Great Falls' Independent News Source
Four new rookies are on the truck floor at Great Falls Fire Rescue this week. Luke Barrett, Ryan Olson, Travis Cik and Brett Castillo were recognized in a firehouse ceremony Tuesday for completing GFFR’s six-week training academy. They’re rookies at GFFR, but they aren’t new to emergency response. Barrett was a smoke jumper in Missoula; Olson was a volunteer firefighter
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Backpage.com, a website known for sex trafficking and prostitution, was shut down on Friday. The website and affiliate sites were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center. Capt. John Schaffer of the Great Falls Police Department said he checks
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Joseph Eugene Garcia, 37, was arrested March 19 at his home in Roseville, Calif. The Roseville officers arrested Garcia at the request of the Great Falls Police Department based on a warrant charging him with four felony crimes related to the sexual abuse of children. It is alleged Garcia “groomed” and abused his victim(s) over a long period of time,
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Jack Allen has worked for the Great Falls Police Department for a quarter of the time it has existed. After 33 years, March 30 is his last day and Lt. Doug Mahlum is taking over as the No. 2 in the Support Services Bureau, which is headed by Capt. Jeff Newton. That means some movement throughout the ranks at GFPD
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After a three-hour meeting, the Planning Advisory Board voted to postpone the decision on the Wheat Ridge development to April 24. Anthony Houtz, planning board member, made the motion and said there were things he liked about the project that would start with the annexation of 20.98 acres as the first phase for 37 single-family lots and three mixed use
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During Tuesday morning’s Cascade County Commission meeting, commissioners will consider allocating $40,000 for betting windows in alternative structures since the area under the grandstands at Montana Expo Park has been deemed unsafe. Commissioners will also consider authorizing $30,000 for the county’s portion of the Tourism Business Improvement District’s infrastructure study at the fairgrounds. County considering Big Sky Trust Fund application
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The city planning board will consider Tuesday the annexation of 20.98 acres for the proposed Wheat Ridge Estates behind the Wal-Mart on 10th Avenue South. The board will also consider a Planned Unit Development zoning and the preliminary plat for the project. City staff is recommending denial of the annexation, zoning and preliminary plat. City staff recommending denial of Wheat
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The Great Falls Police Department is currently investigating the homicide of a 45-year-old male. The incident occurred early this morning in the 300 block of 16th Street South. Around 3:45 a.m. Friday, a motorist unrelated to the incident called 911 to report a body in the middle of 16th Street South. As GFPD officers were responding to the scene two
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Two inmates at the Cascade County Detention Center died on March 10, according to a release from Sheriff Bob Edwards. These were two separate incidents and roughly four hours apart, Edwards said. One of the deaths is consistent with a suicide and the other appears to be from natural causes. Both were pronounced dead at Benefis Hospital. The Montana State
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Coins for a Cause 2.0 is in full swing and the new boxes are up in the downtown. The program started in Great Falls in 2012 with collection buckets at businesses around town for shoppers to drop their spare change instead of giving it to panhandlers downtown. The boxes are new this year and are attached to lightposts around the
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