from MTN news this is Montana this morning new plans to address violent crime and Billings we have a bigger issue that I was recognizing police are arresting more gang members the only acceptable number of homicides or any uh violent crime for that matter is zero but their ages continue to be cause for concern good morning and welcome to Montana this morning on this Thursday March 7th I'm Augustine McDonald violent crime in Billings continues to be a major topic even as new numbers show incident
s of violent crime declined in 2023 for a second straight year new police department staff are helping shed light on gang activity in the city and coming up with creative ways to address it q2's Charlie KS explains so the purpose of this conference is to Circle back City officials gathered Wednesday as police chief Rich St John shared an in-depth look at the crime in 2023 in 2023 every everything listed in that left category added up to 2908 which is a 3.2% decrease in total violent crime cases
which include homicide attempted homicide sexual assaults robbery criminal endangerment and assaults dropped for a second straight year that being said we are one bad weekend away from having that Trend the police department experienced that firstand in October when the city saw six shootings and five deaths most Gang Related in just a 10-day span none of these cases were related most involved juveniles all involved weapons and frankly it made 20123 a historic and tragic year especially tragic g
iven the age of the suspects of the juveniles that were present the average age was 15 and A2 years old and when you add the uh few adults brought the age up to 18 that shocking change is due in large part to a growing gang problem in Billings one that has also caught the attention of us attorney Jesse lazovich even though we have different jurisdictions we are united in addressing this issue the US attorney's office is focused on Stolen weapons prohibited persons possessing firearms that's us w
hile the billings's police department is also making changes of its own I have the ability to uh reassign people temporarily um happen to have uh a Bonafide gang expert from another department that came to work here he's the one that brought it to my attention that we have a bigger issue than I was recognizing police made 40 gang arrests from June through the end of last year and I've already made 20 this year progress that St John is happy to see knowing his Department still has more work to do
the only acceptable number of homicides or any uh violent crime for that matter is zero we'll work for that goal as lofty as is in Billings Charlie kleps MTN news Charlie thank you the local Youth Services building or Juvenile Detention Center where many teens are sent after being arrested is nearly at capacity just yesterday there were 23 kids inside the 24 bed facility around 25% of Youth at that Center will stay for 30 days Youth Services director Valerie Weber tells us addressing this teen
violence problem starts by addressing widespread mental health problems we need to put our money where our mouth is too our taxes need to be paying for mental health services because we are going to pay if we leave untreated mental health problems in the Adolescent system it's even worse than it is in the adult system we're going to pay the bill for that according to Billings police the average age of teens arrested for homicide in 2023 was 15 and a half we'll continue to follow that story joini
ng us now we've got Miller Robson with some nice weather headed our way good morning absolutely a very beautiful weekend on the way let's take a live look right now now uh it's a nasty habit but Augusta likes to chew her fingernails there's a picture of one of them on the studio floor whatever that's why I have acrylic nails I solved this problem thank you very much we're glad happy to help all right well now that is a waning crescent moon it's I want to say it's about 18% illuminated let me che
ck on that but we get ready for our February U our March full moon actually it's going to be a micro Moon I believe it's March 25th it's going to be the worm micro Moon and um it's going to just appear smaller in the sky uh but anyway so that's a great shot there by the way that is a great shot take a step back in time you know it's been colder than average and we're going to still hold on to that today we had a high today uh yesterday of 40 we're going to try to kind of come near that again tod
ay so that's still going to put us about six degrees below average our overnight low a little colder than normal but hang in there we've got some really nice warm temperatures on the way we're going to go back above average as we get into the weekend it's going to be a bit Breezy out there western Foothills get ready we're going to have some strong winds across the weekend for you with gust over 40 mph uh the moisture is gone outside of maybe a little bit of snow in the Foothills and the mountai
ns today that's going to be about it as high pressure takes over as we head into the weekend with lots of wonderful sunshine on the way right now we're at 17 feels like 10 at the airport winds out of the West at about 5 miles an hour mainly in the single digits and teens this morning a couple of areas really cold like look at white so for spring sitting at 4 glasow actually below zero with their actual temperature wind chills out there 5 to 10° colder than what we're uh actual temperatures are r
ight now but hang in there just a really nice weekend on the way we'll take a look at that and when our next chance of rain may be coming back into play in just a bit all right Miller thank you so much stoping those Nails where is this coming from taking cheap shots at me we'll solve this later but first let's get to this new this morning a local nonprofit with a mission to help people living with disabilities live independent lives is being forced to leave its longtime home after it flooded rec
ently q2's elen howder shows us what happened and how you can help there's water damage as far as the eye can see here at Lyft you can see how the flooding eroded their baseboards the nonprofit Services have been halted for at least a week but they're saying that they're looking at it as a blessing and disguise I sucked up seven gallons of water just in 20 minutes it's been a heck of a week for Li's Financial director Deborah Costa and her colleagues see the wetness on the ground this was all fi
lled as you can see and so they've had to take out the the molding a burst pipe over the weekend destroyed the carpets the flooring the drywall the furniture more than 90% of our furniture is made of particle board and it absorbed water the flooding Force lift to close for a week with many of their employees working remotely most of our operation is downstairs and it's been affected we estimate that not being open to the public we fail to help 50 persons a day and maybe take 200 telephone calls
a day last year lift served 2500 disabled individuals in the region we are in front of my apartment Vern Anderson who has cerebral paly was the very first person lift served when it opened 37 years ago lift means my Independence lift sends three Personal Care assistants to check in on Vern so that he doesn't have to rely on Assisted Living I wouldn't be able to a live on my own and be be able to have have the freedoms that I do out in the community also though lift's current facility is flooded
there's a silver lining it's just almost like the universe is saying no you got to move now because I have a lot of plans for you the nonprofit was set to move to what used to be St Stevens's Episcopal Church in April so this will be our new PCA office but with that flooding they're moving in this month it's just increased the speed that change was happening and believe it or not uh change became a part of our life and we welcome that making the best of a soggy situation in Billings Alina howder
MTN news the nonprofit is seeking donations to help clean up this flood find out how to give by clicking on this story on ktvq.com now let's head to Columbus where I pretty neat project is underway to return an area scorched by Wildfire to its original Glory back in 2021 the Robertson draw fire destroyed nearly 30,000 Acres just outside of Red Lodge 10,000 acres was Bureau of Land Management land it was covered in Sage Brush a critical plant for the threatened Sage grous species Special K Ranch
in Columbus a nonprofit working Ranch for adults with developmental disabilities is now planting Sagebrush seedlings in that area helping both the birds and BLM the perennial flowering plants are what the sage Grouse chicks need for those first 3 five months of life so if they have just patches of this stuff well that's what's important Special K's goal is to Reed 8,000 of the 10,000 acres BLM lost in that fire it's a big task abortion issues take center stage in the Montana Supreme Court this
time it's a challenge to a 10-year-old law that's taken an entire decade to reach the state's higher Court in 2013 the Montana legislature passed House Bill 391 this prohibited anyone under 18 from getting an abortion without notorized written consent from their parent or legal guardian it never went into effect as planned parenthood of Montana sued over it and the office of then attorney general Tim Fox accepted a preliminary injunction it's bounced around courtrooms in Montana ever since until
finally last year a district judge ruled it in infringed on the right to privacy which is enshrined in Montana's Constitution current AG Austin knudson's office appealed that decision bringing us to arguments yesterday whatever interest the state has in promoting parental Authority must be exercised neutrally not as to favor childbirth over abortion and certainly not to step in the shoes of parents to regulate the family relationship and that is what the state is doing here as is typical the co
urt took no immediate action after yesterday's arguments will continue to follow that case and a judge in Helena has ordered the state to go ahead with a poll on whether lawmakers want to overturn a veto Governor Greg gianforte made on the final day of the 2023 legislative session lawmakers say they were not informed the bill was vetoed before they adjourned the session and a case was filed in District Court to open up the chance for a veto override vote so when the governor vetos a bill the law
uh the lawmakers the body has the opport usually has the opportunity to overturn that and this year they did not Senate Bill 442 used tax revenues from marijuana sales for conservation veterans needs and County Roads the ruling does not guarantee lawmakers will be able to override GM for's veto but it does start a 14-day clock for the governor and the Montana Secretary of State to either initiate a vote to override The veto appeal The District Court's ruling to the Montana Supreme Court or both
and as Montana's ban on Tik Tok continues to make its way through the court system the White House is throwing its support behind a new bill that could give the president the power to ban that app Nationwide some lawmakers say Tik Tok brings National Security concerns for its connection to the Chinese government as cbs's Jared Hill reports the company behind it continues to argue user data is safe the future of Tik Tok known for everything from Dance videos to Thrift in tips 30 bucks and they'r
e Gucci and they're fabulous and they're yes could be hanging by a thread today the US House Energy and Commerce Committee is reviewing a new bill that would require Tik Tok to separate itself from its chinese-based owner bite dance or else face being banned in the US this bill is a choice and it's a choice for bite dance as well as any other social media app controlled by a foreign adversary lawmakers have long expressed concern Conns about the National Security risks of Tik Tock in 2022 Presid
ent Biden signed a bill Banning the app on government phones Alid fears users personal information could fall into the wrong hands though Biden's re-election campaign just joined the app earlier this year instead of being fed whatever the opaque Communist party controlled algorithm dictates Americans will then have real freedom of thought and expression now users like Kim Fam who leans on the app follow us to come along on this journey to bring customers to a noodle company worry about a world w
ithout the platform it wouldn't kill us tomorrow but Tik Tok as a platform has represented a very kind of meaningful and new way that we reach consumers Tik Tok CEO has argued that the company has firewalls in place to protect user data Jared Hill CBS News meanwhile a state law that would have banned Tik Tok in Montana didn't take effect as scheduled on January 1st of this year because a federal judge put it on hold while a lawsuit challenging that bill goes forward according to the Daily Montan
a last week the state filed its opening brief with the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals contending that the state's consumer protection interests outweigh First Amendment concerns that the lower court used as a partial basis to block that law we'll continue to follow that and on the national level President Joe Biden delivers his annual State of the Union Address to the nation tonight speaking before Cong Congress the president is set to discuss the economy immigration and the wars in Ukraine and
Gaza Biden will work to build a case for his re-election in November when he's expected to face a heated Challenge from former president Donald Trump and we've got a great uh feature piece for you now the garage band is a romanticized piece of American culture young aspiring rock stars practicing for the big time and annoying their neighbors with their Rock and Roll But when you have 18 band members the garage isn't quite big enough q2's Marcus kova takes us to the Columbus airport where Montan
a musicians have plenty of space to play we are in a hangar in Columbus Montana and why are we here we've got a great bunch of musicians here and they love to come and play and we're called the hangar band why the hangar band I mean kind of in the hanger well I started flying with Northwest Airlines when I was 23 years old now retired in 1997 why why in her play what's going on I'm the new girl so that maybe too historic of a question for me practicality it was during Co and nobody was had any g
igs so I just started calling up a few guys and they called a few guys and pretty soon we got an 18-piece band of some of the finest musicians around I showed up with my tener saxophone and uh down and art goes by the way you're the director and I'm went 2 everybody here is having a ball you probably notice that even though it's only once every two weeks it's something that at least I and I think everybody else looks forward to yeah there's no doubt about the fun some of them drive 100 miles jus
t to rehearse from Cody and from Boseman and we do it to raise money for kids for music and and art we've sent numerous kids to Red LOD Music Camp education is life so you should always be learning something music education programs in the schools uh are a long-term benefit that the public doesn't generally recognize when I was in school the only reason I wanted to go to school was for band I started playing the accordion in the fifth grade was in Jazz Ensemble in high school started in the seve
nth grade sixth grade is where we started you become one with music if you play it everybody's language across Generations it goes across nationalities it goes across regions and States it's a great form of expression but to me it's about the teamwork when all the bands playing together and we're really all on all cylinders you know it's just a really good really good feeling it came together like it was supposed to
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