In rural Montana, where you and your neighbors are your own first responders come fire, flood or heart attack, being dropped as a customer by Verizon Wireless could have serious impacts, readers told us. Kim Barlogio lives southeast of Hammond in the remote southeastern corner of Montana. She was among the Montanans who recently received a letter from Verizon informing her she would no longer be a customer after "using a significant amount of data while roaming off the Verizon Wireless network.
- PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Great Falls Tribune

“I will be talking to the city, and we’ll be dealing with this place.” That is the grim threat made by Oakland police Officer Hector Chavez in March 2015 as he stood in the open doorway of the Ghost Ship warehouse, talking to a party promoter and looking over the inside of the cluttered firetrap for 20 minutes.
- PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Cruz Sentinel

The Forest Service has spent more than $2 billion battling forest fires around the country — a record as wildfires blacken the American West in one of the nation's worst fire seasons. Wildfires have ravaged the West this summer with 64 large fires burning across 10 states as of Thursday, including 21 fires in Montana and 18 in Oregon.
- PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

City Councilor Eric Spear will ask the City Council on Monday to authorize spending $39,000 for "consultants to come in and do an assessment of the Fire Department." Spear noted "a similar assessment was done on the Police Department." "In all these cases, we're trying to provide services but also control spending.
- PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Crews appear to be winning the battle against the now 34,000-acre Jolly Mountain Fire near Cle Elum. Officials say 188 homes are still under a level 3 evacuation alert but fire crews are confident that containment lines will hold. The majority of homes under a level 3 are south of the fire. The blaze is 25 percent contained, the majority of containment spans across the fire’s entire southern flank and encompasses a portion of its eastern flank.
- PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ifiberone.com