A coalition of Montana’s top elected officials, lawmakers, and local leaders is pushing back against criticism of Governor Greg Gianforte’s appointment of Jessica Flint to the state’s Criminal Justice Oversight Council, calling it a decisive move toward accountability and balance in Montana’s justice system. In a letter released Monday, 56 officials—ranging from members of Montana’s Read More…
Newly declassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are reigniting fierce political debate over the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, with conservatives alleging they show top Obama administration officials helped fabricate the narrative of collusion to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump. The documents include a previously unreleased annex to the 2023 Durham report Read More…
(The Center Square) – The nation’s largest nurses’ union is blasting Kaiser Permanente for pausing gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19 starting next month, due to pending litigation and pressure from the Trump administration. “As the legal and regulatory environment for gender-affirming care continues to evolve, we must carefully consider the significant risks being created Read More…
Governor Greg Gianforte has urged Congress to support two joint resolutions aimed at overturning a Biden administration policy that threatens Montana’s coal industry and could cost the state’s public schools over $4 billion in future revenue. In a letter to lawmakers, Gianforte expressed strong backing for Senate Joint Resolution 61 (S.J.Res.61) and House Joint Resolution Read More…
Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck is stepping down effective June 4 to take a new role with the Lincoln County Port Authority. Libby’s representative to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners, Peck described his decision to resign after about six-and-a-half years “a bittersweet thing.” Upon his formal departure from the board, he will assume his Read More…
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will decide whether to prohibit state and local police officers from enforcing a host of federal firearms restrictions after lawmakers on Friday approved a ban long sought by conservative gun owners fearful of future overreach by liberal politicians in Washington. Gun registration requirements, firearm tracking rules and limits on certain people Read More…
Andrew Giuliani has dreams of turning next year’s gubernatorial race into another “Fight of the Century.” The son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will announce Tuesday that he’s officially running for the Republican primary in 2022 — and is confident he can not only knock out veteran GOP competition but then go on Read More…
Recruiting the sitting governor of New Hampshire for one of the country’s tightest Senate races paid off for Democrats six years ago. Now the GOP is aiming to replicate that strategy. Republicans have launched an all-out effort to woo Gov. Chris Sununu into a challenge to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan next fall. With the Senate Read More…
BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts mayor first elected at the age of 23 by touting himself as a successful entrepreneur was convicted Friday of stealing money from investors in his start-up to bankroll his lavish lifestyle and soliciting bribes from marijuana vendors who wanted to operate in the struggling mill city. Jasiel Correia was Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court has denied the Montana Legislature’s effort to disqualify the Supreme Court Justices, stating that ‘were the Court to succumb to the Legislature’s request and evade our responsibilities and 16 obligations as a Court, we are convinced that public confidence in our integrity, honesty, leadership, and ability to function as the highest Read More…
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte on Thursday signed into law a package of legislation containing more than $500 million to fund infrastructure projects across the state. That’s mostly in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars that will be flowing into Montana from the federal American Relief Plan Act (ARPA). Most of that money was Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — On a prairie hill on the rolling highway into Wyoming’s capital city looms a billboard with the beaming face of the state’s lone congressional representative, Liz Cheney. In huge letters it declares: “Thank you Rep. Cheney for defending the Constitution.” Some local Republicans see Cheney’s lonesome stand against former President Donald Trump’s Read More…
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is flatly opposed to removing former President Donald Trump’s cap on what’s known as the SALT deduction on state and local taxes, saying lifting it would send a “terrible” message. In an interview with Axios, Sanders was asked about what’s been called the “a tax break for rich Read More…
WASHINGTON — Every spring the Supreme Court seems to find itself in the headlines with consequential rulings on the horizon. This spring is no different. Over the coming weeks, major cases impacting various aspects of American life are poised for rulings. READ FULL STORY
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell toughened their positions Monday over the tax increases for millionaires and corporations that Biden has proposed to fund his sweeping infrastructure and education plans. “We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package which deals with what all of us agree is ‘infrastructure,’” Read More…
Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow is pushing back against proposed federal priorities for schools to teach the theory that racism is an ingrained part of American life. The U.S. Department of Education recently proposed priorities for American history and civics education grant programs which include encouraging districts to use curriculum related to the Read More…
HELENA — In the escalating battle between leading Republicans and the Montana judiciary, Attorney General Austin Knudsen has asked that all seven justices of the Montana Supreme Court disqualify themselves from deciding the legality of legislative subpoenas seeking internal documents from the court. Knudsen, a Republican, filed the motion late Friday, saying the justices have Read More…
A bill that would give Montana officials the power to license and regulate pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen that negotiate drug prices and determine which medications are covered by health insurers — is headed to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk. Proponents say the measure would shine a light on a powerful yet obscure part of Read More…
HELENA — A day after the Montana Legislature wrapped up its 67th session, Gov. Greg Gianforte and Republican leaders from the House and Senate held a news conference, highlighting what they saw as their top achievements. This was the first legislative session in 16 years with a Republican in the governor’s office, and the Republican majorities Read More…
The Montana Supreme Court will proceed with a full bench to consider a challenge to a new law that allows the governor to appoint judges and justices to court vacancies. An order filed Tuesday says Judge Matthew Wald from the 22nd judicial district in southeast Montana will substitute for Chief Justice Mike McGrath, who has Read More…
South Dakota Secretary of State Steve Barnett announced Thursday that the petition submitted for an initiated measure on legalizing medical use marijuana has been validated and filed. The measure, titled Initiated Measure 26, will now appear on the 2020 general election ballot on Nov. 3. Such a measure requires nearly 17,000 valid signatures to qualify Read More…
A former Wyoming state senator has been arrested in Sweetwater County for soliciting prostitution, jail records show. John Hastert, who served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2003 to 2019, was booked into the Sweetwater County Detention Center Thursday, according to the detention center’s inmate roster. He faces charges of soliciting prostitution and interfering with a peace Read More…
In another instance of COVID panic undermining “the science,” President Biden insisted in a Friday interview that he still plans to wear masks outside — despite new CDC guidance this week that masks do not need to be worn by vaccinated people outdoors. Speaking to NBC News in a wide-ranging interview Friday, the commander-in-chief called mask wearing Read More…
Florida’s Legislature passed an election bill on Thursday that alters the way residents vote by mail. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill in both chambers on a mostly party-line vote. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis already said he plans on signing it. The bill prevents state agencies from sending mail-in ballots to people who didn’t request one, disallows ballot harvesting, which Read More…
The group behind the 2018 Medicaid expansion initiative is adopting a two-pronged political strategy. Reclaim Idaho is planning to sue the state over a new state law that could make it much more difficult to get an initiative on a ballot. And if Reclaim prevails in court, the group will follow up with an initiative Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Wyoming News Now) – Wyoming’s congressional delegation is responding to President Biden’s Join Address Wednesday evening. In statements from all three of Wyoming’s delegates, none were impressed. Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney responded by calling the speech, and Biden’s actions, disappointing. Her statement is below: “The policies President Biden has advanced in his first Read More…
HELENA — Former Secretary of the Interior and Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke has filed once again to represent Montana in Congress. The Republican was elected twice, 2014 and 2016, to serve as Montana’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the first Navy SEAL to serve in the chamber. READ FULL STORY
The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear a major Second Amendment case out of New York concerning the right to carry a firearm for self-defense. At least four justices voted to hear the challenge over a state’s ability to deny applications for concealed-carry licenses. The lawsuit was brought by two men who had their concealed permit Read More…
Dash camera footage from Michigan State Police shows a state representative name-dropping Gov. Gretchen Whitmer while he was getting arrested after allegedly driving under the influence. Rep. Jewell Jones, 26, was arrested on April 6 for driving while drunk, resisting arrest, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated, though the video was only recently released. During the arrest footage, Read More…
The Montana Senate has rejected one of Former-Gov. Steve Bullock’s district court judge appointees and advanced another. A third appointee is still awaiting consideration. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday voted to reject the appointment of Judge Michele Reinhart Levine, who’s been a judge in Cascade County since November, when Bullock, a Democrat, appointed Read More…
A day after some Republicans in the Montana House joined with Democrats to kill a controversial bill to allow NorthWestern Energy to purchase more power from Colstrip while cutting out the oversight of the Public Service Commission, Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, introduced legislation that would allow the Attorney General’s Office to investigative “environmental groups.” Ankney Read More…
HELENA — The Montana Senate has signed off on the latest version of the bill to overhaul the state’s recreational marijuana laws. Senators voted 35-15 for House Bill 701 in a preliminary vote Friday. The bill was then sent immediately to the Finance and Claims Committee, which returned it for a final vote on the Read More…
The Biden administration on Tuesday formally threw its support behind a long-shot bid from Democrats to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. Congress should “provide for a swift and orderly transition to statehood” for the more than 700,000 Washington residents who do not have full voting representation in the House and Senate, the Office of Read More…
BOISE, Idaho — On Friday afternoon, all of Idaho’s living governors showed a united front behind Gov. Brad Little vetoing two bills that would trim an Idaho governor’s powers during an emergency while expanding the legislature’s. In a brief press conference, Gov. Little was joined by former Republican Idaho governors C.L. “Butch” Otter and Read More…
A Republican lawmaker from Northwest Montana has introduced a bill instructing the Montana Environmental Quality Council (EQC) to reanalyze the state’s newly adopted selenium standard, which was set to protect Lake Koocanusa and its fish species from Canadian mining contaminants. The measure by Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Libby, comes less than a month after the corporate Read More…
MISSOULA — Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill in Missoula on Monday afternoon that’s aimed at expanding trades education across the state. Surrounded by construction workers at the Scheels worksite in the Southgate Mall, the governor addressed Montana’s growing need for trade workers. READ FULL STORY
HELENA, Mont. — The Legislature’s Special Select Committee on Judicial Transparency and Accountability met Monday afternoon to question Montana Supreme Court Justices and the Court Administrator. However, to some committee members’ disapproval, administrator Beth McLaughlin did not show. “I’m disappointed she has chosen not to appear today,” said committee chair State Sen. Greg Hertz, (R-Polson). READ Read More…
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has made it clear that any attempt by the federal government to move illegal immigrants to Wyoming will not be allowed. “I want to state clearly and unequivocally that the State of Wyoming will not participate in relocation or housing efforts of illegal immigrants or unaccompanied minors, and I have made Read More…
Power over Montana’s judicial branch is at the center of a debate over the constitutionality of a new law that gives the governor more options to fill midterm vacancies on the state bench. Senate Bill 140, which Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law last month, eliminated the Judicial Nominating Commission, an unelected body that greatly limited the governor’s nominating power by Read More…
Proposals to amend North Dakota’s constitution would be limited to one subject and would need at least 60% of voters in favor, under a measure proposed for 2022. Leaders of the measure group say the state’s constitution is too easy to amend, citing proposed changes in every election cycle over the last decade. Of Read More…
President Biden has announced that the United States will fully withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, which is, of course, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack that rocked the United States in 2001, leaving hundreds dead and a nation in mourning. Though the Trump administration reached a deal with the Taliban to complete Read More…
The Texas Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would prevent local governments from cutting their law enforcement budgets without voter approval. It was the Legislature’s most substantial move yet in a political war over police funding in Texas that was sparked last summer. The in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and fatal police shooting of Mike Ramos in Austin prompted Read More…
HELENA — The administrator of the Montana Supreme Court, at the center of a battle with Republican legislators over the release of internal emails from the state judiciary, has filed a new request asking the high court to block GOP efforts to obtain and disseminate those emails. The filing from Beth McLaughlin Monday evening came Read More…
HELENA — The Montana House has endorsed a bill that would let the public ask for an election to change local health boards’ actions. It’s the latest of a series of bills debated this session that would put boundaries around the authority of health boards and officers. Senate Bill 108, sponsored by Sen. Doug Kary, Read More…