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15 Montana groups add their name to Haaland support letter
More than a dozen Montana organizations and groups have added their name to a letter started by The Wilderness Society which is urging the Senate to confirm former Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico to become the next Secretary of the Department of The Interior. Montana Sen. Steve Daines has said he will opposed Haaland’s […]
Media groups sue lawmakers for closed meetings
More than a dozen media organizations, including the Daily Montanan, have filed suit against Republicans in the legislature for meeting privately to determine the outcome of bills before they take action on them, which the lawsuit alleges is unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Lewis and Clark County, alleges that an informal practice of […]
American Prairie Reserve sends 39 bison to South Dakota
The American Prairie Reserve transferred 39 of its bison in a partnership with representatives from different Native nations in South Dakota. The Montana-based APR is a nonprofit that distributes bison to organizations starting new herds, and to enhance the genetic health of conservation and tribal herds around the country. This was the first transfer of […]
The problem of politics and not the pandemic in rural Montana
BIG SANDY — For Dr. Carley Robertson, COVID-19 is a matter of perspective. “I had one patient who had survived the Great Depression, a World War and survived COVID, and he said, ‘This is not a big deal,’” Robertson said. She’s the epitome of frontier medicine and modern-day practice. She makes a several county circuit […]
White House guidance contradicts Gianforte’s decision
In a news release Friday, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said he called on President Joe Biden to provide more COVID-19 vaccines, the same day he rescinded a statewide mask order. At the daily White House briefing, Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki was asked about Gianforte’s lifting of the mask mandate on the day when the Centers […]
Trump’s Missoula rally puts Montana in impeachment spotlight
The second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump reached all the way from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to the Montana Capitol on Thursday – some 2,223 miles away – as House impeachment managers used Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s assault and Trump’s praise of it to build a case that the 45th […]
The return of the zombie bill
Of all the things that are broken in government, voting, despite what some have said, doesn’t need fixing. Praising, maybe. But definitely not fixing. Yet in Montana, it appears that the “zombie bill” – House Bill 176 – which was dead and then brought back to life because of pressure from Republican Party leaders and […]
Bill would provide statewide family, medical leave
A proposal that would create statewide paid medical and family leave for all employees and employers had its first hearing on Wednesday morning. The bill is similar to one that was presented in each of the last two legislative sessions. Rep. Moffie Funk, D-Helena, presented House Bill 228, which would require employees and employers to […]
New book traces the rise of the modern Republican Party
As the second impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump begins, the Republican Party faces an impeachment of its leader and struggles to keep control of its members. On one hand, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has taken taken to social media to forward conspiracy theories while Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is […]
News analysis: Is big pharma behind insulin legislation?
Last week, during a tense exchange in the Montana House Human Service Committee meeting, Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield executive John Doran said the effort to cap insulin prices for Montana residents was really an effort by big pharmaceutical companies using the American Diabetes Association as a front to charge more for the drugs. The comment […]
Daines vows to block Interior nominee’s quest for top spot
Montana’s junior Senator, Republican Steve Daines, announced during the weekend that he would seek to block President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland of New Mexico. Daines said he would block Haaland if his concerns were not addressed. Among his concerns were the Keystone XL Pipeline and her stance on the […]
Why is America spending $100 billion to send nukes to Montana?
Montana is known to residents as either the “Treasure State” or “The Big Sky State,” but to defense experts, it’s just a “nuclear sponge.” That’s a technical term that reveals, among other things in a new report published Monday by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, that while Montana is in line to get part of […]