Facing a nationwide shortage of teachers — and special-education teachers in particular — schools in Montana are feeling it acutely as the number of students receiving special-education services is on the rise. Statewide there are 18,803 students receiving special-education services. This is a more than 10 percent increase over the past five academic years. In Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. Governor Mark Gordon signed the bill Wednesday. It comes in response to tactics used during last years campaign when mailers were sent out from independent groups trying to sway voters. Wyoming Secretary of State Edward Buchanan says it is about transparency. READ FULL STORY
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is traveling to Iowa this week, his fifth trip to the Hawkeye State since he began exploring a possible 2020 presidential run last year. At least 11 Democrats are running for president or have formed exploratory committees, but Bullock has repeatedly deflected questions about his plans. He says he’s Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — The accessibility of listening to and buying music online is certainly different from the days when fans lined up to buy Elvis Presley records. Brick and mortar record stores have closed all over the country. But in Missoula there’s one shop that’s weathering the changes and even opening channels to music in Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — A gun safety bill championed by a Helena student advocacy group was introduced in the Montana Legislature on the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting in a high school in Parkland, Florida. The measure sponsored by Democratic Rep. Moffie Funk of Helena and developed by Helena Youth Against Gun Violence would fine Read More…
For a decade or more, our Montana Legislature has grappled with the increasing need to renovate both Romney Hall on the Montana State campus in Bozeman and the Montana Historical Society museum facility in Helena. A compelling case has been made for both these projects, but they have repeatedly come up just short of Read More…
PHILIPSBURG – Blue skies made it much easier for people to travel on Saturday which came in handy for a large group of Montana brewers. The Old Fire Hall in Philipsburg was home to the 7th annual Ice Association Brewfest which featured live music and stations to sample beer from 19 different breweries from around Read More…
BOISE — Idaho’s most populated cities and counties appear to be big winners under a new revenue sharing proposal that was introduced Wednesday in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jason Monks, R-Nampa, revises the formula used to distribute sales tax revenues to local jurisdictions. Barring any major decreases in Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Repealing the death penalty, a non-starter in Wyoming each of the past five years, got a serious look Wednesday from a legislative committee that voted to advance the idea to the full Senate for what could be a last dash to the governor’s desk. Repeal proponents significantly outnumbered opponents in over Read More…
Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana will travel to Iowa at the end of the week as he further explores a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, his Big Sky Values PAC told POLITICO on Tuesday. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat who just won his 10th term in November, will escort Bullock to a Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has a new job with a lobbying firm led by former aides of President Trump. Zinke, also a former Montana congressman, is now a senior adviser at Turnberry Solutions, which was formed in 2017 by Jason Osbourne, Mike Rubio and Ryan O’Dwyer, who all worked on Trump’s 2016 Read More…
A new analysis released Wednesday estimates 26,000 to 36,000 low-income Montanans could lose health coverage if state lawmakers decide to pass a bill that would require Medicaid enrollees ages 19 to 59 to work 80 hours per month in order to receive benefits. The report, compiled independently by researchers at the Milken Institute School of Read More…
A legislative committee has unanimously endorsed the Montana University System’s budget, including $24 million that would freeze tuition for Montana resident students for the next two years. The Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education voted 7-0 Wednesday to approve the governor’s two-year budget proposal to spend $404 million from taxpayers on the University System. Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court is allowing a Bozeman man to enter a new plea agreement or stand trial in two sexual assault cases against him. Jerry Joe Henderson appealed his Gallatin County District Court sentencing to the high court and argued that state law does not allow no contest pleas, like the one he Read More…
Tom Vogele was born in Glendive in 1950. He grew up ranching with his grandparents in the hills just south of town. As a child, Voglele demonstrated a talent and love for all things mechanical, which quickly turned to obsession. This obsession took him far away from his roots in rural … READ FULL STORY
A newly minted management plan for the Flathead National Forest to guide a wide range of uses on 2.4 million acres will face opposition as a pair of Montana conservation groups announced their intent to challenge the plan, saying it “abandons key measures that have protected grizzly bear and bull trout habitat on the Forest Read More…
Which home styles are sold in greatest (and least) quantities, across the Flathead? Does it vary by city? How many acres (or fractions thereof) come with which home styles, and does that vary by city? I was recently asked about the acreage which comes with home sales. This week, I’ve analyzed the 2018 single-family home Read More…
Montana lawmakers are considering two bills to tax carbon pollution, and not surprisingly owners of Colstrip Power Plant say the measures would kill the facility. Democratic legislators are floating two bills creating a $10-per-ton tax on carbon dioxide from various sources, including coal-fired power plants. Theirs aren’t the first attempts targeting Colstrip. Washington State, Read More…
Publicly funded preschool is again up for debate in the state Legislature. Gov. Steve Bullock is pushing for more than $20 million to fund optional public pre-k for 4-year-olds. Bullock is also asking for $8 million to pay for preschool for Head Start programs and private providers. This is the last chance for Bullock to Read More…
After taking a trip to what border patrol agents claim is the highest illegal activity sector of the Mexican-American border, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana says that border patrol agents are “pleading” for something to be done. Daines, along with Georgia’s Sen. Perdue met with border patrol around 2 a.m. last night at the Rio Read More…
Montana’s Child and Family Services Division is tasked with safeguarding the wellbeing of some of the society’s most vulnerable citizens, but in recent months the agency has been criticized by sources who claim longstanding mismanagement has fostered a broken system. Nearly 20 sources with knowledge of Northwestern Division VI of Child and Family Services in Read More…
The University of Montana says it has found asbestos contamination in a second preschool facility. The Missoulian reported Friday that testing found asbestos on surfaces at the Craighead Child Care Facility. University officials say the asbestos levels didn’t pose a health hazard, but the children were moved and the facility was closed for cleaning. The Read More…
Over the last decade, some of Montana’s larger airports have added new flights or extended certain flight services. The increased traffic is even causing some airports to expand. Since Glacier Park International Airport director Rob Ratkowski started in 2004, the number of direct flights has gone from just four to 11. He thinks the area Read More…
At a Glance Temperatures have remained below zero more than a week in North Dakota and Montana. Those streaks rank among some of the longest on record, but are not record breaking. Many locations east of the Rockies saw temperatures trend milder after the polar-vortex driven cold outbreak in late-January, but one region of the Read More…
A tongue-in-cheek online petition has a creative solution to paying off the national debt – although Montanans may have mixed feelings about it. The Change.org petition proposes simply to “Sell Montana to Canada for $1 Trillion to eliminate the national debt.” It goes on to say “We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Read More…
Exxon Mobil Corp. made a final decision Tuesday with Qatar Petroleum to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project on Texas’s Gulf of Mexico coast. Energy Secretary Rick Perry joined representatives of Exxon and Qatar Petroleum, the country’s state-owned oil company, to sign the deal Tuesday. The project would greatly expand the Read More…
China’s growth potential could slow to 4.5% by 2030, according to analysts. Officials have shifted to stimulus programs, including tax cuts and infrastructure incentives, in an effort to curb the decline. But that could become increasingly difficult against a backdrop of debt and in wake of the trade war with the US, which has demanded Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. — A bill passed by the North Dakota Senate would remove “the growing or processing of marijuana” from the definition of “farming or ranching,” which would mean growing marijuana would not be included under the state’s ban on corporate farming. North Dakota’s existing corporate farming law limits corporate farming to entities that consist Read More…
Though pulse crops face challenges, their long-term outlook remains bright — which an upcoming conference will help to illustrate, a pulse grower leader said. “This will be chance (for attendees) to catch up on the new developments with pulse crops,” said Chris Westergard, the Northern Pulse Growers Association president and a Dagmar, Mont., farmer. The Read More…
U.S. CONGRESS – U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester and Congressman Greg Gianforte today reintroduced a bipartisan bill to provide much-needed authorization for Montana rural water infrastructure. “The fact of the matter is that thousands of Montanans still lack access to steady safe drinking water,” Daines stated. “Water is a basic necessity for any community. We depend Read More…
MISSOULA- Health officials say the amount of confirmed flu cases is on the rise, with over 200 cases reported in Missoula County alone, and nearly 500 new cases reported across the state last week. “When you have more people interacting together, you have more illness out in the community; people are going to get sick. Read More…
Beer and bacon — those are the two essential ingredients for a new business venture launched by two women in Gallatin County. Business partners Melissa Pomeroy and Cat Thomas are using those unique ingredients to make soap. “Poking around on the internet, we both fell down a rabbit hole of where we discovered you Read More…
Believe it or not, there’s money in podcasts. Spotify is in advanced talks to acquire Gimlet Media, the Brooklyn-based narrative podcast company, for more than $200 million in cash, according to Recode. Gimlet has raised approximately $28.5 million in venture funding from investors including WPP, Stripes Group, LioneTree Partners, Graham Holdings, Betawarks, Cross Culture Ventures, Read More…
Small-business owners filing their 2018 taxes may be able to take advantage of a brand-new 20 percent tax break. One of the new features of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the introduction of the qualified business income deduction, which went into effect last year. This tax break allows owners of “pass-through” entities, including Read More…
A White House staffer leaked President Donald Trump’s private schedules to Axios on Sunday, and the documents revealed some eye-opening details about the president’s day. For one, Trump spends the bulk of his workdays in “executive time” — unstructured blocks of time that make up 60% of his working hours. According to Axios, Trump spends Read More…
The 480-square-foot pink home at 66 Bishop St. in San Francisco is one of the smallest in the city. It’s also, with its whopping $600,000 price tag, one of the cheapest, SFGate reported. The home sold in late December after two months on the market and a $50,000 price cut. It was advertised as a Read More…
Stripe, a Silicon Valley online payment company which in September hit a massive $20 billion valuation, has become embroiled in an investigation into US President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, The New York Times reports. Citing two people familiar with the inquiry, the Times said federal prosecutors issued a subpoena demanding that officials on the inaugural Read More…
General Electric‘s cash problem will look better in 2019 after an accounting change takes effect, an accounting professor says. For reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, all public US companies should apply a new accounting standard that requires them to recognize financing-lease assets and operating-lease assets on their balance sheets. The previous accounting term Read More…
Alphabet shares traded slightly lower Tuesday morning as Wall Street delivered a classic reaction to its earnings which were released the prior evening: the results were good, but not good enough. While Alphabet reported revenue and profits for the fourth-quarter that topped Wall Street’s expectations, analysts said the internet giant’s margins were disappointing. That revelation Read More…
Billings, MONT-The Yellowstone Area Chamber of Commerce released their comprehensive Public Policy Guide that will direct lobbying efforts at the Legislature. The group recently hired a lobbyist, EJ Redding, to advocate on behalf of area business in Helena. According to Redding, “I believe in the Chambers mission and look forward to fighting alongside businesses for Read More…