A Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy who refused to remove his hat during the national anthem believed he was doing what President Donald Trump wanted him to do, his attorney said.

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 woman who is suing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after an agent questioned her and a friend for speaking Spanish in a convenience store said Friday the backlash to their lawsuit has forced them to move away from their small Montana city. Ana Suda and her family have been harassed by neighbors, strangers and even schoolchildren in the city of Havre ever since a video of a border agent questioning her and Martha "Mimi" Hernandez was uploaded to YouTube.

A comedian known for smashing fruit and vegetables with giant wooden hammers says he was escorted out of Idaho's Statehouse when he entered the building carrying two of the hammers.

Kanye West has been denied a permit to build an amphitheater on his ranch in Wyoming.

After a prolonged strike and a string of workplace fatalities in South Africa, executives at Sibanye-Stillwater are leaning heavily on its Montana platinum mines to turn things around at one of the world's largest precious metals mining companies. The firm posted a $19 million loss for the first half of 2019, driven largely by a five-month strike at its South Africa gold mines that resulted in $193 million in costs and lost revenue. Twenty-four employees lost their lives last year, drawing scrutiny from industry regulators.

Brad Vanzant uses a wheelchair, has one kidney, and since 2015 has relied on catheters to drain his bladder. He's also an Idaho prison inmate, which means his medical supplies must be approved and provided by the state's private health care contractor, Corizon Health. So when a Corizon doctor told him earlier this month his supply of catheters would be cut in half to just three a day — and said he should wash and re-use the disposable devices in a prison dormitory sink — Vanzant started the days-long grievance process and began rationing his supplies.

A study of grazing in Yellowstone National Park found that bison essentially mow and help fertilize their own grass. This allows allowing them to feed in one area for two to three months during the spring and summer. Researchers say they found that large numbers of bison grazing in one area stimulates the growth of nutritious grasses and keeps the area greener longer.

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.