Montana earned recognition as one of the nation’s premier destinations for entrepreneurs, landing in the top 15 states in a WalletHub study ranking all 50 states on their business startup environments. The report evaluated states across 25 measures grouped into three dimensions: business environment, access to resources and business costs. Metrics included number of startups Read More…
The U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Ryan Zinke’s Allied Defense Sales Act, legislation designed to strengthen American manufacturing by making it easier for allied nations to jointly purchase U.S.-made defense equipment while deepening strategic partnerships abroad. The bill represented a continuation of Zinke’s work as Chairman of the Foreign Military Sales Task Force, where Read More…
(The Center Square) – California is suing U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to stop construction of what plaintiffs say is an ICE holding facility near an agricultural city. Blueprints show plans for some kind of federal facility, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it isn’t building a new detention center. Read More…
After nearly half a century on Texas death row, Clarence Curtis Jordan was resentenced this week to life in prison by a Harris County judge who also recommended that the 70-year-old be granted parole based on medical conditions. The intellectually disabled man spent more than 47 years awaiting execution before Texas’ highest criminal court vacated Read More…
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation restoring commercial fishing access to nearly half a million square miles of Pacific Ocean waters, the latest in a series of actions the administration has taken to expand domestic seafood production and reduce reliance on foreign fish imports. The proclamation reopens commercial fishing in the Mau and Ho’omalu Zones Read More…
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has approved an Exploration License Amendment for Sentinel Metals and issued a final Environmental Assessment for the Columbia Gold Project, located near Lincoln in Lewis and Clark County. DEQ accepted public comment on the draft EA from March 20 through April 13, 2026, drawing significant public interest. The agency Read More…
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is taking aim at unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information, introducing bipartisan legislation that would dramatically increase criminal and civil penalties for those who mishandle or leak Americans’ sensitive tax data. Daines introduced the bill alongside Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to crack down Read More…
The Justice Department announced a final settlement with the state of North Dakota in the case of North Dakota v. United States, resolving litigation stemming from the violent and disruptive protests surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. While the federal government disputed the district court’s legal analysis of North Dakota’s claims and its own Read More…
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has approved Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the largest regulatory hurdle facing one of the most closely watched media mergers of the Trump era. The decision, announced Friday, paves the way for a combination of two of Hollywood’s most storied studios, merging the company behind Read More…
A Montana ballot initiative promising to strip dark money from elections is itself being bankrolled almost entirely by a so-called dark money organization — a glaring contradiction that even its own organizers can barely keep a straight face about. The Montana Plan, known as Initiative 194, is being pushed by the Transparent Election Initiative, a Read More…
Governor Greg Gianforte announced Montana joined First Lady Melania Trump’s initiative to expand access to Trump Accounts for children in the foster care system, providing a financial foundation for young people aging out of care as they transition into adulthood. Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment accounts available to every American child born between January 1, Read More…
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Education confirmed a whistleblower’s allegations that the agency violated a federal court order while handling Title IX cases tied to gender identity and sexual orientation, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. OSC told President Donald Trump and Congress this week that the department’s supplemental investigation backed Read More…
The University of Montana will launch the first public physician associate program in the state this fall, addressing a major shortage of healthcare workers. The new program recently received accreditation-provisional status from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, an organization that establishes the national standard for PA programs. The accreditation marks Read More…
Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke joined House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) in introducing the Great American Outdoors Act 250, legislation designed to reauthorize and modernize one of President Trump’s signature conservation achievements ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Zinke, a former Secretary of the Interior and Read More…
A Montana district court judge has dealt a significant blow to embattled state Sen. Jason Ellsworth, rejecting all five motions filed by his attorneys seeking to dismiss a criminal corruption charge — while simultaneously reinstating him to office after a suspension tied to the ongoing case. Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican and former Senate president, was Read More…
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has signed onto a bipartisan coalition of 40 state attorneys general urging Congress to maintain federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation, the nation’s largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The coalition sent a letter to Congressional appropriations leaders asking that LSC funding be included in Read More…
(The Center Square) – A federal agency suspended taxpayer funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority on Thursday, effective immediately. A letter was sent to the city of Los Angeles on Thursday by Andrew D. Hughes, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hughes accused the city of abusing hundreds of Read More…
Medicare Advantage is not just an abstract policy for many Montana seniors who rely on it to access doctors, prescriptions, medical care, and peace of mind. Montanans deserve accountability, not bureaucratic delays, when they have questions about their plan and coverage. States need a stronger role in protecting consumers and enforcing the Medicare Advantage rules Read More…
Britney Tennant, chief executive of the Cheyenne Animal Shelter and longtime nonprofit leader, announced her candidacy for the Wyoming House of Representatives in District 11, running as a Democrat on a platform centered on unity, public education and economic opportunity. Tennant brings deep Wyoming roots to her campaign. A fifth-generation Wyomingite and graduate of Cheyenne Read More…
Elon Musk’s SpaceX priced its initial public offering Thursday, raising $75 billion and cementing the rocket maker’s place among the world’s most valuable companies in what stands as the largest IPO in U.S. history. On Friday, Wall Street delivered its verdict: investors wanted in. The offering valued SpaceX at approximately $1.77 trillion at its IPO Read More…
Sixteen Montana State University student-athletes will travel to Casper, Wyoming, next week to compete in the College National Finals Rodeo, representing the Bobcats as Big Sky Region champions for the third consecutive year in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Competition runs June 14-20 at the Ford Wyoming Center, where MSU will send nine men Read More…
Montana State University student Peyton Summerhill has wanted to be a scientist for as long as she can remember. “For so many years as a kid, I was looking around trying to figure out where the scientists were, and they were here the whole time,” said Summerhill, who grew up in Bozeman and is majoring Read More…
WASHINGTON — One of the lawyers who defended Attorney General Ken Paxton during his three-year-old impeachment trial endorsed Democrat James Talarico Monday in Texas’ U.S. Senate race. Dan Cogdell, a veteran Houston attorney who represented Paxton in his long-running felony securities fraud case and his 2023 impeachment, announced his support for Talarico in an interview Read More…
The University of Montana School of Journalism capped one of its most successful seasons in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program when recent graduate Maddie McCuddy won the National Photojournalism Championship in San Francisco on June 4, adding a $10,000 prize to an already banner year for the program. McCuddy’s national championship title, combined with UM’s Read More…
(The Center Square) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged in two congressional hearings this week to cut the federal deficit to 3% of GDP, a target the government’s own budget projections do not currently support. Bessent repeated the goal before both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, telling lawmakers Read More…
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging three New Mexico men with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, with two of the defendants also facing charges of conspiracy to kill a witness who had provided information to law enforcement about the smuggling operation. Wilfrido Saenz, 29, Ignacio Jaramillo, 22, and his Read More…
KALISPELL, Mont. — Kristopher Schreiner, an 18-year veteran of Kalispell Middle School’s history department, was named the 2026 Centennial Bell Montana History Teacher of the Year, recognized for an immersive approach to Montana history that has students mining for gold, tanning hides, and constructing log cabins alongside traditional classroom instruction. The awards committee selected Schreiner Read More…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order reclassifying approximately 8,000 policy-influencing federal positions into a new category called Schedule Policy/Career, making it significantly easier for agencies to remove employees who perform poorly, engage in misconduct, or resist presidential directives. The order targeted the highest-ranking career positions outside of the Senior Executive Service, with Read More…
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte announced that Janicki Industries selected Great Falls as the site of an $800 million manufacturing campus expected to create more than 1,000 jobs in its first five years and ultimately employ more than 2,000 people once fully built out. John Janicki, president of the company, made the announcement Read More…
Scores of business professionals with an interest in women’s leadership congregated in Montana State University’s Strand Union Building for the annual women’s leadership conference on Tuesday. Hosted by the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the highly anticipated conference welcomed around 250 women from across Montana for a day filled with interactive keynote lectures, panel discussions, a slate of breakout sessions, catered lunch and a networking hour. Katie Read More…
(The Center Square) – The Governor of Montana tells The Center Square he hopes to lure more out of state business expansion into his state, following this week’s announcement that Sedro-Woolley based Janicki Industries chose Great Falls as the site of its next manufacturing campus. “We want entrepreneurs, they’re like golden geese,” said Montana Governor Read More…
In the final days of his GOP runoff campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits against Netflix, WhatsApp and Discord, and launched another investigation into Meta. During his victory speech, he cemented a key pillar of his campaign: cracking down on bad actors in Big Tech. “As Read More…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory urging financial institutions to be vigilant against fraud schemes involving the unlawful employment of illegal aliens, warning that such schemes have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars and helped finance transnational criminal organizations. The advisory was issued jointly with the Federal Deposit Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and the Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation called on Montanans to take steps to protect children from online predators during Internet Crimes Against Children Prevention Month, releasing new data showing a sharp rise in reported exploitation nationally and thousands of tips received in Montana over Read More…
(The Center Square) – In a reversal, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has ordered that surveillance cameras be turned on during the FIFA World Cup Tournament. Wilson said in a statement Friday that the decision to activate the cameras followed updated information from Seattle police and the FBI “on the current global and local threat environment.” Read More…
(The Center Square) – The United States has about 20 years to change course on its national debt before it reaches the estimated limits of its debt capacity, according to new research from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Researchers estimate the outer limit of U.S. debt capacity at about 210% of gross domestic product. At Read More…
NEW YORK — Billionaire entrepreneur and Cost Plus Drugs co-founder Mark Cuban argued that the American health care system has become so unnecessarily complicated that the most effective reform would be to strip it back to the basics of a simple transaction between patient and provider — a model he likened to health care in Read More…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal jury convicted four current and former leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers on racketeering, embezzlement, and fraud charges, finding that they stole millions of dollars in union dues through lavish foreign travel, no-show jobs, unauthorized loans, and personal expenses charged to the union over a 15-year period. The Read More…
BOZEMAN — Kollen Pipinich keeps his schedule full. It’s a delicate balance, he said. As a full-time student at Montana State University, he spends much of his day in classes. As a mechanical engineering student, he spends a great deal of time studying. As a helper by nature, Pipinich has volunteered hundreds of hours to Read More…
National Democrats on Wednesday unveiled their most ambitious list of targets in the Texas House in years, adding a dozen districts, on top of three previously announced seats, to their battleground docket for the fall midterms. Twelve of the Texas districts targeted by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, an arm of the national party that Read More…