Montana’s unemployment rate fell to 3.2% in July, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced, continuing the state’s record stretch of low unemployment and remaining nearly a full percentage point below the national rate, which also declined over the month to 4.1%. “As Montana’s unemployment rate continues to decline, businesses across our state are expanding, creating high-paying jobs, Read More…
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley commended the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after it dismissed a legal challenge brought by suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who were seeking to avoid removal from the United States. The en banc Fifth Circuit dismissed the case on August 13 as moot after the Read More…
Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke received the Excellence in Advocacy Award from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation at a ceremony at the organization’s Missoula headquarters, recognizing his work on public lands, wildlife habitat and America’s hunting heritage. RMEF president and CEO Kyle Weaver and chief conservation officer Blake Henning presented the award. Zinke is only Read More…
Vice President JD Vance remains the clear favorite in a prospective 2028 Republican presidential primary, with 41% of Republicans and right-leaning Independents saying they would vote for him in The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll. The Center Square has conducted four 2028 presidential primary polls since October, and Vance’s latest showing was his strongest to Read More…
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who became famous for representing adult film star Stormy Daniels and publicly sparring with then-President Donald Trump, was sentenced in New York Thursday to 30 months in prison for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. Avenatti, 50, was convicted last year on charges that he tried to extort up to Read More…
(CNN)Loretta Smith and Wesley Hunt are members of different parties, separated by both distance and policy. And yet, Smith, an Oregon Democrat, and Hunt, a Texas Republican, find themselves in similar positions headed into the 2022 midterms: Both have announced plans to run for Congress, but neither know what the district they plan to run Read More…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, won big on Alphabet Inc. stock and added bets on Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. in the weeks leading up to the House Judiciary Committee’s vote on antitrust legislation that seeks to severely limit how these companies organize and offer their products. In a financial disclosure signed by Nancy Pelosi July 2, her husband reported exercising call Read More…
Breaking with the longstanding norm of intraparty candidate neutrality, a Wyoming Republican Party official asked members of Congress for help vetting potential challengers to U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney in next year’s Republican primary. According to emails obtained by WyoFile, Wyoming Republican Party Revenue Committee Chairman Jeff Wallack contacted staffers for Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Read More…
About 125 soldiers from a Bismarck-based National Guard unit will be sent to the U.S. border with Mexico later this year for an undetermined amount of time, the North Dakota guard said Tuesday. The soldiers from the 957th Engineer Company are expected to begin the deployment this fall, the military said. READ FULL STORY
CASPER, Wyo. — Governor Mark Gordon is donating a wild bison hunting license to be raffled in order to raise funds to support Wyoming wildlife conservation. It is the third year in a row Gordon has donated a wild bison license for such efforts. “The bison is the symbol of Wyoming and a fitting hunt Read More…
WASHINGTON (SBG) — Economists believe the pandemic has revealed just how vulnerable the United States’ supply chain is to major economic shocks and that the time is coming where experts will have to rethink how to move products around the globe. The country has experienced severe shortages of everything from computer chips, to toilet paper, to furniture Read More…
Last month was the fourth hottest June on record in Kalispell, thanks in large part to the extreme heat wave that roasted the region the final week of the month. According to climate statistics from the National Weather Service in Missoula, the average temperature in June for Kalispell was 63.9 degrees, which is 6.3 degree Read More…
COLSTRIP, Mont. – One person has been charged with negligent arson after unintentionally starting a range fire north of Colstrip. The Rosebud County Sheriff’s Office reports the range fire was caused by fireworks. READ FULL STORY
DEER LODGE — Wildlife officials are continuing to search for a grizzly bear that killed a camper in Ovando on Tuesday morning. The Powell County Sheriff’s Office reports traps have been set in the area while a ground and air search is continuing for the grizzly bear. READ FULL STORY
RED LODGE – The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office and other regional search and rescue crews on Wednesday joined the effort to find a missing hiker in the Beartooth Mountains outside of Red Lodge. The additional resources were deployed to search for 23-year-old Tatum “Tate” Morell, who has not been heard from since the evening of Read More…
BILLINGS — The question of whether to allow seven types of marijuana businesses into the Billings city limits could be up to the voters again in an election on Nov. 2, after the City Council directed staff on Tuesday to research ballot language and dates to bring back at a future meeting. Billings Assistant City Read More…
Two men arrested over the shooting of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who is fighting for his life in an Amsterdam hospital, will appear in court later this week, police said Wednesday. De Vries, a star reporter who had received multiple threats for his work covering the criminal underworld, was shot five times, Read More…
Nearly six months into President Joe Biden’s administration, Wall Street remains divided over the likelihood, and impact of, one of the Democrat’s key campaign promises: higher taxes. While the president and his Cabinet have made progress in persuading foreign partners to back a global minimum corporate tax rate, the Biden team does not appear any closer to passing Read More…
LEESBURG, Va.—Before Covid-19 forced its students into online classes, Loudoun County’s bimonthly school board meetings were often dry exercises in bureaucratic wrangling: Haggling over AP textbook availability and public construction projects. Poring over budget proposals for custodial supplies and debating about whether to renew the contract for a company supplying milk to cafeterias. Only a handful of parents showed up Read More…
Former President Donald Trump, who has complained about censorship by social media giants, filed class-action lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Why it matters: It’s the latest escalation in Trump’s yearslong battle with Twitter and Facebook over free speech and censorship. Trump is completely banned from Twitter and is banned from Facebook for another Read More…
Some companies are turning to signing bonuses to attract workers as they struggle to fill positions. While most often associated with higher-paying jobs that require secondary education, signing bonuses are increasingly being tied to job applications for low- and middle-wage jobs — a sign that some say is a symptom of a labor shortage. The Read More…
A federal judge has sentenced Allison Mack to 3 years in prison, along with a $20,000 fine, for her involvement in the NXIVM case. Mack was one of the lead deputies and recruiters for NXIVM — the cult group that masqueraded itself as a self-help organization. The group’s leader, Keith Raniere, was sentenced to 120 Read More…
Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction and barred him from being retried. The 83-year-old comedian was released from custody just before 2:30 p.m., roughly two hours after the divided high court issued its decision, upending the first high-profile celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era. Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court announced on Tuesday it will issue a final ruling on the Legislature’s subpoenas, rejecting GOP lawmakers’ request to dismiss the case. The state high court is moving forward with the case because justices say the dispute over Legislative powers is a relevant issue likely to come up again. READ FULL STORY
BOZEMAN — It was the last school board meeting of the academic year in Bozeman – and it surely went out with a bang, going on for hours. The meeting was the first in-person in almost a year, and administrators heard from dozens of people who showed up to express their concern, mainly to talk Read More…
A recent pop-up clinic intended to encourage hesitant veterans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 reflects dwindling demand for the shot in Montana. Nurse Tina Arvish sits behind a table at a temporary COVID-19 vaccine clinic tucked away from the bustle of a recent American Legion conference in Helena. “We have two nurses’ stations where we’re Read More…
GREAT FALLS — Maren Reilly took the oath of office on Tuesday and became the first female fire officer at Great Falls Fire Rescue. Fire Chief Jeremy Jones conducted the ceremony, administering the oath and promoting her to the rank of lieutenant. Maren’s husband Eric pinned her new gold lieutenant badge on her uniform, and Read More…
BILLINGS – With the rising number of violent crimes in Yellowstone County, State Attorney General Austin Knudsen stopped in Billings to meet with local law enforcement leaders. Our team had the opportunity speak with the attorney general and ask him questions sent in from our viewers. Knudsen says there’s a violent crime problem in Montana Read More…
LIVINGSTON — School may be out for the summer, but a new school bus has rolled into town. Lion Electric presented a demonstration of a model school bus, powered by electricity. Michelle Uberuaga, from Moms Clean Air Force, organized the event and invited all to climb aboard. In tow, were representatives from Lion Electric, and Read More…
South Dakota is the latest state to send its residents to the U.S.-Mexico border to help overwhelmed federal and local law enforcement respond to sustained high levels of illegal immigration. But unlike Nebraska and Florida, which sent state troopers and local police officers to Texas earlier this month, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will send in the Read More…
Efforts to defend Duke Energy from a proxy campaign led by billionaire Paul Singer have recently taken two quiet steps backwards. Last month, Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Management urged the utility to split its $78 billion electric-and-gas empire into three companies — an unusual proposal in an era of consolidation that a few analysts variously Read More…
Walmart announced Tuesday it will start selling private-label insulin this summer at a much lower price for the lifesaving diabetes drug than branded varieties in vials and pens. The new brand, called ReliOn NovoLog, includes analog insulin vials for $72.88 and $85.88 for a package of prefilled insulin pens. READ FULL STORY
A federal judge in Manhattan tossed an indictment against a Bronx shooting suspect because of a lack of racial diversity in the White Plains grand jury pool — the first such ruling since city cases were moved to the suburban county amid the pandemic. Judge Analisa Torres sided with defendant William Scott, who had argued that Read More…
Jason Rochester tried everything he could to persuade the Trump administration to allow his wife Cecilia, who is Mexican, to come back to their home in the United States. A truck driver from Georgia, Rochester wanted to fix his wife’s undocumented immigration status and put her on track to become an American citizen, like him Read More…
Chelsea Clinton is a board director at a health insurance company that has been accused of defrauding investors. Clover Health has been slapped with numerous investor lawsuits that claim the company and its leadership failed to disclose that it was under investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly offering illegal kickbacks to health care Read More…
Christy Cummings Dawson will take over as Montana West Economic Development’s (MWED) president and CEO this July following two years as the company’s government contracting advisor. Dawson will replace Jerry Meerkatz, who served as president and CEO for the last five years. During her last two years assisting small businesses pursue government contracts, Dawson has Read More…
Vice President Kamala Harris finally visited the southern border, three months after being put in charge of solving the immigration crisis. In that time, more than half-a-million illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border. Upon arriving in El Paso on Friday, the vice president continued to attack journalists for asking questions about why she Read More…
Justice Stephen Breyer’s future is the biggest question as the Supreme Court winds down its term in the next week. Close observers of the court are scrutinizing any tea leaves they can find for possible clues on the 82-year-old liberal justice, questioning whether several major majority and dissenting opinions in recent weeks offer any evidence on Read More…
The Department of Justice suing Georgia over voting restrictions is a ”cover-up” for the Biden administration’s failure to pass the For the People Act, says former Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. ”This is all about a cover-up. They failed on their For the People Act, their government takeover of elections,” Collins said Friday during an appearance Read More…
Eleven people were struck by a barrage of gunfire in the Marquette Park neighborhood late Sunday, leaving a woman dead in the second of two mass shootings of the night in Chicago, according to police. The attack happened in the 6300 block of South Artesian Avenue about 10:55 p.m., police said in a media notification. Read More…
NEW YORK – Eight people were arrested in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park Sunday during another weekend of mayhem. According to police, a woman in her 20s bit an officer, another woman in her 20s struck an officer with a bottle, a man in his 20s slapped an officer and another man in his 20s went through a Read More…
North Dakota’s State Library has removed a Dr. Seuss children’s book discontinued by the publisher for its racist imagery. The decision came after Christopher Coen, of Fargo, suggested the library move “If I Ran the Zoo” from the children collection to the adult collection. The request was the library’s first of its kind in at Read More…
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Carson Wentz will be looking to set some new ways with a fresh start, but there are some traditions he is keeping alive. Among them is his annual charity softball game in North Dakota. Wentz, along with several other former players from North Dakota State, partake in the event to help raise money for Read More…
In 2017, Caitlin Long, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, was just trying to donate some Bitcoin to her alma mater, the University of Wyoming, she says. But the University of Wyoming wasn’t set up to accept Bitcoin donations, and because her Bitcoin had appreciated in value, her donation would go much further if Read More…