Democrats and some in the mainstream media have been desperately trying to attack Ryan Zinke over his travel spending as US Secretary of Interior. However, new data shows that Zinke is spending less than his predecessors who served as Interior Secretary under former President Obama. As The Daily Signal reports: “The Daily Signal’s examination of Read More…
The parent company of Herberger’s announced Thursday that going-out-of-business sales at Montana stores will start Friday. That includes the store at Rimrock Mall in Billings. The retailer moved into that spot and renovated the space three years ago after spending decades in a different wing of the mall. The announcement from corporate parent Bon Ton Read More…
BILLINGS – In the summer, the field behind the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch is full of fruit. “We had such a huge, I mean huge, amount of fruit last year,” said Jim Klempel, a teacher at YBGR. “Monday mornings we’d start at 6 in the morning and we’d pick all day.” That fruit is Read More…
HELENA – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Troy Downing says he didn’t falsely portray himself as a resident when buying in-state hunting licenses for the past half-dozen years – and can’t believe the issue has become a full-scale criminal case in a Bozeman court. “It’s crazy,” he told MTN News in an interview last week. “My Read More…
Sheridan Head Start kids need a new place to go, and if they don’t find a place soon, the program could end for them. Parents say Sheridan needs this program and if they don’t have it, preparation for kindergarten may greatly decline. Sheridan parents and teachers rallied together to save the local head start program. Read More…
CHEYENNE – When Matt Mead was elected to serve as Wyoming’s 32nd governor, his life wasn’t the only one that changed. After Nov. 2, 2010, the lives of his wife, daughter and son were all altered as well. “I remember right after the general election, when Matt had won, then the next morning I woke Read More…
U.S. Senate candidate Troy Downing’s accountant says she did not specifically research administrative rules when the Republican candidate asked her to amend past tax returns to change his status as a Montana resident. Downing recently asked Gallatin County Justice Court Judge Bryan Adams to throw out several charges alleging he was not a Montana resident Read More…
Montana Attorney General Tim Fox is praising his doctor and advocating for cancer screenings after he was diagnosed with colon cancer last month. According to Fox, he went his doctor with symptoms of fatigue and back pain. “[My doctor] recommended some blood tests and asked if I ever had a colonoscopy,” Fox said. “I told Read More…
MISSOULA – It will take a combination of “cuts and curriculum” if the University of Montana is going to solve its on-going budget issues. And UM President Seth Bodnar says that’s going to take some “hard decisions”. Everyone on campus has known this day was coming, as the administration grapples with a way to not Read More…
(HELENA) Paul Jenkins and Freddie Lawrence, convicted for the 1994 murder of Donna Meagher and a robbery, have been ordered to be released from prison. The order freeing Jenkins and Lawrence comes just days after Lewis & Clark County District Judge Kathy Seeley overturned their convictions and ordered a new trial. In her ruling, Judge Read More…
On Tax Day, liberals around the country wake up with a smile, enthusiastically thinking about the endless possible programs they can throw public money at. Today though, they’re a little less eager, quite a bit less cheerful, and according to their recent behavior, a little miffed they haven’t been able to take more money out of the Read More…
Small-business hiring in March fell to the lowest point in over seven years, while hourly earnings grew steadily, a report from human resources firm Paychex said Tuesday. The Small Business Jobs Index decreased 0.12 percent from last month and 1.07 percent from a year earlier. Small-business wages continued to rise, reaching a 2.66 percent (69 Read More…
The allegations were shocking: an Army major and his wife accused of abusing their three young foster children through beatings, denial of food and water and forcing them to eat hot pepper flakes as punishment. When John and Carolyn Jackson were convicted of child endangerment in 2015, prosecutors received another shock when the trial judge, Read More…
NEW YORK — The man killed in a blaze at New York City’s Trump Tower was an art collector who spent time with Andy Warhol, but fell on hard financial times in recent years and went through bankruptcy proceedings. Todd Brassner, 67, died on Saturday at a hospital after a fire tore through his 50th-floor Read More…
U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte (R-MT) is touring Montana talking to businesses about a tax act he voted for in December. The new tax law cuts rates for taxpayers at every income level, expands the standard deduction, doubles the child tax credit and helps Montana’s small businesses. His ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Tour’ stopped in Great Read More…
An independent nonprofit research group says Montana is losing its open space. Headwaters Economics analyzed home construction for the state and laid out the numbers from county to county from 1990 to 2016 in a study titled Montana Losing Open Space. During that period, the study said the number of single-family homes in the state Read More…
Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., claimed his party’s endorsement for the U.S. Senate race on Saturday in front of a packed ballroom at Grand Forks’ Alerus Center, where delegates at the GOP state convention voted for him unanimously. In an address moments before the vote, Cramer laid out the high-stakes race, which could decide control of Read More…
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Crews are cleaning up here, throwing away political posters that hours ago held so much hope. And with that, North Dakota Republicans named Kelly Armstrong their choice to fill Kevin Cramer’s seat in the House. “Thank you everyone, thank you so much,” said Kelly Armstrong, GOP Nominee for U.S. House. But Read More…
GRAND FORKS — U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke rallied North Dakota Republicans here Saturday, April 7, and boosted Rep. Kevin Cramer, his former congressional colleague who was endorsed as the party’s pick for the U.S. Senate earlier in the day. Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, avoided direct mention of his current role in Read More…
CHEYENNE – A Trombone Shorty show isn’t really a place to sit still. The New Orleans phenom floods the room with an ecstatic blend of jazz, hip hop and funk – a portable Bourbon Street party. And that’s what Amy Spieker, 31, had come to the Cheyenne Civic Center excited for Jan. 27 after her Read More…
The number of grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is estimated to be up from the 2016 count. The report from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study team was delivered in Cody Wednesday. In 2017, the first year that Yellowstone area grizzlies were removed from the endangered species list, scientists estimate there were 718 grizzlies in Read More…
Kalispell Regional Healthcare is undergoing a transition in its leadership team as three top executives, the director of its digestive health institute and a contingent of its internal design team have either departed or announced plans to retire. In recent weeks, three prominent members of the Kalispell Regional staff who also serve on the hospital Read More…
In the outside, Meissenburg Designs still looks a lot like it did when it was the site of Martin’s Peat, located southeast of Bigfork. Loyd and Laura Meissenburg acquired the property in 2013, with most of the changes occurring inside to accommodate their growing design and fabrication company. The magnificent Swan Mountains rise above the Read More…
Gov. Steve Bullock rejected an offer from CoreCivic to extend its contract to manage Montana’s only private prison, because the company asked for a 15 percent increase in payments. Bullock told MTN News that [quote] “It doesn’t make sense for Montanans.” CoreCivic said Wednesday that the net increase under the offer would be only about Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court held oral arguments in Missoula today, April 6, in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The case revolves around a rule from the Department of Revenue which bans use of Statewide Scholarship Tax Credits for those who attend faith-based private schools. The roots of the argument go back Read More…
In 2016, students from the Natural History Museum at Kansas University found a relatively small dinosaur pelvis in the Hell Creek formation in Montana. It was the end of their dig season and they didn’t have the time to unearth the rest of the remains. But the fossil was worth the wait; when they returned Read More…
he Montana Democratic Party and three of its supporters filed suit late Monday to remove the Montana Green Party from the 2018 ballot, saying some signatures on petitions used to qualify the party are not valid. The lawsuit says at least 180 of the signatures turned in last month are invalid, and therefore the Green Read More…
U.S. consumer sentiment slipped slightly at the end of March, after shooting up in the mid-month preliminary report, but still recorded its highest level since 2004. The University of Michigan’s report showed consumer attitudes about the economy inched down to a reading of 101.4 at the end of March. Reuters economists expected the reading to Read More…
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he may “hold up” a major trade deal the U.S. recently made with South Korea, in order to use the agreement as leverage in any upcoming negotiations with North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. “I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea,” Trump Read More…
A science room at Jackson Hole Middle School is scheduled for a summer makeover, thanks to a $67,000 grant. Teton County School District No. 1’s middle school has been announced as one of 16 recipients of the Steelcase Education’s Active Learning Center Grant program, which “supports active learning strategies by installing a learning space with Read More…
The future of Powder River Basin coal lies overseas, something EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt stressed during a Thursday morning visit to the heart of Wyoming coal country. As the guest of U.S. Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both Wyoming Republicans, Pruitt toured Arch Coal’s Black Thunder mine south of Wright, the second-largest producing thermal Read More…
Belgrade’s much-beloved Chalet Market has been named the state’s Retailer of the Year by the Montana Department of Commerce. The store, which sells a variety of meats smoked, cured and packaged onsite, along with sandwiches, ice cream and a collection of products made in Montana, was honored at the annual Made in Montana Tradeshow late Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court ruled this week the Southwest Montana Building Industry Association must return $200,000 to the city left over from an old lawsuit settlement around impact fees. The March 27 ruling upholds an order made in Gallatin County District Court. “We’re disappointed,” said SWMBIA attorney Art Wittich. “That money was supposed to be Read More…
A rumbling fleet of snowplows and excavators began the daunting task of clearing Glacier National Park’s roads last week, forging through a winter’s worth of snow and heralding springtime in Northwest Montana as the park prepares its iconic Going-to-the-Sun Road for the summer frenzy. On the east side, crews are plowing the Two Medicine Road Read More…
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) are echoing the same talking points when it comes to veterans health care. As President Trump announced his pick to serve as the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Nancy Pelosi immediately went on the attack, criticizing the pick for a supposed “lack of VA leadership Read More…
Montana Senator Al Olszewski serves on the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee and says the Governor and leadership of the State Department of Public Health and Human Services have had severe communication problems with the legislative branch. “The agency was just going to do a straight across the board cut of 5.4 Read More…
Since 2017, the Montana Veterans Meat Locker has distributed over 8,000 pounds of meat to over 600 veterans and their families. This is a non-employed, all-volunteer organization so our only cost is the processing fees,” said Chris Grudzinski, founder of Veterans Meat Locker. “We have great ranchers and farmers and hunters who have donated these Read More…
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaked away from California early Friday, boosting the fifth set of 10 Iridium NEXT relay stations into orbit, the latest step in the satellite telephone provider’s push to complete a globe-spanning constellation of next-generation spacecraft. Perched atop pad 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles, the Falcon Read More…
(HELENA) The State-Tribal Relations Committee brainstormed ideas on Friday for improving the response to cases of missing children and human trafficking in the state. Bryan Lockerby, Division Administrator with the Division of Criminal Investigation, said law enforcement is the main agency that handles missing persons reports. From there, the Criminal Justice Information Network – known Read More…
Denise Juneau is one of three finalists to be the next superintendent of schools in Seattle. There are some 53,000 students in the Seattle schools, and this number includes Huchoosedah, the school district’s Indian education program, designed to close opportunity gaps and deliver excellence to every student. Juneau, a citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Read More…