Belle Fourche Pipeline Company and Bridger Pipeline LLC — affiliated companies that own and operate a network of crude oil pipelines in Montana North Dakota, and Wyoming — have agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty to resolve claims under the Clean Water Act and Pipeline Safety Laws relating to oil spills in Montana and North Dakota, according to a news release Monday, July 31. “These

This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. The first signs of competition in the two races for Montana’s Supreme Court slated for next year are beginning to show. In June, Montana Free Press reported that neither Chief Justice Mike McGrath nor Justice Dirk Sandefur would

Thunderstorms kept the Poplar Volunteer Fire Department busy this weekend. The department responded to three grass fires Sunday, July 30. The department was paged out at 3:25 p.m. to a grass fire off of BIA Route One west of town. At 3:29 p.m. they were paged out to two other grass fires one off of Red Thunder Road west of town and another north of town four miles off of Washboard Road. All

Annual cleanup day at Lustre Christian High School was on Monday, July 31. All those who assisted were greatly appreciated. Thirty men attended the annual Men’s Camp-out on Saturday, July 22, at Fort Peck, sponsored by the Mennonite Brethren Church of Lustre. Guest speaker was Daryl Toews. Sunday, July 23, was a very special day for the MB Church. They had their service at the Downstream

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting offers for nearly 2.7 million acres from agricultural producers and private landowners through this year’s Conservation Reserve Program Grassland signup. This program allows producers and landowners to continue grazing and haying practices while protecting grasslands and further CRP conservation efforts. Grassland CRP is part of the Biden-Harris

Gov. Greg Gianforte has announced his appointments to serve on the Behavioral Health System for Future Generations Commission. The commission will provide recommendations for allocating the governor’s historic $300 million investment to reform and improve Montana’s behavioral health and developmental disabilities service systems. Charlie Brereton, director of the Department of Public Health

neighbors, the entities of Roosevelt County and the City of Wolf Point can work together. He feels the quicker that the properties are addressed, the sooner the county can re-coup taxable value. “I think it’s a good thing. We need to figure out how to get it to work,” Toavs said. Dschaak said he hopes that every municipality can work on a separate MOU with the county regarding the

The Montana Public Service Commission should approve a rate for Montana-Dakota Utilities that translates to a 9.1 percent increase for residential customers, or $96.09 more a year, according to a PSC staff recommendation released last week. The recommendation, not yet scheduled as an action item for the PSC as of Monday, came on the heels of another listening session where customers, including

Roosevelt County commissioners approved resolutions regarding salaries of elected officials during their meeting on Tuesday, July 25. Under one of the resolutions, the county attorney will have a salary of $119,215.60 and the deputy county attorney will have a salary of $101,333.26, which is 85 percent of the county attorney’s salary. Recently, commissioners agreed to make the county attorney