Government & Politics
Montana Democrats rally; a dispatch from the 2022 Mansfield Metcalf dinner
The wheels of campaign politics are turning in Montana, with matchups now set in 100 state House seats, 36 state Senate seats and a pair of Congressional races, not to mention contested seats on the Public Service Commission and state Supreme Court. That the season had arrived was evidenced by dueling banquet fundraisers for the […]
Montana health department launches collaboration with faith, community organizations
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has launched a new office to expand its ability to work with faith and community organizations. The Office of Faith and Community Based Services will serve as a conduit between the Department of Public Health and Human Services and faith and community organizations across Montana, according […]
Montana is sending troubled kids to out-of-state programs accused of abuse
The high demand for treatment for children with behavioral and substance abuse problems has led Montana health officials to spend Medicaid funds to send kids, including those who are foster children and wards of the state, to residential programs in other states with less stringent oversight. . Some of those children have been sent to […]
Rosendale votes against bill to preserve history of Japanese-American WWII internment camps
Just south of the Montana border, between Powell and Cody, Wyoming, more than 10,000 Americans of Japanese heritage were confined to a camp, Heart Mountain. At the time, that would have made the encampment larger than more than half of the counties in the state. Nine different guard towers with barbed wired were placed to […]
Billings Clinic announces pursuit of Level I Trauma designation, $30M campaign
Billings Clinic announced Thursday that it’s pursuing a Level I Trauma Center designation to offer the highest level of lifesaving care in the region — and a $30 million capital campaign is underway to achieve the distinction. “This is a transformational effort that will increase the level of lifesaving trauma care for patients and families […]
U.S. to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, levy more sanctions on Russia
WASHINGTON — The White House announced a wave of new sanctions against Russia on Thursday while pledging to send more humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and welcome up to 100,000 refugees. The new economic restrictions on Russia and billions more in aid for Ukrainians were detailed as President Joe Biden huddled with North Atlantic Treaty Organization […]
Panel: 1972 Montana Constitution ‘hard fought,’ ‘inspiring’
Even after the Montana Constitution guaranteed people the “right to know,” reporter Charles S. Johnson had to eavesdrop on at least one secret meeting by listening to legislators through pipes that carried sound in an old building. During the 1972 Constitutional Convention, Delegate Dorothy Eck played a key role in ensuring the “right to know,” […]
FWP to instruct anglers to kill invasive smallmouth bass, emergency rule headed to commission
After an invasive smallmouth bass was caught in the Gardner River just outside Yellowstone National Park on Feb. 19, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is asking anglers to voluntarily kill the fish. FWP also will propose a rule next month that would require them to be killed and reported. The catch worried wildlife officials as […]
GOP senators attack and interrupt in final day of questioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee
WASHINGTON — In the third day of hearings Wednesday on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, several Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated her about sentences she handed down for child pornography offenses, disagreeing vehemently with her judicial decisions. Republicans grilled her with questions she had already answered about […]
Judge strikes down SupCo-by-district ballot referral
A district court judge has voided a legislative ballot referral that would put to the voters the question of whether to elect Montana Supreme Court justices by district, a revival of a similar proposal from the 2011 session that the Montana Supreme Court would go on to strike down a year later. Peter Ohman, a […]
Ketanji Brown Jackson defends her record under grilling from U.S. Senate Republicans
WASHINGTON – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sharpened their criticisms of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, probing her work as a public defender on behalf of terrorism suspects, the judicial sentences she has handed down for child pornography offenses and her views of critical race theory. Jackson defended her record […]
Patients with vulnerable immune systems worry vaccine exemptions may put them in peril
Charlie O’Neill received part of her husband’s liver in a 2013 living donor transplant and has been taking drugs that suppress her immune system ever since to prevent her body from attacking the organ. O’Neill lives in the small town of Pony in southwestern Montana’s Madison Valley. Despite living in an uncrowded rural setting, O’Neill […]