HELENA — The Montana House has endorsed a bill that would let the public ask for an election to change local health boards’ actions. It’s the latest of a series of bills debated this session that would put boundaries around the authority of health boards and officers. Senate Bill 108, sponsored by Sen. Doug Kary, Read More…
HELENA — In an escalating political battle between Republican leadership at the Montana Legislature and the state’s judiciary, the Montana Supreme Court Sunday quashed a subpoena lawmakers had used to obtain a cache of internal e-mails from the judiciary. In an unusual weekend order, the high court blocked any further release of the e-mails until Read More…
President Joe Biden unveiled a $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan last month and has promised to seek input from Republican lawmakers on its ultimate design. That courtship begins Monday when Biden and Vice President Harris meet with a bipartisan group of House and Senate members to discuss the proposal. But his administration has already signaled its willingness to push a Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Thom Tillis announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he’ll undergo surgery in North Carolina this week to treat it. The Republican lawmaker said in a statement that his cancer was detected “relatively early” and his “prognosis is good.” Tillis, 60, says his doctors caught the cancer during his Read More…
Since 2017, the IRS owes — that’s right, owes – Americans $1.3 billion in unclaimed tax returns, the agency said on Monday. The IRS said that in total, 1.3 million tax payers who did not file a 2017 Form 1040 federal income tax return are owed a refund. The IRS said the median refund would Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — The public comment period for a Montana plan to clean a polluted 42-acre area just north of downtown Missoula is set to expire on May 2. The Missoulian reported Thursday that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality had proposed a plan to clean the area to standards that would allow future industrial uses. Read More…
Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation banning sanctuary cities throughout the state earlier this week. “We are a nation of laws, and immigration laws will be enforced in Montana,” Gianforte said in a statement,” the governor said in a statement. The legislation allows the state’s attorney general to pursue civil action against jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal Read More…
Kelly Tshibaka, an Alaska official who on Monday launched a challenge against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, is backed by former aides to President Donald Trump in a race that could prove a test of his appeal agaist the GOP establishment. Tim Murtaugh, the former communication director for Trump’s reelection campaign, Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager, Justin Clark, Trump’s former deputy Read More…
President Joe Biden announced his first slate of judicial nominees Tuesday, tapping a diverse pool of 11 candidates for the federal bench. Perhaps the most high-profile name on the White House’s list was Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — a potential Supreme Court pick — whom Read More…
After he canceled student debt for about 72,000 defrauded borrowers two weeks ago, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced on Monday relief measures for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. Under the previous rule, established under President Barack Obama, anyone determined permanently disabled by a physician, the Social Security Administration, or the Department of Veteran Affairs was eligible for federal Read More…
State Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, has announced she’ll run for Idaho Secretary of State in 2022, joining a race that already includes Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane. Current Secretary of State Lawerence Denney told the Idaho Press two weeks ago that he’s probably not going to seek a third term; Denney, like both Souza Read More…
North Dakota’s Senate might revive the question of legalizing recreational marijuana, but through a ballot measure put to voters. The chamber last week soundly defeated a bill to legalize but restrict the drug for recreational use. The 50-page bill, which passed the House, came as an effort by lawmakers to head off a proposed Read More…
The Wyoming Senate voted Monday to pass a bill that would make it illegal to share explicit images or videos without the subject’s consent. House Bill 85 addresses what’s commonly known as revenge porn. As of 2019, Wyoming was just one of four states in the U.S. without any laws concerning the practice. Read More…
Idaho Potato Commission President and CEO Frank Muir plans to retire in mid-September. He prioritized national branding and marketing since leaving a well-established corporate career in those disciplines in 2003 to join IPC. “I was hired as an outside hired gun to do real marketing, and that’s what we’ve tried to do the Read More…
To close out Montana Agriculture Week, Governor Greg Gianforte toured the Feddes’ Family’s Amsterdam Meat Shop in Manhattan, which was awarded a MT Meat Processing Award Grant from the CARES Act. At the site, the governor heard from owners how this investment allowed them to increase their processing capacity and get their beef from pasture Read More…
Sixty officers from 40 different agencies in the state will graduate Tuesday from the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena. Attorney General Austin Knudsen is set to give a keynote address. Glen Stinar, academy administrator, and graduating class representative Thomas Hsu of the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office will also speak, according to a news release. Read More…
(The Center Square) – Montana is the ninth least stressed state in the U.S., according to a new study, in large part because of financial, family and health-related factors. Personal finance website Wallethub ranked the states based on more than 40 indicators across categories such as average number of hours worked per week, personal bankruptcy rate and Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Governor Greg Gianforte announced Monday in a release that Montana is one of four states selected to participate in the National Governors Association’s (NGA) 2021 Policy Academy to Advance Whole-of-State Cybersecurity. In the new policy academy, Montana will work with the NGA on developing and implementing cybersecurity workforce development plans. “As one Read More…
HELENA — More than three years into an overhaul of Montana’s criminal sentencing laws, the Legislature is preparing to ask the Corrections Department for extensive reporting on whether rehabilitation programs are working – including a rewritten definition of “recidivism.” “There was a fair amount of frustration that there really hasn’t been good progress made, to Read More…
HELENA — On Monday, Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins has officially announced his intentions to run for re-election. “I want to continue to improve our wonderful home, and make it a better place to live, work, and raise our families – which is why today, I’m extremely honored and humbled to ask for your vote to Read More…
HELENA — One of the most anticipated bills of the 2021 Legislature – the measure containing the Gianforte administration’s proposal to implement recreational marijuana in Montana – was introduced Monday morning. House Bill 701, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, would make many changes to the 2020 initiative passed by voters last November, that legalized Read More…
The Idaho legislature voted Friday to close down until early April after a coronavirus outbreak among six members of the state House. The recess, which will last until April 6, comes after five Republicans and a Democrat in the lower chamber tested positive for the virus. Several GOP lawmakers in both chambers have declined to Read More…
BOZEMAN, Mont. – Organizers for the Kenny Chesney concert have rescheduled the show at the Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman for 2022 due to COVID-19 concerns. Montana State University said in a release Chesney is putting on an entirely new show with a different name, different line-up and is including new music for his 2022 tour Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — An attorney for the Montana Democratic Party says a bill requested by the Secretary of State’s Office is an attempt to do an end run around the Montana Supreme Court decision that removed the Green Party from the 2020 ballot. Democrats challenged the minor party’s qualification after it was learned the Montana Republican Read More…
HELENA — On Monday, the Montana House met all day to consider just a single bill – but it was a massive one. They held a full day of debate on House Bill 2, the main state budget bill. Lawmakers then endorsed the bill 67-33 in a party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats Read More…
Verizon Media Group, the media division within Verizon, has 3 million people that pay for subscriptions across its portfolio of Yahoo-related products, like Yahoo Fantasy, Yahoo Finance and others, executives tell Axios. Why it matters: Moving forward, the goal will be to rebrand most of its media franchises as Yahoo products, and to focus on selling Read More…
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after it was vacated by a lower court last year. Tsarnaev was convicted of planting pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon with his brother, which killed three people and injured hundreds of others. He was sentenced Read More…
The prospect of a floor vote to overturn a contested congressional race in Iowa has suddenly become a real dilemma for House Democrats’ most vulnerable members. Moderate Democrats are privately squirming over the possibility that they could be forced to choose a winner in the race for Iowa’s 2nd district, where the GOP candidate, now-Rep. Read More…
With backing from Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Senate committee on Wednesday approved a wide-ranging proposal to revamp vote-by-mail laws, including banning the use of drop boxes and taking aim at a practice known as “ballot harvesting.” The bill comes amid efforts in various parts of the country by Republicans to place new restrictions on Read More…
Mayor Ted Wheeler appears to have finally worked out that the residents of Portland, Oregon might be losing patience with endless rioting and vandalism. If only he were in a position to do something about it. Portland is a joke. The city has gone from being a byword for early-2010s hipsterism, replete with vegan bookstores Read More…
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s governor urged members of Congress on Friday to back federal legislation that could help speed up carbon capture infrastructure development across the country. Gov. Mark Gordon joined governors in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Oklahoma in drafting a letter to several lawmakers, urging them to support the SCALE Act, co-sponsored by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. The proposed Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Senate rejected an effort to create authority for an Interstate 80 tolling program on Friday, March 19. The Senate defeated Senate File 73 on a third reading vote of 16-13. Sen. Bill Landen (Natrona), who voted on the prevailing side, motioned for an immediate reconsideration of the bill after the third reading vote. Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Dead sea scrolls have been in the news recently because previously undiscovered fragments of them were found in a newly excavated cave in the Judean Desert by archeologists working for the Israel Antiquity Authority. The find is the first in 60 years and has created a lot of excitement among both Read More…
PORTLAND, Ore.—When the fence that had surrounded the federal courthouse here was removed earlier this month, city leaders touted it as a sign that Portland was returning to normal after nine months of protests that often turned violent. But within days, bands of rioters were back in downtown Portland. They blocked streets, broke windows, threw Read More…
HELENA — From child-care grants to Covid-19 testing to $1 billion of infrastructure projects, Montana lawmakers this week must mash together the kitchen-sink of spending bills, authorizing as much as $3 billion of federal Covid relief and stimulus funds. A trio of budget panels made recommendations Friday, after just one week of combing through the Read More…
Republicans were in the majority in the Senate and President Trump was in office. As Republicans, we committed to working in a bipartisan manner to deliver needed relief to Montanans and all Americans struggling because of this historic pandemic. We thought President Biden was on board with this mission. He campaigned on a promise of Read More…
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) has agreed to drop its lawsuit against five Flathead County businesses and cover the defendants’ legal fees at a cost of more than $94,000, nearly five months after the businesses were accused of ignoring a statewide mask mandate imposed by former Gov. Steve Bullock. The Read More…
Montana and Texas are leading a 21-state coalition that seeks to block the Biden administration’s cancellation of Keystone XL’s border crossing permit. Other states in the suit include North and South Dakota, as well as Wyoming and Nebraska. The suit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by Read More…
It wasn’t the first time a Montana coal mine had gone bankrupt, but Decker Coal’s reason for calling it quits had never been stated so plainly. There are no longer customers lined up at Decker’s door for Montana coal. Detroit-based energy company DTE no longer needed the 2.5 million tons of coal it Read More…
Since Bill Moseley started his software company, GL Solutions, in 1997 in Bend, Oregon, he’s watched the small city’s population grow rapidly while the housing inventory failed to grow with it. As masses of people flocked to the small mountain town, Moseley struggled to recruit employees because they couldn’t find a place to live. In Read More…