Wonder who's the funniest man in the world.
You're full of slaves, but I'm not comfortable with the practice.
Don't tell me you have a slave.
How can I convince you for it?
Inspired by a real family saga, an epic new premiere, True Women, CBS Sunday.
With its sleek styling, easy out roller seats, plus air conditioning and seven passenger seating, all for a great price, the Plymouth Voyager is pretty attractive.
You're watching KRTV, Channel 3, Great Falls.
Now, live from our studios, North Central Montana's number one news team presents the 530 News.
Montana's top corrections official says he doesn't consider this Texas facility stable. And Cascade County prepares for possible flooding.
Good evening everyone, I'm Shannon Evert.
Topping our news tonight, the facility remains in lockdown and Montana's top corrections official says tensions are high and the prison is unstable.
Correction director Rick Day will be returning tonight from the Dickinson's County Correctional Facility in Texas.
Day flew there to get a first-hand look at the facility after the first uprising Friday night.
Then, just last night, tear gas was used to end another disturbance.
Inmates apparently started piles of clothing on fire inside a dormitory.
Only two inmates from Montana were involved and only minor injuries are reported.
Day has spent the last two days touring the facility and talking to several Montana inmates about the situation.
This afternoon, in a telephone interview, Day told Governor Roscoe things are unsettled at the prison, but he says Montana inmates are still safe inside.
Montana, to answer your question, Governor, if they don't choose, if they choose to get into a fight, then of course they're going to threaten their own safety.
But if they comply with the prison rules, then I feel that they will be safe, yeah.
Day also says an investigation is underway into Friday night's incident and charges could be filed against the inmates involved.
Also, the Montana inmate hurt during that disturbance remains in critical condition.
Flooding in Montana could mean overtime for disaster and emergency services.
Today, Cascade County commissioners voted to adopt an overtime policy for DES.
The policy would qualify them for federal emergency management agency reimbursement.
FEMA can only reimburse disaster and emergency services for time and a half pay.
Comp time is not reimbursable.
Failure to adopt the policy would have meant losing thousands of dollars from FEMA.
Well, flood planning is all about preparation and for emergency planners, it's been a long season of fine-tuning plans and equipment.
Now, the Cascade County Sheriff's 50 vehicle fleet is standing by ready for the worst.
Reporter Grace Key has more.
This is a jet boat so it can go in fairly low water.
The next unit behind it...
About four of these boats are standing by ready for use and not just for low-lying water.
Let's say somebody was stranded in a tree somewhere and we couldn't get a power boat in because of other trees or debris or fences or something.
We could have somebody could float in with a raft.
Since January, emergency coordinators have been fine-tuning flood plans and equipment, all in preparation for this year's potential floods.
Coordination efforts will be based out of the Sheriff's office.
This unit here will be parked behind the courthouse annex and this will be the main communications link between the people in rural Cascade County, the officers...
And from here, orders can be delivered to rescuers out on the scene.
The county has four field units standing by.
They can act as an office or transportation unit carrying as many as six victims.
This is the county's newest piece of equipment.
If rescuers need to stay on location for an extended period of time, this trailer could be brought to the scene.
Basically, I think the unit would probably be designed to go to the Sun River area and be set up as a command post.
This is higher potential for major problems that we're going to need a little bit bigger area to work out of.
Equipment isn't the only thing standing by.
Until the end of the flood season, all emergency personnel are standing by in case flooding happens.
This is just part of the county flood plan.
They're urging homeowners to make one too.
And if they just take the precautions to ensure they're items of value, if they're in a safe place,
be able to take right away or maybe leave them at a friend's house who is completely out of the flood area.
Should they evacuate, we just ask that they don't load up a whole bunch of things on their vehicles
that they break down and creates more of a safety hazard for everybody else.
Only Mother Nature can predict that flooding will occur, but you can be ready for it if it does.
And that's something the county is taking advantage of.
In Great Falls, Grace Key reporting for Montana's news station.
Attention mobile homeowners, prepare to fork over your property taxes in one lump sum this year.
Cascade County Treasurer Dick Michellotti announced today all mobile homeowners will not pay their property taxes in two payments like in the past.
Instead, they will be required to pay them all at once in September.
He blames legislators taking so long to decide what would happen with the value of property taxes
since their decision to take 2% of people's property value since 1993 came late in the session, the Department of Revenue cannot collide.
People are expecting something to happen and we do not know because the legislature left this go until late in the session
and that put a bind on the Department of Revenue to give us the values and it puts us in a bind to generate the tax bills.
There is good news though, Michellotti says it will go back to the two payment plan next year.
A construction bid that came in under budget means in addition for Great Falls High School,
James Talcott Construction Company was awarded construction at last night's school board meeting.
The project will include new classrooms in the field house and improvements on the existing elevator.
The bid was $4.6 million considerably under the projected cost.
The money saved will also mean the field house will get a new roof and floor.
Talcott Construction hopes to begin the project the day after graduation.
The new rooms will be ready for use by the fall of 98.
A new power line in Great Falls offers more than just power for our homes, it also offers safety for our feathered friends.
This bird friendly power line is part of a project to keep power lines that cross rivers safe for birds.
So whenever a power line goes up and crosses a river, small plastic bird dividers also go up.
These dividers make it easy for birds to see so they can adjust their flight path to avoid flying into the line.
The general foreman for this project, Wayne Warwick says while this project protects birds,
keep in mind it also protects power lines.
Artist Christy Hager will be at Paris-Gibson Square tonight to present a real Montana.
She'll be talking about the life of Evelyn Cameron.
Cameron grew up in a wealthy British family and then moved to Montana.
She began to take photographs of the state that biographers say embody the frontier of Montana.
The photographs that she took document both the change in her own personality from being here
and how the landscape and the people affected her.
And they also document the changes in eastern Montana and how the farming communities transformed during her lifetime.
The presentation will be tonight at 5.30 at the museum. It's free and it's open to the public.
Two beautiful days in a row makes you kind of wonder if something's up.
Let's ask Fred. He's over in the weather center. Fred?
Absolutely beautiful today. Temperature about 68 degrees and I noticed our winds were less than 10 miles per hour most of the day.
Looks like temperatures are going to go up though again tomorrow.
Back with a forecast in just a moment.
Music
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Steel chainsaws have engine tolerances of a thousandth of a millimeter.
Each chainsaw has to pass over a hundred inspections.
Now, I could tell you that this steel chainsaw is so well made that you could use it forever.
But, that of course would be a lie. There's no way you're going to live forever.
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University of Great Falls is my choice.
The instructors and the professors, they get to know your name instead of just who you are.
Working with the students has been a pleasure for me and I think the relationship that then can be created is one of mutual trust.
I think the university is about commitment. It's about developing character.
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A quality education lasts a lifetime.
A winning combination for you. Ron Hall sprinklers and Mr. Green Lawn Care. One call does it all.
Absolutely a perfect day today to have a job like this, helping protect our feathered friends up there.
I only wonder what happens if you get a squirrel up there.
It makes it a little difficult to get over those thingamajiggers up there.
But anyhow, that's a good deal for our birds and we had an absolutely beautiful day today in Great Falls.
Let's take a look at our current conditions.
We have 70 degrees here at the KRTV studios on Signal Hill at Mountstrom.
Warm spot 72 right downtown 67.
And at the airport they're reporting a temperature of 68 degrees.
With winds out of the southeast at 7, that's about where they've been off and on southeast, southwest at times from the north.
But very, very light winds, humidity low at 25 percent, pressure 29.94, falling and a lot of sunshine.
Temperature in Kalispell 73, 76 at Missoula, Helena cloudy and 72, 71 at Butte.
Band of clouds moving through the southern half of the state. Bozeman 66 degrees, Billings 67, sunshine 68 at Miles City.
Actually Billings has a little more cloud cover than sunshine this hour.
Across our viewing area lots of sunshine, some scattered clouds, but still a very pleasant afternoon.
68 at Cut Bank, 69 at Haver, 64 at Glasgow, 63 at Lewistown. What a difference today makes.
Yesterday at this time it was 87 in Haver, today it's 69.
Here's a good look at the nation's weather. Things are starting to really clear off down in the southeast.
As a matter of fact across the entire southern section of the country.
Last couple of days we've seen kind of nasty stormy weather in the afternoon in Texas and Oklahoma.
That's gone. The system that was causing problems in Florida ends up off the coast.
Now the only problem areas we really have across the northeast quarter of the country end up into the Great Lakes.
They've had very, very cold temperatures because of these clear skies.
I counted 21 new low records last night.
The coldest I could find, or at least the one that's further south, was in Nashville, Tennessee where it dropped to 41 degrees last night.
The old record was 42. So certainly cold across a good part of the country is the jet stream takes a pretty good dip
and allows some of that cold Canadian air to fall down into the center of the country and clear down into places like Tennessee.
Here's Montana at the hour. Lots of sunshine everywhere except as I mentioned across the southern half of the state.
Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Nice weather except for the extreme northern coast of Washington.
Lots of sunshine this afternoon along the coastal areas as well.
We'll put the map into motion and step out of the way and show you the eastern seaboard.
You can see all the problems are getting up across the northeast and into the Great Lakes.
That's going to slowly disappear. Looks like it's going to take a couple of days though.
It's a stubborn low pressure system. Just doesn't want to go anywhere.
Temperatures down the Four Corners area down in southern Nevada. Very warm today in the 90s.
Some areas again saw triple digits. So over the western half of the country high pressure is certainly keeping things warm.
Got that low causing, unsettled weather back in the Dakotas, back into Minnesota.
And that area, wind chills today were in the 30s. Did not feel very comfortable.
Put the map into motion. See the jet stream again will take another dip tonight and end it tomorrow.
We could see some more records broken as far as low temperatures go across the middle of the country.
For us, we're simply looking at pretty chilly weather tonight but warmer tomorrow.
33 at Cut Bank, 35 at Haver, 34 at Glasgow, 32 at Lewistown.
If you've got plants in the ground keep that in mind.
Tomorrow in Cut Bank, 72, 72 at Haver, 66 at Glasgow, 70 in Lewistown.
And our forecast for Great Falls for tonight, we're expecting chilly, decreasing winds low of 35.
If you have plants in the ground, you're worried about them.
Don't use plastic. Cover them with either paper or with cloth.
And that will protect the plants tonight if they're a fragile plant.
Kind of flirting with that 32 degree mark tonight.
Tomorrow, we're looking at warmer weather with sunshine.
Afternoon high temperature will be about 75 degrees.
Pretty much looks like that's going to be the norm for most of the week as we get into the extended period.
Thursday, expect a little warmer. 78 with partly cloudy, 44 low.
Friday, some afternoon showers but still partly sunny, 77 and 45.
And then Saturday, 76 and 46.
And those people who put plants in the ground last weekend, that's a little early.
Normally, you would wait until the 15th or the 17th of the month.
Right. I'm waiting.
This next weekend will be good.
But it's hard to wait when the weather's so beautiful. You want to get out there and dig in the dirt.
Last weekend was beautiful.
It was so nice. Alright, thanks Fred.
A new day is dawning for the utility industry.
When we come back, Montana Power briefs shareholders on its future.
Stay with us.
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Do you believe in miracles?
I'm an angel. Just like the one you met a long time ago.
For a little bit of heaven, don't miss.
I'm Spine Angel here on KRTV3, Montana's news station.
Music
It's a brave new world in the utility business these days.
And the Montana Power Company says it's ready to compete in the new world of deregulation.
At least that was the message to MPC stockholders today at the company's annual shareholders meeting in Butte.
The news station's Jay Cohn has the story tonight from the mining city.
It was a little different atmosphere than in past years today as the Butte Civic Center played host to the annual MPC shareholders meeting.
Now normally the focus of this meeting is on the company's performance over the past 12 months.
But with deregulation now a reality in the utility industry, the focus today is on the future.
Tomorrow's utility business, which we're entering today, requires much more focus on customers,
anticipating their needs for energy and communication products and services.
We'll be working harder, taking more risks, and reaching out to more potential markets.
Among the headline items today, a new $20 million company effort to install a mobile automated meter reading system.
So the time is right. The technology is here. The reliability of the technology is unquestionable.
The efficiencies from the technology are significant.
The new automated system will eliminate some 50 full and part-time jobs statewide.
News which prompted these comments from stockholders.
Now the meter readers are at the bottom of the list. They don't get much money, but they're going to eliminate them.
But then you read, we take on more and more vice presidents, more and more personnel in the upper echelon,
where all the money is spent. And to me this just doesn't make good sense.
Do not reduce the number of employees to the point that you cannot service these customers and compete with the other areas because they want to come in here.
In spite of the tough questions from the audience, MPC says it's prepared for the exciting new world of full customer choice.
Whether the customers and stockholders are ready remains to be seen.
In Butte, I'm Jay Cohn reporting for Montana's news station.
By the way, the new automated meter reading system involves radio transmitters that allow MPC to read your meter from a mobile van.
The new system will be installed first in the Missoula and Kalispell areas.
Statewide, the project is slated to be up and running by mid-summer of 1999.
Grizzly coaches are in town tonight to mingle with alumni, and Jeremy is standing by live at the fairgrounds where he's doing some mingling of his own. Jeremy?
Thanks a lot Shannon. Boy, the Grizzly coaches picked the perfect day to come over to Great Falls today.
They played a little golf this afternoon. Now they're meeting with alumni and friends from Great Falls here.
It's the Grizzly Athletic Association's, the Great Falls chapter's version of the coaches banquet.
They have it every year down here at the fairgrounds.
We're going to talk with Wayne Hogan, the athletic director from the University of Montana, coming up in a moment.
Also today, we had the CMR Great Falls High Golf Meet, and it was a beautiful day for golf out at R.O. Speck today.
We're going to show you some highlights from that, and also we will have some news from around the country.
Stay tuned for sports.
In five years, Dodge has introduced an entire line of exciting cars and trucks, and reinvented an entire brand.
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In Montana, people have long known the value of working together.
The job gets done right, and everyone feels good about the effort.
That's why people here are teaming up to make health care better, more affordable, easier to use, and with a level of quality the people of our state deserve.
It's all about sharing expertise and helping others.
MontanaCare. It's a good idea from the Great Falls Clinic and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana.
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Introducing the all-new Chevy Venture Minivan.
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Welcome back to the State Fairgrounds where the Grizzly Athletic Association is honoring its coaches here today in Great Falls.
They picked a beautiful day, as I said, to come over here and joining us is Wayne Hogan who also came over today, the athletic director from the University of Montana, played a little golf today and it had to be just a beautiful day for you, huh?
Well, it's like this all the time here in Great Falls, isn't it?
That's what we were told today when we were out there.
Usually the wind's blowing a little bit harder than today, but you picked a great day and I would like to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the great day.
It's a great opportunity to talk a little bit about the athletic programs at the University of Montana.
Things are going really well.
You had another successful year, didn't you?
You know, it's been unbelievable.
This is my second full cycle through this.
And this year we had the great fortune to be able to win Big Sky Championships in three major sports, men's and women's basketball and football.
Had a great year in soccer.
We finished in the top ten in the west.
I mean, I could go on and on, but it's the success cycle has been really exciting.
And I'll say what it does, it breeds more success.
You know, I think the better you do, the more of these kinds of people come out, people that want to support the program and be a part of it.
It's just a great time to be a part of this athletic program.
How important is this area to you?
I know there's a lot of athletes from this area, especially in football and women's basketball and men's basketball.
There's a lot of kids from Great Falls and the surrounding area, north central Montana.
This is a pretty important area for the university.
There's no question about it. And one thing that's made us successful in our own way is that we've been able to recruit well in this entire state of Montana.
I really feel like the University of Montana has become Montana's team and not just Missoula's team.
If you look at our rosters, they're dotted with people from all over the state, kids that come in.
And frankly, we like to do that because we know those are the best kids we're going to get.
The best citizens, the kids that come in, not only are they great athletes, but they're great people.
And that's what we've built a program on, and our coaches have done a great job of doing that.
How exciting is it that Blaine Taylor, back after the Oregon situation, decided to come back to University of Montana, that had to excite you?
That won't be the last time somebody will come after Blaine Taylor.
Let me tell you, he's a fine coach. He's still young in his profession.
I think he's going to be one of the great coaches in college basketball.
We were lucky to be able to stave this one off, and hopefully we'll be able to do that in the past.
But this guy loves the University of Montana. He's been there all of his life.
He's played there, and we're fortunate to have him back. You're right.
Certainly everybody in Montana wishes the Grizzlies luck this next year, and we appreciate you joining us today.
Thanks for coming over to Great Falls. I know the people in town here really enjoy when the Grizzlies come over.
We always love coming, and thanks for everything you all do. I know you do a lot of hard work covering our teams, and we appreciate that.
Thanks a lot, Wayne.
Alright, also today, as I said, it was a perfect day for golf, and CMR and Great Falls High had their high school golf meet today at the R.O. Spec. Municipal Golf Course.
And we're talking about shot number three on number one hole for CMR's Billy Thompson.
He runs it way by, but no fear. He just steps up, strokes it for par. Billy Thompson playing well again today.
All of the top players had to sink long ones for par. Ryan Fritz from Great Falls High, he sends it in the back door for his par.
And also Scott Anderson, the number one player for the Bison, center cup on hole number one, playing well.
Well, the girls didn't start as strong. CMR's Emily Potts misses for double bogey right here.
And Great Falls High's Nicole Langevin, she sinks one, but that also for bogey.
We're going to have the results for you tonight at 10. They're still playing. They didn't tee off until 3 o'clock this afternoon, so we'll have complete results at 10.
On the notepad today, the Portland Trail Blazers have hired Mike Dunleavy, who took the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals back in 1991.
And he takes over for PJ Carlismo, who may be joining the Celtics. And Randy Johnson quieted the Milwaukee Brewers today.
They went at 2-1 with two runs in the ninth inning. Randy Johnson now moves to 5-1, and also that ended the Brewers' five-game winning streak.
And George Steinbrenner has been suspended by baseball for his contract with the Adidas company that violates Major League Baseball rules.
And also he had a lawsuit against Major League Baseball, and you're not supposed to do that.
The owners and Major League Baseball teams cannot sue Major League Baseball, so they have suspended George Steinbrenner.
That's it from the Grizzly Athletic Association event. We're going to talk with more of the coaches tonight at 10. We'll take it back up to the studio and Shannon.
All right, thanks, Jeremy. When we come back, we travel to Great Falls version of the rainforest, complete with tropical birds. Stay with us.
It's final. The countdown has started for Bloom's Factory Outlet Furniture. The final 106 hours for this retirement sale has started, and then it's over forever.
Everything must go. Come name your own price. No reasonable offer will be refused for the next 106 hours.
Come name your own price, but hurry if you want first choice, because there's 106 hours left and counting down.
That's Bloom's Factory Outlet Furniture in Missoula and Great Falls ends its retirement sale forever.
It's final.
Only at your Montana Port dealer.
Hey guys, if you're between 10 and 20 years old, Check Your Health 97 is aimed right at you.
In fact, we're relying on you to tell us what's important to you. And you did.
Check Your Health 97 will be looking at topics like teen depression, grief therapy, suicide, and eating disorders.
If it's a health concern to you, Check Your Health 97 wants to take a look at it.
Check Your Health every Wednesday at 5, 30 and 10 only on KRTV3 Montana's News Station.
Third graders at Meadowlark Elementary took a walk on the wild side today.
As part of their Rainforest segment, students met two parrots this afternoon.
Leslie Spencer brought her African Grey Parrot, Annie Klekis, to her daughter's class.
The students have decorated their classroom Rainforest style, complete with hanging vines, wild animals, and exotic flowers.
Teacher Sherry Emmett says their artistic efforts have piqued their awareness, and test scores in science have never been higher.
There's like parrots, jaguars, pythons, tapirs, tigers, anacondas, everything.
A lot of our animals are endangered because people are killing them.
But it gives off most of our oxygen and tons of living things, including insects and other bugs, live in the Rainforest.
Sherry Emmett says they have adapted to their new classroom environment.
She says the students worked so hard on the project that they will be leaving the decorations up for a while, and they should.
It looked really great.
Amy Lynn is standing by in the newsroom with a preview of tonight's 10 o'clock news, so we'll toss it over to her. Amy?
Thanks a lot, Shannon. Tonight at 10 we're going to travel down to western Montana, where at least one family has already left their home in search of higher ground.
We're also going to tell you about a simple, but yet groundbreaking discovery in the battle against SIDS.
We'll have that and more coming up tonight at 10. Shannon?
Alright, Fred?
Looks like tonight will still be mild, cool off later on to 57 by 10 o'clock.
Our sunset at 853 could see a low of around 35 degrees, a little bit on the nifty side.
Alright, and we'll toss it back down to Jeremy with a preview of tonight's sports.
Oh, I guess we don't have Jeremy. We've lost Jeremy. He'll be back tonight at 10 o'clock.
Amy will be with you at 10 o'clock. Until then, have a great evening. Good night.