Michael Marino

Members of the public are invited to serve on the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform, according to a news release last Friday from the Montana Legislature.

Last week was marked by closures and disruptions caused by dangerously cold temperatures and copious amounts of snowfall impacting people in the Billings area and across the state. Normal temperatures for this time of year in Billings are around 36 degrees for the high, and 18 degrees for the low, according to data from the National Weather Service (NWS) Billings office. This year, however, Billings saw an average high temp of -16.5 degrees for the period of Jan. 12 to 15. On Sunday, Jan.

Huntley Project Irrigation District (HPID) reported at their January 10 board meeting that they narrowly avoided a total loss of digital records after becoming the target of a ransomware virus. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that locks a person or agency out of their files until they pay a sum of money to the attacker. HPID Secretary, Sandra Rush, said the virus surfaced about three weeks prior to the meeting and that the attacker demanded $10,000 to unlock the district's files.