HELENA — U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has approved Montana’s plan for the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which requires states to develop education strategies which show how federal requirements will be met. “I congratulate you on this very significant accomplishment,” DeVos wrote in a Jan. 19 letter to State Superintendent of Public Read More…

BILLINGS – Noted actor (and part-time Montana resident) Bill Pullman visited Billings this week to promote a new film called “The Ballad of Lefty Brown.” The film was shot in and around Ennis and Bannack. The film’s director, Jared Moshe, told Deadline.com: “I fell in love with Bannack. I even did a little re-write of Read More…

Montana’s top technology official and a key architect of the state’s IT consolidation, will be stepping down, officials confirmed to Government Technology. Chief Information Officer Ron Baldwin, who was appointed to lead the State Information Technology Service Division (SITSD) by Gov. Steve Bullock in January 2013, will be leaving “for a role outside of state Read More…

HELENA – Montana state prisoners are getting another chance to overcome addiction. Montana Department of Corrections officials announced Tuesday that 30 inmates are the first accepted into a new chemical dependency treatment program at the state prison in Deer Lodge. The secure, remodeled facility provides a 90 to 180-day intensive therapy program and has three Read More…

In education news, the Northwest Commission on colleges and universities approved Rocky Mountain College for their first doctoral program. KULR-8’s Mary Jane Belleza spoke with the college’s provost academic vice president, Stephen Germic who said the college’s plan will begin a doctor of occupational therapy degree program in January 2019. Students can expect new state Read More…

The Big Horn County Attorney in Hardin announced Thursday plans to crack down on women who use drugs or alcohol while pregnant. Big Horn County Attorney Jay Harris said this new approach is an effort to protect “innocent, unborn children victimized” by their mother’s substance abuse. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Read More…

The Bakken. A well-known oil field stretching across North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and of course, Montana. But Oklahoma investor ONEOK has released a statement with talk of a new pipeline starting right here in Montana, and stretching all the way to Kansas. The Elk Creek Pipeline would be an approximately 900 mile, 20-inch Read More…

President Trump signed an executive order and a presidential memorandum in Nashville on Monday afternoon directing his administration to use “all viable tools to accelerate the deployment and adoption of affordable, reliable, modern high-speed broadband connectivity in rural America.” According to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2016 Broadband Progress Report, 39 percent of rural Americans, roughly Read More…

With all the changes upon us with new technology, it should come as no surprise that there is now a way to utilize television spectrums to deliver broadband internet. Chuck Denowh, Montana spokesperson for the new coalition, Connect Americans Now (CAN), explained the importance and the purpose of CAN. “This issue has to do with Read More…

HELENA, Mont.- A new program seeks to help victims of trafficking or kidnapping. Bryce Ackart, manager of the Helena Zip-Trip, said convenience stores are at the front lines for helping human trafficking victims and spotting their captors. The “More than Convenience, We Care” program has only been in place less than six months, but officials Read More…

During his election bid, Missoula City Council member Jesse Ramos was a vocal critic of the $25 million dollar “accounting error” discovered by a local citizen in the city budget. Now that he is in office, Ramos has a front row seat to Missoula’s most recent error, one that has already led to dramatic cuts Read More…

HELENA – Montana state Sen. Cynthia Wolken, who played a key role in the 2017 enactment of sweeping criminal-sentencing reforms in the state, will be the state’s new deputy director of corrections. State Corrections Director Reginald Michael announced Wolken’s hiring on Tuesday and said her role in the reforms “will prove invaluable to the (Department Read More…

Some of the most vulnerable people in our society are at risk of becoming a casualty of a disturbing crime. It could start as innocently as a young person befriending a stranger on the Internet, or a teenager feeling entrapped and looking for a way out. The criminals might use flirtation, or psychological manipulation, to Read More…

Like many young Montanans, Ella Anderson’s first time pulling a trigger was on a BB gun. She took to shooting right away and it wasn’t long before she was begging her parents to shoot the “big gun,” a bolt-action .22 rifle. On Christmas morning children across the state ripped wrapping paper from new BB guns, Read More…