HELENA, Mont. — Incoming Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signaled he won’t continue a statewide mask mandate in place since July, though he said he plans to wear a mask himself and get vaccinated against COVID-19. If Gianforte, a Republican, reverses outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s mask order, Montana will be just the second state after Mississippi to Read More…
MISSOULA — There is another legal salvo in the fight over protections for the wolverine in the Northern Rockies, with conservation organizations filing a federal lawsuit challenging the latest decision to not treat the rare mammals as “threatened.” Some scientists believe there are fewer than 300 wolverines left and are being hurt genetically because they Read More…
Major Steve Lavin, of Kalispell, will lead the Montana Highway Patrol under the next Department of Justice administration, Attorney General-elect Austin Knudsen said Wednesday. “Steve has the vision, experience and leadership ability we need to tackle the difficult challenges we face,” Knudsen, a Republican, said in a statement. “His integrity and steadfast devotion to duty Read More…
BILLINGS – It’s been said that age is just a number—but when that number reaches 100, it’s still a pretty big deal. You would never guess that George Wallis is that old when you first meet him. “That pile is from the 446th Bomb Crew and that pile is from family,” he says pointing to stacks Read More…
Gov. Steve Bullock was at St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings Tuesday afternoon as health-care workers received the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. “This really is a historic moment for our state and our country…no place I’d rather be as we start to see some light in what’s been a long, dark tunnel- really Read More…
Congressional leaders closed in on a $900 billion coronavirus relief deal Wednesday as millions of struggling Americans wait for help. The developing aid agreement would not include liability protections for businesses or aid to state and local government, CNBC confirmed. Disagreements over those two issues have blocked lawmakers from crafting a year-end rescue package. “We Read More…
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – The North Dakota Medical Expense Assistance Program (MEAP) is now closed. The application window was supposed to end on Sunday, but it closed on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. because of the overwhelming response. This program provides assistance with medical expenses to support first responders and healthcare workers during the Read More…
The $37.5 million Pierre drinking water treatment plant — the biggest project in the city’s modern history — is $100,000 closer to reality, thanks to the Central Plains Water Development District. “To the best of my knowledge, the drinking water treatment project is the biggest local public investment in Pierre’s history,” Pierre Mayor Steve Read More…
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming — Wyoming state troopers found a child at the center of an Idaho Falls Amber alert in a broken down car in rural Wyoming. On Friday, the Idaho Falls Police Department said that 10-yer-old Derek Jesus Abitia Rodriguez was missing and possibly abducted. Later that night, an Amber alert was issued and Read More…
The Minnesota Republican Party has decided to hold its annual winter retreat in Deadwood, South Dakota. On its invitation to members, party officials say they’re excited to hit the road and head to our “friendly neighbors to the west in a beautiful, free and open part of the country.” South Dakota has fewer COVID restrictions Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Legislature is considering joining other states in authorizing the use of “automated vehicle identification systems” to enforce speed limits and other traffic laws. 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws in place which allow the use of cameras to issue speeding fines, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Read More…
Public health departments in Casper and Cheyenne each received shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Monday. Three additional shipments of the same number of doses are expected to arrive Tuesday at hospitals in Cody, Jackson and Gillette. Spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Health Kim Deti said initial vaccine doses could soon be Read More…
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem sent official letters on December 7 withdrawing as a presidential elector and asking that South Dakota Republican Party chairman Dan Lederman serve in her place. Lederman and two fellow Republicans, Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden and State Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, met at noon Monday in a Read More…
GREAT FALLS — Many Montanans take pride in living in the “406” – and soon Treasure State residents will be using that 406 more often. On Friday, the Montana Public Service Commission announced that beginning next year, whenever you call to a Montana phone number from a Montana phone number, you will have to include Read More…
High rates of chronic wasting disease in and around the Ruby Valley have prompted officials to ramp up the killing of white-tailed deer in nine hunting districts across southwest Montana. Brian Wakeling, game management bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said at a virtual Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting Thursday that Read More…
Tensions are high over the fate of more than 3 million acres of public and private land in northeast Montana. Two groups have very different views on the future of this vast area. Alison Fox is head of an effort to turn it into the largest nature reserve in the nation. She’s the CEO of Read More…
HELENA – On Wednesday, 17 states asked the U.S. Supreme Court to accept a new lawsuit that is attempting to invalidate Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the 2020 Presidential race in four key states. Montana is one of them. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox says the odds of the high court accepting the late Read More…
HELENA — A multi-day hearing is scheduled next week on a human-rights complaint from former Corrections Department employee Adrianne Cotton, who said her job was eliminated in 2018 in retaliation for her sexual-harassment claim against the agency director. The hearing, at which state Corrections Director Reg Michael and other state officials and former state employees Read More…
BILLINGS — Few have felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic more than small businesses. In Montana, those account for over 99% of all businesses and 65% of all employees. So the Montana district of the U.S. Small Business Administration is hitting the road to highlight success stories across the state. District director Brent Donnelly Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Sen. Jon Tester is one of several Democratic senators who isn’t an automatic yes on giving President-elect Joe Biden’s defense secretary nominee a congressional waiver. Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin is up for the position, but the National Security Act requires civilian control at the Pentagon, meaning someone has to have been retired from Read More…
Missoula County will distribute up to $625,000 in grant funding to help local businesses impacted by the pandemic retain jobs for low- and moderate-income employees through the COVID-19 Small Business Job Retention Fund. Qualifying businesses will be able to submit applications this week, and grant funding will be awarded and distributed in January. The application Read More…
The South Dakota Board of Regents approved the naming of a new program unit at Dakota State University’s campus on Thursday. The Paulson Cyber Incubator and Entrepreneurial Center is named after Matt Paulson, a former DSU alumnus, entrepreneur, private equity, investor and author. READ FULL STORY
South Dakota is making a last-minute bid to overturn presidential election results and keep President-elect Joe Biden from taking office next month. South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s office Wednesday joined 16 other states with Republican attorneys general in filing an Amicus Brief in support of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against four battleground states — Georgia, Read More…
The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to force former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon to testify under oath as part of the agency’s investigation into Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data breach. FTC prosecutors said they want to interview Bannon as part of a probe into whether he should be found personally liable for his Read More…
The federal investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been more extensive than a statement from Hunter Biden indicates, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of the investigation. On Wednesday, Hunter Biden said he had been contacted about a tax investigation out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware. In addition to Delaware, the Read More…
The city of Helena is looking at modifying its firearm ordinance, after Montana voters approved a measure that limits how local governments can regulate guns. During an administrative meeting Wednesday, city attorney Thomas Jodoin told the Helena City Commission that the existing ordinance will have to be narrowed to bring it in line with Legislative Read More…
During a Friday press conference, his first since being elected, Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte offered few hints about what policies he may pursue or support once he’s sworn in on Jan. 4. While he largely avoided answering direct questions about specific policy proposals and ideas, he did say that responding to the coronavirus pandemic, which has Read More…
PORTLAND, Ore. — With a Democratic supermajority in the Oregon legislature and increasingly left-leaning urban areas, conservative rural Oregonians have long felt left out of state politics. Some of these conservative Oregonians are trying to leave the state all together to preserve their values. But they don’t plan to physically move anywhere — it’s Read More…
MEDICINE BOW — Only one multi-story building exists in this tiny town of under 300. The Virginian Hotel rises up 3 1/2 stories and sits in the heart of the town. On a late October day, an American flag in front of the hotel fought the ferocious northeast winds, as they cut through a Read More…
NFL legend Tom Brady’s sports company TB12 INC. secured an almost $1 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the federal government amid the coronavirus pandemic. Though reports of Brady’s PPP loan was initially revealed in July, the amount was unknown. Data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration in December revealed that TB12 received $960,855. The PPP loan Read More…
President-elect Joe Biden has named several key appointments to his health team, including the nomination of Xavier Becerra to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services. If confirmed, Becerra will be the first Latino to hold the position. Becerra comes to the Department of Health and Human Services as the 33rd attorney general of California and the Read More…
Several GOP senators and representatives voiced support for President Trump to run for office again in 2024, in interviews with Politico on Wednesday. Senators Lindsey Graham (R., Ga.), Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), and Rick Scott (R., Fla.) all backed the idea, as did Representatives Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), and Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.). Read More…
Paul Ryan left the U.S. House and the powerful speaker’s post two years ago. Then the Janesville Republican went silent, avoiding commentary on President Trump. He and Trump had clashed at times. Sen. Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican who picked Ryan as his 2012 running mate, also clashed with Trump. Now, with the Read More…
Recently, there has been much debate about whether billionaires should exist, an idea popularized by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But to former Alphabet executive chairman and investor Eric Schmidt, who is worth more than $17 billion, the idea that extreme wealth is a moral failure is reductive. “We would probably all be better off spending more time understanding Read More…
The Honorable Ted O. Lympus, a former Flathead County Attorney and Flathead District Court judge for decades, died peacefully Thursday morning, surrounded by family members at home in Missoula. He was 77. Lympus served as a judge for the 11th District Court in Montana for 23 years, retiring in 2015. Prior to that he spent Read More…
BILLINGS — As the cold weather starts to settle in Montana, snow and ice can make getting from point A to point B difficult on the roads and rails. Luckily, BNSF Railway, which moves everything from groceries to medicine to automobiles, has some interesting methods to keep its trains running during the winter. READ FULL Read More…
MISSOULA — The Montana Food Back Network reports that approximately 10% of Montanans struggle with hunger — a problem only made worse by COVID-19. Once again KPAX and First Security Bank have teamed up for our annual holiday food drive to help keep our community fed. We spoke with First Security Bank president and CEO Read More…
Casper, Wyo. • The owner of a Montana coal mine filed for bankruptcy and laid off nearly half of its workforce at the facility near the Wyoming border. Lighthouse Resources Inc. filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, The Casper Star-Tribune reports. The company based in South Read More…
WARSAW — The $156.6 million Wyoming County budget was approved Tuesday in a special meeting. The county’s Board of Supervisors approved the budget nearly unanimously after a public hearing. Supervisor Daniel Leuer of Middlebury abstained from the budget vote, along with a separate vote to breach the state’s tax levy. No members of Read More…
Cynthia Lummis is the Republican senator-elect from Wyoming, having been elected to succeed Mike Enzi. She will be the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate. First elected to the House in 2008, she served as the representative for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district from 2009 to 2017. READ FULL STORY