A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using Medicaid data obtained from Washington and 19 other states for immigration enforcement purposes. The order also bars the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from sharing such data with DHS. The injunction comes after Washington and Read More…
U.S. Senator Steve Daines visited the Bull Mountains Mine in Musselshell County on Friday, celebrating what he called a major victory for Montana jobs and American energy. The mine, one of the state’s three large-scale active coal operations, had faced the prospect of closure in recent years but will remain open due to a provision Read More…
Tyler Newcombe has stepped down as executive director of the Montana Republican Party (MTGOP) after serving in the role since January, the party announced this month. “It has been an incredible honor to work with such a dedicated team on advancing conservative values across Montana,” Newcombe said in a statement. “I’m proud of what we Read More…
Governor Brad Little signed Executive Order 2025-05, known as “The Idaho Act,” aimed at creating efficiencies in state government, reducing spending, and supporting public schools while implementing federal tax cuts for Idahoans. The order directs state executive branch agencies — excluding K-12 public schools — to identify opportunities for consolidation, revert unfilled positions, reduce contract Read More…
HELENA – Employees of the Montana Democratic Party said Wednesday they have chosen to be represented by a union. The employees made the announcement in a news release along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 206. James Holbrook, IBEW 206 business manager, said more professional employees are joining the IBEW because they can Read More…
The race to represent California’s 36th District in the U.S. House of Representatives just became much less confusing: Republican challenger Raul Ruiz announced Wednesday he was dropping his challenge against Raul Ruiz, the incumbent Democratic congressman with the same name. “It is with sincere heartfelt sentiment that I announce my inability to continue moving forward in Read More…
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes would manage the National Bison Range in exchange for concessions on water rights, according to draft legislation Montana Sen. Steve Daines is expected to introduce in Congress. Both Daines and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes announced last week that they had come to an agreement to settle thousands Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KOLO) – The U.S. Senate has confirmed Lawrence VanDyke to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The final vote was 51 to 44 in favor of confirmation. VanDyke previously served as Solicitor General of Nevada and Montana. Nevada’s two Senators, Jackie Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, opposed VanDyke’s nomination. Sen. Cortez Masto Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Senator Steve Daines announced he reached a new agreement to settle water disputes with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) that “protect the water rights for all Montanans.” Senator Jon Tester said he is pleased with the bipartisan support for the introduction of the CSKT Water Compact. Daines will introduce the “Montana Read More…
Washington Democrats are no longer pining for Beto O’Rourke. They’re far more infatuated with another ousted presidential candidate: Steve Bullock. O’Rourke has just three days before the Texas filing deadline to decide whether he wants to run against incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn. Yet many Senate Democrats aren’t sure O’Rourke would even be the strongest Read More…
The grandson of the late President George H.W. Bush, nonprofit executive Pierce Bush, announced Monday morning that he is running for Texas’ 22nd Congressional District. Bush enters a crowded GOP primary to replace U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose seat was a national Democratic target even before Olson announced his retirement earlier this year. Bush made Read More…
The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and show and describe it to the patient, regardless of the patient’s wishes. The justices did not offer an explanation for their decision to refuse to hear a challenge to a lower court ruling that upheld the Read More…
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed financial executive Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, selecting the co-owner of Atlanta’s WNBA franchise over a congressman that President Donald Trump repeatedly urged the Republican to pick. During remarks in Kemp’s ceremonial office, Loeffler presented herself as a lifelong conservative who is “pro-Second Amendment, pro-military, pro-wall and pro-Trump” Read More…
HELENA — A former Helena elementary school teacher – who also is married to Democratic state superintendent of public instruction candidate Melissa Romano — was charged Tuesday with felony drug possession, including cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine. The charges against Eric Lehman, who resigned his teaching post at Hawthorne Elementary School as of Nov. 1, said Read More…
The Haverford School’s leafy campus, arched doorways, and neatly uniformed boys would seem to denote the sort of class and privilege that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has decried on the campaign trail. That may be why Warren, confronted by a school-choice activist in November, denied that her kids had attended private schools. The 2020 Read More…
In the entire U.S., only one state — Wyoming — lacks legal protections for journalists who refuse to give up the names of confidential sources when law enforcement comes calling. After years as an outlier — and at least one close call for a reporter who faced legal pressure to reveal his sources — Read More…
GRAND FORKS — State Sen. Ray Holmberg remembers when the relationship between the North Dakota University System and the Legislature was more tenuous. Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, a longtime member of the Legislature and leader of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says that around 2013, the relationship was especially fractured. “The relationship was, shall we Read More…
Montana Governor Steve Bullock is ending his presidential campaign, citing an inability to gain traction with Democratic primary voters and, in a setback for Democrats, he has no plans to pursue a 2020 Senate bid. “While there were many obstacles we could not have anticipated when entering this race, it has become clear that in Read More…
CHEYENNE – Gov. Mark Gordon will officially proclaim Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Day with a ceremony at the Wyoming State Capitol at 9 a.m. Dec. 10, the governor’s office announced Tuesday in a news release. The ceremony will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the first law in the United States guaranteeing women unconditional Read More…
President Donald Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists because of their role in drug and human trafficking. “They will be designated … I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well Read More…
A Republican-aligned super PAC is taking aim at Montana Gov. Steve Bullock — not because of the Democrat’s presidential bid, but because of a prospective Senate bid. The Senate Leadership Fund, an ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, bought a five-figure digital ad campaign attacking Mr. Bullock for spending time outside the state on the presidential campaign trail. Read More…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voiced support for decriminalizing the use of all drugs on Sunday. The freshman congresswoman tweeted that drug decriminalization, as well as marijuana legalization, are “matters of public health.” This marks a development in Ocasio-Cortez’s drug policy platform. Previously, she called for decriminalizing the use and research of psychedelics, emphasizing the therapeutic potential Read More…
BISMARCK — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced Tuesday, Nov. 19, the state would continue to receive refugees as long as local governments agree to it. The announcement comes in response to a September executive order issued by President Donald Trump, which allowed state and local governments to decide whether to receive resettled refugees. On Read More…
Elizabeth Warren prohibits special access for big donors — but her campaign treasurer and another close ally are organizing wealthy supporters for Warren behind the scenes while she rips on the rich. The pair, Boston businessman Paul Egerman and activist Shanti Fry, have maintained campaign titles as Warren’s finance co-chairs, even as her campaign sheared Read More…
Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon, who announced five months ago she would not run for re-election for a second term, said Sunday she’s changed her mind and will be running in 2020. McKinnon told MTN News that while she initially wasn’t looking forward to another potentially partisan campaign, she decided that wasn’t a good-enough Read More…
Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, are calling on White House senior adviser and immigration policy architect Stephen Miller to resign after the release of hundreds of emails promoting white nationalist content and extremely restrictive immigration policies. “Trump’s architect of mass human rights abuses at the border … has been exposed as a Read More…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of President Donald Trump, was found guilty Friday of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. Stone was convicted of all seven counts in an indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, Read More…
CONCORD, N.H. — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock had a special enjoyment filing his name for the first-in-the-nation primary ballot Tuesday – he signed the declaration and handed over his $1,000 check at the desk donated by the family of his namesake. More than a century ago, New Hampshire state Rep. Stephen A. Bullock sponsored legislation Read More…
A number of statewide candidates spoke Sunday at the 2019 Pasma-Peck Democratic Dinner held by the Hill County Democratic Party, discussing their campaigns and their goals if elected. After Montana Attorney General Tim Fox announced his candidacy for governor, a number of candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties have announced their candidacy for Read More…
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, still in the Democratic presidential race despite low polling numbers, officially filed Tuesday to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary next February. Bullock paid the $1,000 filing fee in Concord, New Hampshire, to appear on the state’s Feb. 11 primary ballot. Bullock, who continues to poll in Read More…
Montana Republicans and Democrats compromised in the 2019 Legislature to pass Medicaid expansion with the caveats that there would be some work and community service requirements, however the federal government has not yet authorized the provision. Now, the Montana State Senate Majority Leader is crying foul. “When we passed that legislation it was up to Read More…
Presidential candidate and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock touted on Tuesday that in 2016, he won election as a Democrat in a state that heavily voted for President Donald Trump. Though Bullock is polling at less than 1 percent nationally, and will not be participating in next week’s Democratic presidential debate, he thinks that he has Read More…
As U.S. Customs and Border Protection is holding town hall meetings to discuss reducing its hours of operation at Antler, Carbury and Maida, Gov. Doug Burgum released a statement on Wednesday, Nov. 6, urging the federal agency to maintain its schedule at the three North Dakota ports of entry. “We are committed to maintaining the Read More…
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – An interim legislative panel has rejected a proposal that would increase the state tax on alcohol to fund substance abuse treatment programs in Wyoming. The proposed bill offered by Republican Sen. Charlie Scott, of Casper, was voted down 7-6 Wednesday by the Joint Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services. Proponents of Read More…
Wyoming utility regulators may soon be in for a wild ride. For decades, the Wyoming Public Service Commission has upheld an unequivocal mission: “provide safe and reliable service to customers at just and reasonable rates.” It’s a mantra that state regulators repeatedly declared Tuesday when testifying before the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. Read More…
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) unveiled his first two television ads in Iowa Wednesday as the White House hopeful seeks to gin up support for his presidential bid in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. The ads seek to promote Bullock’s electability by promoting his ability to win statewide in a rural state that backed President Trump in 2016. The Bullock campaign told Read More…
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) has always been an unusual Democrat. Representing a district that Hillary Clinton carried by nearly 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, Cuellar increasingly has sided with Republicans and business groups on workplace policy, not to mention on guns and abortion. That approach has served Cuellar well. He’s represented the district that Read More…
Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump’s short-lived White House communications director-turned-detractor, saw his fame exploited Thursday in a campaign stunt by a Democratic presidential candidate. The stunt unfolded on Twitter when Steve Bullock — Montana’s governor and a long-shot candidate who’s failed to qualify for all but one Democratic primary debate this year — posted a Read More…
Montana’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted against a resolution to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Republican Greg Gianforte voted with his party members and two Democrats against the measure from the House majority to lay the foundation and ground rules for the process of considering articles Read More…
Sen. Steve Daines criticized the state of Montana on Wednesday during a Senate subcommittee hearing, saying its policies on Medicaid has made it more at risk to abuse and fraud compared to other states. He made his comments after noting the U.S. government improperly spent $36 billion in Fiscal Year 2018. “The sad reality is Read More…
Montana’s federal lawmakers are moving ahead with their effort to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Bozeman after local Medal of Honor recipient and Army Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester and Rep. Greg Gianforte sent a letter on Tuesday to the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Read More…
CHAPTER I Steve Bullock was giddy. It was late September in Iowa, and the governor of Montana had something he needed to tell me urgently. He had just finished his stump speech to roughly two dozen people gathered in the living room of a local Democratic activist in an upscale neighborhood of Sioux City. “You Read More…
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) became the latest member of the influential “Squad” to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president when she appeared at his campaign rally in Detroit on Sunday night. Why it matters: It’s a welcome boost for Sanders as polls indicate his popularity has slipped. Tlaib is the third member of the quartet of freshman Democratic lawmakers Read More…
Gov. Doug Burgum and Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford are running for reelection. The duo announced their campaign in a video released early Thursday morning, Oct. 24. “North Dakota is certainly headed in the right direction,” Burgum said during the two-minute plus video. “Jobs are up, wages are higher, unemployment is down, young people are staying.” Read More…