Wyoming’s unemployment rate fell in August for the first time in 18 months, the Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday. The shift from 5.7 percent unemployment in July to 5.5 percent last month is not a statistically significant drop, but it offers hope that the state economy is stabilizing. Natrona County had the fourth-largest decrease Read More…
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation that this year’s fire season has been near or below average in the Treasure State. During an Environmental Quality Council meeting in Helena earlier this week, the DNRC’s Bob Harrington reported that 252 fires this season have burned 23,000 acres of state-managed land. The total cost to fight the blazes is Read More…
Members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe gathered along the bank of the Missouri River in Great Falls on Tuesday evening to show their support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. The group is joining in protest of the multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline that would cross the Missouri River several times across Read More…
Montana Congressional candidate, Michael C. Fellows, died in a head on collision Monday night in Potomac. Fellows was running as a Libertarian. A Montana Highway Patrol dispatcher told MTN News that Fellows, 59, was driving a Lexus passenger car west on Montana Highway 200 near Potomac when he crossed the center line just after 9 Read More…
What we need to see in our next state auditor is someone who understands what it takes to help small businesses grow and create Montana jobs. It deeply concerns us that Jesse Laslovich has none of that experience, and worst of all, his record shows him to be anti-business and anti-jobs, and that kind of Read More…
MISSOULA — More than 11 million out-of-state travelers come to Montana every year, yet it is only one of five states in the country with no statewide sales tax. Proponents of a sales tax say it’s a giant missed opportunity to generate revenue from those tourists. Detractors say it would disproportionately hurt lower-income residents. A Read More…
On Thursday, a crime victim forum at the Willson School gave people the chance to come forward and discuss how they feel law enforcement could better serve citizens. A man said his house was broken into three years ago and the alleged robber has been identified but never tried. Another man said a woman broke into Read More…
Here’s a question a few of my friends are asking me. Why would a pro-choice, liberal-leaning woman like myself, who typically votes for Democrats, be supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte? First, a little background. I’ve had decades of experience in business and economic development. In 2000, I began running a small economic development Read More…
Both major party candidates for governor of Montana making the rounds today to tout their jobs platforms. Governor Steve Bullock and republican candidate Greg Gianforte stopped by ABC Fox Montana’s Studio “K” to chat with us. Greg Gianforte: “This is the dream that many Montanans have. They want their kids back around the table on Read More…
Republican-leaning websites Friday posted stories questioning trips that Gov. Steve Bullock and administration officials have taken to Missoula and the Kentucky Derby. The governor’s office says the trips were, respectively, to conduct state business, and to fulfill Bullock’s role as head of the Democratic Governors’ Association. Newstalk KGVO’s assertion that Bullock also traveled to Puerto Read More…
During Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, he has stacked the deck at the National Labor Relations Board with officials sympathetic to unions. (At one point, a unanimous Supreme Court decision ruled that Obama’s recess appointments to the board were illegal.) The NLRB has in turn issued all sorts of new rules to inhibit Read More…
By Mike Dennison – MTN News HELENA – The head of the state Republican Party Wednesday asked the Montana Supreme Court to remove the Libertarian secretary of state candidate from Montana’s November ballot, for not filing proper campaign forms. Jeff Essmann’s filing for “extraordinary relief” said Libertarian Roger Roots failed to file forms required of Read More…
There’s an EpiPen Tycoon computer game. In it, you are the CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch, the daughter of a US senator who has been handed a drug that lays a golden egg — EpiPen, an emergency anaphylaxis treatment that stops people’s throats from closing in the event of an allergic reaction. It’s Read More…
Hillary Clinton told investigators that she wasn’t aware that a “C” marking in emails she received on her private server indicated that the information was classified at the “confidential” level, according to documents that the FBI released on Friday. The State Department determined that one email chain contained information that is classified at the Read More…
The Florida Senate race is about more than just a seat in Congress — it will determine if Marco Rubio has a future in politics. The failed presidential candidate is still one of the Republican Party’s biggest — and at 45, youngest — stars. Few GOP leaders are as charismatic or have the potential to Read More…
Either Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI or she lied on a State Department form as she began her tenure as Secretary of State. This conclusion appears inescapable after Friday’s FBI document release related to the Clinton email investigation. As revealed by those FBI documents, Clinton told agents that she could not recall “any briefing or training Read More…
An unknown individual used an anonymous web browsing tool often used to access the dark web to get into an email account on the Clinton family server, the FBI revealed on Friday. Meanwhile, in another incident, top aide Huma Abedin revealed to an unidentified person that Clinton had fears she had been hacked after she Read More…
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to Columbus. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein instead ended up in Cincinnati after a campaign staffer mistakenly booked her flight to the wrong “C” city in Ohio. Stein’s scheduled noon speech at Capital University in Bexley instead came at 2:35 p.m. after she jumped into a car Read More…
The Miles City Council passed a $26.7 million city budget for 2016-17 Tuesday night. The $23,668,213 spending plan includes $5 million in General Fund expenditures, nearly $900,000 in cash carryover and various enterprise funds like ambulance, water, sewer, airport and library.. Finance Committee Chairwoman Susanne Galbraith said the police department requested an additional officer, which Read More…
Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has poured another $640,000 of his own money into his campaign, upping his total personal contributions to $1.7 million – about half his overall campaign funds. But Gianforte wasn’t the only one who opened his checkbook in Montana’s gubernatorial race last month. Good Jobs Montana, an independent political action committee Read More…
Malmstrom Air Force Base residents woke up to potentially dangerous drinking water this morning. The base put out a notice stating there were elevated chlorine levels in water and it was unsafe to drink or even wash with. Some residents stated the water smelled a little funny as early as last night. Base officials say Read More…
The University of Montana’s new slogan is “Let’s Go There!” In addition to delighting fans of “30 Rock,” this exclamation is everything you want in a marketing tagline. It succinctly conveys the university’s message to the public: Please attend our school, and if you can, bring some friends. “Let’s Go There!” models desirable behavior for Read More…
HELENA — Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has given another $660,000 to his campaign as he and incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock began flooding the airwaves with ads. The Bozeman technology entrepreneur has given his campaign more than $1.6 million total, and he pledged to match every contribution he receives. Including Gianforte’s contributions of $650,000 Read More…
When Lori Goler, Facebook’s Vice President of People, joined the company in 2008, she got to work making the company a “strengths-based” organization. It’s a term based on Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman’s 1999 bestselling management guide “First, Break All the Rules.” The coauthors were Gallup analysts at the time and drew insights from 25 years Read More…
Donald Trump doubled down on his promises to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, saying, “We will build a great wall along the southern border” in speech on Wednesday evening. Trump has promoted the wall as a part of a solution to cross-border crime and to illegal immigration. But just a few days before Trump’s awkward meeting Read More…
Women are going nuts overLuLaRoe, a clothing brand that has catapulted from near obscurity to cult status in the past couple of years. The brand, which sells brightly-colored shirts, leggings, and dresses, isn’t available in stores or on a company website. Instead, tens of thousands of people across the US — many of whom are Read More…
Contemporary media parlor games revolve around fantasy sports and politics. Yet for politics, press interest in money raised and spent often seems more important than who will win and how policies might change. One corollary to the political-money obsession is the complaint that Federal Election Commission enforcement for alleged wrongdoers is too feeble. Critics say Read More…
HELENA — The ending fund balance for fiscal year 2016 was $255 million, or $99 million less than anticipated, according to an Aug. 25 memo prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Division, adding that figure was expected to dip down to $153 million by fiscal year 2017. “Actual revenues in FY 2016 were $142 million less Read More…
When you don’t have much new income, it’s great if you can pay your monthly bills using money coming in from smart investment of your savings. Not a lot of people have that. But public budgets in Wyoming have enjoyed some of that kind of security. Now the state is looking for the best strategy Read More…
Representatives of Wyoming firearms manufacturers were on hand Monday, as Gov. Matt Mead announced three new initiatives to promote shooting sports across the state as part of “Wyoming’s Day at the Range.” “We have a growing firearms industry in Wyoming,” Mead said at ceremony at the Otto Road Shooting Range west of Cheyenne. “Some Read More…
Not long after it became clear that the robust winds that blow down from the Rocky Mountains and across the sea of sagebrush here could produce plenty of profit in a world that wants more renewable energy, some of the more expansive minds in the Wyoming Legislature began entertaining a lofty question: Who owns all Read More…
CHEYENNE – Budget cuts will mean less marketing and advertising to attract visitors to Wyoming. The Wyoming Office of Tourism cut about $2 million from its 2017-18 budget as a result of massive cuts across state agencies. The bulk of that money, almost $1.4 million, was designated for advertising. That cut will mean a smaller Read More…
The Treasure State will soon be able to eat one of the Peach State’s most beloved treasures, and it’s not a peach. Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A Inc. will open its first restaurant in Montana at 35 Treeline Road in Kalispell. The company said more details on our first location and the local owner will be available soon. It’s Chick-fil-A Read More…
BILLINGS, Mont. – Residents of an eastern Montana city are being asked to limit their water use so one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the western U.S. can continue to safely operate. Colstrip Mayor John Williams asked the city’s 2,300 residents to minimize their use of water for sprinkling and irrigation through the Read More…
Hobble Diamond Ranch offers a home on the range to fulfill your dreams of living the cowboy lifestyle on a 30,000-acre spread accentuated by the Yellowstone River running through the property. It can all be yours for the sum of $35 million. Bloomberg’s James Tarmy has the details on “Bloomberg Markets.” From Bloomberg
The Montana National Guard marked the end of an era as it closed its armory in Hamilton Tuesday. The Hamilton Armory on West Main Street is 57 years old. Detachment 2,230th Engineering Company, which called the armory home, will be transferred to Anaconda. Montana National Guard soldiers did a final walk through of the landmark Read More…
If there’s one thing many Montanans can agree on it’s a love for beer. And if Anaconda resident Luke Carlson gets his way, Anaconda could get its own brewery as early as late December. “If everything goes smoothly, we’re kind of pushing for Christmas time,” said Carlson, who recently applied for funding from the city’s Read More…
BONNER — When Steve Nelson and Mike Boehme bought the former Stimson lumber mill site in Bonner in 2011, they saw potential in the blighted, polluted industrial area. Recently, the duo gave a tour to showcase the business activity going on there. Today, 10 separate businesses employing roughly 250 people occupy the 170-acre site, including Read More…
After a decade-long partnership with Bozeman advertising agency MercuryCSC, Montana’s Office of Tourism and Business Development recently awarded the state’s $7 million annual marketing contract to a company based in Wisconsin. The department awarded the contract to Milwaukee agency Hoffman York at the beginning of August using a point system it says is objective to Read More…
THREE FORKS, MONT. — Wheat Montana recently reformulated its Healthyloaf line of bread using only non-G.M.O. ingredients. The company worked with vendors to assure that all ingredients are non-G.M.O., and plans to submit all items for non-GMO Project verification. The Healthyloaf line of better-for-you sliced bread has been a top-seller for Wheat Montana since its Read More…