Montana’s Carpenters Union Local 82 endorsed Republican congressional candidate Aaron Flint during a construction site tour at the new Bretz RV warehouse in Butte, with members of the Ironworkers Union also joining to show their support — a notable show of organized labor backing for a Republican in a race rated Likely Republican by Sabato’s Read More…
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…
Army Tech. Sgt. Ted Takayuki Tanouye posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in western Italy during World War II. Tanouye was born to Nikuma and Momoye Tanouye Nov. 14, 1919, in Torrance, California. He was the eldest of six children. He graduated from Torrance High School in 1938, where he played Read More…
Kellogg said it will remove artificial colors from all its cereals by the end of this year, moving up a timeline the company set just last August by more than a year. Kellogg had said in August 2025 that it would eliminate synthetic dyes from its cereals by the end of 2027. The company said Read More…
A watchdog group wants the Department of the Interior to investigate whether the National Wildlife Federation misused federal grant money tied to political spending in Montana’s 2024 U.S. Senate race. The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed the complaint Thursday with the department’s inspector general. The complaint says the Bureau of Land Management Read More…
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision on Monday, ruled that states can accept and count mail-in ballots received after the federal Election Day. The decision comes out of the high court’s ruling in Watson v. RNC, a case challenging Mississippi’s acceptance of mail-in ballots up to five days after Election Day as long Read More…
Seth Bodnar has spent his Senate campaign positioning himself as a red-state outsider unbeholden to party machinery, but the financial picture behind his candidacy tells a more complicated story than the independent label suggests. Bodnar has led the field in fundraising, pulling in more than $2 million since March, and has collected endorsements from prominent Read More…
Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke celebrated the release of $53,889,068 in Payments in Lieu of Taxes funding for Montana counties, an increase of more than $7.3 million over 2025 disbursements. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Zinke said he played a major role in securing the funds. “Public Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as the next attorney general of the United States. In a letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, Ranking Member Richard Durbin and other committee members, Knudsen urged Read More…
(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…
Army Pvt. Joe Gandara was a paratrooper who fought in France during World War II. Little is known about him other than that he was the son of Mexican immigrants. However, his bravery and selflessness earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor — nearly 70 years after he sacrificed himself to save his battle buddies. Read More…
(The Center Square) – American voters believe building more data centers in the United States are not worth the potential strain on local electricity, water and infrastructure and that the negatives outweigh the importance for national security and competing with China, according to a new poll. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 54% Read More…
Attorney general says MVD will waive renewal and replacement fees in July for Montanans adding the state’s new eagle-in-flight citizenship marker Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced that the state’s Motor Vehicle Division will waive certain driver license and identification card fees throughout July for residents who add the state’s new citizenship marker to their Read More…
Siding with SpaceX and the attorney general’s office, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that environmental groups did not have a right to sue to preserve public access to a beach that has been closed during rocket launches. The unanimous ruling said a trial judge properly dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the groups Read More…
A Montana ballot initiative promising to strip dark money from elections is itself being bankrolled almost entirely by a so-called dark money organization — a glaring contradiction that even its own organizers can barely keep a straight face about. The Montana Plan, known as Initiative 194, is being pushed by the Transparent Election Initiative, a Read More…
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Education confirmed a whistleblower’s allegations that the agency violated a federal court order while handling Title IX cases tied to gender identity and sexual orientation, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. OSC told President Donald Trump and Congress this week that the department’s supplemental investigation backed Read More…
A Montana district court judge has dealt a significant blow to embattled state Sen. Jason Ellsworth, rejecting all five motions filed by his attorneys seeking to dismiss a criminal corruption charge — while simultaneously reinstating him to office after a suspension tied to the ongoing case. Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican and former Senate president, was Read More…
Elon Musk’s SpaceX priced its initial public offering Thursday, raising $75 billion and cementing the rocket maker’s place among the world’s most valuable companies in what stands as the largest IPO in U.S. history. On Friday, Wall Street delivered its verdict: investors wanted in. The offering valued SpaceX at approximately $1.77 trillion at its IPO Read More…
Montana State University student Peyton Summerhill has wanted to be a scientist for as long as she can remember. “For so many years as a kid, I was looking around trying to figure out where the scientists were, and they were here the whole time,” said Summerhill, who grew up in Bozeman and is majoring Read More…
KALISPELL, Mont. — Kristopher Schreiner, an 18-year veteran of Kalispell Middle School’s history department, was named the 2026 Centennial Bell Montana History Teacher of the Year, recognized for an immersive approach to Montana history that has students mining for gold, tanning hides, and constructing log cabins alongside traditional classroom instruction. The awards committee selected Schreiner Read More…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal jury convicted four current and former leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers on racketeering, embezzlement, and fraud charges, finding that they stole millions of dollars in union dues through lavish foreign travel, no-show jobs, unauthorized loans, and personal expenses charged to the union over a 15-year period. The Read More…
HAMILTON, Mont. — The Department of Justice charged two researchers from the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and making false statements to federal law enforcement, U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy announced. The two researchers charged were Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, both foreign nationals working at the Read More…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate confirmed Katie Lane to a lifetime appointment as a federal district court judge for the District of Montana on Tuesday in a 52-46 party-line vote, with all Republicans in support and all Democrats opposed. Lane, 34, a Bozeman native who most recently served as an attorney for the Republican National Read More…
The Las Vegas Strip is facing a wave of consolidation unlike anything seen in a generation, with two major casino takeover deals announced in the span of days that could fundamentally reshape the American gaming industry. Media mogul Barry Diller’s holding company People Incorporated — formerly known as IAC — submitted a non-binding proposal Monday Read More…
WASHINGTON — Kevin Warsh begins his first full week as chairman of the Federal Reserve today with markets watching closely for early signals on monetary policy direction as stubbornly high inflation complicates the new chair’s opening days in office. Warsh was sworn in May 22 in a White House ceremony — the first time a Read More…
Montana voters will cast ballots Tuesday in primary elections that will shape the state’s most competitive federal races of the 2026 cycle, with talk radio host Aaron Flint entering primary day as the clear frontrunner in the Republican contest for the Western Congressional District. Flint carries the full weight of the Republican establishment behind him, Read More…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal health officials to review and potentially update the United States’ childhood vaccine schedule to better align with practices in peer developed nations, citing findings that the U.S. currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any comparable country. The order directs the Centers for Disease Control Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Independent U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar appears on track to qualify for Montana’s November general election ballot after county election officials certified more than 18,000 signatures and forwarded them to the Secretary of State’s Office for final verification, according to an unofficial tally released Friday. Bodnar’s campaign needed 13,327 valid signatures to Read More…
WASHINGTON — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen joined Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and attorneys general from 15 other states at an anti-fraud roundtable focused on combating wasteful spending, abuse, and fraud in federal benefit programs including Medicaid and SNAP. The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud Read More…
The Department of War has awarded $27.3 million to Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company, bringing its total investment in the solid rocket motor supply chain to $191 million since December 2024, as the Pentagon moves aggressively to close production gaps in a segment it considers strategically vital. The latest award, funded through the Defense Production Read More…
As the fourth largest state in the U.S. with the sixth smallest population, each agency relies on another for niche expertise, whereas bigger agencies can potentially accomplish everything on their own, said Adam Pankratz, deputy chief of Montana State University’s police department. These relationships start to form during basic training, which 14 future officers from Read More…
Montana has vaulted from 22nd to 8th in national fiscal health rankings over the past four years, according to a new report from Truth in Accounting, a nonpartisan think tank that annually evaluates the financial condition of all 50 states. The 2025 Financial State of the States report credited Montana’s rise in part to revenues Read More…
Six Montana airports will share more than $25 million in federal grants to fund a range of safety and infrastructure improvements, the office of Rep. Ryan Zinke announced, with the largest single award going to Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport for a taxiway extension project. The grants come from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program Read More…
Bozeman has earned recognition as one of the country’s leading entrepreneurship hubs, with Gallatin County landing in the 98th percentile on a national index measuring entrepreneurial activity in rural communities, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced at an event in the city this week. The ranking comes from the Center on Rural Innovation’s Rural Entrepreneurship Index, developed Read More…
A new survey of likely GOP primary voters in Montana’s 1st Congressional District shows Aaron Flint holding a narrow lead in a race where one-third of voters remain undecided, with significant room for ballot movement ahead of the June 2 primary election. The poll, conducted May 5-7 by Public Opinion Strategies, surveyed 400 likely Republican Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a response with the Montana Supreme Court this week asking it to dismiss a petition brought by Gallatin County Attorney Audrey Cromwell, escalating a months-long dispute over whether local officials must share criminal justice records with federal immigration authorities. The clash traces back to October 2025, when Cromwell advised Read More…
The Department of War on established a new task force to streamline the return of former service members who were separated for refusing the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, as the Pentagon works through a backlog of more than 800 troops who have expressed interest in rejoining the force. Secretary Pete Hegseth created the Covid-19 Reinstatement Read More…
(The Center Square) – More than 200 children were rescued and more than 350 child sex offenders arrested in one month in the latest Department of Justice targeted enforcement operation to find child sex abuse victims and arrest child sex predators. The operations are nationwide and involve staff from all 56 FBI field offices and Read More…
The Justice Department filed suit against the State of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque, and their respective governors and attorneys general, charging that recently enacted sanctuary laws violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause and illegally impede federal immigration enforcement operations. The complaint, filed in federal court alongside a motion for a preliminary injunction, takes aim Read More…
The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, surpassing Wall Street expectations and extending a run of stronger-than-forecast hiring that has characterized the labor market in early 2026. The headline number bested the consensus estimate among economists surveyed by Bloomberg, continuing what the White House described as a Read More…
A former state senator has publicly identified herself for the first time as the source of a confidential 2018 sexual harassment complaint against state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, directly challenging his recent claims that allegations against him are part of a politically motivated smear campaign. Jennifer Gross disclosed Friday in a post on her Substack Read More…
The final decision reverses a Biden-era authorization that allowed non-production bison to graze on more than 63,000 acres of federal land, ending a four-year legal and political fight by Montana’s governor, attorney general, and congressional delegation. The Bureau of Land Management issued a final decision canceling the American Prairie Reserve’s bison grazing permits on more Read More…
A wave of new economic data is pointing to broad-based strength across the American economy, with improvements in housing, manufacturing, consumer confidence, and the labor market. Housing New residential construction surged last month to its highest level in more than a year, reflecting strong momentum in expanding housing supply. Home prices declined on an annual Read More…