For years, one of the biggest questions surrounding Berkshire Hathaway was what would happen to its enormous cash pile once Warren Buffett was no longer running the company. Investors may be starting to get an answer. In his second full quarter as chief executive, Greg Abel is putting Berkshire’s capital to work at a pace Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte traveled across western Montana this week, visiting agricultural producers and manufacturers, opening a new manufacturing facility in Kalispell and recognizing a dozen veterans for their military and community service. The stops were part of Gianforte’s ongoing 56 County Tour, an annual swing through Montana aimed at highlighting local businesses, Read More…
BOISE, Idaho — Republican Sen. Jim Risch remains the clear favorite to win another term in one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states, but independent Todd Achilles is trying to turn Idaho’s Senate contest into a more competitive race by appealing to voters dissatisfied with both political parties. The contest has attracted unusual attention Read More…
Attorney General Austin Knudsen has withdrawn the 2012 opinion of then-Attorney General Steve Bullock and reaffirmed the reading of Montana’s term-limit provision set out in 1997 by Attorney General Joe Mazurek. He was right to do it. The charge that will follow—that Knudsen invented a new rule for a particular election—has the history backwards. Mazurek, Read More…
For years, one of the biggest questions surrounding Berkshire Hathaway was what would happen to its enormous cash pile once Warren Buffett was no longer running the company. Investors may be starting to get an answer. In his second full quarter as chief executive, Greg Abel is putting Berkshire’s capital to work at a pace Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte traveled across western Montana this week, visiting agricultural producers and manufacturers, opening a new manufacturing facility in Kalispell and recognizing a dozen veterans for their military and community service. The stops were part of Gianforte’s ongoing 56 County Tour, an annual swing through Montana aimed at highlighting local businesses, Read More…
BOISE, Idaho — Republican Sen. Jim Risch remains the clear favorite to win another term in one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states, but independent Todd Achilles is trying to turn Idaho’s Senate contest into a more competitive race by appealing to voters dissatisfied with both political parties. The contest has attracted unusual attention Read More…
Attorney General Austin Knudsen has withdrawn the 2012 opinion of then-Attorney General Steve Bullock and reaffirmed the reading of Montana’s term-limit provision set out in 1997 by Attorney General Joe Mazurek. He was right to do it. The charge that will follow—that Knudsen invented a new rule for a particular election—has the history backwards. Mazurek, Read More…
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated on the basis of race in admitting students to its 2023, 2024 and 2025 incoming classes, announcing investigative findings that the school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Read More…
Kellogg said it will remove artificial colors from all its cereals by the end of this year, moving up a timeline the company set just last August by more than a year. Kellogg had said in August 2025 that it would eliminate synthetic dyes from its cereals by the end of 2027. The company said Read More…
Two former NBA players, Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom, say they intend to declare for the WNBA draft in 2027, arguing that the league’s collective bargaining agreement fails to clearly define who is eligible to play. White, a former NBA player and Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota, said Sunday that the league’s lack Read More…
The White House launched a website, fraud.gov, to publish the actions and recoveries of its Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, saying Americans should be able to track federal enforcement efforts in one place. The administration said the task force has uncovered nearly $230 billion in fraud since beginning its work, blocked $56 billion in fraudulent Read More…
Applied Materials is set to report fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday after the market closes, with investors looking for signs that booming investment in artificial intelligence continues to drive demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The company reports Thursday, Aug. 13, and Wall Street is expecting another strong quarter. Analysts expect Applied Materials to report revenue of Read More…
Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced legislation that would create a dedicated pharmaceutical trade negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and expand federal oversight of foreign drug pricing policies. The Use Sovereignty to Reduce Rx Act, or USTRx Act, targets what its sponsors describe as price control regimes in wealthy countries that suppress payments Read More…
Employers now have guidance from the Treasury Department on how to contribute to ‘Trump Accounts’ for their employees’ children, and the department says more than 50 companies have already committed to offering such contributions. The new guidance provides a framework for employers to contribute up to $2,500 annually to employees’ ‘Trump Accounts’ for their children. Read More…
A coalition of state financial officers applauded the Securities and Exchange Commission for moving to rescind its 2024 climate disclosure rules that is estimated to save public businesses more than $7.9 billion. In March 2024, the SEC approved amendments to its rules that would mandate all public companies disclose greenhouse gas emissions, how it managed climate-related risks, Read More…
The Montana Democratic Party published a statement praising Democrat Alani Bankhead for suspending her Senate campaign before she had actually done so — a stunning blunder that laid bare how certain party leaders had become that their own nominee would step aside. The statement, first surfaced by Semafor’s Burgess Everett on X, reads: “The Montana Democratic Read More…
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s bill that would place sweeping new regulations on college sports failed to reach the floor this week before the Senate gaveled out for recess, imperiling its chances to become law this year as the midterm elections approach. The measure, coined the Protect College Sports Act, had gained a sudden Read More…
A bill that would exchange subsurface mineral interests on the Crow Reservation for federal acreage in Musselshell County cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy announced. The Crow Revenue Act would transfer roughly 4,660 acres of private subsurface inholdings on the reservation, known as the Hope Family Tracts, to Read More…
Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Susie Hedalen has launched a new online platform intended to make state and district education data easier for the public to search and understand. The Community Engagement platform, built on software from PowerSchool, provides access to Montana’s annual report cards required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act at the Read More…
A group of residents in northeastern Missoula County is pursuing the creation of a new county encompassing Potomac, Seeley Lake and Condon, which would be Montana’s first new county since 1925, the Missoulian reported. The effort, organized under the banner “County 57,” is the latest attempt by rural residents in the Seeley Swan Valley to Read More…
Montana State Auditor James Brown has suspended the insurance producer license of a Kalispell bail bondsman accused of exploiting people under his supervision, including allegedly trading bond services for sexual favors. The suspension order, issued Aug. 3, bars Laine Kendall Callahan from operating as a bail bondsman in the state pending a revocation hearing, which Read More…
CoreWeave is set to report second-quarter earnings Tuesday after the market closes, giving investors another look at whether massive spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure is translating into sustainable growth. The AI-focused cloud computing company will report results Aug. 11, followed by an earnings call at 5 p.m. Eastern time, according to CoreWeave. Wall Street is Read More…
Former President Joe Biden’s cancer has spread beyond his bones and is causing him significant pain, his son Hunter Biden said in an interview with the BBC posted online Friday. Hunter Biden described the disease as “very painful” and “very debilitating,” saying it had “metastasized into his bones and further.” He did not specify where Read More…
Army Cpl. Jake Allex earned the Medal of Honor for extraordinary courage while leading his men forward under heavy fire during the Battle of Amiens in World War I. Allex was born Angelko Allex Mandushich July 13, 1887, in Streska, near Prizren, in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, present-day Kosovo. He was of Read More…
The Trump administration is reviewing how millions of acres of wilderness and other undeveloped federal lands are managed across Idaho and the West, opening several longstanding federal policies to public comment through Aug. 14. The Interior Department is examining policies used by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Read More…
President Donald Trump held a telephone rally Thursday afternoon for Megan Degenfelder, his endorsed pick for Wyoming’s next governor, urging voters in a state that gave him his widest margin of victory in 2024 to back her Republican primary bid. The roughly 15-minute call opened with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” a departure from Read More…
Angi Bruce resigned as director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department effective immediately Friday, moving to a newly created position in Gov. Mark Gordon’s office. Bruce, who became the agency’s first female director when she took over in 2024, will begin her new role, titled “director of special policy initiatives,” on Monday. Gordon’s office Read More…
Business owners’ outlook on the environment for starting and running a company has soured even as ownership continues to correlate with stronger financial and personal wellbeing, according to the third installment of Gallup’s Pathways to Wealth study, released with support from JPMorganChase and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In fall 2025, just 17% of business Read More…
Montana prides itself on independence. We value open spaces, open markets, and open minds. We are skeptical of distant institutions that presume they know what’s best for our communities. That is precisely why Montana lawmakers should take a hard look at how state advertising dollars are being spent. Today, Montana state agencies hire advertising firms Read More…
Pressure to narrow the field in Montana’s U.S. Senate race intensified this week, but with a Monday evening deadline approaching, none of the candidates has shown any willingness to step aside. Seth Bodnar, running as an independent, said at a news conference in a Billings park Friday morning that he was staying in through November, Read More…
A bipartisan provision championed by Sen. Steve Daines to sharply increase penalties for unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information cleared the Senate Finance Committee as part of a broader tax administration package, moving one step closer to becoming law. The Daines-Cortez Masto provision passed as part of the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which the Finance Read More…
Montana State University will host an interdisciplinary symposium Oct. 1-2 to explore the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence for human knowledge. “The Future of AI” conference, sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Institute on Artificial Intelligence at MSU, will be held on campus. Attendance includes lunch and an evening reception on Thursday, and a light breakfast Read More…
Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Montana will end the “orphan tax” — the longstanding practice of diverting Social Security survivor benefits from children in foster care to cover the cost of their state care — following a federal directive earlier this year calling on states to end the practice. For more than two decades, the Montana Read More…
Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced the Montana Motor Vehicle Division is extending its fee waiver for driver license and identification card renewals and replacements through September 30, following a strong response to the program that saw more than 18,000 Montanans add the new citizenship marker to their credentials in July alone. The waiver, originally set Read More…
Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced two pieces of legislation in recent weeks — one bipartisan bill to strengthen Buy American requirements for school meals and one to extend nationwide concealed carry privileges to elite special operations veterans. On July 30, Sheehy and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the American Food for American Schools Act, with Read More…
SpaceX posted its first earnings report since its record June IPO Tuesday, beating revenue estimates by a wide margin but sending its stock down roughly 8% in after-hours trading as capital expenditures came in far above expectations. The company reported revenue of $7.81 billion for the second quarter, up 92% from $4.1 billion a year Read More…
A new University of Montana study finds that Meagher County — one of the least densely populated counties in the continental United States — has quietly become one of Montana’s most entrepreneurially vibrant communities, driven not by government programs or outside investment but by decades of investment in education, a culture of civic participation, and Read More…
Professors sue Texas A&M System over limits on teaching race, gender Four professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System’s restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy. The university system bars professors from “advocating” race or Read More…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, released the last four years of tax returns late last week, providing a glimpse into their financial life over the last four years of Newsom’s time in office. The couple’s annual finances remained relatively stable, with the exception of 2021, when they saw a bump Read More…
New York’s push to unmask ICE agents is on hold after a federal judge blocked provisions of a newly minted state law that restricts local cooperation with immigration crackdowns. In a Monday ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino said that the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause doesn’t permit New York to regulate federal law enforcement Read More…
Montana State Auditor James Brown announced his office has helped stop more than $5 million in unsupported payouts by Mountain Health Co-Op, making it the second health insurer in Montana identified as a victim of a fraud scheme that targeted vulnerable Native communities using a loophole in the Affordable Care Act. The latest announcement brings Read More…
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign said he would debate state Rep. James Talarico in Texas’ U.S. Senate race after Talarico challenged him to do so Thursday morning. Talarico, the Democratic nominee, said he had accepted invitations from Texas media groups for three televised debates and urged Paxton, who has not participated in debates Read More…
The total cost of employer-sponsored family health insurance now exceeds the median monthly mortgage payment for recent homebuyers, but employers cover most of that insurance bill. The average employer-sponsored family plan cost $26,993 in 2025, according to KFF’s latest annual survey. That works out to $2,249 per month. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a national median mortgage payment Read More…