Montana News Roundup: Cool Weather Helping on Big Fire

Fire crews are making headway against the Banana Lake Fire in Mineral County, taking advantage of the cooler weather to gain 15% containment on the fire, which started over the weekend.

Teams have been working to mop up along the initial fire lines and build new perimeters, but it's tough going in the steep terrain. Other firefighters have been working to find hot spots since fire spotting remains a concern along the north side of the blaze.

     -The fire has burned just over 900 acres, but has slowed considerably in the past couple of days.

READ MORE: Banana Lake Fire is Largest in Montana This Year

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Missoula Hospital is dropping some baby business

Five years after expanding its maternity operations, St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula is leaving some of the baby business. 

The hospital announced yesterday it will close its Family Maternity Center in October because of declining birth rates, and the difficulty of finding workers.

     🍼 Historically, the hospital had provided maternity care, but expanded back into that health sector after a major investment in July 2015.

Montana coal mine reports progress

The President and CEO of Signal Peak Mine tells Governor Gianforte his operation is getting entirely different treatment from Washington D.C.

Parker Phipps told the governor during a visit yesterday they previously "couldn't get anyone to pick up the phone", but says the Trump Administration has been more responsive, saying he's been to DC multiple times to meet with the Department of the Interior.

Phillips also said Montana DEQ has been "very helpful" with permits for the mine's operation and proposed expansion.

Yikes! Montana home prices pack a punch

If you can't swing buying a house in Montana this summer, you're in the same spot as a lot of people.

Chris Wolfe finds a new report by Visual Capitalist ranks Montana as the least affordable state for housing, with an astonishing 66% jump in home prices over the past four years.

Biker killed near Butte

Montana Highway Patrol investigators are now saying it was a 67-year-old Anaconda man who was killed late last week when his motorcycle drifted into the path of a pickup he was attempting to pass.

Troopers say the victim was passing the Toyota truck on a curve on I-90 near Butte when he came back into the truck's lane. The driver tried to avoid the rider, but the bike overturned and the rider was struck  by the pickup. He died later at the hospital.

The show(s) must go on in Billings

Operators of the Art House Billings are going ahead with their schedule of film screenings, although some showings are being canceled while the organization assesses the roof collapse in the Babcock Theater.

The ceiling in the old theater collapsed last week, fortunately overnight, so no one was hurt. Art House Billings says most of the damage was in the balcony, but a lot of cleanup is needed, and the group is working with contractors to determine what happened.

While a few showings have had to be canceled, the group is going ahead with the rest of its schedule at the Art House Cinema and Pub.

Montana Wednesday Wayback

      🌧️ Acting Governor Ernest T. Eaton declared a state of emergency on June 4, 1948 after some of the worst flooding in Montana's history. The Missouri, Yellowstone and Upper Columbia Basins were awash after heavy rains, and then rapid snowmelt in late May.

It was called the "worst flooding in 40-years" (see photo),  with the Clark Fork setting the record that still holds, a streamflow of 134,000 cubic feet per second.