Just because you're a Montana native doesn't necessarily mean you've had a chance to experience it all on the slopes. In this weeks Winter Adventure, Tim McGonigal takes us along during his first attempt at snowboarding.
Tim hit the slopes at Great Divide near Marysville, and got some expert instruction from Mark Hoy.
Top stories on KXLH for the evening of Monday, February 18, 2013.
- Bank of MT? MT State Representative Doug Kary (R-Billings) wants the Legislature to look at creating a state-run bank. Kary is sponsoring House Bill 474 which would create a non-profit, independent, state-run bank. Kary says his intention was not to create the bank but instead ask the Legislature to study the issue and draft a startup plan.
- Scam Alert: Montana's Office of Consumer Protection is warning of a new phone scam. It involves a caller asking the recipient to give up private information in order to receive a new Medicare card in the mail. The office warns that this is an attempt at identity theft.
- Red Cross: The American Red Cross of Montana is looking for volunteers as we approach flood season. They respond to big disasters in the state, but they are also committed to helping victims of smaller disasters. Just last week, the home of a couple in Helena caught fire and Red Cross volunteers responded to provide immediate support to them.
- Veterans: 22 veterans living at Hunters Pointe in Helena were honored for their service on this President's Day. The veterans were also given their own "wall of honor" where their pictures hang to commemorate their service to our country.
- Air Force: The National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force will have eight people on it, and Montana's Congressional delegation is supporting the nomination of MT Lieutenant Governor John Walsh as one of those eight. Four of the positions will be appointed by President Obama, and Montana's U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative are lobbying to have Walsh on the panel.
- Idle No More: A global grass-roots movement descended on the grounds of the Capitol on Monday, lead by prominent Native American leaders in Montana. The movement is called "Idle No More" and hopes to motivate poor and minority groups to take action for social movements and urge lawmakers to continue social programs. Although the movement started among Native American populations, speakers urged that it is a movement to give a voice to the voiceless.
- Rollover: Icy roads contributed to a rollover accident on I-15 near the 1-90 exit south of Helena at around 8:40 a.m. on Monday. Although an ambulance was called to the scene the driver and two passengers did not need to be taken to the hospital.
A deep upper level trough is developing across the west this morning and will bring increasing clouds to the state and cool temperatures.
A southwesterly flow aloft ahead of the main low pressure system will help bring the increase in clouds today but also some slightly milder temperatures.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Most of the moisture and energy with this next storm will dive well south of Montana but a piece of energy will move through on Wednesday bringing a better chance of scattered snow showers during this time.
Any accumulations will remain light over the lower elevations with the mountains picking up a couple inches of new snow.
Sunshine will return by the end of the week as the main storm system pushes off into the central plains.
Temperatures through Thursday will hold in the 30s with overnight lows in the teens and 20s.
By Friday, gusty southwesterly winds will develop and this will allow for a milder day with highs back in the 40s.
Another storm system will cross through the state by the weekend bringing cooler temperatures and a slight chance of snow.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Have a great day!
Meteorologist Matt Jones
HELENA - Bus loads of hunters and anglers piled into the halls of the Capitol on Monday to show lawmakers they are serious about access to public land.
They were sporting hunter orange and sitting quietly in the House gallery as lawmakers debated two bills involving public access to public land.
MT State Representative Kelly Flynn (R-Townsend) wants to take $1.2 million a year from the Habitat Montana account and transfer it to the block management program. The state would then use the money to pay private landowners who open up their land for public use.
MT State Rep Franke Wilmer (D-Bozeman) said, "It's a bill that pits one good program against, Habitat Montana, from which the funds would come, against another good program, which is block management."
The bill passed in a 66 - 34 vote with a majority of Democrats opposing it.
However, the bill which everyone showed up for was House Bill 235, known as the "corner crossing" bill.
Right now more then 800,000 acres of public land are blocked off because they are surrounded by private land.
MT State Rep Ellie Hill's (D-Missoula) bill would allow someone to walk across the corner of private property to access public land.
Hill said "This must be done on foot. We're talking about hopscotch, folks. Leaping from one public corner to the other and never touching the soil of a private property's land."
MT State Rep. Jeffrey Welborn (R-Dillon) countered, "It's not about hopscotch. It's about trespassing onto private property."
The bill died on the House floor in a 45 - 54 vote.
But for the men and women in orange they say not everyone is wealthy enough to own prime hunting ground, so they want the Legislature to give them access to public land.
Outside the Capitol, Randy Newberg of the Headwaters Sportsmen Association said, "Can a person be a property right advocate while denying your neighbor the use and enjoyment of their adjacent properties to the full extent provided by the law? I say no."
Hill exhorted the crowd, "I will say it right here, civil disobedience. Get cited. Civil disobedience and a ballot initiative."
The organizers of the bus trip told us more than 300 sportsmen attended the event.
HELENA - A new phone scam has caught the attention of the Montana Office of Consumer Protection.
It involves a caller asking the recipient to give up private information in order to receive a new Medicare card in the mail.
Matthew Dale of the MT Consumer Protection Office said, "The simplest answer, just say no. Do not provide the information that is requested and certainly sometimes people feel like just hanging up which isn't courteous but the recipient of the call is under no obligation to provide any information whatsoever."
Calls like this are an attempt at identity theft.
Dale encourages people who get the calls to forward the information onto the state for investigation; call 1-800-481-6896 if you believe you have been contacted by a scammer, or visit the Consumer Protection website here.
HELENA - MT State Representative Doug Kary (R-Billings) wants the Montana Legislature to consider creating a state-run bank.
Kary is sponsoring House Bill 474 which would create a non-profit independent state-run bank.
Kary says his intention was not to create the bank, but instead ask the Legislature to study the issue and draft a startup plan.
However, the legislation is pretty clear stating that the bill is an "act creating a state bank of Montana known as the Montana Resources Bank."
Kary testified in front of the Business & Labor Committee on Monday and said, "The main function of this resource bank is to provide the banking services for the state, and use public funds to partner with local banks to assist in local community economic development activities."
Supporters of the bill say small businesses and farmers need access to capital and this bank could help.
The banking industry rejects the idea saying there is plenty of money available to lend, and that banks are just looking for borrowers.
Steve Turkiewicz, president of the Montana Bankers Association, said there are already several government agencies providing access to start-up grants and loans for businesses: "Looking at what the Board of Investments does, 99% of what it does looks like a state bank, or functions like a state bank in terms of providing funds for available for their partners and the private banks in the state of Montana.
On Tuesday, the House Business & Labor committee will hear another bill which also would create a state-run bank; Democrat Kelly McCarthy (Billings) is carrying that bill.
The Montana Department of Transportation says that I-15 northbound is closed at the Gary Cooper Bridge due to a motor vehicle accident.
Emergency personnel are at the scene.
We do not yet know if anyone has been injured.
The Gary Cooper Bridge is located at approximately mile marker 242 between Great Falls and Helena.
We have dispatched a reporter and will update you as we learn more.
(UPDATE, 11:15 am) Two men were injured in a one-vehicle rollover near the Gary Cooper Bridge east of Dearborn on Tuesday morning.
One man was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital, the other was taken by ambulance.
The nature and extent of their injuries is not yet known, but authorities believe that they are not life-threatening.
Both men were wearing seatbelts, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
Initial reports indicate that the vehicle hit a patch of ice, causing the rollover.
Northbound traffic was delayed while emergency crews were on the scene.
Montanans are being warned again about not falling for what is commonly known as the "grandparent scam."
In the grandparent scam, an older person gets a phone call from someone who pretends to be his or her grandchild.
Often the caller is crying, sounds distressed, and may claim to be in a foreign country.
The caller then instructs or even begs the elderly person to wire money as soon as possible and not to tell relatives or friends.
While the entire scenario is fiction (the person's real grandchild is not in trouble), the scammers are very convincing.
Unfortunately, once a trusting grandparent wires money interstate or overseas, it is virtually impossible to trace and recover.
Here are some tips from the Montana Office of Consumer Protection to protect yourself from being scammed:
1. Never give out personal information to someone soliciting it from you over the phone or the internet. Banks will NEVER call and ask for your personal information.
2. Never wire or give money to someone you don't know.
3. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
4. Get a security freeze on your credit (go to ConsumerProtection.mt.gov to access forms)
5. Use common sense, trust your gut, and do your due diligence: ask around, talk to others, call us if you have any doubts or questions.
6. Be skeptical, resist high pressure tactics, take your time.
7. Ignore postcards and advertisements for free products, sweepstakes wins, magazine sales, etc... If you did not enter into the lottery or sweepstakes that is contacting you, you did not win.
8. Register with the Federal Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov)
9. Keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements. Be alert to small charges which may appear insignificant, but will add up over time.
10. Shred any financial documents or other documents which contain personal information (Social Security numbers, birthdates, personal contact information, bank account or credit card information, etc.)
Two men were injured in a one-vehicle rollover near the Gary Cooper Bridge east of Dearborn on Tuesday morning.
One man was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital, the other was taken by ambulance.
The nature and extent of their injuries is not yet known, but authorities believe that they are not life-threatening.
Both men were wearing seatbelts, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
Initial reports indicate that the vehicle hit a patch of ice, causing the rollover.
Northbound traffic was delayed while emergency crews were on the scene.
(First Report, 10:15 am) The Montana Department of Transportation says that I-15 northbound is closed at the Gary Cooper Bridge due to a motor vehicle accident.
Emergency personnel are at the scene.
We do not yet know if anyone has been injured.
The Gary Cooper Bridge is located at approximately mile marker 242 between Great Falls and Helena.
We have dispatched a reporter and will update you as we learn more.
It's a felony for a woman to open her husbands mails...or for an unmarried woman to go fishing alone...at least according to the circulating myths of Montana laws.
With just a quick online search, you can find dozens of strange laws that claim to once be on the books.
Some Montanans have heard variations of their own.
Doug Ray said, "A dog can't ride in the front seat ofa vehicle, but then they turn around and tell you the dog can't ride in the back!"
Mitch Posey said, "It was illegal to ride horses up Central Avenue in Great Falls...something about a conflict with the cars, when they were first coming on to the scene."
Brenda Peterson shared, "I think there was something several years ago, about it was still legal to hit your wife with a stick, or something like that."
According to DumbLaws.com, here is a selection of supposed "dumb laws" in Montana:
- One may not pretend to abuse an animal in the presence of a minor.
- It is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone.
- It is a felony for a wife to open her husband's mail.
- In Montana, it is illegal for married women to go fishing alone on Sundays, and illegal for unmarried women to fish alone at all.
They're entertaining to hear, but could you really be thrown behind bars for committing one of these alleged crimes?
Cascade County Sheriff Bob Edwards says that's not likely; he noted that he would need at least five more jails to house all of the new "criminals" if such laws were found to be valid and enforceable.
FORT BENTON - Casey Carlos, charged with deliberate homicide in the death of 21-year-old Fletcher Courtnage-McKinsey, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Officials said the stabbing happened inside the Pastime Bar on January 19th just before 2 a.m.
During Tuesday's court appearance in Fort Benton, Carlos pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide, assault with a weapon, and tampering with evidence.
Court documents state that a witness claimed that while Courtnage-McKinsey and another man were fighting, Carlos approached Courtnage-McKinsey and struck him on the left side, and that Courtnage-McKinsey immediately began bleeding.
Emergency personnel provided medical care to Courtnage-McKinsey at the bar; he was then taken to Missouri River Medical Center and then transferred to Benefis hospital in Great Falls, where he was pronounced dead.
When questioned by authorities, Carlos reportedly admitted to stabbing Courtnage-McKinsey two to three times.
All eyes are focused on a developing winter storm that will dump heavy snow and ice on the Midwest in the coming days.
Most of the energy and moisture with this system will stay well south of the Treasure State, but the outer edges will brush Big Sky Country with some snow.
For Tuesday night, I expect cloudy skies across the region as upper level moisture streams overhead.
Snow showers will begin developing Wednesday morning and scoot east through Wednesday evening.
*Click on the images above for an hour-by-hour look at snow with our Tru Vu Forecast model*
This will not be a significant snowfall event by any Montana standard, but there will be enough snow to slow travelers.
Wednesday's showers will leave 4-8" of snow in the mountains of Montana.
Computer forecast models are cranking out 2-4" of accumulation at lower elevations and valleys.
Here's what our hi-resolution Tru Vu Forecast model is thinking for snowfall amounts:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Drivers should be prepared for slick and snow-covered roads Wednesday and Wednesday night as this system pushes on by.
Stay with STORMTracker Weather for continuous coverage of Montana's weather.
HELENA - U.S. Representative Steve Daines (R-MT) toured the VA hospital and mental health facility at Fort Harrison on Tuesday.
Daines shook the hands of many veterans, including volunteers, patients and staff.
He says he plans to take back what he has learned from the veterans to Washington in order to support their needs.
Daines said, "It's one thing to be back in Washington hearing about the VA and serving veterans, it's another thing to be right here at the bedside of veterans in Montana, and it was an honor this morning for me to actually sit beside veterans here who are receiving care and understand what's important to them."
Daines heads to Kalispell on Wednesday and will tour the veterans food pantry and the outpatient clinic, and will also make a stop at the state veterans home in Columbia Falls.
Top stories on KXLH for the evening of Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
- Cold Case: Details surrounding the June 1983 disappearance of 4-year old Nyleen Marshall are scarce, and facts are hard to come by. But to this day, law enforcement officials continue to get leads. In fact, the most recent lead came on February 4th. Although most tips aren't promising, investigators are persistent in their search for answers.
- Close Call: Three people are lucky to be alive after nearly being hit by a locomotive on Monday while crossing over a train bridge. Around 1 p.m., the trio was said to be walking their dogs on the Austin Trestle near the Birdseye area when they forced a train to come to a stop. The Sheriff's office was unable to locate the trio; they could face charges of trespassing.
- Daines at VA: U.S. Representative Steve Daines (R-MT) toured the VA hospital and mental health facility at Fort Harrison on Tuesday. Daines shook the hands of many veterans, including volunteers, patients and staff. He says he plans to take back what he has learned from the veterans to Washington in order to support their needs.
- Gay Rights: MT State Senator Christine Kaufmann (D-Helena) says the state's "deviate sexual conduct" laws are antiquated, unconstitutional, and do not reflect Montana values. Currently, it's a crime to engage in homosexual sex in Montana; Senate Bill 107 would strike that language from Montana code. During Tuesday's hearing, no one spoke against the bill, but 10 Senators, all Republicans, voted against it.
- Primaries: MT State Representative Scott Reichner (R-Bigfork) wants to open up Montana's primary elections so that voters don't have to choose a ballot for one party or another. His proposal would allow a voter to cross party lines and vote for whoever they want to in the primary. The bill would then allow the top two vote getters to advance onto the general election. Montana's Secretary of State Linda McCulloch says the bill would deliver a tremendous blow to the value of fair and accessible elections for all candidates and all parties, and that if this were the law during the 2012 election, no third-party candidates would have advanced to the general election.
Three people are lucky to be alive after nearly being hit by a locomotive on Monday while crossing over a train bridge.
Around 1 p.m., the trio was said to be walking their dogs on the Austin Trestle near the Birdseye area when they forced a train to come to a stop.
Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost says the train was a helper train, which only includes four locomotives, making it easier for the engineer to stop the train.
Frost noted, "Had this been a full-length train, when that train came out of the tunnel and saw those people on the trestle, it literally would not have been able to stop before hitting them."
The Sheriff's office was unable to locate the trio; they could face charges of trespassing.
HELENA - MT State Representative Scott Reichner (R-Bigfork) wants to open up Montana's primary elections so that voters don't have to choose a ballot for one party or another.
His proposal would allow a voter to cross party lines and vote for whoever they want to in the primary.
The bill would then allow the top two vote getters to advance onto the general election.
Reichner said, "If you look at Montana, we are a purple state. We are not a red state or a blue state, we're not a two party state. We are a purple state, which means we have a lot of independent minded, thinking citizens. What they want is to be able to vote in an open primary, both sides of the ticket."
Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch says the bill would deliver a tremendous blow to the value of fair and accessible elections for all candidates and all parties, and that if this were the law during the 2012 election, no third-party candidates would have advanced to the general election.
MT State Senator Christine Kaufmann (D-Helena) says the state's "deviate sexual conduct" laws are antiquated, unconstitutional, and do not reflect Montana values.
Currently, it's a crime to engage in homosexual sex in Montana; Senate Bill 107 would strike that language from Montana code.
Kaufmann said of the existing law, "It says I deserve to be in prison for 10 years for making a family with the woman that I love. It holds me in the same regard as people who rape animals. It tells me every day that I am second-class and that I am not wanted in my home.
She added, "I don't know any reason that they are there, other than to continue to remind me and people like me that we are despised."
No one spoke against the bill, but ten Senators, all Republicans, voted against it.
During the 2011 legislative session, a similar bill passed the Senate but never made it out of the House Judiciary committee.
Earlier in the day the committee heard testimony about how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals face discrimination every day.
House Bill 481 adds "sexual orientation and gender identity" into the Montana Human Rights Act, making it illegal to discriminate against anyone for being gay.
Lyle Hamilton, a retired United Methodist minister, said, "We must be free to love whom we love."
Opponents fear this legislation would open up bathrooms to any gender; Dallas Erickson of Montana Citizens for Decency through Law said, "If a business, a government, a youth organization, a school or a church in Montana wants to keep people with penises out of restrooms, showers, and locker rooms reserved for people with vaginas, that would be discrimination."
Right now two Montana cities, Missoula and Helena, already protect the LGBT community from discrimination.
Details surrounding the June 1983 disappearance of 4-year old Nyleen Marshall are scarce, and facts are hard to come by.
But to this day, law enforcement officials continue to get leads.
In fact, the most recent lead came on February 4th. Although most tips aren't promising, investigators are persistent in their search for answers.
It happened on June 25th 1983, when Nyleen was with friends and family at a HAM radio picnic in the Elkhorn Mountains near her hometown of Clancy.
Around 4 p.m., she was playing with other children near a creek.
Jefferson County Sheriff Craig Doolittle said, "The area where she went missing is a creek bottom...there's a swampy area there, mine shafts in the area, what you see was mostly this type of tree, even back then I believe."
The children noticed Nyleen was no longer with the group, and from there, investigators say it's anybody's guess as to what happened.
Doolittle said, "That's the one thing we can say with 100% accuracy...there she was there one minute and gone the next."
Hundreds of volunteers and several law enforcement agencies combed the area, including up and down Warm Spring Road.
Despite exhaustive efforts, no clues were found.
Derek VanLuchene of Ryan United said, "That's concerning, because if you get to a missing child that quickly, usually you'll find some sort of evidence or some sort of trace of something...but really they just found nothing."
VanLuchene continued, "Either she wandered off and succumbed to the elements or a wild animal might have grabbed her, or the worst-case scenario, she could've been abducted."
Her still-active case file is filled with potential scenarios and theories as to what happened that June day.
As with many missing persons cases, Nyleen's family was questioned.
Doolittle said, "From what I've been told, the step-father was, and was throughout the investigation, a person of interest."
Her mother has since died; numerous reports indicate she was murdered in Mexico in the mid 90's.
Other leads state that a man in a jogging suit, not associated with the group, was seen talking to Nyleen shortly before she disappeared.
In 1985, a man claimed to have the little girl; Doolittle said, "There were some leads out of Daine County, Wisconsin, where some letters were sent, I believe they went to the National Center for Missing Children."
Further investigation yielded no evidence, however.
In late 2003, Jefferson County deputies met with national "cold case" and behavioral analysis experts.
Doolittle said, "From that we generated some information that we wanted to go find which means we took some dogs team back up to the site and we got some assistance from the state crime lab on that and an anthropology professor, with no further leads coming from it, but it did lay to rest some issues that came up during the meeting."
BOZEMAN - A second straight Thursday night Gold Rush game, a Texas two-step, and a Cat-Griz home game highlights Montana State's 2013 football schedule as released Tuesday.
The Bobcats open the 2013 regular season with FCS entry Monmouth and close it hosting Montana. In between, MSU travels to Texas for contests at Stephen F. Austin and SMU, face a home non-league game against Colorado Mesa University (formerly Mesa State), and welcome UC Davis and Southern Utah to Bozeman as Big Sky rivals for the first time.
"Playing six home games is very important to our program, and we had such positive feedback from our Thursday night game last year that we wanted to provide our fans that opportunity again," said MSU Athletic Director Peter Fields. "A schedule with six home games and six road games gives us good balance in that regard, and we feel that making two trips to Texas is both a reward for our players from that state and an important step in terms of recruiting in that area."
Also noteworthy is a team missing from the team's upcoming schedule. In an effort to fill its home slate MSU opted out of its contract for a September contest at North Dakota State, a date filled by the SMU game. That tilt guarantees the Bobcats $300,000, which will be used to pay a $100,000 buyout clause to NDSU and a $200,000 guarantee to Monmouth.
"The decision not to play North Dakota State was not easy and was not made lightly," Fields said, "but our responsibility is to the fans and season ticketholders of Montana State, and this decision was made in their best interest. It's unfortunate."
Monmouth enters 2013 as an FCS Independent, transitioning from the Northeast in 2012 to the Big South Conference in 2014. The Hawks and MSU have never previously met, but MSU has history with the other non-Big Sky foe coming to Bozeman. The Bobcats and Colorado Mesa have met three times previously, with the Bobcats winning in 1984 (34-14) and 1992 (43-30), but dropping a 41-10 tilt in 1988.
More than a dozen Bobcats are likely to make visits to their home state next season. The Cats have never faced SMU, presently coached by run-and-shoot guru June Jones, but that can't be said for Stephen F. Austin. Montana State edged the Lumberjacks 43-35 in Bozeman last fall, and stand 4-1 overall against SFA, 1-1 in Nacogdoches.
Montana State's conference campaign ends with its annual showdown against Montana on Nov. 23, and begins with a Sept. 28 contest at North Dakota. The Bobcats face Northern Arizona, UC Davis and Southern Utah at home, with trips to Weber State, Northern Colorado and the Eastern Washington team it shared the Big Sky title with in 2010 and 2012.
2013 MONTANA STATE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
8/29 Monmouth
9/7 at SMU
9/14 Colorado Mesa
9/21 at Stephen F. Austin
9/28 *at North Dakota
10/5 *NAU
10/12 Open
10/19 *at Weber State
10/26 *UC Davis
11/2 *at Northern Colorado
11/9 *at Eastern Washington
11/16 *Southern Utah
11/23 *Montana
Game times TBA
Earlier today, it looked as if Montana would pick up more snow on Wednesday, but tonight, that's all changing.
I've been looking through new forecast model data all evening, and Wednesday's snow chances are looking pretty pitiful.
A surface low moving through the West will be too far south to produce accumulating snow in the Treasure State.
Scattered snow showers will develop Wednesday morning, but I expect little to no accumulation in Helena and surrounding communities.
The National Weather Service issued Winter Weather Advisories Tuesday afternoon, anticipating several inches of snow for the region.
That advisory was canceled shortly after 9pm.
Watch The 10:00 News for the latest forecast from the STORMTracker Weather Team.
Meteorologist Matt Jones will have the latest on the Wednesday snow chances on Montana This Morning, beginning at 5:30am.
