The Internal Revenue Service today confirmed that the $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” more than 1.5 million service members received last year, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, would be tax-free. In a press release posted today, the IRS confirmed the tax-free status of the dividend. “The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Read More…
(The Center Square) – Six state attorneys general called on the nonprofit climate company Ceres, Inc. to halt all conduct they say is in violation of antitrust and consumer protection laws. The attorneys general, led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, sent a letter to Ceres’ CEO Mindy Lubber calling on the company to refrain Read More…
Montana’s construction industry continues to surge, driving economic growth, creating thousands of high-paying jobs, and fueling demand for skilled workers across the state, according to a new analysis released by the Montana Department of Labor & Industry (DLI). The report, part of DLI’s 406 JOBS High Demand Sector Analysis series, details rapid expansion in the Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in support of the Trump Administration’s effort to revise a Biden-era federal rule that they argue unlawfully imposed a political agenda and threatened funding for state disability programs. In a letter submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Read More…
Sen. Steve Daines said Tuesday that coordination with the Chinese is essential to taming North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. “We need the cooperation and the help from the Chinese. They play a very important role in additional sanctions, the banking sanctions, stopping oil imports in North Korea. Those are some important levers that we can throw Read More…
Cyber-crimes are being committed all across the United States and Montana is no exception. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Steve Daines spoke with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the recent cyber threats in the Flathead Valley. “Cyber-terrorism is an emerging threat that has become all too real in Montana,” said Daines. “Two weeks ago, the Read More…
MISSOULA – Neptune Aviation’s venerable P-2-V tankers have flown missions over thousands of wildfires, providing safety not only in the Northern Rockies but all over North America for the past quarter of a century. The distinctive workhorses are now being retired at the end of this long and volatile fire season. When Neptune Aviation was founded Read More…
KALISPELL, Mont. – More than 1,600 racers braved the rain, hail and cold temperatures for The Fifth Annual Pink Me Up race in Kalispell to support survivors and remember those lost. “Cancer runs in my family and my aunt died from cancer and we figured we’d be out in beautiful Montana enjoying the rain and Read More…
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is leaving in place a 70-year prison sentence for a Montana man convicted of shooting a German exchange student who was trespassing in his garage. The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the case of Markus Kaarma. Kaarma was convicted of the 2014 death of 17-year-old Diren Dede, who had Read More…
Gun companies are suffering a sales slump under the Trump administration. But a regulatory change could give them a boost overseas. The administration is considering shifting oversight of gun exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department. The proposed change would treat handguns more like commodities and less like military weapons, and loosen the Read More…
Brown University has initiated a $120 million campaign to drop all loans from financial aid packages awarded to their undergraduates. Student debt is at an all-time high — the average outstanding balance is $34,144, up 62 percent over the last 10 years — and Brown will become the sixteenth U.S. institution, and the sixth in Read More…
BILLINGS – The Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it would not rehear arguments in a wage dispute between Billings police officers and the city. The high court’s decision sends the case back to the district court for further review. A judge in Park County District Court previously ordered the city of Billings to pay Read More…
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., returned Sunday from a security and trade mission to South Korea and Taiwan to receive an update on the nuclear threat of North Korea and expand markets for Montana products. Daines traveled to the Korean Demilitarized Zone to see the border known as the 38th parallel. He also visited Yeonpyeong Island Read More…
The economics of unit trains and improving technology are making possible the building of a new mega fertilizer plant by Town & Country Supply Association near Lockwood. Construction began in February and is expected to be completed in December. It will be operational just in time to serve the needs of farmers for the 2018 Read More…
Healthy democracies have ample room for politics but leave a larger space for civil society and culture that unites more than divides. With the politicization of the National Football League and the national anthem, the Divided States of America are exhibiting a very unhealthy level of polarization and mistrust. The progressive forces of identity politics Read More…
LARAMIE – Wyoming entrepreneurs can “WIN” access to capital financing through a new a new state program using crowdfunding opportunities, Secretary of State Ed Murray told those attending the Wyoming Working Together Conference on Friday. Murray outlined the Wyoming Invests Now (WIN) program for members of the Wyoming Economic Development Association (WEDA) and the Wyoming Read More…
The UM presidential candidate with the closest ties to Missoula appeared before a packed house in the University Center Theater on Friday after noon. He is Seth Bodnar, whose wife Chelsea grew up in Missoula and attended Hellgate High School, so Bodner and his family are familiar with the city and with the university and Read More…
Unless a remedy is found for the state’s looming budget crisis, Montana residents can expect devastating losses to essential services across the board, and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock says any solutions will require more than his efforts alone. “I need a willing dance partner,” he said in an interview on Friday. “If we don’t figure Read More…
Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte took his “Forest Jobs Tour” to Columbia Falls Friday, touring F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company and calling for changes in forest policy. Speaking with reporters and employees at the firm’s 94-year-old mill, Gianforte stressed the need for some logging and thinning, or “forest management,” to tame future wildfires and boost Read More…
There were recurring themes during a Kalispell Chamber of Commerce panel discussion about manufacturing last week. Freight costs are a continuous challenge; good employees are hard to find so if you have them, do what you can to keep them. And paperwork can make or break a small manufacturer. The Chamber discussion kicked off a Read More…
Since announcing in December that he would step down as Starbucks chief executive, there has been speculation that Howard Schultz is eyeing a run for president in 2020. A couple weeks back, I pegged him as the businessperson most likely to win the Democratic nomination. Well, Howard Schultz sure sounds like a candidate. Schultz spoke Read More…
U.S. authorities placed Paul Manafort under surveillance after he was ousted as Donald Trump’s campaign manager in the summer of 2016, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. The surveillance, which was part of a counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference with the presidential election, didn’t involve listening to Mr. Manafort’s phone communications in Read More…
Montana’s legislators are finding common ground… over mermen. After the famous Sip ‘n Dip Lounge in Great Falls posted a job opening on Twitter, Senator Jon Tester jokingly passed up the opportunity before asking if the governor was free for the shift. From there Governor Steve Bullock, Senator Steve Daines, Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Attorney Read More…
A $3 million bond issue request in Deer Park School was defeated by a wide margin on Tuesday. Voters rejected the bond issue by a 207 to 126 margin, according to unofficial results. The mail-ballot election concluded on Sept. 19. The bond issue would have been used to expand the school in addition to upgrading Read More…
BUTTE – REC Silicon in Butte announced Wednesday it is laying off 30 employees at its facility just south of Butte. The layoffs were made for efficiency improvements and cost-cutting initiatives, according to a news release issued by the company Wednesday morning. READ THE FULL STORY.
The town of Browning has been in the process of disbanding due to financial issues since 2016. In March of 2016, a Lewis and Clark County District Judge appointed Robert Denning to take over financial control of the town’s assets and debt. According to Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Chairman Harry Barnes, the Tribe has been in negotiations Read More…
HELENA – Officials announced a new Montana National Guard program that will allow limited hunting on Fort Harrison grounds. It’s called the Purple Heart Deer Program. Each year it will allow up to five Purple Heart recipients to hunt big game in Fort Harrison’s training area. National Guard leaders said the program is a way to Read More…
A man police call a Good Samaritan may face a lawsuit after injuring the alleged robber he thwarted, reports CBS affiliate KGPE-TV. In July, Fresno Police say 30-year old Ryan Flores used a gun and tried to rob a Starbucks. Cregg Jerri, 58, stepped in to stop the crime, and the two got into a fight. Both Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Montana officials will ask those who receive a permit to float the Smith River to help record algae blooms on the water next year. On Thursday the state Department of Environmental Quality and the Fish, Wildlife and Parks department are launching a project to collect data that’s difficult for researchers to obtain Read More…
For years I’ve had a game pass package with NFL.com. Since we don’t have an NFL team in Montana, I found that I could watch games of all the teams this way. NFL players have decided that disrespecting the flag by kneeling or sitting during the playing of the national anthem before games is a Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Numbers from the state show Montana public school students’ standardized test scores did not increase from last year to this year. The test scores released on Tuesday show about half of all public school students graded as at least proficient in English language arts and about 40 percent as proficient in math, Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Wildfire smoke and the danger of new fires have prompted federal wildlife managers to postpone the annual roundup at the National Bison Range in western Montana. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday the roundup was scheduled for Oct. 2 and 3. No new date has been set. Range manager Jeff Read More…
BILLINGS – Bill Cole and Jeff Essmann are headed for a matchup to become Billings’ next mayor in the November general election. Voters selected the two candidates from a pool of six during Tuesday’s primary election. Cole, an attorney and current chairman of the Billings Chamber of Commerce board of directors and former president of the Yellowstone Read More…
BILLINGS – Republican and state District Judge Russell Fagg is traveling the state, raising money and touting prominent endorsements – but insists he’s still “exploring” whether to run for the U.S. Senate. “No, I’m not a candidate at this point, and I made that very clear,” he told MTN News in an interview late last Read More…
Montana’s crisis isn’t too much water or hurricanes — it’s fire. It’s smoke filling Big Sky Country and filling our lungs, communities being evacuated, structures lost and tons of fuels just lying on the forest floor waiting for a spark to ignite. In this year alone, over 1,600 fires have burned over 1 million acres in Read More…
CASPER – Wyoming lawmakers plan to consider two bills that would help communities pay for infrastructure improvements and make an economic development program more efficient. The Wyoming Legislature Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee tasked its Legislative Service Office with drafting two bills during its meeting in Casper on Thursday that lawmakers will Read More…
Local municipal leaders need authority to generate revenue and more sources of dependable funding, according to Rick Kaysen, the executive director for the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. Wyoming is one of the few states that does not give cities or counties independent taxing authority, meaning municipalities are largely reliant on appropriations from the Legislature to Read More…
HELENA – A legislative committee Monday continued to block more than $20 million in proposed cuts to medical services for the poor and disabled in Montana – although it’s unclear whether the action will ultimately stave off the cuts. The Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee voted 7-1 to continue until at least Read More…
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/kufm/audio/2017/09/MN-Piikani-money-09-11-17.mp3 When the Blackfeet Tribe learned its tribal members were about to start receiving payouts from a massive federal court settlement, the tribe wanted to get ahead of some of the problems that can arise when a lot of money floods a cash-based society. “There was about 150 some million dollars that was injected into Read More…
BILLINGS, Mont. – MSUB City College honors 9/11 by holding a remembrance in front of a memorial that now stands in memory of those who lost their lives. The college is home to a piece of metal that means so much to Americans across the nation. For many people, 9/11 is an event that happened Read More…
These are good times for AI entrepreneurs. Recent analysis of venture data shows that funding for artificial intelligence startups continues its upward trend in 2017, with investment hitting new highs. (For deep dives into aggregate Q2 venture performance, head here for the world, and here for just the U.S.) Venture, corporate and seed investors have put an estimated $3.6 Read More…
Playground Ventures — the VC fund co-founded by Android inventor and former Google exec Andy Rubin that sits alongside an eponymous incubator/startup studio and is making some big bets in areas like artificial intelligence and new generations of hardware– is raising more money. A Form D filed with the SEC notes that Playground Ventures is Read More…
An aide to Tim Kaine enters a diner in Charlottesville and informs the host that the Virginia senator is about to walk in. The host smiles and cracks a joke: “You mean the guy who lost to Trump?” Ten months after the presidential election, Kaine is still trying to shed the stigma of being the Read More…
President Donald Trump plans an aggressive travel schedule, taking him to as many as 13 states over the next seven weeks, to sell the idea of a tax overhaul as the administration tries to avoid repeating the communications failures of its attempt to repeal Obamacare. With a make-or-break legislative battle looming on taxes, the White Read More…