Appointees offer insight on community banking, regional economy, including one from Montana Three community bank executives were appointed this spring to an advisory council by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President and CEO Neel Kashkari. The Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council provides information, advice and recommendations to the Minneapolis Fed president from the perspective of 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 U.S. Supreme Court threw out a federal appeals court ruling in an immigration case Tuesday and returned the case to the court for an alternative ruling. In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that immigration officers have broad authority to decide if restrictions should be placed on a returning 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…
BISMARCK — North Dakota state officials are dusting off plans to construct a new “financial services center” after budget woes delayed the building project. Four years ago, state lawmakers authorized the use of $17 million in assets from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota for the project, which would house the Department of Commerce, Read More…
Acadia Montana, the troubled residential psychiatric treatment facility for children that has operated in Butte under several different names and owners over the past 31 years, announced Tuesday it will close. It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be lost, though Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Dave Palmer said the number could be more Read More…
In a media release issued Tuesday night, Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin delivered the following message to anyone seeking the Forrest Fenn Treasure in the area of Yellowstone National Park: “In the last couple years, two people have died, two have been rescued near death, several have had run-ins with local and federal law enforcement, Read More…
Montana’s congressional delegation made a successful bipartisan push Wednesday to advance legislation that would, for the first time, federally recognize the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. According to a press release sent to MTN News, Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester have stapled their tribal recognition bill as an amendment to must-pass defense spending Read More…
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in recent weeks to discuss how his company handles viral misinformation, but she has not called him back or personally replied, according to two people familiar with the exchanges. Pelosi’s decision not to engage with Zuckerberg, one of the most powerful technology Read More…
A long-awaited new addition to the Downtown Boise skyline is about to start sprouting up. Scott Schoenherr with Rafanelli and Nahas said permits are in with City of Boise on the 11th and Idaho retail and office project. He aims to get crews on site to start construction this August. The permit values the project at $27.7 million. Read More…
The constitutionality of South Dakota’s protest laws will be argued in a Rapid City courtroom on Wednesday. Arguments in the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit against Gov. Kristi Noem, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg and Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Rapid City. The Read More…
Very soon, an unmanned aircraft will be able to launch from the Montana border of North Dakota and fly to the state line of Minnesota uninterrupted and hundreds of miles away from its pilot. The North Dakota Legislature passed a bill this year infusing $33 million into UAS, $28 million of which is earmarked for Read More…
CASPER – Hospitals in Wyoming charged private insurance plans more than three times what Medicare would pay for the same care in 2017, according to a national study that looked at 14 hospitals here and nearly 1,600 facilities statewide and found further evidence that the Eq-uality State has a serious problem with health-care prices. “What Read More…
MISSOULA – Montana boaters will see another mandatory inspection this summer. A new aquatic invasive species (AIS) rule calls for all watercraft with ballast tanks or bladders to be decontaminated upon entering the state or crossing the Continental Divide into the Columbia River Basin. READ FULL STORY
The Montana Highway Patrol and local authorities near Bozeman, Montana were called to a crash scene in which a semi-tractor trailer careened off a roadway, and millions of bees were released. The incident happened at an intersection — the truck’s trailer overturned. Assistant Fire Chief Brian Nickolay told media it was an unusual rescue scene for his crew Read More…
NEW ROCKFORD, N.D. — Charles William Anderson wakes up and puts on pants from Amazon, then heads to the kitchen to brew coffee from Amazon in his coffee maker from Amazon. As he sips his morning coffee sitting in his chair, also ordered from Amazon, he looks around the room to see other items from Read More…
Leadership South Dakota has named those selected for the 8-month leadership program. The class includes 43 members and begins in September. Leadership South Dakota is a statewide program meant to provide South Dakotans with the background, experiences and insights to assume leadership positions at the local, state and national levels. READ FULL STORY
Dare to make a Difference is the theme for this year’s Miss Montana and Miss Montana’s Outstanding Teen Scholarship Program. Twenty-four amazing young women arrive in Glendive on June 16 to start a whirlwind week of excitement, adventure, community service, and the chance to win the state title. Each contestant besides being talented has a Read More…
BOZEMAN, Mont. — NBC Montana recently obtained surveillance video from a 2016 lawsuit involving the Montana State Hospital for allegations of violating patients’ rights. Disability Rights Montana is a federally-mandated organization that oversees the Montana State Hospital and represents the disabled in court cases. Courts documents said plaintiff and Montana State Hospital patient Ryan Bragg broke Read More…
Self-help guru Tony Robbins is on the defensive in the wake of recent BuzzFeed reports that nine women accused him of sexual misconduct and that he was filmed using racial slurs in the 1980s. Robbins is also out of one of his jobs now that Creative Planning, a $38 billion registered investment adviser based in Read More…
ISMARCK — A new study commissioned by North Dakota officials predicts the state’s electric consumption will grow by as much as 71% over the next two decades thanks largely to expanding oil and gas activity. The North Dakota Industrial Commission reviewed the Barr Engineering Co. study during its meeting Tuesday, May 28. The commission, Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming Army National Guard soldiers deploy this week for a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Community members are invited to attend a ceremony for the 297th Infantry Regiment on Tuesday afternoon at Star Valley High School in Afton. National Guard officials say this is the first time the Wyoming infantry unit is deploying Read More…
KALISPELL, Mont. — Montana’s homeless population has decreased from last year, according to recently released data. Point-in-Time survey numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show decreasing populations across many of the state’s cities and towns. The Point-in-Time survey attempts to count every homeless person across the country during the last week of Read More…
BOZEMAN — Dane Fletcher didn’t need to go far to earn a college football scholarship. The former Bozeman High School standout caught the attention of former Montana State head coach Mike Kramer and his staff in the early 2000s, keeping the all-state linebacker and tight end in Bozeman. Fletcher made the most of the opportunity, Read More…
As both Samsung and Huawei are left reeling from various troubles, Apple is taking the opportunity to kick its opponents while they are down. And only a few weeks ago it seemed like Apple was being crushed by the competition. Speaking to The Independent, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, lifts the lid Read More…
BISMARCK — North Dakota state transportation officials kicked off a $370 million highway construction season Wednesday, May 22, months after lawmakers rejected a gas tax increase to boost road funding. The plans include reconstructing and rehabilitating sections of Interstate 94, reconstructing parts of Interstate 29 between Fargo and Wahpeton as well as reconstructing and rehabbing U.S. Read More…
The governor of South Dakota says she does not plan to stop the execution of a death row inmate who claims jurors were biased against him because he’s gay. The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Gov. Kristi Noem to grant clemency to Charles Rhines. He was convicted of stabbing 22-year-old doughnut shop employee Donnivan Read More…
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is doing some digging to figure out who exactly owns fossils found buried in Montana. The long-standing dispute is between landowners and mineral estates in Garfield County, who are making competing claims for the rights to the valuable finds. On Monday, the federal appellate court bounced the case back Read More…
BOZEMAN, Mont. — A Montana organization has been awarded a $500,000 contract to develop a village of 200-square-foot homes for people who are homeless. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports mortgage company Fannie Mae announced Wednesday that Bozeman-based Human Resource Development Council was among the five winners in a competition looking for innovative proposals addressing affordable Read More…
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is planning to add more than 20,000 spaces to its Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, part of the “Alternative to Detention” system for immigrants awaiting hearings. The expansion, from 99,500 places in the current fiscal year to a projected 120,000, was not formally announced by ICE, but a request Read More…
Amazon has reached an informal settlement with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for unsafe workplace conditions at its new, local delivery center in Nampa. OSHA cited the company in March with four violations, including failing to log an injury to a worker that required treatment beyond first aid. The modular delivery center went up in November Read More…
Mothers gave birth to 6,551 babies in Wyoming last year, the lowest number in more than 15 years, the Wyoming Department of Health said Tuesday. The downward trend began in 2015. That year — which coincided with the state’s largest energy bust in decades, mothers gave birth to about 7,700 babies. Wyoming’s population dropped in the first three Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. – The North Dakota Department of Health says the state’s second medical marijuana dispensary is set to open next week. The facility will be located in Grand Forks. Jason Wahl, director of the department’s Medical Marijuana Division, says the dispensary operated by We-Mend LLC is set to open Wednesday. READ FULL STORY
HELENA – Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer will return home to Montana on Wednesday, May 22. He is currently receiving treatment at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where his doctors have determined he is ready to transition to the next phase of care. Palmer will be flown to Missoula and is Read More…
BOZEMAN – Congressman Greg Gianforte announced the winners of the 2019 Congressional Art Competition, Jessie Graveley, a student from Powell County High School, is Montana’s winner. “Every year, I’m impressed with the talent of our high school artists. Every piece submitted was unique and showed a different aspect of our state. Thank you to all of Read More…
BUTTE, Mont. — Organizers announced the remaining performers for the annual Montana Folk Festival in Butte this summer. Led Kaapana, Mick Moloney, Rahim AlHaj Trio, Charlie Walden, Jasmine Bell and North Bear, Yuliyana Krivoshapkina, Rahzel and Himalayan Heritage Band are slated to perform. There will be 21 performers at the event. “We can now give everyone Read More…
Washington (CNN)America is about to get a tantalizing look into the hidden fortune on which Donald Trump made his name but is at the root of some of the most mysterious unresolved questions about his presidency. The expected release of the President’s latest financial disclosure forms on Thursday will trigger a now annual controversy about Read More…
A federal trial in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against the state of Idaho that was slated to start April 15 has been canceled because the state has settled the case. Former Idaho Department of Labor purchasing agent James Cryer sued the department in December 2016, claiming the department retaliated against him and fired him for Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota regulators say the state’s oil production remained at a near-record level in March. The Department of Mineral Resources says the state produced an average of 1.39 million barrels of oil daily in March. That was down from a record 1.4 million barrels a day from the record set in January. Read More…
Gov. Mark Gordon is pulling together a citizen’s group to help find a happy medium between energy and conservation interests seeking regulatory certainty around migration corridors in the southwestern quadrant of the state, his office announced Tuesday. In a statement, Gordon called on Wyoming residents representing industry, agriculture and conservation to find a state-level Read More…
University of Montana President Seth Bodnar is taking his message statewide. On Tuesday, he spoke to service club members at the Meadowlark Country Club in Great Falls. Bodnar, who took over the top job at UM in January of 2018, said the University needs to do a better job of telling its story to combat Read More…
The number of prisoners in Montana under jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authority on Dec. 31 decreased by 3 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to a report recently released by the national Bureau of Justice Statistics. The 43-page report is packed with a variety of stats related to a snapshot taken of people Read More…
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has entered into an agreement to write a memoir, Publishers Weekly reported in its April 22 edition. It is to be co-written by Aaron Murphy, the former chief of staff for the Montana Democrat, the article stated, adding a fall 2020 publication date is planned. Tester entered into an agreement with Read More…
ATLANTA (AP) — A spokeswoman says former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he has broken his hip. Spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in a statement Monday afternoon that Carter fell at his home in Plains, Georgia, while leaving to go turkey hunting. READ FULL STORY