Regional Briefs

Whitefish woman

arrested for assault

KALISPELL — A man is hospitalized and his wife is jailed after a stabbing at a Whitefish residence.

Police Chief Bill Dial says officers received a report of a man being stabbed at about 6 p.m. Monday. Officers found 37-year-old Chad Newton on the floor with a stab wound to the left side of his chest.

He underwent emergency surgery at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and was then placed in the intensive care unit.

Dial says 39-year-old AnnMari Helt Newton was arrested and booked into the Flathead County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault.

Initial reports indicate the stabbing began as a domestic dispute.

Dial says the couple’s two children were home at the time, but were not injured.

‘Dark money’ group

slapped with a fine

HELENA — A Montana judge is hitting an elusive political group with a $260,000 fine for failing to disclose campaign spending.

The civil penalty levied against American Tradition Partnership demonstrates that new campaign freedoms extended to corporations don’t make them immune to state disclosure laws.

District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock said in a Tuesday opinion that the group has shown “complete disregard” for the laws of Montana, its courts and the “tradition of free and open elections.”

The group did not return a call seeking comment.

The case dates back to attack ads the group mailed in 2008 denouncing candidates. It did not report the spending as political activity to the state commissioner of political practices.

MSU player arrested

after a bar brawl

BOZEMAN  — A Montana State University football player was arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct after a fight outside a bar in downtown Bozeman in which police say he punched a man who hit his girlfriend.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports wide receiver Jonathan Paul Ellis II was arrested Saturday night along with two other MSU students — Riley James Masters and Michael Christopher Simmons. All are charged with disorderly conduct.

Bozeman police responded to a fight at the Rocking R Bar at about 11:25 p.m.

Officers say during a fight, Simmons tried to punch Ellis, but missed, accidentally hitting Ellis’ girlfriend. Ellis then punched Simmons in the nose.

Butte mine plans

year-end layoffs

BUTTE — Managers at the Golden Sunlight Mine near Whitehall are offering employee buyouts in an effort to eliminate 13 jobs by the end of the year due to a drop in gold prices.

Manager Dan Banghart tells the Montana Standard  he expects all the reductions will be voluntary. The severance packages will be based on how long an employee has worked for Golden Sunlight.

Nine jobs in the open pit area are being eliminated along with three diesel mechanics in mobile maintenance and one engineer in the environmental department.

Banghart says the layoffs will leave 193 employees at the mine, which is about four miles northeast of Whitehall.

Last year at this time, gold sold for about $1,700 an ounce. On Monday, it was selling for $1,250 an ounce.