CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Gov. Mark Gordon has appointed Nancy Vehr as interim director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality following the retirement of longtime director Todd Parfitt. Vehr, who has been serving as the department’s deputy director, took over the role effective Oct. 2. She previously led DEQ’s Air Quality Division for nearly a decade and Read More…
BOZEMAN—Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Montana Chamber of Commerce will host the third annual Big Sky, Bright Future Economic Summit on Oct. 15 in Bozeman, with this year’s event focused on technology and innovation in Montana. The summit will bring together business leaders, policymakers and technology executives to discuss artificial intelligence, national security, precision agriculture, Read More…
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department said UCLA School of Law discriminated against white and Asian applicants in admissions for its 2023, 2024 and 2025 incoming classes, finding that the school continued to consider race after the Supreme Court restricted race-conscious college admissions. The department’s Civil Rights Division said its investigation found UCLA Law violated Title VI of Read More…
(The Center Square) – Fraud could cost federal taxpayers as much as $521 billion annually, according to a Foundation for Government Accountability report citing a federal estimate. The report estimates that improper payments by the federal government have totaled about $3 trillion since 2003. Liesel Crocker, the report’s author and senior research fellow at FGA, spoke with Read More…
HELENA – The state Public Service Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve the license of Lyft Inc., making it the second app-based ride-sharing company in Montana. A similar license was granted to Uber in December 2015 after changes to state law earlier that year paved the way for such companies to operate in Montana. “The Read More…
The Montana National Guard arrived at the Meyers Fire in southwest Montana on Wednesday, which has burned more than 16,000 acres and is only at five percent containment. The soldiers will be deployed for 15 days aiding the more than 400 personnel already fighting the fire. Sergeant Paul Benhart said the Guard’s job is to Read More…
The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office is on the move. Employees moved office and equipment out of an old bank building at 2550 3rd Ave. N. to to 2323 2nd Ave. N. The new location, a former Payne West Insurance building, is about 20,000 square feet, which is about 4,000 square feet bigger that their current building. READ THE FULL STORY
HELENA – Less than two months into Montana’s fiscal year, the state’s $62 million firefighting fund is all but empty, drained by summer wildfire costs and a budget-transfer bill. Bullock administration officials said the fund could be empty by next week, as fires continue to burn across the state, with no weather relief in sight. Read More…
LAUREL – The former assistant principal at Laurel Middle School had her license suspended for three years following revelations that she sent a teenage boy partially nude photos during the last school year. The Office of Public Instruction ruled in July to suspend the license of Sarah Sheldon for three years. She’s been licensed to Read More…
The University of Wyoming is on track to welcome its largest freshman class ever just months after sending off its largest-ever graduating class. The result will be overall enrollment numbers that look roughly the same as 2016’s, said Mary Aguayo, interim associate vice president for enrollment management. “We graduated out 5 percent more students than Read More…
Inc. Magazine has doubled the number of Wyoming companies in its list of the 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. In 2016 the list included the telecom company Mammoth Networks of Gillette and Fund&Grow, a financial servies firm based in Cheyenne. This year, both companies appeared again, with Mammoth climbing 272 positions in Read More…
WHITEFISH — The Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL’s new franchise set to debut this season, toured the Rocky Mountains last week, introducing the team and some of its players to a prospective fan base. The road trip was a homecoming of sorts as Bill Foley and Murray Craven celebrated the team’s creation in this corner Read More…
Eight people were found dead on Sunday inside a sweltering tractor trailer parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, and authorities said they were the victims of “ruthless” human traffickers. Another 30 people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were also in the trailer, which lacked air conditioning Read More…
Attorney General Tim Fox on Thursday filed to intervene in a federal district court lawsuit on behalf of the state of Montana, defending the U.S. Department of Interior’s reversal of the Obama Administration’s moratorium on federal coal leases. The lawsuit filed by Citizens for Clean Energy and the states of California, New Mexico, New Read More…
HELENA – While U.S. Senate Republicans’ plan to repeal “Obamacare” has been criticized for potentially undercutting coverage for thousands of low-income Montanans, at least one group is firmly behind it: The state’s primary lobby for small businesses. “What we’re looking for is a health-care system that is affordable, flexible and predictable,” says Riley Johnson, state Read More…
HELENA – Billings lawyer Kurt Alme has been recommended as Montana’s next U.S. attorney, the chief federal law officer in the state, whose appointment by the president must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. U.S. Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., made the recommendation Thursday to President Donald Trump, saying Alme is the “right person for the job.” Read More…
MISSOULA – Wildfires in Montana are nothing new. Last year, the Treasure State saw a bad fire season with more than 114,000 acres burned. In an attempt to better understand how wildfires may affect weather, climate and even health, a group of University of Montana scientists will fly directly into the smoke of a wildfire. Read More…
It seems like hardly a day goes by when you don’t see someone arrested in Gallatin County for a methamphetamine-related offense. It could be when a Bozeman police officer pulls over a driver for a traffic offense and discovers a small baggie with a crystalline substance and a residue-covered pipe. It could be when Read More…
Looking back, Kelly Lawrence thinks her son’s dependence on alcohol and drugs began when he was 14. But it’s hard to say — he hid his disease for so long. The first time he asked for help, he was in his 20s. She knew he was using heroin. They started making calls to see how Read More…
HELENA – Last Chance Handgunners holds competitive events from hand-guns to free range shooting. Saturday was a 3-gun match, meaning the competitor had to show their skill with different types of guns, for example a combination of rifles, pistols, and shot guns. The guns used were semi-automatic and manual operated. “My favorite part is the Read More…
CODY, Wyo. –Photo exhibitions all over America are getting people excited about a new book called, “People of Yellowstone.” The book explores the lives and passions of people who help protect Yellowstone National Park. The book features dozens of people, including a park horse wrangler, a backcountry cook, and three Yellowstone Park Superintendents, including Dan Read More…
Wyoming Conservation Corps (WCC) members Chris Folsom and Lola Philips work on the Casper Rotary Club Park trail on Casper Mountain, one of the first WCC projects of this summer. (WCC Photo) Projects ranging from building trails in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests in northwest Wyoming to building a yurt at Glendo State Park Read More…
A public hearing on Whitefish’s proposed $38.7 million budget tops the City Council agenda tonight. The budget is about $12.6 million less than last year’s budget, largely due to the completion of the City Hall and parking structure projects. A property tax mill-levy increase of 8.24 mills is proposed. The mill value is projected to Read More…
KALISPELL –Kalispell Regional Healthcare officials confirmed on Sunday that over 50 people were injured and transported in Saturday’s deck collapse at Glacier Camp, south of Lakeside. 36 of these patients were treated in the Flathead area, with 9 at North Valley Hospital and 27 at Kalispell Regional medical Center. Significant numbers of orthopedic and neurological injuries Read More…
Bozeman Mayor Carson Taylor said this week that he doesn’t intend to act on a request by neighborhood preservation activists that the city place a moratorium on major downtown developments. “I haven’t found any interest in the commission in discussing a moratorium,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I think we’re pretty comfortable with the Read More…
HELENA — Secretary of State Corey Stapleton said Friday that mail ballot voter fraud occurred in Missoula County during the May 25 congressional special election. The case involved a signature forgery on a mail-in ballot, he said. Stapleton said his office has notified the Missoula County Attorney’s office. “We’ve had mail ballot security issues in Read More…
Failed Democrat Presidential Candidate and United States Senator Bernie Sanders will come to Montana to campaign for Democrat congressional candidate Rob Quist. This is not the first time Mr. Sanders has campaigned in Montana. Mr. Sanders made campaign stops in Montana last year during his unsuccessful bid to beat out Hillary Clinton for the Democrat Read More…
A couple of large data problems from the U.S. Department of Education recently came to the attention of U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. One of those errors uncovered billions of dollars in student loan costs, of which Congress was previously unaware. The other affects potential college students’ ability to make an informed decision about what Read More…
A federal judge Tuesday approved a landmark settlement offering to fix the trigger mechanism on millions of Remington Arms Co.’s bolt-action rifles, ending years of litigation on a weapon that critics say has caused injuries and deaths by firing without the trigger being pulled. U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith of Kansas City said he’s disappointed Read More…
The Microsoft Data Center outside of Cheyenne is “by far the biggest customer on the grid,” Michelle Patron, Microsoft’s director of sustainability policy explained in a recent post on the Microsoft Green Blog. “We needed more energy and wanted to use wind power to satisfy our growing demand, but didn’t want the local utility or Read More…
The state’s Department of Revenue reported Wednesday that it has processed 212,899 individual income tax returns so far for the 2016 tax year. Refunds issued so far number 141,317, and the average refund totaled $447.16, the department said in a written release, adding that some refunds are taking longer due to extra security put in Read More…
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency program aimed at protecting minority populations from pollution has resigned. Mustafa Ali, who has worked at the EPA for 24 years, is leaving as the Trump administration is proposing to completely defund environmental justice efforts at the EPA. Ali submitted a resignation letter Wednesday to EPA Administrator Scott Read More…
Gov. Steve Bullock says he believes the Montana Board of Regents would have to at least consider closing a state campus to make up for the $23.3 million budget cut proposed in the current Legislature. Bullock made the comment Wednesday while meeting with the Chronicle’s editorial board. The Democratic governor came to advocate Read More…
High tech companies brought in more than $1 billion dollars in revenue in 2016 and the industry is growing seven times faster than the rest of the Montana economy. A University of Montana Bureau of of Business Economic Research (BBER) study showed $1.09 billion in revenue last year, up from $867 million in 2015. Companies in Read More…
On Wednesday morning, the United States Senate voted to confirm Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Depart of Interior on a vote of 63 to 31. Both of Montana’s Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester voted to confirm Zinke. The Whitefish native will become the first Montanan to serve in a Cabinet position. Read More…
People who live in Missoula or are just going to be in the area will no longer have to leave their cars to pay for parking downtown. On Friday, the Missoula Parking Commission will roll out a pay-by-phone option. Tiffany Brander, administrative services manager with the Missoula Parking Commission, says people will never have to wait in line or Read More…
Someone is poaching bald eagles and hawks in the Mission Valley and selling their feathers. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service along with Tribal game wardens are working the case to find whoever is doing it. Last weekend, residents in the Saint Ignatius area between Missoula and Polson found several bald eagles and hawks dead Read More…
Obamacare is in a “death spiral,” the influential CEO of Aetna, Mark Bertolini, declared Wednesday morning. Bertolini’s doomsday prophesy: More insurers will pull out of the government-run marketplaces in the coming weeks and many areas will have no insurers to provide Affordable Care Act coverage in 2018. From Politico
Federal prosecutors may be investigating Fox News Channel’s parent company for not reporting settlements related to sexual harassment cases to the Securities and Exchange Commission, an attorney representing a former Fox News host said in open court on Wednesday. The lawyer, Judd Burstein, said that he had received a federal grand jury subpoena from the Read More…
Could a collection of tiny home-style units, clustered into a village with on-site social workers, help Bozeman get a handle on homelessness? It’s worth trying, say advocates with St. James Episcopal church and social service agency HRDC. From Bozeman Daily Chronicle
People stood up again during the public comment period at the Bozeman City Commission meeting Monday evening to again ask commissioners to consider making Bozeman a sanctuary city. After everyone supporting the request had commented, Mayor Carson Taylor read aloud the proclamation he presented last week declaring Bozeman a safe and inclusive place for everyone. From KTVQ
Yellowstone County Commissioners are recommending naming Highway 3 near the Billings airport after Montana’s late U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns. Commissioner Denis Pitman sent the recommendation letter to the Montana Department of Transportation after gaining approval from commissioners Robyn Driscoll and John Ostlund. From KBZK
The first firearm forensically proven to have been used at Custer’s Last Stand sold for $258,750 with the buyer’s premium on Sunday. The rifle was auctioned at Brian Lebel’s Old West Auction in Mesa, Arizona. From KPAX
As the nation’s capital prepared to celebrate the inauguration of the nation’s 45th President, Senators confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominees for Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Retired Generals James (“Mad Dog”) Mattis and John F. Kelly were approved by votes of 98-1 and 88-11, respectively. Attorney General nominee Read More…