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…
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…
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…
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Federal Reserve’s chairman used his first appearance at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole symposium to lay out a leaner approach to communicating future policy moves, while cautioning that inflation remains too high despite a resilient economy. Marking his 100th day in the role, the chairman told an audience of Read More…
(HELENA) The Montana Supreme Court has found that voter-approved Constitutional Initiative 116, commonly referred to as Marsy’s Law, is unconstitutional. The court concluded that the initiative made at least five substantive and not closely related to changes to the Montana constitution. Montana’s Constitution requires a separate vote for each unrelated change to the constitution. The court Read More…
Helena – Governor Steve Bullock has appointed Billings personal injury attorney Don Harris as the new district court judge in Yellowstone County. Mr. Harris will replace Judge Russ Fagg who retired earlier this year. Mr. Harris is currently a partner at the law firm of Harris, Gannet & Varela PLLC. He received his undergraduate and Read More…
HELENA – Judy Martz, the first and only woman to serve as Montana’s governor, has died at age 74. Martz, who had pancreatic cancer, died in Monday morning at her home in Rocker, west of Butte. A Republican from the Democratic stronghold of Butte, Martz served a single term as governor, from 2001-2004. READ THE Read More…
HELENA – Montana officials have decided to decommission all but one of the state’s old airway beacons that pilots used to rely on to find their way at night. More than 1,500 airway beacons used to dot the landscape nationwide but modern navigation equipment made them obsolete. Federal officials began decommissioning the beacons in the Read More…
Columbia Falls Aluminum Company has reimbursed the federal government for some of the costs of investigating its former Columbia Falls plant. The aluminum mill was permanently closed in 2015 and declared a Superfund site last year. The company is currently investigating the site under the Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight and direction. In its Agreement on Read More…
Both President and Mrs. Trump both spoke on Thursday about the epidemic of opiod drugs in the U.S,, however Montana Attorney General Tim Fox also emphasized the challenge of both alcohol and methamphetamine. “Attorney General Fox appreciated the president’s announcement of a state of emergency over the opiod epidemic,” said. spokesman Eric Sell. “It’s important Read More…
On Thursday afternoon, Kathleen Williams announced that she will be running as a Democrat for Montana’s lone House seat. Williams is the fifth Democrat to enter the race. She is a former state legislator and said she believes her experience in Helena will help her in Washington, D.C. Dorothy Bradley, another former state legislator, and Read More…
According to the Legislative Fiscal Division, the 2017 wildfire season is expected to cost the state $74.2 million as wildfires burned nearly 1.3 million acres. During the 2017 Legislative session, lawmakers budgeted $32.3 million to fight fires for the fiscal years 2018 and 2019. This year’s fire burned through that entire amount as well as Read More…
The last Montana legislative session was a tough one with a trim budget, but there is speculation the money is already running out. Ever since the session ended, there has been talk of either the legislature or governor Steve Bullock calling a special session. Montana House Finance chair Nancy Ballance believes the governor might announce Read More…
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has directed millions of dollars in political contributions since 2014 to a network of Washington operatives that prominent conservatives have accused of profiting by misleading donors. Beneficiaries of Zinke’s largesse include groups linked to Washington-area political operative Scott B. Mackenzie, organizer of a Virgin Islands GOP political action committee that hosted Read More…
Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is receiving significant criticism nationwide as many actresses have stepped forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual assault, harassment, and a cover-up of these stories by the press. As a high-profile political contributor, Weinstein’s donations have even been re-donated to charities by major politicians, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo. Interestingly, according to Read More…
YELLOWSTONE COUNTY, Mont. – A Washington man is being held in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility following a traffic stop Thursday morning that uncovered 80 one-pound sealed bags of marijuana in his car. According to court records, on October 12th at 10:55 a.m. Anthony Fujimoto, 33, was stopped for failing to signal a lane change Read More…
The last special legislative session in Montana was held a decade ago, when Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, announced the “call” summoning lawmakers back to Helena in order to fund government and transfer money to pay for wildland firefighting. Today, Schweitzer’s Democratic successor, Gov. Steve Bullock, is in an even direr situation following an expensive Read More…
Montana logged its first avalanche death of the 2017-18 season south of Bozeman Saturday. Two skiers — accomplished mountaineer Hayden Kennedy and his girlfriend, Inge Perkins — trekked to the upper reaches of Imp Peak in the southern Madison Range. Around 10,000 feet above sea level they accidentally dislodged a mass of snow 150 feet Read More…
On Wednesday, top Republican state leaders gathered in a conference call with the media to discuss their views of the current budget crisis in Montana. There is currently a $200 million shortfall in crafting a constitutionally mandated balanced budget. Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen began by calling out Governor Steve Bullock for making budget Read More…
BILLINGS – Yellowstone County District Judge Russell Fagg heard his last case Tuesday before hanging up his robe after 22 years on the bench. Fagg estimated that he’s presided over 25,000 cases, but one stands out in his mind. The year was 1996 and the defendant Gino Gonzalez, who was 17 at the time. “He killed a Read More…
Raise a beer this weekend to toast Wyoming’s status as Kiplinger’s Most Tax Friendly State. When you do, you’ll be paying the lowest tax on beer in the nation. When compared with South Dakota, the nearest neighboring ‘most tax friendly’ state, Wyoming’s average sales tax is 5.42, while South Dakota’s is 6.39 and includes many Read More…
MISSOULA – The Montana High Tech Jobs Summit hosted by and for tech companies to encourage the development of the tech sector within Montana is underway. The event at the University of Montana is being hosted by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) will wrap up on Monday in Missoula. “We have some of the leaders in Read More…
Following a conference call on Tuesday afternoon, the Montana Board of Regents offered the position of UM President to Seth Bodnar, and he accepted. Bodnar becomes the 18th president of the university. Associate Commissioner of Higher Education Kevin McRae said late Tuesday afternoon that the decision did come more quickly than was anticipated. “Last week, Read More…
HELENA – Gov. Steve Bullock Monday said some state spending must be cut to balance the state budget, in the face of a revenue shortage – but that the Legislature could help mitigate those cuts by approving some form of tax increase. “If legislators will work with me, there is a better way to do Read More…
Montana’s two Republican Congressmen in Washington, D.C. urged the Trump administration this week to approve two massive mining projects in Northwest Montana. On Sept. 28, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to green light Hecla Mining Company’s Rock Creek and Montanore Read More…
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is leaving in place a 70-year prison sentence for a Montana man convicted of shooting a German exchange student who was trespassing in his garage. The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the case of Markus Kaarma. Kaarma was convicted of the 2014 death of 17-year-old Diren Dede, who had Read More…
Brown University has initiated a $120 million campaign to drop all loans from financial aid packages awarded to their undergraduates. Student debt is at an all-time high — the average outstanding balance is $34,144, up 62 percent over the last 10 years — and Brown will become the sixteenth U.S. institution, and the sixth in Read More…
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., returned Sunday from a security and trade mission to South Korea and Taiwan to receive an update on the nuclear threat of North Korea and expand markets for Montana products. Daines traveled to the Korean Demilitarized Zone to see the border known as the 38th parallel. He also visited Yeonpyeong Island Read More…
Unless a remedy is found for the state’s looming budget crisis, Montana residents can expect devastating losses to essential services across the board, and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock says any solutions will require more than his efforts alone. “I need a willing dance partner,” he said in an interview on Friday. “If we don’t figure Read More…
Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte took his “Forest Jobs Tour” to Columbia Falls Friday, touring F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company and calling for changes in forest policy. Speaking with reporters and employees at the firm’s 94-year-old mill, Gianforte stressed the need for some logging and thinning, or “forest management,” to tame future wildfires and boost Read More…
The town of Browning has been in the process of disbanding due to financial issues since 2016. In March of 2016, a Lewis and Clark County District Judge appointed Robert Denning to take over financial control of the town’s assets and debt. According to Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Chairman Harry Barnes, the Tribe has been in negotiations Read More…
HELENA – Officials announced a new Montana National Guard program that will allow limited hunting on Fort Harrison grounds. It’s called the Purple Heart Deer Program. Each year it will allow up to five Purple Heart recipients to hunt big game in Fort Harrison’s training area. National Guard leaders said the program is a way to Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Numbers from the state show Montana public school students’ standardized test scores did not increase from last year to this year. The test scores released on Tuesday show about half of all public school students graded as at least proficient in English language arts and about 40 percent as proficient in math, Read More…
BILLINGS – Republican and state District Judge Russell Fagg is traveling the state, raising money and touting prominent endorsements – but insists he’s still “exploring” whether to run for the U.S. Senate. “No, I’m not a candidate at this point, and I made that very clear,” he told MTN News in an interview late last Read More…
HELENA – A legislative committee Monday continued to block more than $20 million in proposed cuts to medical services for the poor and disabled in Montana – although it’s unclear whether the action will ultimately stave off the cuts. The Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee voted 7-1 to continue until at least Read More…
If the state of Montana ends up cutting state budgets by as much as 10 percent, that could result in the Board of Regents raising tuition next fall even more than already planned. Tyler Trevor, deputy commissioner of higher education, said Friday that the University System won’t know until the end of September how big Read More…
Miss North Dakota 2017 Cara Mund has been crowned Miss America. Mund is the first North Dakotan ever to win the Miss America crown. She was asked during her interview question what is on her bucket list. She said it was to make it past the Top 10 on Miss America because only 3 other Miss North Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Governor Steve Bullock is putting the investigation that he misused the state plane while campaigning for re-election behind him. The Governor has agreed to settle the case after an investigation by the Commissioner of Political Practices found the Governor was in violation of Montana’s Campaign Practices Act. The June 28th report found Read More…
When NFL teams trimmed down rosters to 53 players over the weekend, only four former Montana Griz players held a job. By Monday morning, that number was down to three. Here’s a look at how former Griz played this preseason, and who remains on an NFL roster to begin the season. READ THE FULL STORY.
HELENA – The Bullock administration Wednesday said it needs to cut the state budget by as much as $230 million, to put it back in balance, and asked state agencies to submit plans for 10 percent cuts by next week. Dan Villa, the governor’s budget director, said the administration isn’t looking forward to making the 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…
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…
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…
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…