(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…
Companies would be required to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and be held to account on their climate promises under a proposal released Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The proposed rule would deliver a big — and durable — policy win for President Joe Biden, whose climate agenda has been mired in congressional partisanship, Read More…
Gallatin County voters will get to decide on two local options in taxes for marijuana sales during the June primaries. On Tuesday, the Gallatin County Commission voted unanimously to add a 3% local option sales tax on all recreational and medical marijuana products sold in the county. READ THE FULL STORY
Last month, Jamie Smith, a Democrat and Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, issued a challenge against Republican Governor Kristi Noem. Saturday, Smith met with some of his supporters and those who are interested in his campaign in Rapid City. Smith says he’s running for Governor, because he believes people are ready for a Read More…
The Energy Sector and Cyber-Security have been hot topics in the Wyoming legislature this session. U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso have echoed Wyoming’s concerns. “We have the opportunity to be energy independent here. We need to stake our claim on energy independence and help the world with those who would interfere with freedom Read More…
It could become easier for communities to play a role in cleaning up abandoned mine sites in the coming years, if a bill jointly backed by Montana’s two senators gets traction in Washington, D.C. It could be the next significant step in dealing with an environmental problem that not only plagues Montana but the entire Read More…
Montana’s attorney general has launched a civil investigation into the popular social media app TikTok for possible violation of the state’s consumer protection act. Attorney General Austin Knudsen says the app may be misrepresenting the dangers of the platform for teens. Knudsen sent the company a letter demanding answers to 80 questions, including how the app promotes Read More…
President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee shielded one of Hillary Clinton’s top State Department aides from scrutiny about his use of a personal email account to conduct official business. Then-U.S. district judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2015 denied Gawker’s request for details about press aide Philippe Reines’s stewardship of the account in the context of a Read More…
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has started a comprehensive investigation into TikTok for allegedly serving harmful content to children and for publicly misrepresenting the “dangers” of its social media platform. “TikTok is certainly an application that should raise concerns for parents in Montana and everywhere,” Knudsen said in an interview with Fox News Digital in announcing his office’s investigation. Read More…
Two bills focused on transparency in Idaho’s elections were introduced in a Senate committee on Monday. The first, from Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, a Republican from Caldwell, would increase campaign finance reporting requirements for contributions and expenditures made in non-election years. The legislation would trigger campaign finance reporting requirements once a candidate has received Read More…
The Senate passed a short-term funding bill Thursday night to head off a government shutdown, after Democrats bent to Republican demands for controversial votes on vaccine mandates. The three-week spending patch is expected to hit President Joe Biden’s desk well before government funding runs out at midnight Friday. Punting the next deadline to March 11, Read More…
Following reports that a member of its negotiating team quit the administration last week over opposition to the Biden administration’s concessions to Iran, the State Department is defending its ongoing diplomacy with Tehran. Richard Nephew served as the deputy special envoy for Iran before leaving that post on Dec. 6 “due to a sincere difference Read More…
An engineering professor at the University of Jamestown is running for U.S. Senate in her first run for elected office. Katrina Christiansen, of Jamestown, is seeking the Democratic-NPL nomination for the seat held by U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., saying she wants to “strengthen our democracy.” “I will be a strong, independent voice Read More…
A new court filing last Friday sparked fresh accusations and debate surrounding the Trump-Russia probe. Former President Donald Trump says it proves his 2016 presidential campaign was spied on by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Defense lawyers are saying it’s just an attempt to politicize the case and drum up negative press. It’s either what some Read More…
An Arizona cotton farmer and lawyer says she is running for attorney general because she is fed up waiting for the federal and state governments to boost security at the southern border. Tiffany Shedd is a mother of three whose family’s fourth-generation property sits in the middle of a Mexican cartel’s drug and human smuggling Read More…
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is taking another step toward fulfilling her September pledge to ensure South Dakota has the “strongest pro-life laws in the books.” The first-term governor’s latest round of pro-life bills was announced Friday, the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The two bills would adopt similar legislation to Texas’ Heartbeat Act preventing abortions after a Read More…
CASPER. Wyo. — Wyoming state Sen. Charles Scott (Natrona County) will be offering a presentation in regard to the redistricting process in the state at noon Friday, January 28 at the Natrona County Library. Redistricting is one of the tasks that the Wyoming Legislature will tackle during its upcoming budget session. The legislature is set Read More…
The Supreme Court announced Monday it would take up a pair of cases related to race-based admissions policies at two major universities, adding affirmative action to the hot-button issues justices are considering, along with abortion and gun rights. Justices said they would hear challenges to policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina that Read More…
Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York was arrested outside of the U.S. Capitol building after disobeying orders from Capitol Police on three different occasions, the law enforcement agency said. Capitol Police arrested Bowman on Thursday after the New York Democrat protested outside Congress in support of his party’s failed election reform package. Bowman and Read More…
WASHINGTON – The second week of August began as a time for vacation for President Joe Biden and some of his team. Then Afghanistan imploded. The reports out of Kabul were harrowing: Images of desperate Afghan nationals clinging to U.S. military airplanes leaving the country and, days later, a suicide bombing at a gate to Read More…
HELENA — A federal judge Tuesday struck down a portion of Montana’s “clean campaign act,” saying it’s an unconstitutional burden on free speech to require political committees to notify candidates about last-minute attack campaign material. U.S. District Judge Don Molloy of Missoula said the so-called “fair notice” requirement, which applies only to material distributed within Read More…
ANALYSIS — It’s been 40 years since Montana had to worry about congressional redistricting. The Treasure State was allocated a second seat in the most recent round of reapportionment — the last time that happened was after the 1980 census — and had to go through the process of bifurcating the state. Even though a Read More…
Wyoming’s state superintendent of public instruction is resigning to become the head of Virginia’s public school system. The resignation of Wyoming State Superintendent Jillian Balow will be effective Sunday. Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, who takes office Saturday, has named Balow to replace Rosa Atkins, who has been acting state superintendent since James Lane’s resignation in Read More…
U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines introduced a Senate resolution designating today, Jan 16 as Religious Freedom Day. This resolution commemorates the 236th Anniversary of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a landmark achievement that laid the foundations for the First Amendment. “America stands as a beacon of hope and a symbol of religious Read More…
HELENA — Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on Monday joined GOP legislators and Montana’s Republican attorney general, in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in their dispute with the Montana Supreme Court over whether that court is improperly “prejudging proposed legislation.” Gianforte, through his chief lawyer, Anita Milanovich, filed a “friend of the court” brief Read More…
The Montana judiciary is in deep trouble. The Wall Street Journal picked up on a local story that has been exploding since last April but has just now started to get national attention. In April, the Montana judiciary was caught red-handed lobbying against bills that would lead to more accountability for judges. This comes right on the heels Read More…
HELENA — Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Rice said Thursday he will run for re-election this year to a third eight-year term on the state’s highest court, potentially extending his tenure as the court’s longest-serving justice. Rice, 64, was appointed to the court in 2001, by then-Gov. Judy Martz. He ran for retainment in the Read More…
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Monday she has been temporarily barred from posting on her Facebook account by the social network, less than a day after losing her personal Twitter account. “Facebook has joined Twitter in censoring me,” Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on Gettr, a social media platform favored by some right-wing conservatives. “This is beyond Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Governor Gianforte will deliver infrastructure funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the City of Dillon on Jan. 3. This will go to improving drinking water. In Septmeber, Gianforte authorized $1.9 million in competitive and minimum allocation grants to replace a waterline transmission and distribution system. The system previously had leaks Read More…
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, dies at 82. READ FULL STORY
The Whitefish City Council last week unanimously voted to approve an ordinance that will put zoning requirements in place for certain rentals being rented out for periods of between 30 and 90 days. The ordinance requires rentals of 30 to 90 days that would qualify as “medium-term rentals” to be in zones classified as resort Read More…
BOZEMAN — Montana is set to kick off 2022 with the legalization of recreational marijuana sales starting on January 1. Here are some important things to know before the law takes effect in the new year. Montana Initiative 190 passed 56% to 43% back in Nov. 2020, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chief Justice John Roberts earns the highest job approval rating of 11 U.S. leaders rated in a Dec. 1-16 Gallup poll with 60% approving of how he is handling his role. Only two other leaders on the list are reviewed positively by majorities of Americans — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (53%) and Director of the Read More…
Montana’s lone voice in the U.S. House did not join the majority this week in voting to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress. Democrats and two Republicans approved the resolution after Meadows stopped cooperating with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. In a tweet, Rep. Matt Read More…
As President Joe Biden heads into the end of the year, he’s facing a sour reality: The number of Americans who approve of his performance has hit a new low. Just 41 percent of Americans approve of the job he has been doing as president, according to a new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll. Support among independents alone Read More…
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) spoke at an awards ceremony over the weekend hosted by a Communist Party affiliate whose leaders used the event to recruit potential members to the organization. Blumenthal, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, presented certificates of special recognition from the Senate to three winners of the “Amistad Award,” Read More…
BISMARCK — North Dakota Senate Minority Leader Joan Heckaman told Forum News Service she will retire from the Legislature when her term ends in 2022 because the redistricting process took a run for reelection “off the table.” A redistricting map approved by lawmakers last month lands the New Rockford Democrat in a district where no election will Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Governor Greg Gianforte has contributed a quarter of his annual governor’s salary to the Denton Fire Relief Fund which supports the community as it rebuilds. “In the wake of the West Wind Fire in Denton, Montanans have done what Montanans do best: neighbors have helped neighbors,” Gianforte said in a press release. “We’ve Read More…
Burleigh and Morton counties last year were hot spots for cash, vehicles and firearms found to be involved in criminal activity. But criminal justice officials say it doesn’t appear law enforcement agencies are abusing civil asset forfeiture, a legal process that targets property involved in crimes. North Dakota’s attorney general said reports on the property Read More…
More than a dozen lawmakers in the House and Senate are being accused of violating an anti-corruption law. Business Insider said it uncovered a litany of violations of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, and dozens of other instances in which lawmakers and their top staffers broke federal conflicts-of-interest law. The 14 lawmakers who Read More…
The Whitefish City Council last week adopted a zoning ordinance to allow recreational adult-use marijuana sales in its downtown and secondary business districts, unanimously approving a framework for pot dispensaries to begin opening storefronts and selling their products after the new year. Council arrived at the final set of rules after careful deliberation, sending an Read More…