Even though the Montana Science Center is temporarily closed, executive director Abby Turner was keeping an eye out for what the center could be doing for Bozeman. “We had been watching the ways that people are helping out,” Turner said. “For us, we knew that some of the resources that we had available at the Read More…
LIVINGSTON — One day late last week, Dan Vermillion, owner of Sweetwater Travel in Livingston, woke up to a flurry of emails. There were seven different requests to book his vacation rentals for up to six months. Normally, a booking is three days, five days, maybe a week. By: Johnathan Hettinger – Montana Free Press LIVINGSTON Read More…
While families’ cats and dogs are enjoying the upside of spending days with their owners working from home during the coronavirus shutdown, wild coyotes in San Francisco are reportedly also taking advantage of the benefits of a suddenly empty city. There have been several recent fake stories circulating about unusual wildlife showing up in cities during the Read More…
GRAND FORKS — North Dakotans can breathe a sigh of relief: this year’s campaign almost certainly won’t be the political storm that brought a tsunami of spending to the state in 2018, when GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer ousted Democrat Heidi Heitkamp from a nationally coveted seat. But the stakes are still high for legislative Read More…
FARGO — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been in daily contact with lawmakers about the coronavirus and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of calling a special session, a spokesman said Wednesday. Mike Nowatzki, Burgum’s communications director, said that although “it’s too early to speculate” about whether to call in lawmakers, the governor’s office continues Read More…
The businesses lining the main streets of Wyoming speak volumes about the communities they inhabit. Successful restaurants reflect the tastes of the local residents. Retailers, and the wares they carry, often resemble the demographics of a community. Art galleries, music shops and others can indicate the existence of tourist traffic and a creative class that Read More…
According to the Governor’s Office, unemployment in Montana held steady at 3.5% in February, before COVID-19 reached the Treasure State. Gov. Bullock said in a press release that Montana added 800 jobs over the month and was on par with the U.S. unemployment rate, also 3.5 percent in February. READ FULL STORY
Montana U.S. House candidate Kathleen Williams and members of her campaign staff are self-quarantining after learning an attendee at a campaign event tested positive for COVID-19. Williams’ campaign manager, Jeff Allen, said in a Thursday news release that neither the Bozeman Democrat nor her campaign staff have experienced symptoms and are self-quarantining “out of an Read More…
GREAT FALLS — Governor Steve Bullock on Thursday afternoon issued a directive requiring Montanans to stay home and temporarily closes all nonessential businesses and operations as efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) continue. The order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday March 28; Bullock said implementation of the order will buy Read More…
BOZEMAN — An organic chemist from Montana State University is one of 25 educators in the 2020 class of Cottrell Scholars, an award honoring both academic leadership and innovative research in the physical sciences. Sharon Neufeldt, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in MSU’s College of Letters and Science, received the award last month Read More…
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will head to trial apart from fellow C-suite exec and one-time lover, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, according to a report. Holmes, who served as the company’s CEO, will head to trial starting Aug. 4 with a separate jury from Balwani, who will be tried following the conclusion of Holmes’ case, Bloomberg reported. The judge did not provide any Read More…
About 10 years ago, SoftBank released a slideshow presentation on the company’s 300-year plan. “Unknown virus” got one reference, on slide 69 of 133. Perhaps coronavirus will just be a blip in the company’s long-term plan for world domination. Perhaps SoftBank’s vision of investing in artificial intelligence and other dominant technology companies will pay off in the long run, Read More…
Washington (AFP) – Just because there’s a pandemic going on, doesn’t mean the party has to stop. And one DJ has kept it going — for 10 hours at a time. The coronavirus has upended daily lives, with thousands of deaths around the world. Many people are staying at home in an effort to stem Read More…
Boeing on Monday said it is shutting down production at its factories in the Seattle area for two weeks as the manufacturer grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s move to suspend its production at its facilities in the Puget Sound area comes as Washington state, where most of Boeing’s production is centered, Read More…
In the spring of 2018, the Yale psychology professor Laurie Santos unveiled a new course, Psychology and the Good Life. The subject was happiness. Santos’ course was a blend of abstract and concrete. It combined positive psychology with the real-life applications of behavioral science. It debunked popular notions of what makes people happy (like the Read More…
(CNN) – Outside groups aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have launched a three-pronged attack on Republican Rep. Doug Collins’ professional record, attempting to portray him as weak on crime in order to doom his Senate campaign in Georgia against a GOP incumbent. The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) and One Nation spent nearly Read More…
Who will lead the revolution? With Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign just about Berned out, some are looking to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her friends to pick up where the 78-year-old socialist left off. “There is definitely an opportunity for her and other members of the squad,” Jabari Brisport, a Democratic Socialist-endorsed candidate running for state Senate in Read More…
The coronavirus has caused the price of gasoline in North Dakota to drop 15 cents in the past week, and some industry analysts say the downward spiral could see gas plummet to 99 cents a gallon. According to travel and navigation application GasBuddy, gas prices in the state are 37 cents lower than one month Read More…
The Wyoming State Health Officer signed an order, effective immediately, that prohibits gatherings of 10 or more in a single room or confined space due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news releasee from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office on Saturday. “People of any age can spread this disease to others who are Read More…
BOISE, Idaho — Editor’s note: In the above video, Idaho State Epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn answers viewer questions about the coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic. We have received many questions from viewers regarding the accuracy of the confirmed coronavirus cases reported on the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare website. Local public health districts may be confirming cases of Read More…
BILLINGS — Businesses and nonprofits in all of Montana and Wyoming are eligible for up to $2 million in disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to press releases from U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines of Montana and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. The loans are designed to help businesses stay afloat if Read More…
The federal government could soon be paying for the early manufacturing of potential coronavirus drugs while those drugs are still being researched, under a $10 billion proposal by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines. The proposal, which received mention on the Sunday news program “Face The Nation” and in the Wall Street Journal, would have the federal Read More…
Republican Greg Gianforte is continuing his prodigious fundraising in Montana’s 2020 gubernatorial race, blowing past $2 million for the campaign during the first two-and-a-half months this year – including a $500,000 loan he made to the campaign in February. In his report filed Friday, Gianforte said he raised another $390,000 from donors during the first Read More…
On March 11, before there were any confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Montana, 57 Montanans filed a new claim for unemployment benefits. On March 18, with 15 cases of the virus in the state, there were 2,830 new claims — an increase of nearly 50 times in seven days. Gov. Steve Bullock and the Department Read More…
The State of Montana will be implementing emergency onsite and remote work procedures for many state employees begining Montay, Mar. 23. The change is to reduce potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus while maintaining necessary state-government operations. The State of Montana is one of the largest employers in Montana with more than 20,000 employees. READ Read More…
BILLINGS – Hospitals and other medical facilities around the country have been facing a shortage of masks in recent weeks, as the threat of COVID-19 has spread. In Billings, surgeons who typically would use a new mask for every procedure have been asked to use just one mask a day so that they don’t eventually Read More…
Vice President Pence is hiring a former George W. Bush administration official to serve as his office’s legal counsel. Pence’s office confirmed Monday that Gregory Jacob will take over the role being vacated by Matt Morgan, who is joining the Trump reelection campaign as director of litigation and legislation. “Greg is a man of deep professional experience, but also one Read More…
Don’t get AOC started on bailing out corporate America over coronavirus. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) fired a political shot across the bow of the airline industry and others hoping for multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailouts as the crisis worsens. “If there is so much as a DIME of corporate bailout money in the next relief package, Read More…
(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii announced Thursday that she is ending her Democratic presidential campaign and endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. “I know Vice President Biden and his wife and am grateful to have called his son Beau, who also served in the National Guard, a friend,” Gabbard said Read More…
Washington (CNN)Idaho’s Republican-controlled Legislature has sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would effectively block transgender people in the state from changing the listed sex on their birth certificates to match their gender identity, despite a federal judge having before struck down a similar state ban. HB 509, which was approved on Tuesday by the state’s Read More…
North Dakota generates tax revenue in three main ways: sales tax, income tax, and property tax. The state also has a Legacy Fund that is worth nearly $7 billion dollars to draw from. One law maker wants North Dakotans to vote to abolish property taxes, and make up the revenue-gap from mostly the oil tax Read More…
Gov. Mark Gordon announced the creation of five task forces designed to tackle the effects of the spreading coronavirus in a press conference in which he chastised Wyomingites who rushed to hoard supplies in recent days. “Think about actions and exercise common sense,” the governor said Monday in his fourth coronavirus news conference in the Read More…
The spread of the new coronavirus has halted travel and prompted a price war between two of the world’s biggest oil producers, putting many in the Bakken on edge as the outlook for the oil industry turns bleak. “It’s been extremely brutal,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. “We’re going to Read More…
The Wyoming state government has launched a webpage to keep residents up to date on the latest information on the COVID-19 outbreak as well as available resources. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon made the announcement on Wednesday. According to a release from the governor’s office: “We want to offer a single location to share information and resources from multiple Read More…
The Montana Office of Public Instruction said in a news release on Wednesday that it has submitted state and federal waiver requests to ensure that schools in Montana continue to receive funding, do not have to make up lost hours due to school closures, continue to have nutrition resources for students, and do not have Read More…
GREAT FALLS — Governor Steve Bullock on Wednesday evening said that two new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Montana. The two new cases are a Missoula County man in his 50s, and a Gallatin County man in his 60s. The tests, conducted by the DPHHS Public Health Laboratory, were confirmed Wednesday evening. Read More…
HELENA – A sprawling lawsuit to force the state to rewrite its energy policy, to combat climate change, has been filed in state District Court – and most of the lead plaintiffs aren’t even old enough to vote. 16 Montana youths, acting through their guardians and with the help of two environmental law groups and Read More…
HELENA – Secretary of State Corey Stapleton said earlier this week he was taking a “deliberate pause” before giving direction on the June 2 primary election as concerns increase about the coronavirus. “There’s been a lot of interest, a lot of questions about how the newly touched-down coronavirus could affect our elections,” he said in a Read More…
Industry leaders and educators are hoping to teach the tools of the trades to the next generation of workers. As the Flathead Valley continues to grow, the demand for work in local trade professions like construction has never been higher. But with the aging workforce and fewer new employees entering these fields, local employers have Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — On Monday, Missoula City-County Health officials announced an order closing bars and limiting restaurant service starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday through 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 24. The health department is doing this to follow guidelines set out by the Centers for Disease Control. “It’s not just about money, it’s really about the ethics Read More…