Big Sky Country

The first order of business when freeing a dog caught in a trap, Anja Heister said, is to put a stick in its mouth.Skip to next paragraphEnlarge This ImageAnne Sherwood for The New York TimesAnja Heister is the leader of Footloose.“No matter how much it loves you, it may try to bite,” Ms. Heister explained to a group gathered at a coffee shop here last week.The demonstration was one of several across Montana being conducted by Footloose Montana, a nonprofit organization led by Ms. Heister. The group is teaching people how to free pets inadvertently caught in traps set legally for wild fur-bearing...

The Montana Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday the board of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum in Martinsdale, Mont., saying it breached its fiduciary duties by closing the museum in 2002.The court said the board had not spent enough money to give a good start to the museum — home to an eclectic collection of fine European antiques, valuable art works and priceless Indian artifacts. It ordered U.S. Bank, the trustee, to create a new board that has to meet within six months.

Former President Clinton is planning to speak at a Yellowstone County Democratic fundraiser in Billings on May 10.Kate Downen, communications director for Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign in Montana, says Bill Clinton is scheduled to attend the Truman Day Dinner, which is being held at Alterowitz Gymnasium at Montana State-Billings.No other details of the visit were immediately announced. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is scheduled to speak at the same dinner on behalf of Barack Obama's candidacy for president.

Twelve environmental and animal rights groups sued the federal government in Federal District Court in Missoula, seeking to restore endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service removed the region’s 1,500 wolves from the endangered list in March, turning over management to state officials in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. The lawsuit says those states cannot ensure that the wolves are not again eradicated.

The blushless bride wears a hooded sweatshirt of red, offset by a bored expression that says she’s done this dozens of times before. The distracted groom wears a sweatshirt-and-cap ensemble of matching olive, offset by his — not their — infant daughter, now fidgeting toward sleep just outside the cramped room where holy vows are about to be exchanged.The judge, wearing a white outdoor vest, takes her usual seat and exchanges nice-to-see-you-again pleasantries with the young couple, whom she hasn’t seen since the last time she married them, a week ago.The three principals get down to the business...

Silver Bow Creek, contaminated for more than a century by tailings and other mine waste, appears to be responding to environmental cleanup. Recently, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks' employees found populations of live trout in the creek, once considered a dead stream. The inventory revealed a larger presence of trout - including westslope cutthroat - than has been in Silver Bow Creek for about 120 years, Joel Chavez, who is managing the creek restoration project for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. "We have a long way to go before we have a viable trout population,...

Here comes September and, with it (hopefully) season ending events, the cooler temperatures and rains we need to finally snuff out the wildfires of a long, hot and smoky summer. A preview may come tonight for parts of Western Montana with an approaching front and a good chance of thunderstorms.What%u2019s still burning? Here%u2019s a roundup....Western Montana Fires * Northeast of Missoula, the 35,386-acre Jocko Lakes fire west of Seeley Lake is now 57 percent contained.

Low unemployment and rapid wage growth show that Montana%u2019s economy is humming as well as any in the nation, state officials said Wednesday. Delivering the state%u2019s 14th annual Labor Day Report, Keith Kelly, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, noted that in March Montana%u2019s unemployment rate fell to 2.0 percent, the lowest in the country. It%u2019s since risen to 2.7 percent, still well below the national average of 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, the state%u2019s wages grew an average of 5 percent last year, a growth rate good for 11th in the U.S. And those wages went...

State police have a new weapon against drinking and driving in Montana - a big, black DUI wagon. The Montana Highway Patrol just took delivery of the so-called Mobile Impaired Driving Assessment Center late last month and hopes to start using it by the middle of summer. The vehicle has its own testing station, an Intoxilyzer 8000, refrigeration for storing blood evidence, computers for running background checks and other conveniences normally only found at a police station. Year after year, Montana ranks at or near the top for alcohol-related traffic deaths. Police have been looking for ways...

Montana's highways are the deadliest. Forty-two percent of West Virginia's roads are too narrow. Some of the worst traffic is in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina. A study released Thursday found that traffic congestion and highway fatalities have increased slightly even as road conditions have improved in recent years. The findings are based on data from 1984 through 2005. North Dakota and South Carolina roads rated highest in the overall rankings; New Jersey's were the lowest.

The image of a teenage boy beating up his own mother so he can steal money from her purse will not quickly fade from memory. Nor will the scene in which a young woman has sex in exchange for drugs -- which her boyfriend collects -- while she says, in a voiceover: %u201CI love my boyfriend. We%u2019ve been together since like eighth grade. He%u2019s my best friend. He takes care of me.%u201D The Montana Meth Project isn%u2019t aiming for subtle in the third wave of a TV, radio and print campaign designed to keep teens from even trying methamphetamines