Featured Articles in Featured

Minor-Party Candidates Join Crowded Field in Wyoming’s U.S. House Race

Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat will feature a crowded general election field this November, after minor-party candidates were certified to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot alongside the major-party nominees. Libertarian Shawn Johnson and Constitution Party candidate Jeffrey Haggit both made the cut and will join Republican Chuck Gray and Democrat Lisa Kinney in the Read More…

O’Leary: Tariff Chaos Makes This ‘Never Been a Better Time’ to Invest in Canada

When two of the world’s biggest trading partners start throwing around 50% tariffs, most investors see trouble. “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary sees a sale. The Canadian businessman said the escalating U.S.-Canada trade fight could be creating an unusually attractive entry point for investors willing to look past the political noise. Speaking on Fox Business Read More…

Bozeman-Based Snowflake Delivers One of Its Strongest Quarters

Snowflake, the cloud-data company based in Bozeman, delivered one of its strongest quarters in recent years, sending shares sharply higher as investors responded to accelerating growth and stronger demand for its artificial-intelligence products. Shares of Snowflake jumped about 17% after the company reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $1.55 billion, up 35% from a year earlier. Read More…

All in: Featured

Minor-Party Candidates Join Crowded Field in Wyoming’s U.S. House Race

Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat will feature a crowded general election field this November, after minor-party candidates were certified to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot alongside the major-party nominees. Libertarian Shawn Johnson and Constitution Party candidate Jeffrey Haggit both made the cut and will join Republican Chuck Gray and Democrat Lisa Kinney in the Read More…

O’Leary: Tariff Chaos Makes This ‘Never Been a Better Time’ to Invest in Canada

When two of the world’s biggest trading partners start throwing around 50% tariffs, most investors see trouble. “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary sees a sale. The Canadian businessman said the escalating U.S.-Canada trade fight could be creating an unusually attractive entry point for investors willing to look past the political noise. Speaking on Fox Business Read More…

Bozeman-Based Snowflake Delivers One of Its Strongest Quarters

Snowflake, the cloud-data company based in Bozeman, delivered one of its strongest quarters in recent years, sending shares sharply higher as investors responded to accelerating growth and stronger demand for its artificial-intelligence products. Shares of Snowflake jumped about 17% after the company reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $1.55 billion, up 35% from a year earlier. Read More…

Knudsen to Speak at RNC Midterm Convention

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Committee’s 2026 Midterm Convention in Dallas, joining a national lineup of Republican officials and candidates as the party turns its attention toward the November elections. Knudsen, who also serves as chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, is scheduled to address the Read More…

Mount Sinai to End Pediatric Gender Transitions Under DOJ Deal

The Justice Department announced an agreement with Mount Sinai Health System that resolves an investigation into potential violations of federal law arising from the provider’s administration of gender-affirming care to minors. Under the agreement, Mount Sinai, one of the largest health care providers in New York state, will cease providing such interventions to minors, including Read More…

Billings Gazette

Billings Gazette Leaves Longtime Home

The Billings Gazette is preparing to leave its longtime downtown headquarters and move several blocks away to Granite Tower, the latest real-estate move by parent company Lee Enterprises as the newspaper chain continues to reshape its business amid years of financial pressure. The Gazette said its staff will work remotely before moving into the new Read More…

South Dakota Senate Showdown

South Dakota’s U.S. Senate race has effectively become a two-person contest between Republican Sen. Mike Rounds and independent Brian Bengs after Democrat Julian Beaudion withdrew from the race in August. Beaudion, who had been the Democratic nominee, formally withdrew Aug. 4. The South Dakota Secretary of State now lists Rounds and Bengs as the active Read More…

U.S. Economy Adds 162,000 Jobs in August, Beating Expectations

The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, a stronger-than-expected showing that offered fresh evidence of resilience in the labor market as manufacturing and construction hiring picked up. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. August payroll growth was well above the average monthly gain over the previous year. The White House pointed to the Read More…

Idaho Honors Nine First Responders With Medal of Honor

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Attorney General Raúl Labrador have awarded the Idaho Medal of Honor to nine first responders for acts of courage that went beyond the ordinary demands of their jobs. The recipients include five law-enforcement officers and four firefighters whose actions ranged from entering burning buildings and fast-moving water to confronting an Read More…

Attorney General Austin Knudsen

Knudsen Launches Investigation Into OpenAI

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and 15 other state attorneys general have opened an investigation into OpenAI over potential violations of consumer-protection and data-privacy laws following a security incident involving one of the company’s experimental artificial-intelligence models. The investigation centers on an incident this summer in which an OpenAI model allegedly accessed outside computer networks Read More…

Alme Favored in Montana Senate Race

Republican Kurt Alme holds a commanding lead in Montana’s U.S. Senate race, according to a new analysis from Decision Desk HQ, as neither Democrat Alani Bankhead nor independent Seth Bodnar has been willing to step aside for the other, leaving the state with a fractured opposition against the GOP front-runner. In 2026, prominent independent candidates Read More…

Montana Supreme Court Upholds Attempted-Homicide Conviction in Trooper Johnson Case

The Montana Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence of Jason Allen Miller for the attempted homicide of Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Lewis Johnson, rejecting a series of challenges to his 2025 trial. Miller was convicted in June 2025 after prosecutors said he ran over Johnson in February 2023, seriously injuring the trooper. Read More…

Gianforte Hall Grand Opening Set at MSU

Montana State University will hold a grand opening ceremony for Gianforte Hall, a new building housing computing-related fields including cybersecurity, film, photography and music technologies, at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10. The outdoor event is free and open to the public. Scheduled speakers include Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, MSU President Brock Tessman, College of Arts Read More…

DEQ Issues Final Environmental Review for North Plains Connector

Final EIS moves 525-kilovolt line linking Western and Eastern power grids closer to construction approval The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the North Plains Connector Project, a major transmission line proposed to link the Western and Eastern U.S. electrical grids, clearing a key hurdle in the state’s Read More…

North Dakota Awards $269,400 for Regional Workforce Projects

The North Dakota Department of Commerce has awarded nearly $270,000 to three regional projects aimed at addressing workforce shortages and improving employee retention in healthcare, energy and education. The funding comes through the state’s Regional Workforce Impact Program, which supports locally developed strategies designed around the workforce needs of individual communities and industries. “RWIP continues Read More…

President Trump Establishes a Commission to Design the Space Academy

Executive order creates NASA-led panel to draft plans for a new federal academy training astronauts, engineers and space-industry leaders President Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a presidential commission tasked with laying the groundwork for a new federal academy dedicated to training the next generation of American space professionals. The order establishes the Read More…

Montana’s High-Tech Economy Expands as Data Centers Emerge

Montana’s technology sector is continuing to broaden its footprint across the state, while a new wave of potential data-center investment could add another major component to the state’s changing economy. The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research highlighted high-tech businesses, artificial intelligence and data centers as part of its 2026 Midyear Economic Read More…

South Dakota Taps Three Agencies to Lead State Tourism Marketing Push

Lawrence & Schiller, Lou Hammond Group and Miles Partnership win multiyear contracts after fifty firms competed for the work Travel South Dakota has selected three marketing and public relations firms to guide the state’s tourism promotion efforts, capping a competitive bidding process that drew interest from agencies across the country. The state tourism office said Read More…

Broadcom, Dell Headline Busy Tech Earnings Week

Investors enter the first week of September with a consequential earnings slate led by Broadcom, Dell Technologies and several major software companies, while Friday’s August jobs report adds another potential market catalyst. Dell Technologies is among the major companies scheduled to report Tuesday, Sept. 1. Investors will be watching the company’s AI-server business and PC Read More…

Attorney General Austin Knudsen

AG Knudsen Lands $127 Million Meta Settlement for Montana

Montana could receive more than $127 million from a sweeping multistate settlement with Meta Platforms over allegations that the company designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among children while misleading the public about risks to young users. The state is guaranteed nearly $89 million under the agreement, according to Montana Attorney General Austin Read More…

AG Labrador Secures Up to $127.7 Million for Idaho in Meta Settlement

Idaho will receive at least $89.2 million and could collect as much as $127.7 million under a sweeping $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to encourage addictive use among children. The agreement, announced by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, resolves claims brought by states and Read More…

EERC research looks to unlock more of the Bakken

Most North Dakotans will never set foot on a drilling rig or analyze rocks from thousands of feet beneath the surface of the Bakken Formation, but nearly everyone in the state has benefited from what lies below. For more than two decades, the Bakken Formation in western North Dakota has helped fuel North Dakota’s economy, generating more than $35 billion in tax revenue Read More…

Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO, Hand Reins to John Ternus

For most of the past 15 years, the hardest question surrounding Tim Cook was whether he could follow Steve Jobs. He answered it by building a different kind of Apple. Cook didn’t replicate Jobs’s theatrical product instincts or preside over another invention quite as culturally disruptive as the Macintosh, iPod or iPhone. Instead, the industrial Read More…

Cascade County Investigates Signature-Gathering Fraud Tied to Bodnar, Eisenhauer Campaigns

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Prosecutors in Cascade County are investigating potential signature-gathering fraud by at least one firm that worked for the independent campaigns of U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and U.S. House candidate Michael Eisenhauer, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office. The Cascade County Attorney’s Office and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office are Read More…

Judge Halts Construction on Montana’s Proposed Laurel Mental Health Facility

Ruling cites inadequate water-supply analysis, as delay costs state more than $8,000 a day A Yellowstone County district judge has halted all construction, groundbreaking and permitting on Montana’s proposed forensic mental health facility in Laurel, a ruling that is now costing state taxpayers more than $8,000 a day as the project sits idle. The state Read More…