(The Center Square) – Bitcoin and digital asset bills have been field in at least 31 state legislatures, according to a Bitcoin Laws website tracking state legislative filings. The website breaks down each bill filed and its progress in its respective chamber. Digital currency bills have been filed in the state legislatures of Alabama, Arizona, Read More…
Governor Greg Gianforte and Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras marked a significant milestone in their administration’s ongoing efforts to streamline government regulations, celebrating the repeal or amendment of over 25% of state regulations in the last four years. Speaking on the success of the Red Tape Relief Task Force, Gov. Gianforte emphasized the state’s commitment to Read More…
(The Center Square) – Legislation has been introduced in Congress to repeal the District of Columbia’s Home Rule Act. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. have introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act, or BOWSER Act, named after the district’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser. The lawmakers Read More…
Gov. Kelly Armstrong testified today in support of Senate Bill 2308, a proposal aimed at reducing the number of state boards and commissions to improve efficiency and cut government costs. The bill seeks to establish a task force to review over 150 existing boards and determine which should be consolidated or dissolved. “That’s too many,” Read More…
Vice President Kamala Harris brushed off negative media coverage about her, saying she will not be distracted by “ridiculous” headlines. Harris has been criticized for spending more than $500 on cookware while on a trip to Paris last month and described as a “bully” in reports that claim her behavior is behind the exodus of high-level staffers from her Read More…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday pledged to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state, citing the same authority claimed by conservative lawmakers in Texas to outlaw most abortions once a heartbeat is detected. California has banned the manufacture and sale of Read More…
For decades, dozens of people spent at least one night — or morning — a month taking public comment, discussing and making decisions on city of Bozeman policies, expenditures and other matters. The vast majority of those volunteers have given up the reins over the past few weeks as most of the former advisory boards Read More…
BILLINGS – Groups on both sides of the abortion issue in Montana are closely watching a key case challenging Roe v Wade, which is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court heard arguments for a Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks. A lower court had earlier blocked that Read More…
HELENA — A federal judge in Louisiana has granted a preliminary injunction against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) COVID vaccine mandate following a lawsuit filed by Montana and 13 other states. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen previously told MTN that the November 5th CMS rule is not only unconstitutional, but also will Read More…
Republicans on Wednesday slammed President Joe Biden’s latest nominee to the Federal Communications Commission for her history of attacking right-wing speech. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee tore into Gigi Sohn for what Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called “a history of antipathy toward conservative views.” Sohn has called for the shuttering of right-wing networks repeatedly throughout Read More…
An exodus of top staffers from Vice President Kamala Harris’s office is not cause for concern, according to the White House. “Working in the first year of a White House is exciting and rewarding, but it’s also grueling and exhausting. It’s all of those things at once,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday. “It’s also Read More…
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz will run for Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania next year, adding intrigue to one of the races that will determine control of the chamber. The 61-year-old host of “The Dr. Oz Show” will enter a crowded swing-state race where no clear frontrunner has emerged on the GOP side. Oz, who Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (PRESS RELEASE) – Earlier this year, after Wyoming received the first installment of funds from the American Rescue Plan, Governor Mark Gordon asked a Strike Team to work on big ideas that would help Wyoming drive towards a future where its citizens will thrive. Now there are more than $3 billion in proposals that the Read More…
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised its Republican counterpart in October even as President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress were struggling to pass major legislation to invest more taxpayer dollars in infrastructure and social programs. The DCCC raised $11.6 million last month, according to figures just publicized, compared to $9.7 million raised by the National Republican Read More…
A roughly $2 trillion social spending and climate plan passed out of the U.S House Friday, without the support of Montana’s lone congressman. Montana Republican Representative Matt Rosendale opposed the so-called ‘Build Back Better’ bill. The measure narrowly passed out of the U.S. House Friday morning on a near party-line vote of 220 to 213. Read More…
Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines implored “just one” Democrat to oppose the president’s “Build Back Better” agenda, which he said was a “hyperinflation bomb” that would most impact the poorest in society. “We just need one Democrat –just one– to oppose it and this bill dies in the Senate,” he said as Democrats try to Read More…
After months of speculation, Democrat Beto O’Rourke announced this morning he will run for governor of Texas. “I’m running to try to help bring this state together,” O’Rourke said. “To do the really big things that are before us right now and to get past the divisiveness, the extremism, and the real small politics and policies Read More…
President Joe Biden’s climate and social spending bill would cost nearly $5 trillion if several temporary provisions are made permanent, a nonpartisan budget think tank estimates. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that advocates for lower deficits, said Monday the current House iteration of the Build Back Better Act relies “on a number of Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – House Bill 1002, Federal COVID vaccine mandates-prohibition and remedies-2 was signed by Governor Mark Gordon. HB1002 provides $4 million in funding for legal challenges to any COVID-19 vaccination mandates passed by the Federal government according to a release. “This bill confirms the Legislature’s support for the Executive branch’s previously-expressed determination to fight Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — In a few weeks, Montana’s Governor will select two new District Court judges, one in Gallatin County and the other in Yellowstone. It will mark the second time the governor will use a new state law about mid-year election nominations. We’re working for you to explain the law that changed Montana’s constitution. READ Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – Senator Steve Daines has returned from a trip to India after meeting with India’s top trade official, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Indian pulse crop buyers. According to a release, Sen. Daines met with Goyal and pulse crop buyers to promote Montana pulse crops and increase market access for Read More…
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — It’s possible the House and Senate won’t agree Monday when lawmakers meet in special session on where to put boundaries for legislative districts that would apply in elections the next 10 years. If there is a stalemate, that duty, known as reapportionment, would fall, for the first time, upon the South Read More…
The Montana Department of Revenue has come out with two more packages of proposed rules, as they prepare for the start of recreational marijuana sales in January. Marijuana advocates say they’re concerned one of the provisions is going to put too many limits on who can take jobs in the industry. The newly proposed rules Read More…
HELENA, Mont. – On Saturday, a federal appeals court temporarily halted the recently announced vaccine mandate on larger businesses, and Senator Steve Daines says he was glad to see it was blocked. Senator Daines gave the following statement: READ FULL STORY
The focus groups with Virginia voters are already underway, as Democrats try to make sense of a dismal off-year election that set off panic alarms across the party. The center-left group Third Way is among those conducting the sessions, which are suddenly so abundant that the local company they use to recruit participants and facilitate Read More…
More Minneapolis voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election than any other municipal election in recent history. The election drew a 54% turnout of eligible voters — the most for a city-only election in more than four decades, smashing the 1997 record of 46.5%. “Every voter felt like their vote counted, and indeed it did,” said Jeanne Read More…
The leading members of the “Squad” have remained noticeably silent regarding the election of Winsome Sears in Virginia. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar expressed their support for several liberal candidates from minority racial backgrounds who won their elections on Tuesday. The collection of liberal congresswomen refrained from mentioning Read More…
After education issues proved crucial to Republicans’ upset victories in Virginia, GOP lawmakers are turning their attention to Democratic plans to put the federal government in charge of education. Buried in the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act is a plan to nationalize preschool programs and place them under the direction of the Education Department. The bill Read More…
Republicans are eyeing Glenn Youngkin’s successful campaign for the Virginia governor’s mansion as a roadmap for the 2022 midterm elections. For the GOP, the victory is more valuable than simply gaining another governorship. Youngkin’s campaign, Republicans argue, offers a blueprint for dealing with some of their biggest challenges of the upcoming midterm elections, including how Read More…
As the South Dakota Legislature prepares to undertake impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who killed a pedestrian with his car in 2020, a new poll shows that a strong majority of state residents is in favor of removing him from office. The late October poll of 500 registered voters in South Dakota showed Read More…
Another county in eastern Oregon voted to approve a measure to join the “Greater Idaho” movement in response to progressive policies in Portland. Sixty-three percent of voters in Harney County supported the non-binding Measure 13-18 as of Wednesday morning, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported. It’s the only countywide vote this year. READ FULL STORY
A fourth Democrat and former state lawmaker has joined the race for Montana’s new congressional seat. Tom Winter, a former state representative from Missoula, announced his run for the U.S. House on Wednesday, saying populism and progressivism can win. Winter joins fellow Democrats Laurie Bishop, a state lawmaker, Cora Neumann, who runs a public health nonprofit, and Read More…
BILLINGS, Mont. – While Americans head to the polls on Election Day during National Native American Heritage month, groups in Montana look to engage Native Americans in building political and personal power to address local community challenges. Western Native Voice, a non-profit, non-partisan organization in Billings continues to work to increase Native American participation and engagement Read More…
The Wyoming Senate voted 15-13 Friday to kill a bill fighting expected federal COVID-19 rules as the House advanced two heavily amended measures of its own. Senators voted down Senate File 3-COVID-19 discriminatory practices, one of three COVID-related measures being worked by the Legislature, after considering 13 amendments and adopting seven. As originally written, the measure Read More…
The differences between Kalispell mayoral candidates Mark Johnson and Sid Daoud came down to questions of small and smaller government during a virtual question-and-answer session with the Daily Inter Lake on Thursday. Johnson, the incumbent two-term mayor, and Daoud, the Ward 4 City Council representative, generally agreed in their desire to see reductions in development Read More…
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to offer police officers who refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine $5,000 to relocate to Florida, pledging “we will treat you better” than forces across the country threatening layoffs of those who don’t want the jab. “We’re actually actively working to recruit out-of-state law enforcement, because we do have needs in Read More…
The Biden administration is in touch with nearly 400 Americans who are stranded in Afghanistan, a figure that far exceeds the administration’s claims that about 100 Americans were left in the nation following the United States’ hurried exit from Kabul, according to a senior congressional source who was briefed Thursday by the State Department. With Read More…
Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters at the Capitol on Monday that Democrats could reach a deal on the framework of their spending package this week. Manchin has for weeks been a thorn in the side of liberals seeking a proposed $3.5 trillion spending package. Manchin, as well as Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, have raised objections to the Read More…
BISMARCK, N.D. – Next month’s abbreviated session of the North Dakota Legislature is intended to finish the job of legislative redistricting and to determine how federal coronavirus relief aid will be spent. But some lawmakers want to broaden the agenda. More than two dozen bills have been submitted ahead of the session planned for Nov. Read More…
The leaders of the Wyoming House and Senate have formally announced a special session of the Wyoming Legislature to deal with President Biden’s vaccine mandate. The session is scheduled for Oct. 26-28, according to Senate President Dan Dockstader and House Speaker Eric Barlow. According to a release from the pair on Tuesday afternoon: READ FULL STORY
BOISE — From now on when Idaho Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy looks at wildfire suppression budget proposals, she won’t ever again just see numbers or charts on a spreadsheet. Instead, she’ll see the faces of the firefighters and the equipment they rely on. Troy, R-Genesse, will see her family members standing with their arms wrapped Read More…
As visitation to Flathead Lake’s state-managed islands continues to increase, so do the negative consequences on wildlife habitat, including an uptick in instances involving human waste, garbage, vandalism, and unattended campfires. To that end, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) has released a draft environmental assessment on a suite of proposed rule changes, which the agency crafted Read More…
The commission in charge of drawing Montana’s new political boundaries remains stuck in a deadlock over how to split the state into two congressional districts. The bipartisan Districting and Apportionment Commission failed to find consensus Thursday. Instead of putting forth a single map for consideration as planned, they advanced two. Still, commissioners are getting closer Read More…
U.S. Senator Jon Tester visited with AP government students at Hamilton High School via Skype on Monday. Educator Kiah Nisly had arranged the opportunity for her students to have a visit with the senator. “The future electorate of America sits in my classroom so I like to create as many opportunities as possible for the future voters Read More…