The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has received $20.78 million to cover reclamation costs at the long-idled Montana Tunnels Mine near Jefferson City, following the latest bankruptcy proceeding involving Montana Tunnels Mining Inc. The payment is tied to a structured sale of the property to Silver Bow Mining Corp. and Silver Bow Tunnels Corp. and Read More…
Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced the appointment of Mary Lynn Hartwell of Idaho Falls and Joel Beck of American Falls to the State Board of Education. “Mary Lynn Hartwell and Joel Beck bring a wealth of experience, a deep commitment to public service, and a strong connection to Idaho’s communities and schools. Their professional backgrounds Read More…
Nominations are now open for the 2026 Montana Governor’s Veteran Commendation, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced. “Our veterans answered the call to serve our country, and many continue that service long after taking off the uniform,” Gianforte said. “The Montana Governor’s Veteran Commendation gives me the honor and opportunity to recognize these outstanding men and women, Read More…
(The Center Square) – Illinois is facing new lawsuits over the state’s digital ad tax and social media platform fee. Internet freedom advocate NetChoice – a trade organization that includes social media giants Meta, Google, X, TikTok and Snap – filed two complaints in Cook County court on Friday. NetChoice Litigation Center Director Paul Taske Read More…
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…
Montana State University will hold a grand opening ceremony for Gianforte Hall, a new building housing computing-related fields including cybersecurity, film, photography and music technologies, at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10. The outdoor event is free and open to the public. Scheduled speakers include Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, MSU President Brock Tessman, College of Arts Read More…
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte joined Montana Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Sarah Swanson and tribal leaders to launch the Workforce Warrior poster and video series, a campaign that features Native Montanans and their career journeys and community contributions in fields including skilled trades, entrepreneurship, health care, education, public service and business. “The Workforce Warrior Read More…
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…
The U.S. Army has selected five companies to develop nuclear microreactors at military installations as part of a program aimed at providing reliable power to bases while expanding America’s nuclear-energy industry. The Army’s Janus Program will award up to $2.2 billion across fiscal years 2027 through 2031, with additional private investment expected from the companies. Read More…
The Trump administration is moving to cut a United Arab Emirates bank off from the U.S. financial system, escalating its campaign to isolate Iran by targeting foreign institutions accused of helping Tehran maintain access to dollars. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for Read More…
The North Dakota Department of Commerce has awarded nearly $270,000 to three regional projects aimed at addressing workforce shortages and improving employee retention in healthcare, energy and education. The funding comes through the state’s Regional Workforce Impact Program, which supports locally developed strategies designed around the workforce needs of individual communities and industries. “RWIP continues Read More…
Named after the state she always dreamed of living in, Montanna Zajac was thrilled to be admitted to the University of Montana’s new physician associate program. Zajac, from Wausau, Wisconsin, studied psychology as an undergraduate but discovered a passion for medicine while working various jobs as an EMT, firefighter and medic for an outdoor wilderness Read More…
More than a dozen Texas public school districts are at risk of triggering a potential state takeover if they do not improve student academic performance before the next year’s A-F accountability ratings, data shows. At least 14 districts had at least one campus with a fourth consecutive failing grade, according to the preliminary 2026 ratings. Read More…
(The Center Square) – Drivers across Washington are paying more at the pump as gas prices continue their upward climb while more than half the country saw relief while filling up heading into the busy Labor Day weekend. Washington’s average for gasoline reached $5.37 per gallon on Tuesday, data shows. The increase marks a continuous Read More…
(The Center Square) – A Michigan citizen-only voting ballot proposal that failed to make it on the Nov. 3 ballot is now before U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh requested a response from Michigan officials named in the case by noon Wednesday. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers, Secretary of State Jocelyn Read More…
Executive order creates NASA-led panel to draft plans for a new federal academy training astronauts, engineers and space-industry leaders President Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a presidential commission tasked with laying the groundwork for a new federal academy dedicated to training the next generation of American space professionals. The order establishes the Read More…
Two Mexican nationals have pleaded guilty to federal charges including alien smuggling and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), the Justice Department announced. “The defendants smuggled methamphetamine and aliens into the United States for financial gain, then doubled down to make more money by conspiring Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a coalition of 25 state attorneys general urging Trump administration officials to investigate and cancel federal grants to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, arguing the organization used taxpayer money to produce a biased report aimed at influencing climate-related litigation. In a letter sent Thursday to Read More…
A federal court has cleared the way for a major forest-management project in western Montana that calls for thousands of acres of timber harvesting and other treatments aimed at reducing wildfire risks near communities. The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana allowed the Forest Service’s Gold Butterfly Project on the Bitterroot National Forest Read More…
A Nigerian national was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison for leading a money-laundering operation that moved more than $3.1 million in proceeds from schemes targeting Americans, including business-email compromise, romance and unemployment-insurance fraud. Oluwasegun Baiyewu, 40, of Houston, was sentenced to 95 months in prison after a federal jury convicted him last Read More…
Lawrence & Schiller, Lou Hammond Group and Miles Partnership win multiyear contracts after fifty firms competed for the work Travel South Dakota has selected three marketing and public relations firms to guide the state’s tourism promotion efforts, capping a competitive bidding process that drew interest from agencies across the country. The state tourism office said Read More…
Senior leaders and security cooperation personnel from across the War Department gathered for the 2026 National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program conference in Atlanta, Aug. 13. The goal of the annual conference was to align activities and engagements with National Defense Strategy Lines of Effort, administration arms transfer reform objectives and rigorous data-driven evaluation to Read More…
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…
Idaho will receive at least $89.2 million and could collect as much as $127.7 million under a sweeping $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to encourage addictive use among children. The agreement, announced by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, resolves claims brought by states and Read More…
Most North Dakotans will never set foot on a drilling rig or analyze rocks from thousands of feet beneath the surface of the Bakken Formation, but nearly everyone in the state has benefited from what lies below. For more than two decades, the Bakken Formation in western North Dakota has helped fuel North Dakota’s economy, generating more than $35 billion in tax revenue Read More…
Montana’s state auditor has permanently revoked the insurance producer license of a Kalispell bail bondsman accused of exploiting people under his supervision, including allegedly demanding sexual favors in exchange for reducing debts owed on bail bonds. State Auditor James Brown’s office opened an investigation into Laine Kendall Callahan following a referral from the Montana Department 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…
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…
Space Training and Readiness Command activated the U.S. Space Force’s 320th Recruiting Squadron during a ceremony Aug. 14 at the Parr Club. Space Delta 1 commander Col. Krista N. St. Romain officiated the activation, formally passing command of the new squadron to Lt. Col. Jason Cano. The moment marked a decisive step in shaping the force Read More…
Attorney General Austin Knudsen and the Montana Department of Justice’s Office of Consumer Protection are warning Montanans about fraudsters creating spoof websites that look nearly identical to legitimate businesses in order to steal personal and financial information. The warning highlights two common schemes. In the first, scammers — primarily based overseas — post fake product Read More…
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday afternoon changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. The change, which the president said takes effect “immediately,” comes after the president toyed with the idea amid trade tensions with Canada. Lake America, formerly Lake Ontario, is one of four Great Lakes Read More…
Christian Castro was released a day after a federal judge rejected Minnesota’s bid to keep him jailed while Gov. Greg Abbott decides whether to sign extradition papers. BROWNSVILLE — The immigration officer at the center of a Minnesota-Texas legal fight was released from a South Texas jail Thursday, a day after a federal judge rejected Read More…
A new large-scale art installation celebrating Montana State University’s student-athletes is now on display for public viewing. The artwork is on the west-facing exterior of Shroyer Gym on the MSU campus, located between the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse and Jones Hall. It is viewable to passersby and those traveling in vehicles through campus on 11th Avenue and Lincoln Street. A new mural, designed and illustrated by Montana State University Co-Creative Read More…
Removing the barriers that keep capital inside national borders would raise welfare in the typical country by about 5.5% of labor income — and would concentrate economic activity among the world’s largest firms while pushing smaller ones to contract, according to a working paper released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The paper, by Read More…
In a critical step to ensure long-term fleet readiness and secure dominance in the maritime domain, the Navy’s MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter service life modernization program recently announced the industry performers identified to proceed to the first phase of a statement of work collaboration for the MH-60 tailorable architecture leveraging open systems prototype project. Led Read More…
Gov. Kelly Armstrong appointed Tony Hillig, recreation division chief for the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department, as the agency’s new director, effective immediately. Hillig has served as chief of the department’s recreation division since December 2020, overseeing recreation grants, trail management, motorized recreation and safety programs statewide. He joined the department in 2019 as Read More…
Violent crime in the U.S. fell 9.3% in 2025 and murder declined 18.1%, according to FBI figures the White House cited Friday in claiming credit for what it called the largest annual drop in violent crime on record. The underlying data show broad declines across categories. Robbery fell 18.5%, or nearly 38,500 fewer offenses. Aggravated Read More…
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…
President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum Thursday establishing a new National Space Transportation Policy aimed at dramatically expanding the number of rockets launching and spacecraft landing on American soil, replacing a policy that had not been updated since the Obama administration in 2013. The memorandum, which the White House framed as launching a Read More…
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions Thursday on 10 individuals tied to a network that moves hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Hizballah using couriers on commercial airline flights, and re-designated Hizballah itself under updated counterterrorism authority linking the group directly to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Read More…
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and an emergency motion seeking a stay of a federal district court ruling that he says improperly overrides Idaho’s Defense of Life Act and invents a new constitutional right to abortion. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled 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…
WASHINGTON — Texas is set to receive $7.5 billion from a federal fund to reimburse states for border costs incurred when Joe Biden was president, Sen. John Cornyn told The Texas Tribune in an interview, shedding light for the first time on the Lone Star State’s haul more than a year after Congress authorized the Read More…
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Board of Directors has appointed Cara Kolb as senior vice president of Risk and Compliance, the bank announced. In her new role, Kolb will be responsible for ensuring bank staff effectively manage risks while rigorously complying with procedures and policies. She will also oversee functions related to data privacy Read More…