only Big Sky program with a winning record against Montana at 56-31-2, but lost last year’s meeting at home 23-21.
Montana blasted visiting Indiana State 63-20 on Sept. 20 to remain unbeaten as Keali’i Ah Yat was 22-of-27 for 313 yards and two touchdowns, and Eli Gillman picked up 120 yards and three scores on just 13 carries. The Grizzlies are playing their fourth straight game at home, opening with a 42-17 win over Central Washington before beating then-No. 17 North Dakota 24-23.
This is a great college football matchup that you will not want to miss; make sure to tune in and catch all the action.
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The future of a Montana animal shelter remains uncertain after a cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated filled up the building and sent workers to the hospital.
The smoke started to fill the building of the nonprofit Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter in Billings on Wednesday while the FBI used an incinerator at the animal shelter to burn the drugs, city officials said.
Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland said Friday that the smoke was sucked in apparently because of negative pressure. A fan was supposed to be on hand in such situations to reverse the pressure so smoke would flow out of the building, but it wasn’t readily available.
The incinerator is used primarily to burn carcasses of animals euthanized or collected by the city’s animal control division. But every couple of months, local law enforcement or FBI agents use it to burn seized narcotics, Iffland said.
Fourteen animal shelter workers were evacuated and went to the hospital. The shelter’s 75 dogs and cats were relocated or put into foster homes, said Iffland and shelter director Triniti Halverson.
Animal crates sit outside the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Billings, Mont.
Matthew Brown / AP
The shelter shares space with Billings’ animal control division. When smoke started filling parts of the building, Halverson assumed it was from burning carcasses because she said they had never known about the drug burns.
Halverson said she had a very intense headache and sore throat, and others had dizziness, sweating and coughing.
“Not a party,” she said.
The workers found out it was methamphetamine smoke through a call from a city official while they were in the hospital, Halverson said. Most of the staff spent several hours in an oxygen chamber for treatment.
Symptoms have lingered for some workers, Halverson said.
They were also closely monitoring four litters of kittens that got more heavily exposed because they were in a closed room with lots of smoke, she said.
Izzy Zalenski, right, walks Paul outside the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Billings, Mont.
Matthew Brown / AP
The FBI routinely uses outside facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns, agency spokesperson Sandra Barker said. She referred further questions to Billings officials.
A city animal control supervisor who was present for Wednesday’s burn declined to go to the hospital, Iffland said. The FBI agents were told to go to the hospital by their supervisor.
The incinerator is meant to operate at a certain temperature, so it doesn’t emit toxins. Iffland said officials were trying to determine if it was at the appropriate temperature on Wednesday.
The shelter will remain closed until it can be tested for contamination. Shelter workers were tested for potential exposure, and Iffland said he did not know the results.
A sign is posted on the door of the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Billings, Mont.
Matthew Brown / AP
“We have no idea of how much we’ve lost,” shelter board member and attorney Frans Andersson told CBS affiliate KTVQ. “We don’t have inventory at the moment of what was in there.”
The company hired to assess and clean up the building told the station that they are doing air quality tests before any remediation can happen.
“This is a unique situation and project,” said Andrew Newman, owner and CEO of Newman Restoration. “Typically, what we’ll see is more on the residential side with, you know, kind of a meth lab that either caused a fire or triggered some type of needing remediation. With this being a larger commercial facility and what the intentions were, it makes it a unique situation and cleanup.”
Newman expects the lab results to come back by next week.
Billings resident Jay Ettlemen went to the shelter on Friday to donate dog food and said he was angry when he found out about the drug burns.
“Why the hell are they destroying drugs inside the city limits?” Ettlemen asked. “There’s so many other places in the middle of nowhere.”
Montana’s grizzly and human populations have both risen substantially since 1975, when the bears were protected under the Endangered Species Act. Bill Whitaker reports on conservation efforts that have led to grizzly recovery, and the farmers, ranchers and residents now encountering these ferocious animals.
A former Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Army soldier was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for permanently injuring his newborn daughter and sexually assaulting his wife.
A former U.S. Army private stationed at Fort Belvoir was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for twice abusing his infant daughter, who is now permanently disabled, and raping the child’s mother.
Austin Blair Johnson, 35, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of sexual abuse in connection with the crimes in 2012 and 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria said in a news release.
The 15-year sentence handed down Friday is to be served consecutively to a 15-year sentence Johnson is serving for injuring his 6-week-old son with his new wife in Montana in 2017.
Fort Belvoir case
According to court documents, on June 24, 2012, Johnson, then an active duty soldier residing on Fort Belvoir, was watching his infant daughter, who was born prematurely 15 days earlier.
The baby was crying, “so Johnson picked her up and carried her, but she continued to cry,” the release said. While holding the baby in front of him with one hand under each of her arms, Johnson “rapidly and forcefully shook” the victim multiple times before letting go of her, causing her to flip and land on her head, the release said.
Johnson then picked up the baby and ran with her upstairs to a bedroom where he woke his then-wife. According to court documents, Johnson falsely told her he had accidentally dropped the baby, and had successfully broken her fall with his foot.
The couple took the baby to the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital ER, where she presented with a fever, bruising on her head and shoulder and blood coming out of her mouth, according to the release.
A CT scan conducted there revealed the baby’s skull had been fractured. She was transferred later to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Walter Reed Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with extensive injuries and remained hospitalized for the next 10 days.
The day she was discharged, the baby was again left in Johnson’s care while his wife was out and he again “rapidly and forcefully shook” her before dropping her, the release said. The baby was 26 days old at the time.
The next morning, the infant’s mother took her for a follow-up appointment with a pediatrician at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, where the baby began having seizures and was sent to the ER.
She was later transferred later to the PICU at Children’s National Medical Center, where doctors discovered myriad injuries, including a second skull fracture, and identified extensive brain damage, the release said.
When she was discharged on July 20, 2012, the baby was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, where she remained for approximately 14 months until she was returned to the custody of Johnson and her mother.
Two days later, shortly after her third birthday, she underwent a hemispherectomy “during which the entire left side of her brain was removed in an effort to control her irrepressible seizures,” the release said.
The victim is now legally blind, non-verbal and the entire right side of her body is paralyzed, prosecutors said. Cognitively, she functions at the level of a mature infant.
As part of his sentence in the case, Johnson was ordered to pay over $1.1 million in restitution.
In addition to his assaults on the baby, Johnson was convicted of sexually assaulting the baby’s mother in 2013 at their home on Fort Belvoir.
“After she rebuffed Johnson’s requests to be intimate with her, Johnson proceeded without her consent. [The victim] protested and tried to hit Johnson to get him to stop, which he eventually did,” the release said.
Johnson was never court-martialed or criminally charged in the assaults.
Montana case
Five years later, Johnson was living in Montana with his new wife and 6-week-old son when she went upstairs to try on jeans, asking Johnson to watch the baby for a few minutes, according to an article in Stars and Stripes.
She came back down to find the baby limp and unresponsive. He, too, suffered permanent brain damage from violent shaking.
Johnson was quickly arrested and sentenced in the crime on March 1, 2018.
The boy’s mother told prosecutors she didn’t know about Johnson’s past abuse of his first child.
It was unclear Friday if the military ever investigated Johnson or why it took over a decade for federal prosecutors to take up the case. Johnson was indicted in July 2024 and pleaded guilty in May in connection to the assaults on his wife and daughter.
The Army Criminal Investigative Division did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.
“Military medical protocol requires hospital workers to notify criminal investigators and others if they even suspect child abuse,” Stars and Stripes wrote. “It’s unclear whether that happened but what is known is that the Army never court-martialed Johnson. It took nearly 13 years for Johnson’s previous abuse to catch up with him.”
Strong winds up to 60 mph prompted National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists to issue a high wind warning for parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming on Thursday.
The winds are strong enough to cause damage, power outages, and make travel difficult, prompting the warnings.
NWS meteorologist Molly Gerhardt told Newsweek the high winds are accompanying a cold front moving into the area.
What to Know
In each case, the NWS offices issued the high wind warning in the morning hours. The warnings will remain in place through the evening.
In Montana, northwest winds 35 to 45 mph with gusts up to 60 mph are expected for Sheridan County. The warning went into effect at 9 a.m. local time and will remain in place through 9 p.m.
A stock image of a high winds caution sign. A stock image of a high winds caution sign. Phototreat/Getty
“High winds may move loose debris, damage property, and cause power bumps,” the NWS office in Glasgow, Montana, said in the warning. “Travel could be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.”
In North Dakota, the alert warned of northwest winds to 40 mph with gusts to 60 mph. The warning is in place for Divide, Burke, Renville, Williams, Mountrail, Ward, and McLean counties and is in effect until 9 p.m. local time.
In Wyoming, the high wind warning is in effect from 10 a.m. local time through 6 p.m. this evening. It affects northeast Johnson County, with the strongest winds expected to hit between noon and 4 p.m. Northwest winds were expected to be between 30 and 40 mph, with higher gusts.
A wind advisory, in which winds could still be damaging but not as strong as those requiring a high wind warning, is in place across much of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
What People Are Saying
A Bismarck, North Dakota, high wind warning said: “The high winds may damage roofs, small outbuildings and signs. Tree branches may be broken. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.”
A Glasgow, Montana, high wind warning said: “Remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Watch for falling debris and tree limbs. Use caution if you must drive.”
A Riverton, Wyoming, high wind warning said: “Use caution if you must drive. Secure loose objects outdoors.”
What Happens Next
The high wind warnings will expire by Thursday night. People in the impacted areas should monitor local forecasts and follow the guidance from weather experts.
A man suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar and evading capture for a week while hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for him in the nearby mountains faces four counts of murder, according to court records.
Defendant Michael Paul Brown lived next door to The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, where a bartender and three patrons were shot and killed Aug. 1.
Authorities have not commented on a potential motive for the 45-year-old former soldier. His niece has said Brown long struggled with mental illness. Several local residents told CBS News they were aware of his troubles.
The charges Brown faces were posted on a court website Saturday after the case previously had been under seal by a state judge. Charging documents were not immediately available.
Following the shooting, authorities said Brown stole a truck and then ditched it a few miles outside of town, close to where he was eventually apprehended.
He hid in nearby forests, moving locations while helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and dogs searched on the ground, officials said. But he was eventually flushed into a sparsely populated area near a state highway by the pressure of so many officers searching for him, according to officials.
Brown was captured on Aug. 8 inside an unoccupied structure near a state highway.
Investigators also are examining whether he had any contact with individuals or property owners who might have helped him while he was on the run.
State Department of Justice spokesperson Chase Scheuer said Friday that the probe is ongoing.
Brown is scheduled to make an initial district court appearance on Sept. 3. He is being held on $2 million bail and represented by attorney Walter Hennessey, who did not immediately respond to telephone messages on Friday or Saturday. Brown is accused of killing Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.
Anaconda, about 25 miles northwest of Butte, is home to roughly 9,000 people. Hemmed in by mountains, it was founded by a copper magnate in the late 1800s. A smelter stack that is no longer operational looms over the valley.
The owner of The Owl Bar has said Brown patronized it over the past several decades, but he was not aware of any conflicts between the suspect and victims. Montana’s attorney general said the suspect lived next door to the bar and appeared to be a regular.
A conviction for murder, known in Montana as deliberate homicide, is punishable by death in the state. Executions have been on hold since 2015 under a court ruling regarding a drug used in lethal injections.
