WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing federal health officials to review and potentially update the United States’ childhood vaccine schedule to better align with practices in peer developed nations, citing findings that the U.S. currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any comparable country. The order directs the Centers for Disease Control Read More…
WASHINGTON — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen joined Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and attorneys general from 15 other states at an anti-fraud roundtable focused on combating wasteful spending, abuse, and fraud in federal benefit programs including Medicaid and SNAP. The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud Read More…
The Department of War has awarded $27.3 million to Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company, bringing its total investment in the solid rocket motor supply chain to $191 million since December 2024, as the Pentagon moves aggressively to close production gaps in a segment it considers strategically vital. The latest award, funded through the Defense Production Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a coalition of ten state attorneys general in calling on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a rigorous review of any filings submitted by OpenAI ahead of the company’s anticipated initial public offering, citing concerns about undisclosed conflicts of interest involving chief executive Sam Altman. In Read More…
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell believes Amazon played a role in keeping a lid on inflation over the past decade. The central banker was asked why inflation has been so low since the financial crisis. “It’s a global phenomenon. We don’t perfectly understand it. Since the [financial] crisis, a big factor that has been weighing Read More…
North Dakota State Investment Board, Bismarck, posted a net return of 17.1% for its $5.7 billion pension trust for the year ended Dec. 31. The return exceeded its performance benchmark by more than 1 percentage point, said David Hunter, executive director and chief investment officer of the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office, in an Read More…
A Casper-based energy company has no more hurdles to clear before exploring 8 square miles of the Wyoming Range’s Cottonwood Creek area for deposits of oil and gas. The project, known as the “Lander Peak proposal,” has cleared the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s approval process, which means pipeline and road construction and drilling could begin as Read More…
A national analysis says the cost to provide workers’ compensation coverage in Montana is going down, which could mean businesses around the state will have to pay less in insurance premiums. “We fully anticipate that there will be across-the-board reductions in the premiums charged to our businesses, which obviously is always a really good thing,” Read More…
BNSF Railway, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality are looking to stabilize a short section of the north shore of Flathead Lake to ensure contaminants from the Somers Tie Plant Superfund site do not contaminate the largest natural freshwater lake in the West. On Feb. 27, officials with BNSF, Read More…
POPLAR — A Fort Peck Tribal officer has indicated he will plead guilty next week to burglarizing the Fort Peck Tribal Law and Justice Building. Mikkel Shields, 33, is charged in U.S. District Court in Great Falls with four counts of burglary. As part of a plea agreement, Shields will only plead guilty to a Read More…
BILLINGS – As students and School District 2 are in talks about how best to handle a planned walk-out later this month, some students are opposed to it. The walkout is part of a larger movement across the country, set for the one-month anniversary of the shooting at a Florida school that left 17 dead. Read More…
HELENA – Bishop George Leo Thomas of Helena has been named the new bishop of Las Vegas by Pope Francis. Bishop Thomas will be installed as Bishop of Las Vegas on May 15, 2018 after serving as bishop of Helena for nearly 14 years. George Leo Thomas was born in Anaconda and raised in nearby Read More…
When a group that says it provides financial assistance “relating to the jihad” sought to improve conditions for fighters in a squalid, sandbag-fortified trench in Syria late last year, it turned to a new funding conduit: bitcoin. “There is currently no shelter to protect the food and ammunition from the rain,” the group, called al Read More…
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (WJLA) – Multiple firearms, including a shotgun and two rifles, ammunition, replica grenades, a ballistic vest, and a journal were located at the home of student accused of bringing a loaded handgun and knife to Clarksburg High School last week. The alarming revelation was made during a bond review for Alwin Chen, Read More…
Scrolling through the Instagram account managed by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a conservative Republican from Bozeman, it’s clear he’s hewed a well-established groove in the firmament of Western outdoors pursuits. Populating the first-term senator’s social media feed are pictures of him on backpacking trips deep in the Beartooth Mountains; him bagging ungulates on sunbaked foothills Read More…
18 year-old MacLean Kaiser is being held in the Ravalli County Jail without bond for allegedly posting an online threat to the Darby High School using Snapchat. Sheriff Steve Holton said the incident was first investigated by the Darby Marshal’s office. “Yesterday the school district got some information regarding a Snapchat post referencing the recent Read More…
BUTTE, Mont. — It’s official. Meth is back in Montana and it’s more dangerous than ever. Opioid abuse has gotten a lot of the headlines in recent years but in Montana, methamphetamine has slowly become the drug that law enforcement officials deal with frequently. What used to be made in Montana labs in the eighties Read More…
Two North Dakota natives are on their quest to become the second and third Olympic gold medalists born in the state. Monique Lamoureux-Morando and her twin sister, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, were born in Grand Forks in 1989. The sisters became stand-out hockey players for University of North Dakota. The Lamoureux twins were members of the U.S. Read More…
An Illinois kid named Doug Betters made his way, serendipitously, to the University of Montana for the first time more than 40 years ago as a highly touted football defensive lineman. Since then, Betters has ridden life’s roller coaster with grace, from the heights of sports stardom, including the 1983 NFL Defensive Player of the Read More…
BOZEMAN, Mont. — The city of Bozeman will loan close to $1.7 million to the Bozeman Sports Park Foundation. The loan will be used to install artificial turf fields at the Bozeman Sports Park. The decision was made at Monday night’s city commission meeting. Construction on the park started last year. Total cost for the Read More…
The Great Falls Public School Board accepted the resignation of former Great Falls High School teacher Levi Johnson during Monday night’s meeting. Johnson, who resigned in late January, is alleged to have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. The School Board voted unanimously to accept Johnson’s resignation in lieu of termination. The Read More…
Montana is the sixth most prosperous state in the country, according to new research from Prosperity Now. The Prosperity Now Scorecard tallied up 62 measures in five areas and says Montana rose from 10th place in 2017 to sixth place this year. READ THE FULL STORY.
BOZEMAN – Montana State University announced its spring headcount this week: 15,496 students, a record, and one that marks 10 straight years of spring enrollment growth. This spring’s number is up almost 300 students compared to the same time last year, according to Tony Campeau, the university’s registrar. University leaders credited the growth chiefly to Read More…
A Montana Department of Labor employee announced on Wednesday that he was quitting in protest of officials who “hunt down” undocumented workers. In a series of tweets, Jordon Dyrdahl-Roberts said he put in his notice at the department because he’d been asked to help prepare information for ICE officials to use in finding undocumented workers. Read More…
Rene Elena Carter, a former Helena teacher, has been charged with sexual intercourse without consent involving a student several years ago. Carter appeared in Lewis & Clark County Justice Court on Thursday. READ THE FULL STORY.
The former LaMoure police chief, James Watson, was found guilty Monday of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15 at a courthouse in Beach, N.D. Early in the morning, Watson testified on his behalf and denied all the allegations. In her closing remarks, Golden Valley County State’s Attorney Christina Wenko argued Read More…
CHEYENNE – Canadian blockchain company BlockCrushr Labs opened its first Wyoming office last week in Cheyenne, arriving before the state Legislature considers changes that would encourage more such businesses to operate in the state. BlockCrushr Labs CEO Scott Burke announced another corporate branch housed on Cheyenne’s Second Floor at The Paramount on Wednesday. Company leaders Read More…
SpaceX’s big new rocket blasted off Tuesday on its first test flight, carrying a red sports car aiming for an endless road trip past Mars. The Falcon Heavy rose from the same launch pad used by NASA nearly 50 years ago to send men to the moon. With liftoff, the Heavy became the most powerful Read More…
The ski town of Big Sky, Montana, is a modern-day Western boomtown. From little more than a post office in 1973, it has become one of the world’s most exclusive ski resorts. And not surprisingly, it has encountered some growing pains. The biggest problem is water. Rapid growth in Big Sky threatens to deplete groundwater, Read More…
In the summer before this year’s football season, on a warm and sunny July day, Tom Brady reclined on a massage table in an airy room furnished with dark wood and stone, a chandelier made of antlers hanging from the ceiling and the lush Montana countryside visible through the windows. His Patriots teammates were hanging Read More…
In a shipyard in Newport News, Va., 10,000 shipbuilders are assembling the millions of pieces that will become the USS Montana. The components come from every state, but it’s the items from Montana that will add some personality to submarine, which is 40 percent complete. The USS Montana SSN-794 will carry a Montana flag that Read More…
WHITEFISH — Maggie Voisin straightened her multi-colored K2 skis, leaned forward slightly and took flight, spinning around and sticking the 180 with the grace expected of someone who does this sort of thing for a living. She proceeded to hit another small ramp and spin smoothly back into a forward-facing position, eliciting oohs and aahs Read More…
U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte (R-MT) was in Hamilton on Monday to honor WWII and Korean war veteran Jack Henley. Gianforte presented Henley with a certificate of his tribute made on the House floor back in November. Henley joined the Army right after graduating from high school in 1943 and attended boot camp in South Carolina. Read More…
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…
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Sunday he has decided to keep many national parks open during the government shutdown because the tourist spots should not “be weaponized.” “Our public lands and our monuments really belong to the people and not the government,” he said. Zinke spoke with CNN on the National Mall in Washington as Read More…
BIGFORK – A small earthquake shook the area north of Bigfork on Sunday . There have not been any reports of injuries or major damage. The quake was measured by the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 3.0. It happened at about 6:44 p.m. on Sunday at a depth of about 6.1 miles, according to the Read More…
CODY, Wyo. – Cody’s City Council Tuesday night voted to continue its culling program, and kill another 50 deer inside the city limits. That according to Big Horn Radio Network News Director Wendy Corr. Corr said police will bait, and shoot the deer by February 15th. The city obtained permits from Wyoming’s Game and Fish Read More…
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta was ridiculed across social media on Wednesday for declaring that President Trump has heart disease. White House physician Ronny Jackson said on Tuesday that Trump was in “excellent health” after conducting the president’s physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week. Jackson answered a variety of Read More…
Multiple arrests involving phony cash have been making the media rounds in over 11 states, including New York, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan, in the last six months. Earlier this week, both New York City and Iowa reported cases of fraudulent cash popping up into the hands of local business owners. READ THE FULL STORY.
On Monday, October 2, 2017, Harvey Weinstein arrived at work earlier than usual. As was his custom, he barked orders and moved from room to room inside his spacious office suite at 375 Greenwich Street, the New York City headquarters of the Weinstein Company (T.W.C.), a beautiful old red-brick factory building that had been converted Read More…
A former adviser to Ronald Reagan’s administration has slammed the Russia probe, accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller of “investigating everything but collusion.” In an interview with Fox News’ Hannity, Mark Levin suggested the Justice Department was wasting its time looking into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s team and Russia. READ THE FULL STORY.
BOZEMAN, Mont. — A new study using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows Montana has the worst drivers in the country. This is the third time in four years Montana has topped the list. “It’s not a good category to win, if you want to call it that,” said Montana Highway Patrol 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…