In brief: Former Montana mayor convicted of rape

A man who once served as a mayor in Montana has been convicted by an Idaho jury of raping a 20-year-old woman last fall.

An Ada County jury deliberated for four hours Thursday before finding 72-year-old Eugene Ray Cobell guilty of one count each of rape and forcible penetration with a foreign object.

Sentencing for Cobell, a former mayor of Browning, is scheduled June 5 in Idaho’s 4th District Court.

He could face life in prison for the crimes.

Prosecutors say Cobell assaulted the woman in the early morning hours of Nov. 12 as she was sleeping.

The attack occurred at a residence they were both staying at in Garden City, near Boise.

Cobell said the sexual contact was consensual.

Washington

Legislation would pay for wolf kills

Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso are pushing the federal government to compensate livestock owners whose animals are killed by wolves.

Tester, a Democrat, and Barrasso, a Republican, are introducing a bill that would create state trust funds to pay ranchers for those losses. It would also allow federal grants for states to help lower the risk of wolf kills.

The legislation is in response to the federal government’s recent decision to remove gray wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act and turn over wolf management to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, where an estimated 1,500 wolves roam.

The advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife also compensates farmers and ranchers for losses due to wolves.