Montana

I took this photo at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, the site of the battle between Lt. Col. George Custer and the Sioux. My wife and I visited the area in August 2005 as part of an Elderhostel program on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I was captivated by the image of the Indians on their horses with the Montana plains and sky visible through the outline of the sculpture. It was emblematic of the vanishing Plains Indians to whom it is dedicated. Tom Scheurich, Fallston

S W Clarence led, lost and then reclaimed the lead over six rivals to win the seventh running of the $50,000 Hail Emperor Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park.S W Clarence was first away at the start. He out-stepped runner-up and post-time favorite Montana Dreamin' around the turn and down the backstretch. Montana Dreamin' pushed his way to the lead three-eighths of a mile from the finish, but S W Clarence fought back to reclaim the lead a furlong from home and triumphed by one length.The 5-year-old gelding, trained by Thomas Lingenfelter, finished the 1 3/16-mile distance in 1: 56 1/5 to win his third straight.

BOSTON -- Ever since it was discovered that Russell Weston Jr., the man charged with the Capitol murders, had a cabin in Rimini, Mont., we have been subject to yet another round of stories, titled loosely: There's something about Montana.What is it about the "last best place" that breeds, attracts or harbors the Freemen, the Kehoes, the Unabomber and the Westons? Psycho- and socio-babblers have all weighed in with theories about the isolation, the altitude, the power of myth.But I have come up with a much simpler and more logical explanation.

HELENA, Mont. -- Montana's one-of-a-kind daytime speed limit -- written in law as whatever speed is "reasonable and proper" and widely interpreted as wide open -- has been struck down by the Montana Supreme Court, prompting fears that the lack of even the vague limit will lead people to drive at breakneck speeds.In a 4-3 ruling on Wednesday, the court said the law was unconstitutionally vague and did not give drivers fair notice of what speed was fast enough to be illegal."The court held that based on speed alone you cannot cite somebody because they don't reasonably know what speed will violate the law," Beth Baker, Montana's chief deputy attorney general, said yesterday.

BILLINGS, Mont. -- When people think of Montana, what comes to mind are trophy trout, no daytime speed limit and the occasional mountain hermit. That is all well and good, but state officials would like to project something entirely new: the last best place for rich foreigners to hide their money.In December, Montana completed regulations on a new law that makes it the first state to open its doors as an offshore banking haven, allowing special depositories for wealthy overseas clients seeking privacy and protection for their money.

This article is based on Montana and North Carolina court records, hearing transcripts, interviews, newspaper archives, and Charles Kuralt's books "A Life on the Road," "On the Road With Charles Kuralt" and "Charles Kuralt's America."On his sickbed in New York in the summer of 1997, Charles Kuralt thought of Montana, a place he had loved for a great many years for its natural wonders, far away from his life in the city.Down by a riverside, he built a log cabin. It reminded him of his native North Carolina, but most of all it gave him a place to disappear.

Mrs. Bowler, my mother, always gives good advice.When Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was arrested a few miles northwest of our hometown, Helena, Mont., and the Montana Freemen holed up against the FBI for 81 days near Jordan, Mont., Edeen Bowler did not panic."You'll be all right," she said in dead earnestness, "if you stay on the interstate."Two related incidents make a coincidence. The third event of last week, however, makes me wonder if something is in the water, or maybe in the air.Incredibly, Russell Eugene Weston Jr., the suspect in last week's Capitol shooting rampage, has lived part-time for some years in Rimini, even closer to Helena than Kaczynski's cabin.

With anti-government protesters holed up on an eastern Montana ranch and the suspected Unabomber flushed from a remote mountaintop hide-out this week, there's talk in Big Sky country of changing the state motto.Welcome to Montana. It's Where You're Wanted.The Last Best Place to Hide.One listener to a Missoula radio station offered this gem: At Least Our Cows Are Sane.Of late, Montanans have had more than their share of national publicity. And it's not over the glacial beauty of the Flatheads, the gray wolves in Yellowstone or the placid rivers that run through it. First came the FBI's arrest of two Freemen, members of a gun-toting band of tax protesters living on a secluded ranch in Jordan.

From half a world away, Nicole Bobek sounded weary on the phone the other day, for reasons other than jet lag and time-zone adjustments.The 1995 United States women's figure skating champion is not tired of the boomlet of interest in her sport, but of the reasons behind the boomlet.Bobek, who will join a group of American and European skaters at "The Centennial on Ice" competition (TBS, 8:05 p.m. tonight) says figure skating's recent rise in popularity is a byproduct of the flap that developed during the 1994 Winter Olympics between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

TTC :CollegesSt. Frances' Karcher commits to VillanovaSt. Frances forward Mark Karcher, The Sun's boys basketball Player of the Year last season, orally committed to Villanova. Karcher, 6 feet 5, led the Panthers to their first No. 1 ranking, averaging 24.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists."I'm pretty sure of my decision," Karcher said. "I like the campus, the coach, the team and academic program." Karcher, who hadn't made any other official visits, had narrowed his choices to Villanova, Kentucky, Clemson, Miami (Fla.

EPA declares health emergency in Montana towns WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in a section of northwest Montana. The declaration applies to the towns of Libby and Troy, where for decades workers dug for vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation. They were unknowingly poisoning themselves: The vermiculite was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos, which workers carried home on their clothes.

Iverson to be fined for missing practice nba Allen Iverson apparently chose family and food over practice - and he'll be fined for it. Iverson was the only player who didn't show up when the Detroit Pistons worked out on Thanksgiving. Coach Michael Curry confirmed Iverson will be fined, will not start tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks and might not play in the game for missing the practice. "I'm surprised when guys are late; I'm surprised when they don't show," Curry told the Detroit Free Press.

HUSON, Mont. - When my husband and I retired and moved from Southern California to the Missoula, Mont., area, we imagined a quiet existence in a corner of the country that doesn't make national news. The local paper covers stories about whether to allow Hooters to build on a busy street corner, the reconstruction of a dam that threatens trout fishing season, and who can shoot wild turkeys on whose property. Ahh, the simple life, out of the media glare! But suddenly Missoula is a regular in the national headlines.

No wonder Sen. President Mike Miller couldn't reach Sen. Jim Brochin to give him the bad news. The night before the General Assembly session began, Brochin stuffed his ears with plugs and switched his cell phone off. Not that Brochin could have heard the ringtone anyway, what with all the racket at the Hannah Montana concert. The 43-year-old Towson Democrat spent Tuesday night in a sea of shrieking tweens, among them, Brochin's 9-year-old daughter, Katherine. But don't let the chaperone duty and earplugs fool you. At the risk of alienating the classic rock vote, Brochin said that Montana is better in concert than Bruce Springsteen - at least the aging Bruce.

The recently promoted director of detention in Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services was found to have committed child abuse at a previous post in Montana, unsealed records released last night show. Chris Perkins acknowledged that he is the unnamed "Staff No. 2" in the redacted report issued in January 2006 by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services. The report states that Perkins "directly abused or neglected youth under his care" while running a military-style academy for juvenile offenders.

The superintendent of a Maryland program for juvenile offenders once headed a military-style youth academy in Montana that closed amid findings of child mistreatment, the Department of Juvenile Services acknowledged yesterday. But Secretary Donald W. DeVore said he had full confidence in Chris Perkins -- now superintendent of the Victor Cullen Center in Frederick County -- and pointed out that Montana authorities cleared Perkins of all allegations of child abuse or neglect last December.

KALISPELL, Mont. -- By her own count, Sarah Knapton has been "married" more than 250 times. So when she recently took her vows before Municipal Judge Heidi Ulbricht, it was just another day for her. "I do," she said, and at that, Ulbricht pronounced her married, by proxy, for the umpteen time to the man by her side, Kyle Kirkland, a former high school classmate. It wasn't an altar; Knapton and Kirkland really weren't married to each other. In fact, Knapton has a steady boyfriend, and Kirkland is happily married to someone else.

Plentywood, Mont. -- Dave Grimland spent nearly 30 years as a Foreign Service officer -- "telling the U.S. side of the story," he says -- in Bangladesh, India, Cyprus, Turkey and other nations with large Muslim populations. He wrote ambassadors' speeches, arranged cultural gatherings, and more than once hunkered down as angry mobs gathered outside the embassy to protest American policy. Now retired and living in rural Montana, Grimland is once again telling a side of the story -- only this time, in quiet pockets of the Big Sky State, he's trying to tell the Muslim side to non-Muslim Americans.

I took this photo at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, the site of the battle between Lt. Col. George Custer and the Sioux. My wife and I visited the area in August 2005 as part of an Elderhostel program on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I was captivated by the image of the Indians on their horses with the Montana plains and sky visible through the outline of the sculpture. It was emblematic of the vanishing Plains Indians to whom it is dedicated. Tom Scheurich, Fallston

BIG SKY, MONT. / / You wake up to a fresh handkerchief of snow draped over the mountain, 4 inches deep and as light as linen, atop a 5-foot base. You lug your skis to the lift. "Is it open?" you wonder, since so few fellow skiers are around. It's open. It's Montana. Get used to it. This is the land where the circus doesn't stop, where skiing is an escape from the crowds and the traffic, where a ski lift doesn't have a line like Starbucks, 20 deep and a little ornery. Talk about your sugar highs.