Free Republic

Lawyers for media mogul Ted Turner persuaded a district judge to issue a restraining order blocking Gallatin County from paving a five-mile stretch of road that runs through Turner's sprawling Flying D Ranch south of here. Attorneys for Turner Enterprises Inc. obtained the order from District Judge John Brown. It bars the county from paving a segment of Spanish Creek Road. Commissioners said the county has been planning to pave the road for years. To save money, the county was planning to use millings - essentially ground-up rubble from other road projects - provided by the Montana Department of Transportation...

08.13.2006, 11:31 PM The last two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up at their college program were apprehended Sunday in Richmond, Va., customs officials said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20, and Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17, at an apartment building in Richmond on Sunday night. Virginia State Police and the Richmond Police helped locate the students.

A vandal or vandals spray-painted words from "The Da Vinci Code" on the front doors of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church on Main Street late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.A groundskeeper at the church discovered the graffiti around 11 a.m. Wednesday and was visibly disheartened.A funeral was scheduled to take place at the church in the afternoon.The message sprayed in black paint read, "So DARK the con of man." That same message is a clue in the plot of "The Da Vinci Code," the best-selling novel by Dan Brown that has been made into a movie.The grafitti also included...

Cattle ranchers in the Paradise Valley say shipping weights have declined since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995. They say their cattle stay close to gates instead of grazing entire pastures. Wary animals tend to eat less than relaxed animals.

White supremacist groups don't target communities at random, says Norm Gissel, a Coeur d'Alene attorney who has battled neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups. They come to a particular community because they see something that indicates they might be welcomed there. Gissel said he has no idea why Kevin McGuire, a National Alliance member, chose Bozeman. But he's convinced McGuire is not here by accident. Joe Roy, who works for the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center and tracks hate-group activity, said such activity sometimes springs up just because someone already living in a community starts believing in...

HELENA -- Opponents of a proposal to issue death certificates for abortions accused Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, on Thursday of wanting to psychologically harm women. "It is meant to create suffering and trauma, and maybe that is what (Koopman) believes women who get abortions deserve," said Kate Cholwea of NARAL, a pro-choice group. Koopman is sponsoring House Bill 617, which would require death certificates for any fetus that is aborted before it is 20 weeks old. A hearing on the bill was held Thursday, which drew a small but emotionally charged crowd. "It certainly is a life in a mother's...

Girls For A Change, a group of Bozeman High School girls, have been busy creating an educational and inspirational one-day conference for high school-age girls and actress/activist Jane Fonda has agreed to be the keynote speaker. The conference will be held Saturday, Feb. 12, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Montana State University Strand Union Building. "Opening Doors" is designed to help girls build a future in which they are economically self-sufficient and successful in all aspects of their lives -- personal, academic, and professional lives. The planning committee's invitation to Fonda to be the keynote speaker "elicited...

Lane Miller not only survived a tractor-trailer crash Monday afternoon, but also the wrath of 9 million infuriated honey bees. Miller was hauling a load of 512 bee hives from Idaho to North Dakota on a flatbed trailer Monday afternoon. He lost control of the rig on a curve in Bear Trap Canyon on Norris Road, overturned and slid across the road before coming to a stop between the guardrails. His arm had been scraped to the bone against the pavement, but Miller was able to free himself from the seatbelt, he said Tuesday. But his troubles were far from...