All posts by Big Sky Headlines

Janicki Industries Selects Great Falls for $800 Million Manufacturing Campus

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…

Hundreds of women learn interpersonal, financial skills at Montana State Women’s Leadership Conference

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…

Montana governor to Washington companies: We want your business

(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…

FinCEN Issues Alert on Financial Crimes Linked to Illegal Workers

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…

Internet Crimes Against Children Prevention Month Spotlights Surge in Online Exploitation

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…

Boilermakers Union Leaders Convicted of Racketeering and Embezzling Millions

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…

National Democrats aim to flip 12 Texas House seats under newly expanded target list

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…

Sheehy Calls for Accountability After DOJ Charges Rocky Mountain Lab Scientists With Smuggling Monkeypox

HAMILTON, Mont. — The Department of Justice charged two researchers from the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and making false statements to federal law enforcement, U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy announced. The two researchers charged were Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, both foreign nationals working at the Read More…

ICE pushes back after Spokane schools adopts immigration enforcement policy

(The Center Square) – Spokane Public Schools adopted a standalone immigration policy on Wednesday that requires federal agents to obtain the superintendent’s permission to access the district’s property. The SPS Board of Directors unanimously adopted the proposal, which the officials said largely mirrored existing language “buried” in a broader law enforcement policy. It follows the state Read More…

Three Americans Arrested for Allegedly Plotting to Support ISIS

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The FBI arrested three men Friday morning in Kansas and California on charges that they conspired to provide material support to ISIS, allegedly discussing violent attacks on U.S. service members, pledging allegiance to the terrorist organization, and collectively contributing more than $2,000 to an individual they believed to be an ISIS Read More…

National Security Memorandum Puts AI at Center of U.S. Military Strategy

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum establishing a new framework to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across the U.S. military and intelligence community, directing the rapid deployment of advanced AI systems to warfighters and intelligence professionals while setting strict accountability standards for their use. The memorandum directed the national Read More…

Montana Leads Multi-State Challenge to California Physician DEI Requirement

HELENA, Mont. — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a 14-state coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, asking the justices to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that upheld California’s requirement that physicians complete diversity, equity, and inclusion training as a condition of maintaining their medical licenses. Read More…

Speaker Johnson Calls Out Democrats on Fraud While Touting Tax Cut Results

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson used the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference Tuesday to highlight new Treasury Department data showing the Working Families Tax Cuts delivered the largest share of tax relief to lower and middle income earners, while simultaneously calling on Democrats to support a trio of Republican bills targeting waste, fraud, Read More…

Eight Senate Republicans broke ranks this week. John Cornyn, spurned by Trump in his primary, didn’t.

WASHINGTON — A handful of Senate Republicans this week joined Democrats to oppose a controversial Trump nominee and vote against the president’s “anti-weaponization fund” and East Wing ballroom — the latest display of defection from a band of GOP moderates, retiring members and vulnerable incumbents in the upper chamber. Sen. John Cornyn was not among Read More…

Zinke Secures $22 Million for Montana in House Appropriations Bills

WASHINGTON — Retiring Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke secured more than $22 million in community project funding and a broad range of Montana agriculture and policy priorities across three fiscal year 2027 appropriations bills that advanced through the House last week. The FY27 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Act passed the full Read More…

Ninth Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Climate Case

HELENA, Mont. — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal district court’s dismissal of Lighthiser v. Trump, a climate-related lawsuit that Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen had intervened in last year to help defend the Trump administration’s energy policies. The ruling marked the second court to side against the plaintiffs in the case, Read More…

Montana Department of Labor Launches Online Wage Claim Portal

HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Department of Labor and Industry unveiled a new online Wage and Hour Portal designed to give workers a faster way to report wage concerns and provide employers a more convenient method for responding to those claims, the agency announced. The portal connects users with the department’s Employment Standards Division through Read More…

Treasury Sanctions Iranian Network

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department, Commerce Department, and FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office moved against an Iran-based procurement network that impersonated American small businesses to fraudulently obtain restricted technology for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, federal officials announced. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated multiple individuals and entities connected to Read More…

Speakers object to transgender athletes in girls sports

(The Center Square) – As state track and field championships commenced Friday at Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif., protesters set up across the street to take aim at transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports. Those who spoke at the press conference in central California criticized the California Interscholastic Federation’s 13-year-old policy to allow transgender Read More…

Proposed $250 bill could be a boon for drug cartels, experts warn

(The Center Square) – A proposal to create the largest U.S. currency denomination in more than 50 years could unintentionally benefit drug cartels, money launderers and tax cheats, according to experts and Treasury Department records. The Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act, introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., would create a new denomination featuring President Read More…

Montana Wins Federal Funding to Expand Behavioral Health Care

HELENA, Mont. — The Trump administration selected Montana as one of ten states to receive federal funding to expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced. Through the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Medicaid Demonstration Program, Montana will participate in a four-year federal Read More…

Flint, Forstag advance in CD1

Retired combat veteran and conservative broadcaster Aaron Flint won the Republican primary for Montana’s Western Congressional District Tuesday, defeating Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and former state senator Al Olszewski to capture the Republican nomination for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke. Flint’s victory was decisive, powered by a broad endorsement coalition Read More…

Pentagon Awards $9.7 Billion Microsoft Software Agreement to Dell Federal Systems

WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced the award of a five-year, $9.7 billion enterprise software agreement to Dell Federal Systems of Round Rock, Texas, covering Microsoft productivity, cloud, and communications technology across the entire U.S. military and defense enterprise. The Microsoft Department of War Enterprise Software Agreement II Core Enterprise Technology Agreement, structured as Read More…

Montana Senate Race Takes Shape With Alme, Bankhead, and Bodnar Headed to November

HELENA, Mont. — Former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme and Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead emerged Tuesday as the Republican and Democratic nominees for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat, setting up a three-way November race that could include independent Seth Bodnar pending signature certification. Alme, twice appointed as U.S. Attorney by President Trump, was the first Read More…

MGM, Caesars Takeover Bids Signal New Era for Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Strip is facing a wave of consolidation unlike anything seen in a generation, with two major casino takeover deals announced in the span of days that could fundamentally reshape the American gaming industry. Media mogul Barry Diller’s holding company People Incorporated — formerly known as IAC — submitted a non-binding proposal Monday Read More…

Almost 25,000 immigration arrests made in Florida

(The Center Square) – Since Florida launched its immigration enforcement effort, Operation Tidal Wave, in February, nearly 25,000 arrests have been made statewide. “Florida will continue to use every available resource to identify dangerous individuals, support federal immigration enforcement and keep our citizens safe,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “No state has moved faster or done more Read More…

Gianforte Highlights Rural Business, Energy, and Agriculture on 56 County Tour

HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte continued his annual 56 County Tour this week, visiting small businesses, energy facilities, agricultural operations, and infrastructure projects across six counties along Montana’s Hi-Line and Rocky Mountain Front. The governor began his day in Toole County at Prairie Peddler in Shelby, a local gift and coffee shop that reopened Read More…

South Dakota Arts Council Awards America 250 Community Arts Grants

PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota Arts Council awarded six grants of $5,000 each to support community-based arts and cultural initiatives celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, the agency announced. The grants were awarded through SDAC’s America 250 Community Arts program, which encouraged organizations across the state to create public programming highlighting local Read More…

Warsh Takes the Wheel at the Fed

WASHINGTON — Kevin Warsh begins his first full week as chairman of the Federal Reserve today with markets watching closely for early signals on monetary policy direction as stubbornly high inflation complicates the new chair’s opening days in office. Warsh was sworn in May 22 in a White House ceremony — the first time a Read More…