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Montanans May Be Eligible for Payments From $96.5 Million Generic Drug Settlement

HELENA, Mont. — Montanans who purchased certain generic prescription drugs between 2009 and 2019 may be eligible for compensation from a series of settlements totaling about $96.5 million over allegations that drug manufacturers conspired to inflate prices. A federal court in Connecticut recently granted preliminary approval to a distribution plan involving Montana and 47 other Read More…

Micron Earnings in Focus as AI Memory Demand Drives Expectations Higher

BOISE, Idaho — Micron Technology is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter results Sept. 30, with investors looking for another quarter of rapid growth as artificial-intelligence spending continues to fuel demand for high-performance memory. The Boise-based semiconductor company has already set a high bar. Micron reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $41.46 billion, up 74% from the Read More…

Montana Highway Patrol Commissions Seven New Troopers

BOULDER, Mont. — The Montana Highway Patrol commissioned seven new troopers during the 84th Montana Highway Patrol Advanced Academy graduation ceremony. For the first time, the graduation was held at MHP headquarters in Boulder. Montana Highway Patrol Col. Kurt Sager and Montana Supreme Court Clerk Bowen Greenwood addressed the graduates before the swearing-in and badge-pinning Read More…

Outside Spending Intensifies as Montana Senate Race Enters Final Stretch

HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s U.S. Senate race is entering its final stretch with millions of dollars in outside spending, a dispute over a television advertisement targeting Republican Kurt Alme and growing scrutiny of independent candidate Seth Bodnar’s record leading the University of Montana. The four-way contest to replace retiring Republican Sen. Steve Daines includes Alme, Read More…

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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…

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…

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…

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…

Knudsen-Led AG Group Targets 13 States in Election Push

The Republican Attorneys General Association is highlighting a new Michigan advertisement from its affiliated Safer Michigan Fund as part of a nearly $7 million political spending campaign across 13 states ahead of the November elections. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen serves as chairman of RAGA, which is working to elect and defend Republican attorneys general Read More…

Montana’s Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.2%

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…

Federal Court Backs Trump’s Authority Over California Pipeline

A federal court upheld the Trump administration’s authority under the Defense Production Act to oversee operation of the Santa Ynez Pipeline on the California coast, rejecting California’s efforts to block federally mandated oil production through state-level legal barriers — though the same ruling fined Sable Offshore Corporation nearly $1.5 million for violating a federal consent Read More…

Sheehy Parachutes Into Yellowstone International Airshow

Sen. Tim Sheehy made a fitting entrance at the Yellowstone International Airshow in Billings on Friday, parachuting onto the grounds at Billings Logan International Airport while carrying a Montana state flag. The former Navy SEAL, FAA-certified commercial pilot and flight instructor arrived during media practice day for the show, joining the U.S. Army Golden Knights Read More…

Attorney General Austin Knudsen

Knudsen Restores Pre-Bullock Term Limits Rule

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen issued a legal opinion reversing a 14-year-old interpretation of the state’s constitutional term limits — a move that could remove prominent Republican lawmakers from the November ballot just days before the state must certify candidates. The opinion withdraws a 2012 interpretation issued by then-Attorney General Steve Bullock, now a former Read More…

Circle Plans September Launch of Arc Blockchain to Expand USDC’s Role

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, said its Arc blockchain mainnet is scheduled to launch Sept. 16, a move that would give the company its own financial infrastructure for payments, capital markets and tokenized assets. The launch marks Circle’s attempt to move beyond simply issuing digital dollars and toward owning a larger share of Read More…

Sheehy Bill Targets Foreign Drug Price Controls

Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced legislation that would create a dedicated pharmaceutical trade negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and expand federal oversight of foreign drug pricing policies. The Use Sovereignty to Reduce Rx Act, or USTRx Act, targets what its sponsors describe as price control regimes in wealthy countries that suppress payments Read More…

The Montana Democratic Party published a statement praising Democrat Alani Bankhead for suspending her Senate campaign before she had actually done so

Dems Announce Bankhead Dropped Out — She Didn’t

The Montana Democratic Party published a statement praising Democrat Alani Bankhead for suspending her Senate campaign before she had actually done so — a stunning blunder that laid bare how certain party leaders had become that their own nominee would step aside. The statement, first surfaced by Semafor’s Burgess Everett on X, reads: “The Montana Democratic Read More…

State Investigation Alleges Kalispell Bondsman Exploited Clients

Montana State Auditor James Brown has suspended the insurance producer license of a Kalispell bail bondsman accused of exploiting people under his supervision, including allegedly trading bond services for sexual favors. The suspension order, issued Aug. 3, bars Laine Kendall Callahan from operating as a bail bondsman in the state pending a revocation hearing, which Read More…

Mhttps://bigskyheadlines.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=post_tagontana Senate Race Turns Combative as Withdrawal Deadline Nears

Pressure to narrow the field in Montana’s U.S. Senate race intensified this week, but with a Monday evening deadline approaching, none of the candidates has shown any willingness to step aside. Seth Bodnar, running as an independent, said at a news conference in a Billings park Friday morning that he was staying in through November, Read More…

Knudsen Extends MVD Fee Waivers for Citizenship Marker Through September

Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced the Montana Motor Vehicle Division is extending its fee waiver for driver license and identification card renewals and replacements through September 30, following a strong response to the program that saw more than 18,000 Montanans add the new citizenship marker to their credentials in July alone. The waiver, originally set Read More…

Sheehy Introduces Two Bipartisan Bills

Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced two pieces of legislation in recent weeks — one bipartisan bill to strengthen Buy American requirements for school meals and one to extend nationwide concealed carry privileges to elite special operations veterans. On July 30, Sheehy and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the American Food for American Schools Act, with Read More…

The Academic Building sits on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station on Nov. 13, 2025. Cassie Stricker for The Texas Tribune

Professors sue Texas A&M System over limits on teaching race, gender

Professors sue Texas A&M System over limits on teaching race, gender Four professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System’s restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy. The university system bars professors from “advocating” race or Read More…

Treasury Further Dismantles Iranian Financier Zanjani’s Network

The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions Friday on four individuals and nine entities tied to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani’s sprawling sanctions evasion network, targeting his domestic conglomerate and a web of foreign firms that supported his cryptocurrency exchanges. “The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with Read More…

Montana Senate Race in Chaos as DSCC Dumps Bankhead

Montana’s U.S. Senate race entered a turbulent new phase as the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm publicly declared it would not support the party’s own nominee, a major veterans organization endorsed independent candidate Seth Bodnar, and President Trump weighed in to attack Bankhead on social media — all while both candidates insisted they were staying Read More…

Hundreds celebrate grand opening of Combined State Labs building at Montana State 

Hundreds of people, including Montana State University faculty, staff, students and alumni, along with community members, legislators and industry professionals, gathered Friday to celebrate the completion of the Combined State Labs building. The tri-lab agricultural facility, located on the west side of South 19th Avenue, brings together MSU’s Montana Agricultural Experiment Station Wool Lab, the Montana Department of Livestock’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, the Montana Department of Agriculture’s Analytical Lab. Established at Read More…