The U.S. Treasury Department said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network identified about $17.5 billion in suspicious financial activity potentially connected to health care fraud, highlighting the scale of schemes targeting Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. The findings come from an analysis of 5,702 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed by financial institutions between March 1, Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a multistate antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The filing puts Knudsen at the center of another major national antitrust fight, this time on the opposite Read More…
(The Center Square) – Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle acknowledged receiving a long-awaited formal explanation from Mayor Katie Wilson’s administration regarding the forced resignation of former Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes on Friday. He maintains he still disagrees with how the executive branch handled Barnes’ ousting. In a letter sent on behalf of the mayor, Read More…
A University of Montana political science professor will spend the academic year sharing his expertise and research at one of the world’s most prestigious institutions. Dr. Robert Saldin, a political scientist and co-director of UM’s Democracy Studies Program, has been awarded the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The Read More…
The Justice Department announced a final settlement with the state of North Dakota in the case of North Dakota v. United States, resolving litigation stemming from the violent and disruptive protests surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. While the federal government disputed the district court’s legal analysis of North Dakota’s claims and its own Read More…
Governor Greg Gianforte announced Montana joined First Lady Melania Trump’s initiative to expand access to Trump Accounts for children in the foster care system, providing a financial foundation for young people aging out of care as they transition into adulthood. Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment accounts available to every American child born between January 1, 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…
The University of Montana will launch the first public physician associate program in the state this fall, addressing a major shortage of healthcare workers. The new program recently received accreditation-provisional status from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, an organization that establishes the national standard for PA programs. The accreditation marks Read More…
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has signed onto a bipartisan coalition of 40 state attorneys general urging Congress to maintain federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation, the nation’s largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. The coalition sent a letter to Congressional appropriations leaders asking that LSC funding be included in Read More…
(The Center Square) – A federal agency suspended taxpayer funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority on Thursday, effective immediately. A letter was sent to the city of Los Angeles on Thursday by Andrew D. Hughes, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hughes accused the city of abusing hundreds of Read More…
Sixteen Montana State University student-athletes will travel to Casper, Wyoming, next week to compete in the College National Finals Rodeo, representing the Bobcats as Big Sky Region champions for the third consecutive year in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Competition runs June 14-20 at the Ford Wyoming Center, where MSU will send nine men 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…
The University of Montana School of Journalism capped one of its most successful seasons in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program when recent graduate Maddie McCuddy won the National Photojournalism Championship in San Francisco on June 4, adding a $10,000 prize to an already banner year for the program. McCuddy’s national championship title, combined with UM’s Read More…
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging three New Mexico men with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, with two of the defendants also facing charges of conspiracy to kill a witness who had provided information to law enforcement about the smuggling operation. Wilfrido Saenz, 29, Ignacio Jaramillo, 22, and his 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…
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte announced that Janicki Industries selected Great Falls as the site of an $800 million manufacturing campus expected to create more than 1,000 jobs in its first five years and ultimately employ more than 2,000 people once fully built out. John Janicki, president of the company, made the announcement Read More…
Scores of business professionals with an interest in women’s leadership congregated in Montana State University’s Strand Union Building for the annual women’s leadership conference on Tuesday. Hosted by the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the highly anticipated conference welcomed around 250 women from across Montana for a day filled with interactive keynote lectures, panel discussions, a slate of breakout sessions, catered lunch and a networking hour. Katie Read More…
(The Center Square) – The Governor of Montana tells The Center Square he hopes to lure more out of state business expansion into his state, following this week’s announcement that Sedro-Woolley based Janicki Industries chose Great Falls as the site of its next manufacturing campus. “We want entrepreneurs, they’re like golden geese,” said Montana Governor Read More…
In the final days of his GOP runoff campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits against Netflix, WhatsApp and Discord, and launched another investigation into Meta. During his victory speech, he cemented a key pillar of his campaign: cracking down on bad actors in Big Tech. “As Read More…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory urging financial institutions to be vigilant against fraud schemes involving the unlawful employment of illegal aliens, warning that such schemes have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars and helped finance transnational criminal organizations. The advisory was issued jointly with the Federal Deposit Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and the Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation called on Montanans to take steps to protect children from online predators during Internet Crimes Against Children Prevention Month, releasing new data showing a sharp rise in reported exploitation nationally and thousands of tips received in Montana over Read More…
(The Center Square) – In a reversal, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has ordered that surveillance cameras be turned on during the FIFA World Cup Tournament. Wilson said in a statement Friday that the decision to activate the cameras followed updated information from Seattle police and the FBI “on the current global and local threat environment.” Read More…
NEW YORK — Billionaire entrepreneur and Cost Plus Drugs co-founder Mark Cuban argued that the American health care system has become so unnecessarily complicated that the most effective reform would be to strip it back to the basics of a simple transaction between patient and provider — a model he likened to health care in 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…
BOZEMAN — Kollen Pipinich keeps his schedule full. It’s a delicate balance, he said. As a full-time student at Montana State University, he spends much of his day in classes. As a mechanical engineering student, he spends a great deal of time studying. As a helper by nature, Pipinich has volunteered hundreds of hours to Read More…
SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Navy christened its newest John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler, USNS Thurgood Marshall, during a ceremony Saturday morning at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company shipyard in San Diego, adding the seventh ship of its class to the Navy’s Combat Logistics Force. The christening took place on 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…
(The Center Square) – Spokane Public Schools adopted a standalone immigration policy on Wednesday that requires federal agents to obtain the superintendent’s permission to access the district’s property. The SPS Board of Directors unanimously adopted the proposal, which the officials said largely mirrored existing language “buried” in a broader law enforcement policy. It follows the state Read More…
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The FBI arrested three men Friday morning in Kansas and California on charges that they conspired to provide material support to ISIS, allegedly discussing violent attacks on U.S. service members, pledging allegiance to the terrorist organization, and collectively contributing more than $2,000 to an individual they believed to be an ISIS Read More…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum establishing a new framework to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across the U.S. military and intelligence community, directing the rapid deployment of advanced AI systems to warfighters and intelligence professionals while setting strict accountability standards for their use. The memorandum directed the national Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a 14-state coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, asking the justices to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that upheld California’s requirement that physicians complete diversity, equity, and inclusion training as a condition of maintaining their medical licenses. Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. — Gov. Kelly Armstrong announced that North Dakota Health and Human Services launched a new two-year strategy to strengthen oversight, prevent fraud, and ensure the integrity of the state’s Medicaid program, with enhanced scrutiny of three high-risk provider categories set to begin July 1. The strategy was developed in response to an April Read More…
WASHINGTON — A new analysis from the U.S. Treasury Department found that American families and workers claimed $82 billion in individual relief from the Working Families Tax Cuts, with the overwhelming majority of benefits flowing to households earning less than $200,000 annually. The analysis, released as the tax filing season drew to a close, showed Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal district court’s dismissal of Lighthiser v. Trump, a climate-related lawsuit that Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen had intervened in last year to help defend the Trump administration’s energy policies. The ruling marked the second court to side against the plaintiffs in the case, 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…
HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Department of Labor and Industry unveiled a new online Wage and Hour Portal designed to give workers a faster way to report wage concerns and provide employers a more convenient method for responding to those claims, the agency announced. The portal connects users with the department’s Employment Standards Division through Read More…
(The Center Square) — A federal judge has overturned a New Hampshire law that required unregistered voters to provide proof of citizenship to cast ballots in state elections. The ruling late Thursday by U.S. District Court judge Samantha Elliott sided with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups who sued to block the law, Read More…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department, Commerce Department, and FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office moved against an Iran-based procurement network that impersonated American small businesses to fraudulently obtain restricted technology for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, federal officials announced. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated multiple individuals and entities connected to Read More…
(The Center Square) – As state track and field championships commenced Friday at Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif., protesters set up across the street to take aim at transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports. Those who spoke at the press conference in central California criticized the California Interscholastic Federation’s 13-year-old policy to allow transgender Read More…
(The Center Square) – A proposal to create the largest U.S. currency denomination in more than 50 years could unintentionally benefit drug cartels, money launderers and tax cheats, according to experts and Treasury Department records. The Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act, introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., would create a new denomination featuring President Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — The Trump administration selected Montana as one of ten states to receive federal funding to expand access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced. Through the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Medicaid Demonstration Program, Montana will participate in a four-year federal Read More…
WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced the award of a five-year, $9.7 billion enterprise software agreement to Dell Federal Systems of Round Rock, Texas, covering Microsoft productivity, cloud, and communications technology across the entire U.S. military and defense enterprise. The Microsoft Department of War Enterprise Software Agreement II Core Enterprise Technology Agreement, structured as Read More…
(The Center Square) – Since Florida launched its immigration enforcement effort, Operation Tidal Wave, in February, nearly 25,000 arrests have been made statewide. “Florida will continue to use every available resource to identify dangerous individuals, support federal immigration enforcement and keep our citizens safe,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “No state has moved faster or done more Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte continued his annual 56 County Tour this week, visiting small businesses, energy facilities, agricultural operations, and infrastructure projects across six counties along Montana’s Hi-Line and Rocky Mountain Front. The governor began his day in Toole County at Prairie Peddler in Shelby, a local gift and coffee shop that reopened Read More…