Government News For Montana: 8/23/15

Friday, August 28, 2015

Montana Still On Fire

Missoulian: Bad air, high risk prompt new fire warnings for Missoula, Hamilton

Weather Story
“A strong cold front will move through the region this weekend, bringing scattered showers and thunderstorms to western Montana and central Idaho. The bigger story will probably be gusty southwest winds of 25 – 35 mph. This could help with thinning out the wildfire smoke from some areas, though could also help area fires to remain active. Sunday, will see below normal temperatures across the region.”

Fire Weather
“FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH

SATURDAY EVENING FOR GUSTY WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITY ACROSS THE

FLATHEAD/GLACIER PARK...SALISH AND KOOTENAI RESERVATION...EAST

LOLO...BITTERROOT...DEERLODGE/WEST BEAVERHEAD...EAST BEAVERHEAD...“

Missoulian: Fires prompt evacuations in Essex, Fish Creek area

Montana InciWeb

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Child Abuse/ Sage Grouse/ Bear Creek Fire/ Smurfit Cleanup

Missoulian: Feds warns Montana it faces cutoff of abuse program funding
Montana Code Annotated 41-3-205
HB 309: Create child abuse and neglect review commission

Missoulian: Ag secretary promises more sage grouse spending across West
USDA Unveils New Strategy to Conserve Sage Grouse Habitat on Private Lands

Missoulian: Region's 'other' wildfire - Montana's largest - has own drama playing out

Bear Creek Fire
“The Bear Creek Fire started on August 12, 2015 from a series of lightning storms that passed through the area. On Thursday, August 20th strong winds, high temperatures, and low relative humidity caused the Bear Fire to drastically increase in size from 465 acres to over 17,000 acres in less than 4 hours. With daily smoke inversions, fire behavior has moderated and the fire has seen minimal increase in acreage.”

Missoulian: County pushes EPA for Smurfit site cleanup; owner calls actions 'counterproductive'
Smurfit-Stone Mill
“EPA conducted a Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection at the Smurfit-Stone Mill site in 2011 and 2012 that identified environmental contamination at the site. As a result of this limited investigation, EPA is pursuing a thorough environmental investigation of the site, known as a Remedial Investigation, to determine the nature and extent of contamination.”

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Smoke/ Fires/ Law of War Manual

Missoulian: Montana fires small compared to other states, but smoke grounding some aircraft
Weather Story
“This smoke is expected to persist through at least the end of this week. Thus, an Air Quality Alert is in effect for all of North-Central and Southwest MT until further notice.”

Montana Air Today

Missoulian: Montana fires small compared to other states, but smoke grounding some aircraft
Montana InciWeb

Missoulian: DoD manual allows journalists to be held as 'belligerents'
Law of War Manual (section on journalists starts on page 173)
“In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents…..

4.24.5 Security Precautions and Journalists. States may need to censor journalists’ work or take other security measures so that journalists do not reveal sensitive information to the enemy. Under the law of war, there is no special right for journalists to enter a State’s territory without its consent or to access areas of military operations without the consent of the State conducting those operations.”