A visit from friend and fellow former president, Bill Clinton, inspired him to wear a pair emblazoned with Clinton's face. He wore Houston Texans' socks when meeting with the head coach. At the funeral for his wife, Barbara Bush, former President George H.W. Bush wore socks featuring books as a tribute to her work promoting literacy. Bush, who was a naval aviator in World War II, will be buried this week wearing socks featuring jets flying in formation — a tribute, his spokesman says, to the former president's lifetime of service.

Both candidates in Montana's Senate race have outside backers, resulting in a contest that is on pace to be the most expensive in Montana history.

A genealogy database used to match a family's DNA with evidence found at a 1973 crime scene has led investigators to identify the long-dead suspect in the strangulation killing of a young married couple, a Montana sheriff said Monday. Linda and Clifford Bernhardt, both 24, were killed at their Billings-area home in a case that would stymie investigators for decades. Investigators now believe they were killed by Cecil Stan Caldwell, a longtime city of Billings employee who was once a co-worker of Linda Bernhardt, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said. He did not identify a motive in the killing.

U.S. officials have again been faulted by a federal judge for failing to adequately consider the potential climate change effects of expanding a massive coal mine in the sagebrush-covered hills of southeastern Montana. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan recommended in a Monday ruling that the Interior Department be given 240 days to re-analyze the expansion.

A World War II soldier from Montana who died on an island in the Pacific Ocean 75 years ago has been buried in his home state after his remains were identified last year. A memorial and funeral with full military honors was held Saturday in Bozeman for Army Pvt. William A. Boegli, who was raised in Sedan, Montana.

.A mother bear charged a hunter near Yellowstone National Park, sinking her teeth into his arm and clawing his eye. The hunter will likely be discharged from the hospital Tuesday.

Idaho's governor now has sweeping authority to eliminate thousands of state-approved rules without public participation or lawmaker oversight. That's because the state Legislature, which is controlled by Gov. Brad Little's fellow Republicans, failed to pass a bill approving 8,200 pages containing 736 chapters of rules and regulations that touch on just about every aspect of daily life in Idaho. The measure died when the legislative session concluded last week amid open acrimony between the chambers.

President Donald Trump won Montana by 20 points, but will other Republicans in the state see that much success? A lot of that depends on whether the women who voted for him stick with their decision.

A pilot who was trying to crash-land this week in an Idaho field instead brought his small plane to rest at the top of a 60-foot tree, officials said. Pilot John Gregory was not hurt in the Monday night crash, which happened when his single-engine Piper Cub PA-18 lost power and a wing strut became entangled in the tree.

Federal officials at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, are bolstering mental health resources for wildland firefighters following an apparent increase in suicides in recent years. "It's not a profession where people want to reach out for help because they are the help," said Jessica Gardetto, a fire center spokeswoman and former wildland firefighter. "The federal agencies have realized, whether it's suicidal tendencies or just overall mental health, it's a resource that needs to be available."