Author: Matt Brown

BILLINGS, Mont. • U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Wednesday he will seek reelection to a fourth term in 2024, a boost to Democrats’ hopes of maintaining a seat in the Republican-leaning state as they try to hang on to their narrow Senate majority. Tester, 66, said he was seeking reelection to continue standing…

CODY, Wyo. • The rush to build wind farms to combat climate change is colliding with preservation of one of the U.S. West’s most spectacular predators — the golden eagle — as the species teeters on the edge of decline. Ground zero in the conflict is Wyoming, a stronghold for golden eagles that soar on…

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK • Throngs of tourists gleefully watched the legendary Old Faithful geyser shoot towering bursts of steaming water while others got stuck in “bison jams” on picturesque valley roads as visitors returned Wednesday for the partial reopening of Yellowstone National Park after destructive floods. Park managers raised the gates at three of Yellowstone’s…

RED LODGE, Mont. • Floodwaters that rushed through Yellowstone National Park and surrounding communities earlier this week moved through Montana’s largest city on Wednesday, flooding farms and ranches and forcing the shutdown of its water treatment plant. The water in the Yellowstone River hit its highest level in nearly a century as it traveled east…

Red Lodge, Mont. • More than 10,000 visitors were ordered out of Yellowstone as unprecedented flooding tore through the northern half of the nation’s oldest national park, washing out bridges and roads and sweeping an employee bunkhouse miles downstream, officials said Tuesday. Remarkably, no one was reported injured or killed. The only visitors left in…

BILLINGS, Mont. • Twenty of Yellowstone National Park’s renowned gray wolves roamed from the park and were shot by hunters in recent months — the most killed by hunting in a single season since the predators were reintroduced to the region more than 25 years ago, according to park officials. Fifteen wolves were shot after…

DENVER • The man known as the “Unabomber” has been transferred to a federal prison medical facility in North Carolina after spending the past two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado for a series of bombings targeting scientists. Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, 79, was moved to the U.S. Bureau of Prison’s FMC Butner medical…

NEW ORLEANS • Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, as the first government lease auction under President Joe Biden laid bare the hurdles he faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep…