(The Center Square) – Betting on a football score isn’t gambling. At least not according to the federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission. The commission recently proposed rule changes to strengthen its governance over prediction markets and sports betting. The changes involve how the panel defines “gaming” and “gambling.” The proposal defines limitations for the CFTC’s Read More…
The Center Square) – Minnesota’s special districts reported $5.4 billion in outstanding long-term debt in 2023, while increasingly relying on state funding as pandemic-era federal aid declined. This is according to a new report from the Minnesota Office of the State Auditor. The 91-page report examined 572 special districts that submitted financial data to the auditor’s Read More…
Former Montana utility regulator will lead the $4 billion federal power-marketing agency serving the Pacific Northwest U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced Travis Kavulla as administrator and CEO of the Bonneville Power Administration, putting the former Montana utility regulator in charge of the agency that markets wholesale power across the Pacific Northwest. “Travis Kavulla’s Read More…
Barry Diller’s People Inc. submitted a non-binding proposal to MGM Resorts International’s board on June 1 to acquire the roughly 74% of the company it doesn’t already own, in a deal that would value the casino operator at more than $18 billion including debt. People Inc., the holding company formerly known as IAC that owns Read More…
HELENA – The state Public Service Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve the license of Lyft Inc., making it the second app-based ride-sharing company in Montana. A similar license was granted to Uber in December 2015 after changes to state law earlier that year paved the way for such companies to operate in Montana. “The Read More…
The Montana National Guard arrived at the Meyers Fire in southwest Montana on Wednesday, which has burned more than 16,000 acres and is only at five percent containment. The soldiers will be deployed for 15 days aiding the more than 400 personnel already fighting the fire. Sergeant Paul Benhart said the Guard’s job is to Read More…
(HELENA) Pizza Ranch plans to open in Helena later this year. Construction is underway on a new building that will house the restaurant. The 9,300-square foot building is on North Sanders Street, near Buffalo Wild Wings. READ THE FULL STORY
BILLINGS – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he is recommending that none of the 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration be eliminated but that changes would be made to a “handful.” Zinke told The Associated Press that unspecified boundary adjustments for some monuments are among the recommendations he planned to give the president Thursday. None Read More…
The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office is on the move. Employees moved office and equipment out of an old bank building at 2550 3rd Ave. N. to to 2323 2nd Ave. N. The new location, a former Payne West Insurance building, is about 20,000 square feet, which is about 4,000 square feet bigger that their current building. READ THE FULL STORY
HELENA – Less than two months into Montana’s fiscal year, the state’s $62 million firefighting fund is all but empty, drained by summer wildfire costs and a budget-transfer bill. Bullock administration officials said the fund could be empty by next week, as fires continue to burn across the state, with no weather relief in sight. Read More…
LAUREL – The former assistant principal at Laurel Middle School had her license suspended for three years following revelations that she sent a teenage boy partially nude photos during the last school year. The Office of Public Instruction ruled in July to suspend the license of Sarah Sheldon for three years. She’s been licensed to Read More…
Hidden away from a smoky summer day, head cheese maker Allison Dembek looks over sheep milk cheeses aging in a cheese cave on the Tucker Family Farm, nestled between Victor and Hamilton. “Cheese making is beautiful in its science. This perfect match of exact scientific precision and also for the finish, it’s creative and it’s Read More…
The University of Wyoming is on track to welcome its largest freshman class ever just months after sending off its largest-ever graduating class. The result will be overall enrollment numbers that look roughly the same as 2016’s, said Mary Aguayo, interim associate vice president for enrollment management. “We graduated out 5 percent more students than Read More…
Inc. Magazine has doubled the number of Wyoming companies in its list of the 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. In 2016 the list included the telecom company Mammoth Networks of Gillette and Fund&Grow, a financial servies firm based in Cheyenne. This year, both companies appeared again, with Mammoth climbing 272 positions in Read More…
WHITEFISH — The Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL’s new franchise set to debut this season, toured the Rocky Mountains last week, introducing the team and some of its players to a prospective fan base. The road trip was a homecoming of sorts as Bill Foley and Murray Craven celebrated the team’s creation in this corner Read More…
Helena – More than two months in to his term as Commissioner of Political Practices, Jeff Mangan, is still using the services of a Billings lawyer his office previously found to have violated Montana’s campaign finance laws. In October 2016, then-Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl found that Billings attorney John Heenan and his political Read More…
Eight people were found dead on Sunday inside a sweltering tractor trailer parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, and authorities said they were the victims of “ruthless” human traffickers. Another 30 people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were also in the trailer, which lacked air conditioning Read More…
Helena – Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan issued a ruling Thursday that Governor Steve Bullock violated campaign finance rules in his 2016 re-election bid and should be fined. At issue in the complaint was the Bullock campaign’s failure to timely report the Governor’s use of the state airplane to fly to more than 37 Read More…
Attorney General Tim Fox on Thursday filed to intervene in a federal district court lawsuit on behalf of the state of Montana, defending the U.S. Department of Interior’s reversal of the Obama Administration’s moratorium on federal coal leases. The lawsuit filed by Citizens for Clean Energy and the states of California, New Mexico, New Read More…
HELENA – While U.S. Senate Republicans’ plan to repeal “Obamacare” has been criticized for potentially undercutting coverage for thousands of low-income Montanans, at least one group is firmly behind it: The state’s primary lobby for small businesses. “What we’re looking for is a health-care system that is affordable, flexible and predictable,” says Riley Johnson, state Read More…
HELENA – Billings lawyer Kurt Alme has been recommended as Montana’s next U.S. attorney, the chief federal law officer in the state, whose appointment by the president must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. U.S. Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., made the recommendation Thursday to President Donald Trump, saying Alme is the “right person for the job.” Read More…
It’s become difficult to decipher between reality and alarmism these days. To add insult to injury, President Trump can’t seem to take two steps without being ridiculed from every direction. The latest point of contention has been his decision to disengage from the Paris Climate Accord (PCA). But is all the noise justified? Perhaps not, Read More…
HELENA- Montana Attorney General Tim Fox was elected vice president of the National Association of Attorneys General. The vote was Thursday, while the association met for its annual Summer Meeting in Big Sky. Fox said he was “humbled and honored” by the vote. The association helps the 56 state and territorial attorneys general fulfill the Read More…
MISSOULA – Wildfires in Montana are nothing new. Last year, the Treasure State saw a bad fire season with more than 114,000 acres burned. In an attempt to better understand how wildfires may affect weather, climate and even health, a group of University of Montana scientists will fly directly into the smoke of a wildfire. Read More…
It seems like hardly a day goes by when you don’t see someone arrested in Gallatin County for a methamphetamine-related offense. It could be when a Bozeman police officer pulls over a driver for a traffic offense and discovers a small baggie with a crystalline substance and a residue-covered pipe. It could be when Read More…
Economics professor Gregg Davis wasn’t always interested in economics, though his interest in natural resources began at an early age. In high school, Davis got a job working in a landscape nursery and fell in love with working in nature. “I loved working with living things,” he said. A Columbus, Ohio native, Davis was the Read More…
Looking back, Kelly Lawrence thinks her son’s dependence on alcohol and drugs began when he was 14. But it’s hard to say — he hid his disease for so long. The first time he asked for help, he was in his 20s. She knew he was using heroin. They started making calls to see how Read More…
In April Senator Jon Tester joined an unsuccessful partisan effort to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. To justify his actions, Tester said at the time, “With Judge Gorsuch on the bench, I am deeply concerned that dark money will continue to drown out the voices and votes of citizens.” It seems Read More…
Missoula tech firm Submittable announced a $5 Million Series A investment led Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, True Ventures. Submittable is a cloud-based submission platform that was founded in 2010. The company now has more than 35 employees. “We are positioned as the matching and reviewing platform for any organization looking for work or any Read More…
Wyoming Conservation Corps (WCC) members Chris Folsom and Lola Philips work on the Casper Rotary Club Park trail on Casper Mountain, one of the first WCC projects of this summer. (WCC Photo) Projects ranging from building trails in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests in northwest Wyoming to building a yurt at Glendo State Park Read More…
When Keith and Katie Poe contemplated the best way to make a living that allowed them to raise their family on Katie’s great-grandfather’s homestead in Trego, sausage became their savior. The Poes are in the fourth summer of taking their Saucy Dogs food truck on the road. The popular food trailer is a staple at Read More…
KALISPELL –Kalispell Regional Healthcare officials confirmed on Sunday that over 50 people were injured and transported in Saturday’s deck collapse at Glacier Camp, south of Lakeside. 36 of these patients were treated in the Flathead area, with 9 at North Valley Hospital and 27 at Kalispell Regional medical Center. Significant numbers of orthopedic and neurological injuries Read More…
She had heard about T-shirt screen printing as a kind of “get rich quick” scheme and figured it was a way to move on from waitressing gigs. Plus it would let the Savannah School of Art and Design grad get her creative juices flowing again. So Tatum Johnson bought a screen printing book and Read More…
Bozeman Mayor Carson Taylor said this week that he doesn’t intend to act on a request by neighborhood preservation activists that the city place a moratorium on major downtown developments. “I haven’t found any interest in the commission in discussing a moratorium,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I think we’re pretty comfortable with the Read More…
State Insurance Commissioner Matt Rosendale and Sen. Jon Tester exchanged lively letters this week over health care reform with Rosendale calling on the Democratic senator to not fight needed change and Tester telling Rosendale to give Montanans information to make good decisions on how best to make quality health care more affordable. The letters come Read More…
HELENA — Secretary of State Corey Stapleton said Friday that mail ballot voter fraud occurred in Missoula County during the May 25 congressional special election. The case involved a signature forgery on a mail-in ballot, he said. Stapleton said his office has notified the Missoula County Attorney’s office. “We’ve had mail ballot security issues in Read More…
BILLINGS – The White House sent its $4.1 trillion dollar spending plan to Capitol Hill Tuesday. President Donald Trump is looking to balance the budget in 10 years with big spending cuts and faster economic growth. That includes an almost $3.6 trillion dollars in cuts to programs including Medicaid, food stamps, and Social Security Disability Read More…
CASCADE – Tucked in an old poker room in the back of the Driftwood Bar in Cascade, Amy Eisenzimer (formerly Parker) mixes just five ingredients to make a drink with a kick: Parker’s Hangover Tonic. “I do recommend this to customers that are hungover…a little hair of the dog always helps,” said Eisenzimer. Parker’s Hangover Tonic is Read More…
Billings – Governor Steve Bullock refused to answer questions about infrastructure funding from a constituent at a fundraiser. Mr. Bullock appeared at a democrat political fundraiser at a private golf club in Billings on Thursday. Bullock’s representatives told those present that the Governor would not be answering any questions on infrastructure funding. The 2017 legislative Read More…
Revelations of Democrat congressional candidate Rob Quist’s drug use have taken center stage in the final days of the campaign to replace Congressman Ryan Zinke. Earlier this week, a national media outlet uncovered court documents in which Quist confessed to regularly using marijuana. When the news reports became public, his campaign cancelled a previously-scheduled interview Read More…
Democrat congressional candidate Rob Quist’s venereal disease, drug use, and marriage problems were revealed to the public this week when a national media outlet uncovered documents from a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Quist. The documents show, among other things, that Quist suffers from depression, has genital herpes, tested positive for tuberculosis, uses recreational drugs, Read More…
Helena – The tumultuous tenure of Jonathan Motl as Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices came to an end Monday with Jeff Mangan taking over. Mr. Motl’s time as Montana’s top political cop was marked by allegations of unethical behavior, partisan chicanery, and numerous lawsuits over his conduct. Mr. Motl was a controversial figure since his Read More…
As the 2017 legislative session has come to an end, we want to make sure that Montanans have a clear view of what’s happened the past few months in Helena. The mission of the Senate and House Republicans from Day One has been to help create more opportunities for all Montanans by making our state Read More…
Helena – On the final day of the 65th legislative session, Democrats in the House of Representative voted to kill a bill that would have provided $41 million in loans to local communities for water projects. House Bill 8 would have provided $41 million in loans from the coal tax trust fund to water, sewer Read More…