(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott has directed state agencies to investigate potential Medicaid fraud In Texas. Abbott on Friday directed the Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General and Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to investigate potential Medicaid fraud to safeguard taxpayer money, maintain access for eligible Texans, Read More…
(The Center Square) – Republican U.S. senators, led by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have introduced the ICE Protection Act to increase penalties for those who assault and injure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The bill was filed as an unprecedented amount of assaults continue against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they perform Read More…
A ballot initiative designed to keep corporations from spending on elections in Montana is a little too ambitious, the state Supreme Court has found. The new proposals included in Ballot Issue 4 violate the rules for wording such initiatives, the court ruled. State Attorney General Austin Knudsen made that argument to the justices over a Read More…
(The Center Square) – The second largest natural gas producer in northwest Louisiana and east Texas has sold its assets to Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi. Aethon, a Dallas-based company that operates in the prolific Haynesville shale formation, agreed to a deal worth approximately $7.5 billion, according to an announcement on Friday. Mitsubishi agreed to pay $5.2 Read More…
NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Amodio’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” has now netted him more than $1 million in non-tournament play, making him the third person in the show’s history to pass that mark. The only other contestants to win more than $1 million in regular season games are Ken Jennings, whose 74-game streak netted Read More…
FIRST ON FOX: Experts are warning that millions of dollars in public state consumer protection lawsuit settlement funds are being funneled into progressive campaigns. Recently, a partnership between Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and one of the nation’s largest litigation firms, Motley Rice, was officially severed over its deep ties to the Democratic Party. The contract, established under former Attorney General Read More…
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A 64-year-old Sioux Falls man convicted of wire fraud has been sentenced to 30 months behind bars and a very large amount of restitution. Richard Harkness received the sentence last week from U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier. In addition to the federal prison time, followed by three years of supervised Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (PRESS RELEASE) – Governor Mark Gordon responded forcefully this week to a letter from Congressman James Clyburn which misrepresented Wyoming’s efforts in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). Congressman Clyburn complained of nationwide underspending by the 426 local governments eligible to administer rental assistance. ”His unwarranted shot places blame for that problem squarely Read More…
At a Sept. 14 Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitor Bureau luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn, Gov. Greg Gianforte promoted Montana as a competitive business state while emphasizing its economic resiliency during the pandemic. Gianforte spoke following a visit with GL Solutions, a software company that recently relocated to Kalispell from Bend, Oregon, Read More…
North Dakota witnessed a 5 percent drop in its oil and gas production this past July, the result of a series of outages at five natural gas plants in the state. Natural gas processing plants at Bear Creek, Lonesome Creek, Robinson Lake, Tioga, and Watford City were offline during various times in July, due to Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — A Browning man, Steven Ray DeCarlo, has admitting to dealing methamphetamine on the Blackfeet Reservation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The following was sent out by U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Montana: A Browning man accused of being a methamphetamine dealer on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation admitted to a trafficking crime today, Read More…
After two years of negotiations mired in deep division and characterized by back-and-forth public accusations, Logan Health administrators and unionized nurses found themselves in agreement last week when both sides expressed satisfaction with the union’s first contract. SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, which is representing Logan Health’s bargaining unit of 650 unionized nurses, announced that nurses voted Read More…
HELENA — The state Board of Pharmacy has issued an emergency order to help pharmacists oversee and administer more vaccines for Covid-19 or other diseases – after that power had been revoked by Gov. Greg Gianforte. The board issued the order last week, reinstating Montana pharmacists’ emergency authority to oversee other health-care professionals, such as Read More…
BUTTE — Both the State and the defense rested their cases in Lloyd Barrus’ deliberate homicide by accountability trial Monday morning, in which Barrus is accused in the death of a Broadwater County Sheriff’s deputy in 2017. The judge decided to dismiss the jury until Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. when closing arguments will begin. Read More…
Twitter disclosed a binding agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit, under which the social network will pay $809.5 million to resolve claims it provided misleading user-engagement info to investors. The original lawsuit, filed in 2016 by a Twitter shareholder, alleged Dorsey and others including former CEO Dick Costolo and board member Evan Williams hid facts about Read More…
In early 2021, Amazon installed AI-powered cameras in the delivery vans at one of its depots in Los Angeles. Derek, a delivery driver at the facility, said the camera in his van started to incorrectly penalize him whenever cars cut him off, an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles traffic. “Maintain safe distance,” the camera installed Read More…
The Democratic mayor of a Texas border town is pleading with the Biden administration to do more to stop the flood of migrants at the southern border at the same time the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found that the federal government’s failure to test migrants for COVID-19 puts the health of Read More…
Dear Joanna Chiu, I am (Dan). I am from China. I just graduated from (a Quebec university). I hesitated for a whole night before deciding to write this email … Now I am living in Canada, but I am living with fear from the Chinese government. Dan, whose name I’ve changed to protect his identity, Read More…
The FDA shopped from a menu of aborted fetus organs to insert into lab mice as part of taxpayer-funded experiments, according to government records—a practice that watchdogs said may violate federal law. From 2012 to 2018, Advanced Bioscience Resources, a nonprofit fetal tissue supplier, charged the FDA $340 per aborted fetus liver and $515 per Read More…
DEL RIO, Texas — State troopers deployed to the border by Gov. Greg Abbott are being credited for doing the federal government’s job and stopping thousands more migrants in Mexico from illegally crossing into the United States after well over 15,000 made it through here late last week. A swarm of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, known Read More…
(Bloomberg) — Most people don’t give fertilizer a second thought — except maybe when driving through a particularly fragrant agricultural area. But with prices for some synthetic nutrients at their highest levels since the financial crisis, it could mean weaker harvests and bigger grocery bills next year, just as the world’s supply chains start to Read More…
Arkansas is using federal coronavirus relief funds to buy children’s books about the coronavirus for distribution to schools in the state that are produced by a company co-founded by former Gov. Mike Huckabee. The Department of Education inked a $245,300 deal with the Florida-based business EverBright Media to distribute “The Kids Guide to Coronavirus” booklets Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said Thursday that he has asked the state’s attorney general to be prepared to challenge President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which he called an “egregious example of big government overreach.” “I have asked the Attorney General to stand prepared to take all actions to oppose Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department said on Monday that it is tracking an outbreak of a disease that mainly impacts white-tailed deer and pronghorn. Outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) were confirmed based on sampling of dead deer and pronghorn near Arvada in northern Wyoming as well as near Douglas, Laramie and Cheyenne. Read More…
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland Eastern Shore judge who was about to be arrested at his home on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child was found dead Friday, officials said. FBI agents went to the residence of Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Newell in Henderson, Maryland, early Friday. “Upon entering the residence Read More…
Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed his support for COVID-19 vaccination requirements for air travel – as the Biden administration did not rule it out. “I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people that you should be vaccinated,” the White House chief medical adviser said in an Read More…
House Democrats on Monday outlined a bevy of tax hikes on corporations and wealthy people to fund an investment in the social safety net and climate policy that could reach $3.5 trillion. The plan calls for top corporate and individual tax rates of 26.5% and 39.6%, respectively, according to a summary released by the tax-writing Ways Read More…
WASHINGTON (SBG) — Lawmakers had their first opportunity to hold members of the Biden administration accountable for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan when members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee question Secretary of State Anthony Blinken Monday afternoon. It was the beginning of a series of congressional hearings to investigate America’s longest war. Blinken is scheduled to Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — American troops leaving Afghanistan is familiar to those Vietnam veterans who were pulled out of their war back in the 1970s. One veteran from Helena recently released a book about his time serving in the Vietnam War. Author and Vietnam Veteran John Quintrell said leaving Afghanistan and Vietnam have storming similarities. He Read More…
Jurors on Friday heard the last words Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore ever spoke as he tailed a Chevy Suburban at 100 mph on U.S. 287 and relayed information to a dispatcher. The dispatcher alerted the Montana Highway Patrol and other law enforcement and then lost contact with Moore, and minutes later, a trooper came Read More…
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Every year in Yellowstone National Park, huge bull elk perform loud and wild mating rituals. Sometimes the crazed animals pose a threat to nearby people, and much of the activity happens right in one of the most-visited parts of the park, the Mammoth village. The rut, or elk mating season, peaks in September, and people flock Read More…
BUTTE, Mont. — The Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, Daniel Mulhall, was in Montana last week visiting different parts of the states. One of the places he stopped in was Butte to see what future partnerships it could hold. “Mainly because of the presence here in the 19th and 20th centuries,” said Mulhall. “Tens Read More…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule Wednesday to raise transparency around loans for small businesses. If finalized, the federal agency’s rule would require lenders to collect and report more data about credit applications from small businesses, including demographic and pricing data and reasons for which lenders deny a loan. The rule would help regulators learn how entrepreneurs Read More…
Impossible Foods on Tuesday launched its meatless chicken nuggets in restaurants and announced plans to bring the new offering to supermarkets by the end of the month. In the last decade, chicken has overtaken beef as Americans’ top meat choice, making it a target for the companies like Impossible that are looking to replace or Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a $339,716 fine against Helena-based Slice of the 406 LLC, and Minnesota-based 82 and Sunny LLC, for “allegedly conducting illegal charter flights.” The FAA alleges between July 2017 and November 2018, 26 passenger-carrying flights were conducted without having the required FAA operating or air carrier certificates. The Read More…
Boots on the ground in Iowa. Accelerated fundraising. More national media interviews. A flood of new press statements. A rise in attack ads on the web. With a flurry of activity from his main political committee and hints dropped in private conversations with confidantes and advisers, Donald Trump is signaling a heightened interest in reclaiming Read More…
Car manufacturers including Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler are still struggling to deal with the impact of the global chip shortage, with executives from each of the companies warning a lack of silicon is likely to remain a problem. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius and Ford Europe chairman of the management board Gunnar Herrmann told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach Read More…
The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a major permanent increase to the food stamp benefits that help 42 million Americans buy groceries — a record bump up for one of the country’s largest safety net programs. The average monthly benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will be roughly 27 percent higher than they were Read More…
Rapid City has issued 3,111 building permits so far this year with a valuation of $245,820,725. The valuation from January to August is the second-highest in the city’s history with the highest from 2018 with a total of $262,030,115 for the same time period. The May to August valuation is also the second highest with Read More…
SIOUX FALLS | South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Friday that she is looking to make widespread changes in the state’s prison system after meeting with tired and discouraged employees working short-handed at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. The Republican governor fired the prison’s warden and deputy warden last week following an investigation Read More…
BOZEMAN, Mont. — The Gallatin County Planning Department released the final draft of a new growth policy for the county. The policy is called Envision Gallatin: Tomorrow Together. It centers around three major themes — open space, heritage and opportunity. The Gallatin County Commission will vote on the policy at the public meeting Sept. 21. Developing Read More…
HELENA — Drawing two new, compact congressional districts for Montana in 2022 with equal populations is a piece of cake – but, when their political leaning is a consideration, things get prickly. Joe Lamson, one of two Democratic members of the five-member commission that will decide the boundary by November, says a goal should be Read More…
MISSOULA — Attention is once again turning to a legislative solution to wildfires as the Northern Rockies fire season winds down, and California’s rages on. MTN News takes a closer look at the proposals being floated by U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT). Whether it’s logging projects to thin the forest or other measures like prescribed Read More…
WYOMING – Rep. Liz Cheney will serve as the vice chair for the Jan. 6 committee, her office confirmed Sept. 2. “Every member of this committee is dedicated to conducting a non-partisan, professional, and thorough investigation of all the relevant facts regarding January 6th and the threat to our Constitution we faced that day,” Cheney said. “I Read More…