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…
Attorney General Tim Fox said Tuesday in court papers that the term of Montana’s top political enforcer should have ended Jan. 1 – and the state Supreme Court should take over and decide the lawsuit trying to extend the term. Fox asked a state judge to allow him to intervene in the lawsuit seeking to Read More…
Legislative Republicans Monday introduced a bill to shore up the state highway fund this year – a move they said would enable the state to finance $144 million worth of construction projects that have been delayed. “We know it’s a temporary fix, but we’ve got to get the money back in there, so we can Read More…
Bullock Hires Planned Parenthood Exec as Health Policy Advisor Helena – Governor Steve Bullock announced Friday that he has hired Jessica Rhoades as his health policy advisor. Ms. Rhoades has had a long career in Democrat political circles, including time with Planned Parenthood. Rhoades was the western regional field director for Planned Parenthood of America Read More…
Helena – In late December, with only a few days remaining in his term a group of Democrats stepped in to try and keep Jonathan Motl in the Commissioner of Political Practices office for another two years by filing a lawsuit in Lewis and Clark County district court. Just days later, the fifth lawsuit involving Read More…
With estimated shortfalls in the state highway fund, the Montana Contractors Association and other special interest groups are pushing for a 38 percent increase in the gas tax. Recently MTN reported that Governor Steve Bullock’s administration has spent $75 Million more than the fund has brought in since fiscal 2012. And now the balance has Read More…
Helena – A group of Democrats has filed a lawsuit in a last minute attempt to keep controversial Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl in office for two more years. Former Democrat State Senator Christine Kaufman; outgoing Democrat Secretary of State Linda McCulloch; A trial lawyer political action committee headed by Motl’s lawyer John Heenan Read More…
Republican Secretary of State-Elect Corey Stapleton announced several top staff appointments Tuesday. Stapleton, takes office Jan. 2, he was elected in November, handily defeating Democrat Monica Lindeen, who was the state auditor, with 56 percent of the vote. “There’s no more important function than picking good people,” he told a group in the Capitol. Stapleton Read More…
Great Falls – State Senator Ed Buttrey has told Republicans that he would run for Montana’s lone congressional seat in a Special Election to replace Ryan Zinke. Mr. Buttrey, 51, was the primary driver of a bill in 2015 to expand Medicaid in Montana. The bill was panned by most Republicans and narrowly passed with Read More…
President-Elect Donald Trump has offered the Interior secretary job to Montana’s lone Congressman Ryan Zinke, according to Washington D.C. news outlet Politico. Politico sources said Zinke has yet to accept the position and as not indicated which way he is leaning. Mr. Zinke met with Trump in New York City earlier this week. He was Read More…
Jon Tester, Democratic U.S. Senator from Montana, rode to national elected office on a pledge to restrict lobbying, end campaign finance violations, and the like. Despite his promises to the contrary, Senator Tester is now in the midst of a scandal, involving allegations of campaign finance violations, illicit lobbying practices, and a firm of trial Read More…
Helena – Fresh off a narrow re-election victory Governor Steve Bullock is laying out his priorities for the 2017 legislative session. Despite the gains made by Republicans on Election Day Mr. Bullock remains confident that he can secure legislative victories. Mr. Bullock told Lee Enterprises, “I don’t anticipate much different dynamics than we’ve seen in Read More…
Great Falls – HD 19 Representative Randy Pinocci has filed a lawsuit against Advanced Litho Printing and the Montana Contractors’ Association alleging that his legislative voting record led to his firing in 2015. The conservative Republican filed his suit on November 14th in Missoula District Court. Pinocci worked for Advanced Litho from 1999 to 2015 Read More…
Helena – Montana commissioner of political practices dismissed a state ethics complaint against Governor Steve Bullock and Commerce Director Meg O’Leary on Monday with no investigation. The complaint was filed by state Representative Brad Tschida of Missoula. Commissioner Jonathan Motl, who was appointed by Governor Bullock, said that trips taken by Meg O’Leary to a Read More…
Microsoft Corp. has announced its largest wind power deal to date: 237 megawatts (MW) that will power their data center outside of Cheyenne. This will bring Microsoft’s total investment in wind energy projects to more than 500 MW. This deal will combine a 178 MW from the Bloom Wind project in Kansas with a long-term Read More…
The upcoming session of the Montana Legislature will focus on tightening the state budget, and there will not be much money available for new initiatives, the incoming leaders of Republican legislative majority said Monday. Republicans elected Sen. Scott Sales of Bozeman to be Senate president for the session that begins in January. Sales, a former Read More…
I support Kristen Juras for the Montana Supreme Court for a number of reasons. One of them is her opponent’s record on sentencing defendants convicted in criminal cases involving possession of child pornography and other offenses with children as intended victims. During my term as United States attorney (for Montana) from 2001 to 2009, Read More…
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead says he’s hopeful that state lawmakers won’t have to make more substantial cuts to state spending when they convene early next year. Declining revenues forced Mead to cut $250 million from the state’s two-year, $3 billion general fund budget that started in July. Updated revenue projections are due later this month Read More…
Groups trying to influence the outcome of a Montana Supreme Court race are on track to set a record for the most fundraising collected for a justice seat. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports that this year’s race between Dirk Sandefur and Kristen Juras, fundraising by political action committees has reached a reported total of Read More…
A pair of local businesses were honored as part of the 23rd Annual Family Business Day hosted by Montana State University’s Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship. Bozeman baked goods company Elliotts of Montana and retailer Wild West Shirt Company were among the six businesses awarded at Friday’s event. Busted Knuckle Brewery in Glasgow, Read More…
Wyoming has the most competitive tax code in the nation according to the 13th annual State Business Tax Climate Index, released today by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The report measures how well-structured each state’s tax code is by analyzing over 100 tax variables in five different tax categories: corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment Read More…
Just hours after The Missoula City Council passed a new ordinance requiring background checks on gun sales, a Republican state lawmaker challenged it. House Speaker Austin Knudsen is asking State Attorney General Tim Fox to review the law. “This is a fairly blatant and flagrant violation of Montana law. Second amendment issues are Read More…
With the election just six weeks away, a Republican state senator is calling for an investigation into how Gov. Steve Bullock, who is running for re-election, disposed of emails when he left the attorney general’s office. The move echoes efforts by Republican candidate Greg Gianforte’s campaign to align Bullock in the eyes of Read More…
Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte is calling for Gov. Steve Bullock to fire his commerce director, over a tourism-promotion contract awarded to an out-of-state company. At a gubernatorial debate in Billings this week, Gianforte said the contract was awarded in a “rigged process” that caused job losses in the state, and was “given Read More…
Local officials in Colorado acknowledged “very serious” voter fraud after learning of votes cast in multiple elections under the named of recently-deceased residents. A local media outlet uncovered the fraud by comparing voting history databases in the state with federal government death records. “Somebody was able to cast a vote that was not theirs Read More…
If you have listened to Montana gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte speak on his economic plans, one key area regarding jobs is to bring the state’s kids home with high paying jobs in the technology sector. Gianforte and his wife founded and grew RightNow Technologies in Bozeman before selling the business to the multi-national corporation Oracle. Read More…
Wyoming’s unemployment rate fell in August for the first time in 18 months, the Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday. The shift from 5.7 percent unemployment in July to 5.5 percent last month is not a statistically significant drop, but it offers hope that the state economy is stabilizing. Natrona County had the fourth-largest decrease Read More…
Members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe gathered along the bank of the Missouri River in Great Falls on Tuesday evening to show their support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. The group is joining in protest of the multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline that would cross the Missouri River several times across Read More…
Republican-leaning websites Friday posted stories questioning trips that Gov. Steve Bullock and administration officials have taken to Missoula and the Kentucky Derby. The governor’s office says the trips were, respectively, to conduct state business, and to fulfill Bullock’s role as head of the Democratic Governors’ Association. Newstalk KGVO’s assertion that Bullock also traveled to Puerto Read More…
During Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, he has stacked the deck at the National Labor Relations Board with officials sympathetic to unions. (At one point, a unanimous Supreme Court decision ruled that Obama’s recess appointments to the board were illegal.) The NLRB has in turn issued all sorts of new rules to inhibit Read More…
By Mike Dennison – MTN News HELENA – The head of the state Republican Party Wednesday asked the Montana Supreme Court to remove the Libertarian secretary of state candidate from Montana’s November ballot, for not filing proper campaign forms. Jeff Essmann’s filing for “extraordinary relief” said Libertarian Roger Roots failed to file forms required of Read More…
Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has poured another $640,000 of his own money into his campaign, upping his total personal contributions to $1.7 million – about half his overall campaign funds. But Gianforte wasn’t the only one who opened his checkbook in Montana’s gubernatorial race last month. Good Jobs Montana, an independent political action committee Read More…
Contemporary media parlor games revolve around fantasy sports and politics. Yet for politics, press interest in money raised and spent often seems more important than who will win and how policies might change. One corollary to the political-money obsession is the complaint that Federal Election Commission enforcement for alleged wrongdoers is too feeble. Critics say Read More…
HELENA — The ending fund balance for fiscal year 2016 was $255 million, or $99 million less than anticipated, according to an Aug. 25 memo prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Division, adding that figure was expected to dip down to $153 million by fiscal year 2017. “Actual revenues in FY 2016 were $142 million less Read More…
After a decade-long partnership with Bozeman advertising agency MercuryCSC, Montana’s Office of Tourism and Business Development recently awarded the state’s $7 million annual marketing contract to a company based in Wisconsin. The department awarded the contract to Milwaukee agency Hoffman York at the beginning of August using a point system it says is objective to Read More…
(MTN NEWS) Attorney General Tim Fox says a proposed change in Montana’s legal definition of rape will be a big step forward in helping the prosecution of sex crimes. “It’s something that we really needed,” he told MTN News on Tuesday – one day after a legislative panel endorsed a half-dozen proposals to update sex-assault Read More…
Ads by the Steve Bullock for Governor Campaign continue tout Bullock’s ability to balance the state budget and claim the Governor has managed to leave the state with a $300 million rainy day fund, but the numbers can vary wildly depending on who is doing the counting. Republican State Senator Fred Thomas of Stevensville serves Read More…
HELENA – The Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development says the “Get Lost in Montana” campaign has run its course, and now a new company will take over marketing the Treasure State. The state began a competitive selection process in April of this year. Eleven bids were submitted from companies in places like Montana, Read More…
A liberal environmental group based in Billings announced Monday that it was launching a $500,000 canvassing effort in Bozeman and two other cities to help re-elect Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. Reporter Mike Dennison quickly pointed out that the Montana Conservation Voters Action Fund would be using anonymous “dark money” to fund the door-to-door canvassing — Read More…
The legal tug-of-war over the fate of an anti-marijuana voter initiative has taken an interesting twist. At issue is whether Initiative 176 received the necessary signatures to qualify for a spot on Montana’s November ballot. During a meeting in Helena Wednesday, SafeMontana founder Steve Zabawa presented Secretary of State Linda McCulloch with more than 32-hundred signatures that he claims are valid but Read More…
Tighter rules will take effect at the end of the month for Montana’s medical marijuana industry. Judge James Reynolds of Helena on Wednesday denied a request to delay those rules until after the November election. The new restrictions limit each medical marijuana provider to three patients. State lawmakers approved the rules in 2011, but the Montana cannabis industry Read More…