Top news stories of 2017 - KFBB.com News, Sports and Weather

Top news stories of 2017

2017 was filled with ups and downs, fires, blizzards, shootings, special sessions and special elections, and all of those things happening right here in Montana and around the country.

Here is a look at some of the most noteworthy news coming out of the treasure state in 2017.

In May, Broadwater County Sheriff Deputy Mason Moore was shot and killed in the line of duty following a routine traffic stop.

“Minor traffic stop, over a traffic stop his life was taken, probably wouldn't have given them a ticket but talk to them about a minor infraction,” said Sheriff Leo Dutton.

Marshall Barrus, was killed by police, his father, Lloyd Barrus currently faces multiple charges of deliberate homicide.

Also in May, Representative Greg Gianforte body slammed Ben Jacobs, a reporter with the guardian who was covering his campaign.

After receiving national attention for his assault charges the day before he was elected, Representative Gianforte says he hopes he can move forward.

I am excited for this day, it is a big milestone, we worked hard and I was pleased to receive the confidence of the voters of Montana and we are ready to go to work.

In June, Cascade County Sheriff Bob Edwards was taken into custody for partner or family member assault in a hotel near Helena. His charges were dismissed and he returned to work in august.

How could we forget about one of the worst fire seasons in American history, it cost the state millions of dollars and pushed our budget to the breaking point?

“Montana has the highest priority fires in the nation right now, we have over 5000 personnel fighting these fires, I’ve deployed over 500 national guardsmen,” said Governor Bullock in September.

Despite the smoke from the fires we had clear skies the day the solar eclipse streamed across the august sky at thousands of miles an hour, turning many people’s heads upwards to view the spectacular event.

In October a lone gunman shot and killed 58 people and injured 546 more in the worst mass shooting in American history at a country music festival in Las Vegas. Numerous Montanan’s were at the event and recall the tragedy as it unfolded in front of their eyes.

Pretty much a war zone in there, lots of blood, lots of people being shot right next to me, in front of me, pretty much everybody was fending for their lives.
 
3 days later, Havre was hit by one of the worst fall snowstorms in their history, doing millions of dollars in damage to buildings, trees, and power lines.

There was good out of it however, one local woman went into labor at work during the blizzard, and her co workers stepped in to help.



“They started getting ready, they were like I don't think they can get an ambulance out here and they started preparing themselves to deliver my baby,” says Ashley Denny.

Luckily for Denny, her co workers drove her to a point an ambulance could pick her up and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl just moments after arriving to the hospital.

In November lawmakers made their way to the capital for a special session to balance the states budget. Over the course of 3 days lawmakers fought hard to make up the 227 million dollars needed to balance the budge, and in the early hours of November 16th, they did it.

“We came to an agreement because we had to , we had a budget crisis that had to be solved and so the 2 sides brought to the table what they were willing to stomach.”

The year ended on a high note for Montana. The capitol Christmas tree made a 3 thousand mile journey from the Kootenai National Forest in Montana to Washington D.C. thousands of people came to see the "peoples tree" in numerous cities along the journey before it was lit on the west lawn of the U.S Capitol.