Here is the latest Montana news from The Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) A 41-year-old man was killed and a 36-year-old man was critically injured in a one-vehicle rollover on U.S. Highway 12 between Melstone and Roundup. The Montana Highway Patrol says four men were westbound in a Dodge pickup shortly before midnight Saturday when the driver failed to negotiate a curve.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) A 48-year-old North Dakota man was killed after walking into the path of a tractor trailer on Interstate 90 near Hardin Sunday night. The Montana Highway Patrol says the driver tried to swerve, but the man from Parshall, North Dakota, still walked into the side of the trailer and was killed. His name hasn't been released.

Information from: KTVQ-TV, http://www.ktvq.com Washington (AP) The government told a federal appeals court today that it owes nothing to 500,000 American Indians and their heirs who claim they were cheated out of billions of dollars in land royalties. The long-running suit, first filed 13 years ago, is before the U.S. Court of Appeals. both sides appealed a lower court's decision last year that the Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million far less than the $47 billion or more they say they are owed.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) A federal judge in Idaho has denied a motion to dismiss and break apart a sweeping lawsuit that accuses federal land managers of giving livestock grazing and energy development priority over the sage grouse in six western states. The ruling by U.S. District Judge B. Linn Winmill is an initial victory in a lawsuit filed by Western Watershed Project. The conservation group is challenging 18 separate land use plans prepared by the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Montana and northern California.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 05-11-09 1627CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list