The Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) articles from October 2005

The Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) archives from October 2005

Billings, Mont., businessmen close to opening new Beartooth Bank.
October 1, 2005... Byline: Jan Falstad Oct. 1--Think Billings has too many banks? Twenty local businessmen don't think so, and they're close to opening Beartooth Bank, which they say is the first true community bank in Billings in more three decades. ...

Tires pile up at Billings, Mont., landfill.
October 4, 2005... Byline: Linda Halstead-Acharya Oct. 4--Just about any morning at the Billings landfill, tires can be seen poking through the six inches of dirt dumped on the garbage the night before. "It's like they're growing," said Barb Butler,...

What's left behind and what to do with scrap tires?
October 4, 2005... Byline: Linda Halstead-Acharya Oct. 4--A putrid black cloud boiled into the night sky a few miles east of Columbus Sept. 17, as a suspected arson fire melted and vaporized tens of thousands of scrap tires. Not all the burning tires,...

Resignation surprises some on campus.
October 11, 2005... Byline: Lance Benzel Oct. 11--News of Rocky Mountain College President Thomas Oates's resignation was a surprise to some people on campus Monday night. "It's kind of a shock," said freshman biology major Josie Evans, 19, upon being...

Rocky Mountain College president resigns.
October 11, 2005... Byline: Mary Pickett Oct. 11--Rocky Mountain College President Thomas Oates said Monday evening that he is resigning immediately from his job. The announcement came during a press conference with Oates and John Jones, a Billings...

Consumers flood bankruptcy offices in anticipation of new law.
October 16, 2005... Byline: Jan Falstad Oct. 16--People and companies trying to dismiss their debts and grab a fresh financial start have been flooding U.S. bankruptcy offices, including Montana's in Butte, trying to beat a tough new law that takes effect...

Credit counseling agencies expect rush as bankruptcy law takes effect.
October 16, 2005... Byline: Jan Falstad Oct. 16--Credit counseling agencies are bracing for their own land rush now that the U.S. Bankruptcy laws are changing Monday to more strict and complex rules. Consumers cannot file for bankruptcy now without first...

Billings, Mont., hospitals ban smoking.
October 16, 2005... Byline: Diane Cochran Oct. 16--Since her father's heart attack two weeks ago, Kathy Wilson has relied on nicotine to get her through each day. Wilson, of Williston, N.D., regularly escapes into a small courtyard outside her father's...

College of Tech gets $2 millions grant.
October 20, 2005... Byline: Mary Pickett Oct. 20--Thanks to a nearly $2 million U.S. Department of Labor grant to Montana State University-Billings College of Technology, more carpenters, welders, heavy-equipment operators and other urgently needed...

Billings, Mont., storm debris sent to landfill.
October 20, 2005... Byline: Lance Benzel Oct. 20--Two weeks after a record-breaking snowstorm swept through Billings, city Solid Waste Superintendent Ken Behling is still dealing with the storm's aftermath. Since Oct. 7, the city/county landfill has...

KEMC's chief suspended during probe.
October 20, 2005... Byline: Ed Kemmick Oct. 20--Marvin Granger, longtime general manager of radio station KEMC and the voice of public radio in much of Eastern Montana and northern Wyoming, has been suspended with pay by Montana State University-Billings...

Investor's new drying process could boost the value of Powder River coal.
October 23, 2005... Byline: Jan Falstad Oct. 23--Don Dunlop, a chemical engineer with a doctorate and 50 years' experience, believes he has solved the problem of removing water from coal while keeping the fuel from spontaneously catching fire. There is so...

STB vice chair hears captive shipper complaints.
October 27, 2005... Byline: Jim Gransbery Oct. 27--The vice chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board is in Montana this week for listening sessions with Montana's railroad captive shippers. Wednesday afternoon, W. Douglas Buttrey got an earful....

Ground-breaking Good Neighbor Agreement marks five years of give and take.
October 31, 2005... Byline: Linda Halstead-Acharya Oct. 31--Nye rancher Noel Keogh was worried about his kids and his cattle. Living two miles downstream from the Stillwater Mine, he watched hundreds of miners rushing past on the highway and feared for...