The Billings Gazette back issues from April 2008:
Doughnut franchise closes today
Apr 01, 2008; ... The "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign is going dark. Krispy Kreme doughnuts on King Avenue West will close today, Las Vegas-based franchise owner Lincoln Spoor said in a press release. The staff was still baking and boxing up doughnuts Monday, but cups and glasses with the Krispy Kreme ...
HKM Engineering finds Alaskan mate
Apr 01, 2008; ... In recent years, corporate America has focused on mergers and acquisitions to build bigger companies in the hope of slicing off a larger piece of the economic pie. The fact is, though only about a third of these big mergers work out, the majority dissolve into disappointing earnings, ...
Stockgrowers sound alarm over buyout
Apr 01, 2008; ... Montana stockgrowers, fearing a monopoly, are balking at a Brazilian company's proposed $1.5 billion cash buyout of two American beef industry giants. Sao Paulo-based JBS Swift would become the largest meatpacker in the United States if allowed to purchase National Beef Packing Co. and ...
PSC looks at plan for $15M increase
Apr 01, 2008; ... HELENA - A proposed $15 million-a-year increase in NorthWestern Energy's electric and gas rates could be viewed as a loan to the company, which will repay it through relatively lower rates in the future, a consumer expert testified Monday. "It reduces costs to ratepayers and at the same ...
Local hotels pony up for tourneys at MetraPark
Apr 01, 2008; ... Local hoteliers are handing out money in the hopes of drawing more high school sports tournaments to Billings. The city's Tourism Business Improvement District board, which decides how to spend a 75-cents-per-night hotel surcharge, agreed to give MetraPark up to $40,000 for sports ...
Governor to Hardin: 'We're with you'
Apr 02, 2008; ... HARDIN - Gov Brian Schweitzer and Two Rivers Detention Center leaders went toe-to-toe Tuesday during a tour of the empty jail. Both sides admitted to frustrations, and Hardin leaders apologized for Schweitzer's concerns that he was being personally attacked. Schweitzer promised ...
Making outdoor life pay
Apr 03, 2008; ... SILVER GATE - just outside his office window, Jay Schifferdecker can see the aqua-marine gash of The Killer Pillar, a 30-foot frozen waterfall he likes to ice climb. Out the back door, there is a Nordic ski trail he glides on almost every day, snaking into the snow-muffled silence of the ...
HAY! PRICES ARE HIGH
Apr 03, 2008; ... This is a fever no one should sneeze at. Hay, the fuel of dairy and beef industries, the staple of horse stables, is selling for a high price that doesn't seem be coming down. Those prices haven't pinched retail consumer pocketbooks yet, but farm and ranch insiders shelling out more for ...
St. Vincent opens new recovery rooms
Apr 04, 2008; ... A few things have changed since the last the St. Vincent Healthcare built recovery rooms for mothers and their new babies Dads, for instance. Fathers used to be far less involved in birth and its aftermath than they are now, and for years the hospital's mother-newborn rooms hardly had ...
Health insurer posts big earnings for '07
Apr 04, 2008; ... HELENA - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, the state's largest health insurer, reported $21.2 million in net income for 2007 - one of its best financial years ever. The increased earnings for Blue Cross came as the Helena-based health insurer increased premiums for customers an ...
NAME IT, CAMELINA CAN DO IT
Apr 05, 2008; ... David Sands is ready for an agricultural revolution. He has a crop so diverse that you can wash your face with it, spread it on bread and eat it, heat your house with it, feed cows with it, turn it into plastic, even fuel your truck with it. The only thing it won't do - this crop that ...
State wants $217K from nonprofit
Apr 05, 2008; ... A Billings nonprofit group that serves people with developmental disabilities has been asked to repay more than $200,000 in government money after accounting discrepancies turned up during a financial review. A state audit of Support and Techniques for Empowering People, or STEP, found ...
DOLLAR DAZE
Apr 06, 2008; ... When native Frenchman Laurent Zirotti and his family returned to France over the Christmas holidays, he and one of his sons sat down at a Paris cafe and ordered a light snack one espresso, a hot chocolate and croissant. "I didn't even eat and I think the bill was 12 euros," said the ...
Horse Happiness
Apr 07, 2008; ... Frosty, sun-washed mornings and warm short-sleeve afternoons are signs of spring, but at Standing Rock Ranch spring starts with the first foal. It's the time of year Deb Julien, ranch manager, loves most and sleeps least. Julien takes her bedroll and favorite book to work with her ...
Season's sunset
Apr 07, 2008; ... RED LODGE - Barry Scott found paradise on Red Lodge Mountain last weekend. The Billings man didn't expect to go skiing Saturday, even though it was the next to last day of the season. Then an early-morning e-mail came saying that his daughter's soccer game in Great Falls was canceled ....
Billings family trades herding cattle for scooping ice cream
Apr 07, 2008; ... Hunting around for a business they could run as a family, Bill and Lisa Weaver stumbled upon a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store for sale in the Billings Heights. It was the perfect fit. The couple now own three Baskin-Robbins stores in Billings and their two teenage children work regular ...
State faces big bill for unlicensed software
Apr 08, 2008; ... HELENA - The state of Montana has agreed to pay a Seattle company $921,000 to buy licenses for the unlicensed use of its software on more than 5,000 personal computers in various departments. In January, Attachmate demanded that the state pay about $1.5 million after an independent audit ...
Industrial properties to be tested
Apr 08, 2008; ... Two Environmental Protection Agency grants totaling $400,000 will allow a largely industrial area between downtown and MetraPark to be tested for the presence of hazardous chemicals. The EPA announced Monday that the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, Yellowstone County's economic ...
Nurses at St. V's trying to unionize
Apr 09, 2008; ... Registered nurses at St. Vincent Healthcare who are trying to join a collective bargaining unit are in for a knockdown, drag-out fight with their employer, a union official said. Citing concerns about patient safety and working conditions, 180 St. Vincent nurses have signed a petition ...
St. V's, twins' family settle for undisclosed sum
Apr 09, 2008; ... Less than two days into a three-week trial, a settlement was reached Tuesday in the lawsuit against St Vincent Healthcare filed by a Billings family whose daughter suffered serious medical problems during birth. The settlement was announced to the jury at 2:40 p.m. by District Judge ...
Outdoor groups line up behind mining reform
Apr 09, 2008; ... Hunting and angling groups, including 30 from Montana and four from Wyoming, are adding their voices to a growing chorus calling for reform of the 1872 Mining Law. Irv Wilke, president of the Billings Rod and Gun Club, said his group signed on to support reform of the mining law after it ...
Lax STEP accounting detailed
Apr 08, 2008; ... An audit of a Billings nonprofit that assists people with developmental disabilities found several problems in the program's accounting, including a lack of independent inputting and verification of expenditures, lax paperwork and an antiquated system for tracking financial ...
Stressed food banks hope Farm Bill provides relief
Apr 10, 2008; ... Lower-income Montana families are struggling to feed themselves in light of rising grocery costs and decreases in the real value of food stamps, a state health official said Tuesday. "There really is sort of a new anxiety among lower-income families about affording food," said Hank ...
Wind farm pitches capacity expansion to NWE
Apr 11, 2008; ... HELENA - The owner of Montana's largest operating wind farm, near Judith Gap, has proposed adding 35 turbines, which would increase its production capacity nearly 40 percent, officials at NorthWestern Energy confirmed. Invenergy, based in Chicago, has pitched the expansion to ...
Council approves series of water rate hikes
Apr 15, 2008; ... Lush lawns will bring higher water bills this summer after the City Council raised the price of water Monday night. The council voted 8-3 to increase water and wastewater rates beginning in July. The rates would also increase each year until 2012. Wastewater rates will increase ...
Student loan bond failures total $1.65B
Apr 12, 2008; ... HELENA - Nearly $400 million worth of auction bonds failed the past two weeks for auction bonds previously issued by the Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corp. to finance student loans. The failed auction bonds totaled $3893 million - including $311.8 million in tax-exempt ...
Licenses slow to come by
Apr 12, 2008; ... The competition was intense last August when the state of Montana staged a drawing for 22 special beer and wine licenses in Billings. Because there were 50 applicants for the so-called "cabaret" licenses, many of the people who attended the lottery in the Yellowstone Room at MetraPark ...
Cafe owner: 'I'm holding my breath' until license arrives
Apr 12, 2008; ... Cafe owner Marcy Tatarka is learning to trust her skeptical instincts - at least as they apply to the state's complicated, confusing liquor licensing laws. Last August, when the state was preparing to distribute 22 new "cabaret" beer and wine licenses in Billings, Tatarka was told her ...
Rezone proposed near future Cabela's store
Apr 12, 2008; ... A church and a homeowner on the city's South Side are seeking zone changes that would allow retail development across from the future home of Cabela's. The properties sit across King Avenue East from the Billings Town Square development. The request comes as the city plans to widen King ...
Nurse says colleagues at St. V's want voice
Apr 12, 2008; ... Joining a union will give registered nurses at St. Vincent Healthcare an equal place at the table with administrators who have repeatedly ignored their concerns about safety for workers and patients inside the hospital. That's according to an RN who works at St. Vincent and supports a ...
State wind firms, NWE await ruling from PSC
Apr 15, 2008; ... HELENA - Developers of small wind power projects in Montana have their eyes on the Public Service Commission this week, as it may decide a crucial price issue affecting their ability to succeed. NorthWestern Energy, the state's dominant electric utility and the primary purchaser of wind ...
PSC agreeable to charge on wind
Apr 16, 2008; ... HELENA - State utility regulators indicated Tuesday that they'll support charging small wind power projects in Montana for the cost of adding their power to NorthWestern Energy's electric system, which serves 320,000 Montanans. But the state Public Service Commission, which regulates ...
Developer sues city over access to subdivision
Apr 18, 2008; ... A dispute over road access has spawned a new lawsuit against the city of Billings. Developer Shane Gundlach, who until 2004 was involved in the upscale Ironwood Estates development on the West End, filed suit against the city last week. Gundlach is trying to sell or develop the Tuscany ...
Appraisals to reflect declines
Apr 19, 2008; ... HELENA - If your home's value drops because of the national housing market turmoil, the state Revenue Department wants its new property reappraisal to reflect that reduction, Director Dan Bucks told a legislative panel Thursday. Bucks outlined what he called some unprecedented steps the ...
Housing board chief has lived reason for her mission
Apr 19, 2008; ... In 1983, when Linda Henry moved to Billings from Denver, she was accompanied by her then-husband and their two young children. They had driven through the night, so their kids could sleep, and they were tired. But clerks at the first three motels they tried told her husband there were no ...
NWE turns down option for more wind power
Apr 19, 2008; ... HELENA - NorthWestern Energy has declined an offer to buy additional power from the Judith Gap wind farm, whose operators have proposed expanding the 135-megawatt project. "We don't think it's in the best interests of our electricity supply portfolio to acquire that (expanded) project at ...
Income tax revenues increase
Apr 19, 2008; ... HELENA - Montana individual income tax collections through March 31 are running nearly $46 million ahead of where they were a year ago, while corporate income tax receipts are lagging by $22 million, the Legislature's chief revenue forecaster said Friday. Individual income tax receipts ...
Eagle Mount tops fundraising
Apr 23, 2008; ... A streak of great timing gave Eagle Mount the winning edge in the Oprah's Big Give Billings fundraising drive as the non-profit raised $66,953. The win brought Eagle Mount an extra $5,000 from Oprah's Big Give at a presentation at Rimrock Mall and boosted the group's total to nearly ...
PSC compromises on wind fee
Apr 23, 2008; ... HELENA - State utility regulators Tuesday settled a dispute that could affect the future of small wind power projects in Montana, setting a charge that one project must pay when selling its electricity to the state's largest utility. On a 4-1 vote, the Public Service Commission voted to ...
EPA drafts air pollution plana
Apr 23, 2008; ... The Environmental Protection Agency this week issued a plan for keeping air quality in the Billings and Laurel area within federal health limits for sulfur dioxide pollution. The plan, known as a federal implementation plan, supplements portions of a state plan that the EPA rejected in ...
Wildlife groups take on energy issues
Apr 17, 2008; ... Backed by a 10-point Sportsmen's Bill of Rights, hunters and anglers are uniting to lobby for responsible energy development in the West. "Everyone is looking for a way forward in the debate about how we continue to drill for oil and gas and protect wildlife at the same time," Mike ...
Montana student loan group seeks federal backup provision
Apr 17, 2008; ... HELENA - The Student Assistance Foundation of Montana has urged Congress to pass an amendment to address a growing problem of availability of student loans nationally because of the current national liquidity and credit crisis in the industry. In a resolution adopted April 9, the SAF ...
THE GOAT MILK CURE
Apr 21, 2008; ... LAUREL - Around the Bare place, there are kids and then there are children. And Roger Bare, 77, likes to talk about both. Bare, a self-professed goat farmer, enjoys pointing out the characters in the menagerie out back of his house. For roughly the past four decades, he has lived half a ...
Woman embarks on business of saving lives
Apr 21, 2008; ... Lucy Kramer has one of those businesses most people don't even know exists until they need it. More and more workers, like bus drivers, day care workers, hunting and fishing guides and construction workers, are being required to learn first aid. Most of those workers have deadlines to ...
Revamp planned at Little bighorn visitor center
Apr 25, 2008; ... The National Park Service plans to go ahead with construction of a new all-weather multipurpose room at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument visitor center. A final design for the renovation is expected to be complete by June and construction could begin next fall or in early ...
FEASTING ON BISON
Apr 25, 2008; ... The slaughter this winter of almost one-third of Yellowstone National Park's wild bison has benefited tribes and food banks across Montana and other states, which have received an estimated 600,000 pounds of meat. "Meat is the holy grail of food banks," said James Dodge, food resource ...
Cabela's to resume for 2009 opening
Apr 25, 2008; ... After suspending construction of its Billings store three months ago, Cabela's Retail Inc. is back on track to complete what will be its first sporting-goods store in Montana. According to Linda Beck at the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, a Foursquare Properties official said ...
Student loan organization lays off 23
Apr 25, 2008; ... HELENA - With the national student loan industry in financial turmoil, the Helena-based Student Assistance Foundation on Thursday issued layoff notices to 23 employees as part of a more aggressive cost-reduction this week. SAF services federal loans for Montana students and some in other ...
SME chief: Ruling won't delay plant
Apr 24, 2008; ... HELENA - The developer a proposed 250-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Great Falls said Monday's landmark ruling on its emissions should not delay the scheduled start of construction this year. Tim Gregori of Southern Montana Electric Cooperative said a state board's ruling requiring ...
Hospitals sport slimmer waste
Apr 22, 2008; ... Everything else is going green. Why not health care? Hospitals create literally tons of waste including some that's hazardous, but efforts are ramping up in Billings and elsewhere to keep it out of landfills. At St. Vincent Healthcare alone, more than 2 tons of waste - from ...
Scooter shop gets visible location
Apr 20, 2008; ... Not every move is a big one. Sheila Green, manager of Scooters America, decided to relocate her store from South 20th Street West a few blocks away to the King Avenue Plaza at 1911 King Avenue West. She hopes the new, more prominent location will help boost the profile of the ...
Hospital expands goal for cancer care
Apr 20, 2008; ... Mike Harley got a haircut before he spoke at a gathering at Billings Clinic on Saturday. Harley wanted to look good for the event, which announced that Billings Clinic has increased by $2 million the goal of its capital campaign and will open an inpatient oncology unit. More ...
Barbecue economics
Apr 20, 2008; ... Cold spring weather is stealing steak's sizzle. Wet, chilly weather across the United States has kept the lid on backyard grilling, stifling what analysts say is a traditional barbecue bump for the beef economy. "This time of year, usually, is just a good beef demand period ...
Burning up profit
Apr 20, 2008; ... Standing at the pump watching their bank accounts drain into their fuel tanks at an alarming rate, motorists could feel lucky they're not Frank Molodecki. Molodecki, whose best vehicle gets about 6.5 miles per gallon, is not buying $3.43-a-gallon gasoline. He's buying $4-a-gallon diesel ...
Fertilizer prices turn up heat on farmers
Apr 26, 2008; ... The fields of winter wheat are greening up and the trees are beginning to bud, but the fastest thing growing this spring at Bret and Denise Conover's Broadview farm is the couple's headache over the cost of fertilizer. The price of plant food has more than doubled since last year ....
Vice president to leave Rocky
Apr 30, 2008; ... Janine Pease will resign at the end of June as Rocky Mountain College's vice president for planning and American Indian affairs and move to an administrative position with Fort Peck Community College in Poplar. Pease will become vice president for academic affairs at the two-year tribal ...
PSC may try to block sale of NWE interest
Apr 30, 2008; ... HELENA - Public Service Commission Chairman Greg Jergeson wants the regulatory board next week to consider going to court to block any attempts by NorthWestern Energy to sell its unregulated interest in the Colstrip 4 power plant. In response, NorthWestern said in a press release that it ...
Regents want groups audited
Apr 30, 2008; ... HELENA - The Montana Board of Regents voted 5-2 on Tuesday to seek a legislative performance audit of the two financially struggling Montana student-loan-related entities, the Student Assistance Foundation and Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corp. Regent Todd Buchanan of ...
Board erred in closing Bair museum, high court rules
Apr 30, 2008; ... The Board of Advisers for the Charles M. Bair Family Trust breached its duty when it closed the Bair family museum at Martinsdale six years ago, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. At the conclusion of a 50-page opinion, the justices ordered the Bair Trust's trustee to replace the ...
Photographer remodels former art gallery near zoo
Apr 27, 2008; ... Gregory Miller is a master of light, cameras and faux painting. As Miller prepares for the upcoming season of senior graduate portrait sessions, he's also remodeling the former Canyon Creek art gallery, south of ZooMontana on Shiloh Road. The 1,100-square-foot building, which most ...
Airline reservations: Merger talks in airline industry has Billings travelers fearing higher fares
Apr 27, 2008; ... While checking recently on flight reservations for an upcoming wedding in Phoenix, Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom said that flying for work and pleasure will be more difficult if regulators allow the merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines. "I think the fares will go ...
Airline reservations: Frill is gone from your basic flight
Apr 27, 2008; ... The days when you could count on a hot in-flight meal and a complimentary beverage on domestic flights ended three years ago. The frills are dwindling elsewhere, too. "We had no pillows on our last flight No magazines. No meals, and you have to pay for everything," said Kaycee ...