Montana
Montana man used animal tissue and testicles to breed ‘giant’ sheep for sale to hunting preserves – The Boston Globe
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) â A Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep killed by hunters in central Asia and the U.S. to breed âgiantâ hybrid sheep for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas, according to court documents and federal prosecutors.
Arthur âJackâ Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana pleaded guilty to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife during an appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Great Falls. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Court documents describe a yearslong conspiracy, beginning in 2013, in which Schubarth and at least five other people sought to create “giant sheep hybrids” by cross-breeding different species. Their goal was to garner high prices from hunting preserves where people shoot captive trophy game animals for a fee.
Using biological tissue obtained from a hunter who killed a wild sheep in Kyrgyzstan belonging to the world’s largest species of the animals â Marco Polo argali sheep â Schubarth procured cloned embryos of the animal from a lab, according to court documents.
The embryos were later implanted in a ewe, resulting in a pure Marco Polo argali sheep that Schubert named âMontana Mountain King,â the documents show. Semen from Montana Mountain King was used to artificially impregnate other ewes to create a larger and more valuable species of sheep, including one offspring that he reached an agreement to sell to two people in Texas for $10,000, according to the documents.
Male argali sheep can top 300 pounds with horns up to 5 feet long, according to officials, making them prized among some hunters. They are protected under international convention as a threatened species and outlawed for import into Montana to protect native sheep from disease and hybridization.
A person who was not named in court documents shipped 74 ewes of a prohibited sheep species from Minnesota to Schubarthâs ranch to be artificially inseminated with Montana Mountain King semen, the documents show. Offspring that had only a portion of the central Asian sheepâs genetics sold for lesser amounts.
In 2019, Schubarth paid $400 to a hunting guide for testicles from a trophy-sized Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep killed in Montana. Schubarth extracted semen from bighorn sheep testicles and used it to breed large bighorn sheep and sheep crossbred with the argali species, the documents show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Todd Kim described Schubarth’s actions as âan audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies.” Kim said the defendant violated the Lacey Act that restricts wildlife trafficking and prohibits the sale of falsely labeled wildlife.
Schubarth said when reached by telephone on Wednesday that his attorney had advised him not to talk about the case.
âI would love to talk about it but canât do it now,â he said. His attorney, Jason Holden, did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.
Authorities agreed under the terms of a plea deal not to pursue further charges against the defendant pending his cooperation in the governmentâs ongoing investigation in the wildlife trafficking case.
Montana Mountain King is in the custody of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Department of Justice spokesperson Matthew Nies. As part of the plea deal, Schubert agreed to quarantine any other sheep containing Marco Polo argali genetics and any bighorn sheep that were harvested from the wild.
The deal also allows federal wildlife officials to inspect and, if needed, neuter the animals.
Captive animal facilities where game species can be raised and hunted were banned in Montana under a 2000 ballot initiative. But they remain legal in some other states.
Schubarth’s 215-acre ranch is state-licensed as an alternative livestock facility, said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Greg Lemon. It was grandfathered in when the 2000 ballot initiative passed and has continued to operate, although hunting is prohibited, Lemon said.
Sentencing for Schubarth is set for July 11 before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris.
Montana
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Montana
Montana Lottery Mega Millions, Big Sky Bonus results for July 17, 2026
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 17, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from July 17 drawing
22-34-45-48-55, Mega Ball: 14
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 17 drawing
20-21-25-27, Bonus: 05
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 17 drawing
03-19-38-48-58, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Montana
Montana Primed for Flat Income Tax Push in 2027 – Flathead Beacon
Six months before the legislative session is slated to kick off, a group of Republicans in Senate leadership have thrown their support behind a flat income tax proposal for 2027, thrusting one of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s long-term priorities into the spotlight.
A Monday press release cited support for the policy from Senate President Matt Regier; Senate President Pro Tempore Ken Bogner; Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray; all the Senate majority whips; and Greg Hertz, R-Polson, who heads the Senate Taxation committee. Regier has requested a bill draft to “lower Montana income tax rates” for the 2027 session.
“The governor is encouraged by the growing support for his call for a flat income tax and looks forward to working with the legislature to deliver on this promise to Montanans,” said Kaitlin Timken, the governor’s director of communications. “In 2027, Governor Gianforte is focused on securing a fair, flat income tax rate to continue Montana’s strong economic momentum and return money back to Montanans who work hard to earn it.”
For the last three legislative sessions, the legislature has slashed income tax rates, moving the top income tax bracket from 6.9% to 5.4% during Gianforte’s tenure. The state has also moved from seven different income tax brackets to two.
Even as members of Senate leadership proclaim their support for the move to a flat income tax ahead of 2027’s session, some have found themselves at odds with more aggressive efforts to slash income taxes before.
During the 2025 session, for instance, the governor’s income tax proposal in Senate Bill 323 was tabled in Hertz’s Senate Taxation Committee. It would have cut the top-bracket tax rate from 5.9% to 4.9%. Hertz told the Montana Free Press at the time the legislation “pulls off too much money, too fast, at the top.” What eventually passed in 2025 in the form of House Bill 337 was a phased decrease of that top-bracket rate from 5.9% to 5.4%, along with raising the maximum threshold for the lower tax bracket, which stands at 4.7%.
Regier cited “momentum” on the issue as the reason Senate leadership has jumped into the fray to back the idea now. He said getting Senate leadership on board included some debate on the issue. But ultimately, there was agreement that the governor’s position was right on flat income tax. Regier pointed to both income tax and property tax cuts as topics of importance to Senate leadership ahead of 2027.
“We’ve had large, large surpluses in the past two sessions,” Regier said in an interview with the Beacon. “I’m looking at another surplus session. We have cut income tax the last two sessions … so it’s, to me, the premise of this — and to a lot of Republicans — is government is not a business. We should only take enough money from the people to operate government, and so we shouldn’t be running surpluses like that.”
During a February discussion with the Mountain States Policy Center, a right-leaning think tank, Gianforte said he hoped to get the state to a 4.7% flat income tax rate. A 2029 biennium report from the Legislative Fiscal Division projects that move would decrease individual income tax collections by an estimated $130 million per year by fiscal year 2029.
In Montana, income tax makes up the lion’s share of the state’s general fund, accounting for 66% of general fund revenues in fiscal year 2025, per a recent historical analysis from the Legislative Fiscal Division. Those dollars fund schools up to the Base Amount for School Equity, state supported public health programs, and salaries and pensions for state employees, among other items. In recent years, the state’s general fund has been flush with cash, in part thanks to higher-than-anticipated income tax collections.
Sen. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, a seasoned legislator who serves on the Revenue Interim Committee, said several factors have contributed to the state’s revenue growth. In his estimation, those include high in-migration since the COVID days, more wealth in the state with people working remotely and making higher salaries, and more federal dollars going into people’s pockets thanks to pandemic-era policies.
Even so, Fern and most of his fellow Democratic caucus members have long been skeptical of the flat income tax idea. He cautioned that creating and maintaining a tax structure that keeps Montana’s general fund coffers at a sustainable level is important. Fern added he’s an advocate for maintaining the state’s current income tax levels for another two years to gain a better understanding of what Montana’s growth will look like moving forward — particularly as he anticipates changes coming down the pike.
“Beyond two years, do we have the capacity to deal with what we’re doing?” Fern said. “Will that growth rate of revenue, more income, more people moving here — will that continue? And you know, my reaction is, it will be neutered a bit, getting back to a more normal rate of growth.”
He also pointed to the 2029 biennium outlook, which identified provisions of 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that that could lower the amount of income tax the state collects. And, depending on the recommendations of the School Funding Interim Commission, which Fern sits on, he said the state could be looking at a different way of bankrolling school districts, which he anticipates could have a higher price tag on it than what has been status quo.
“It’s much easier to cut taxes than increase taxes,” Fern said.
For Gov. Gianforte, the same thing Fern identified as a holdup when it comes to a flat income tax rate serves as a go sign.
“The real advantage of a flat tax is once you get there, it’s very hard for future legislatures to raise it, because they’ve got to raise the tax on everybody, right?” the governor said at the Mountain States Policy Center discussion in February. “So, the penalty is higher.”
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