Montana News Roundup: Has Missoula Found Solution for This Spot?

Is Missoula's long-running drama over a key piece of waterfront property about to come to an end? That's the question with city leaders announcing a press conference Thursday morning to discuss a "transformative project" for the Riverfront Triangle.

That's a parcel that's seen many ideas over the years, from a performing arts center, to a hotel and commercial development.

The last idea, to have a $100 million hotel with room for a music venue, was pitched by promoter Nick Checota, but was shelved when the concert business tanked during the pandemic.

     -The site, right along the Clark Fork River, has been vacant, except for a parking lot, since the Fox Theater was demolished in 1990.

Don't eat these Montana fish

Tribal fishermen are being warned to steer clear of eating fish from the Lower Clark Fork River, after the latest tests come back showing dangerous levels of toxins.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes issued the advisory this week, saying fishermen should avoid eating all species and sizes of fish from the Lower Clark Fork River after recent tests confirm the presences of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and furans in levels high enough to be a serious health risk. That also includes rainbow trout, and northern pike from the Lower Bitterroot, and upstream on the Clark Fork to Rock Creek.

The tribe says issued similar warnings before, raising questions from lingering industrial pollution, especially the closed Smurfit-Stone mill west of Missoula. But this time the advisory will remain "indefinitely."

RELATED: FWP Warns of Toxic Fish

Montana tribes fight for same day voting

The President of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, Gene Small, says Montana's Indian voters aren't asking for "special treatment", but they do want "equal treatment" when it comes to provisions allowing same day voters registration.

The ACLU of Montana, and other groups, are asking to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 490, signed into law last month. It aims to curb some of the recent trends to voter registration on Election Day, eliminating eight hours that voting advocates say are critical to voting for some populations.

Small that's a real burden for tribal members who live "miles and miles" from a polling place, often snowed-in. He says losing those hours creates "real life problems" and is "anti-democratic."

     -It's the third time in six years the voting schedule has ended up in court.

Montana unemployment rate one of 5 lowest in U.S.

Montana's jobless rate remains at near record lows, reflecting the trends we saw in the latest federal numbers a couple of weeks ago.

Governor Gianforte announced the state's jobless rate was just 2.8% in May, placing us among the top five states in the country for low unemployment. The national average in May was 4.2%.

Great Falls woman headed to prison for killing a baby

Great Falls woman is going to prison for at least 30-years, and probably longer after her sentencing for the violent abusive killing of her infant son.

The Electric reports Whisper Hawkbear was given a 100-year sentence during a court hearing yesterday, with no eligibility for parole for 3-decades.

Hawkbear was arrested for the death of the 2-month old boy in April 2023. Prosecutors had said she threw the child into a wall, and also assaulted a 16-month old girl, hitting her with a playpen, throwing her against a wall and into a mirror. She pled guilty this spring.

Billings doc in trouble for underage prostitute

A Billings doctor faces up to five years in prison, and a quarter-of-a-million dollar fine after pleading guilty to a federal prostitution charge.

The U-S Attorney's Office says 52-year old Usman Hanif Khan tried to arrange a hookup with an underage minor through a woman he had met on social media, facing federal charges because a cell phone and text messages were used in the exchange.

     -The case was another pursued by Project Safe Childhood.