Associated Press

The president of an oil processing company whose Eastern Montana plant exploded in 2012 was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

A U.S. appeals court said Wednesday that a federal judge was right to restore protections for about 700 grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region of the Rocky Mountains, after federal officials sought to turn over management of the animals to states that would have allowed them to be hunted.

The ruling means federal wildlife officials will have to do more to justify their proposal to lift protections for bears in portions of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho that include Yellowstone National Park.

A Montana judge issued a ruling Tuesday that blocks the state from enforcing a voter-approved law restricting the collection of absentee ballots during elections.

More than 23,000 businesses and nonprofit organizations in Montana received loans from a federal rescue package meant to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, totaling over $1.7 billion, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

An outside group is running ads trying to influence voters in Montana's U.S. Senate race — a battle between Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock that could be key in determining which party holds the majority in the U.S. Senate.

Tourist spending in and around Yellowstone National Park supported about 7,000 jobs last year, according to a National Park Service report released this week.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the roughly 4 million people who visited the world’s first national park in 2019 spent $507 million dollars in towns within 60 miles of the park. That doesn’t include Bozeman, which is about 80 miles from Yellowstone’s border, but does include the gateway cities of West Yellowstone and Gardiner.