Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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The House of Representatives passed a bill on April 8 that would provide continuous eligibility for two years for kids younger than six enrolled in the Healthy Montana Kids program. The sponsor says it will address gaps in health insurance coverage for children. The current system for the free or low-cost health insurance program for low-income families requires families to reapply for eligibility every year. Rep. Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman, said this can be difficult for busy families, leaving children in a back-and-forth of losing and regaining...
A bill that would ask voters to vote on a constitutional amendment to define personhood as starting at conception sparked contentious debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee before ultimately advancing to the full Senate. Sponsored by Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, House Bill 318 is one of the few surviving bills seeking to restrict abortion access in the state. The bill would start the process of amending Montana’s Constitution to define a fetus as a living being by putting the issue to voters via ballot in the November 2026 election. Erin L...
A bill to add vaping as prohibited under the Clean Indoor Air Act is on to the Senate after passing the House last week, with proponents saying it will help to address an issue in Montana’s youth, and opponents saying the bill will not be effective in preventing vaping in kids. Carrier of Senate Bill 390, Rep. George Nikolakakos, R-Great Falls, said the number of children and health organizations who came to testify in support at the bill’s committee hearing showed the need for the addition. He said the issue of vaping in Montana is two...
Legislators in the House and Senate passed bills this week that define sex as a binary and reduce any punishment of individuals at schools for not acknowledging pronouns and chosen names other than those assigned at birth. Senate Bill 437, which earlier passed in the Senate with a 31-18 vote, is one of a series of bills passed this session that proponents say are clarifying definitions under law, and opponents say are reducing the rights of the transgender community. SB 437 passed the House with a 55-44 vote last week and now heads to the gover...
The Senate debated and passed a bill last week that would tighten residency requirements for voters, which proponents say will make sure that each county’s voters are a permanent part of the community. But, opponents say the measure will unfairly restrict student voters. House Bill 413, sponsored by Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Three Forks and carried by Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, would mean that a person could not be considered a resident in an election if they live in a community for “temporary work, training, or an educational program,” unles...
SUNDAY, APRIL 6 00:44:43 Traffic Stop: N Whitehall St 01:36:33 Motorist Assist: Hwy 2 E 06:51:20 Extra Patrol: W Legion St 07:43:09 Medical: Hwy 55 12:11:04 Vicious Dog: N Jefferson St 12:32:59 Reckless Driver: I-90 13:27:42 Welfare Check: N Jefferson St 15:08:14 Domestic Violence: Sowden Ln 15:23:51 Vehicle Accident (Injury) 17:52:41 Vehicle Fire: I-90 18:31:57 Citizen Assist 20:33:59 911: Upper Rader Creek Rd 21:11:13 Vehicle Accident (Non-Injury): I-90 MONDAY, APRIL 7 01:50:18 Suspicious...
Since she lost her home, the four walls of Chloe Carlson’s tent have served as her sole source of shelter. Carlson’s two cats serve as her heaters during winter storms. She pitches her tent on a slight incline to prevent flooding in rainy weather. She knows a thing or two about surviving in harsh conditions. “I like when it is actually snowy, because it tends to be warmer out,” Carlson said. “Because those clouds trap a lot of the daytime heat.” In 2022, Carlson joined the swelling ranks of people without homes in Montana after losing her job i...
The April 2nd meeting of Whitehall Indivisible had 17 people present with one new face (welcome!) First up was the big item of the week that stood out in people’s minds: Senator Cory Booker’s 25-hour filibuster, Washington State Rep Pramila Jayapal’s work with resistance and protest, the Signal app chat, law firms caving to Trump’s targeting, proxy voting victory in in the US House of Reps with bipartisan support, more executive orders, massive cuts to Health & Human Services, elimination of due process for legal and possibly illegal (who kn...
Montana Judges could be required to take child abuse and domestic violence training if a bill in the Montana Legislature passes the House. Sen. Dennis Lenz, R-Billings, is carrying Senate Bill 318, which supporters are calling “Brody’s Law.” Lenz said the bill will help judges deal with the suspects in abuse cases, whose personalities he said are frequently manipulative. The bill is named after a Bozeman child who took his life in 2023 after what his mother, Jody Hill, described as continued abuse. Hill said at a hearing on April 1 that her s...
Parents, guardians and teachers could have been reimbursed for education expenses through a new income tax credit that died in committee last week. Senate Bill 549 would have reimbursed up to $1,250 for tuition, materials, exam fees, transportation and other services like tutoring and therapies, among others. The fiscal note on the bill estimated a yearly $45 million in state funds being used for these credits starting in 2027, when estimated payouts would have started. Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, who is carrying the bill, said that...
Legislators are considering a proposal to invest in suicide prevention for Montana veterans, an effort proponents say will help to mitigate high rates of suicide in the veteran population. Sen. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 95. He said the bill has had a long journey to pass the Senate and arrive at the House for deliberation. The final proposal includes a request for $300,000 to implement a three-pronged approach: screening services, educating providers, and peer support. Jestin Dupree, a tribal council member for...
mittee voted down two major tax bills backed by Gov. Greg Gianforte Wednesday, killing a measure that would have cut a full percentage point off the state’s primary income tax rate and another that would have increased property taxes on second homes as part of efforts to lower homeowner tax bills. The Republican-controlled committee, chaired by Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, also voted down an income tax credit-based property tax relief bill that minority-party Democrats had pushed through the House. Separately, the Senate Finance and Claims Commit...
SUNDAY, MARCH 30 00:03:09 Citizen Assist 01:02:11 Citizen Assist: I-90 02:32:19 Medical: Yellowstone Trl 03:20:22 Citizen Assist 04:33:52 Vehicle Accident (Non-Injury): I-90 12:46:35 Animal: Hwy 55 15:17:30 Traffic Offense: I-90 15:23:03 Traffic Offense: I-90 15:54:06 Medical: Hwy 2 E 17:35:14 Traffic Stop: W Legion St 18:16:47 Traffic Stop: N Whitehall St 18:45:27 Traffic Stop: N Whitehall St 22:20:43 Traffic Stop: Hwy 55 MONDAY, MARCH 31 03:35:35 Motorist Assist: I-90 11:14:18 911 11:53:16...
Twenty people (including four from the county's north end!) gathered on Wednesday to discuss current events. We opened with an article on cryptocurrency and talked about the different types of cryptocurrencies and how the Trump family, foreign countries, power companies, and money-launderers are profiting off the untraceability, lack of regulation, and pump-and-dump schemes surrounding cryptocurrency. We reviewed the numbers behind the “mandate” of the Trump administration: Trump won the popular vote in 2024 with 49.81% of the people who voted...
A proposed resolution to release federal wilderness study lands sparked nearly two hours of passionate testimony in the Senate Energy Committee on March 25. Sen. Tony Tezak, R-Ennis, the sponsor of Senate Resolution 14, argued Montana’s federal wilderness study lands are unmanaged areas rich with resources made inaccessible because of federal regulations. “The wilderness study areas in these resolutions contain vast amounts of natural resources, which are critical to our national security and energy needs,” Tezak said. “Development of these r...
A bill protecting landowners from state seizure of private water rights on state lands has begun debate in the Senate, but not without concerns about school funding, water rights cases and public land access. Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, R-Savage, brought his House Bill 676 to the Senate Judiciary Committee after a series of tight votes in the House. Ler’s bill would prohibit the state land board from seizing private water rights used to irrigate or otherwise service state-owned, leased land. The bill would also mandate the sale of publicl...
A panel of lawmakers have tabled a bill that was an effort to protect prisoners’ constitutional rights to due process by adding enhanced access to psychological care in detention centers to state law. Rep. James Reavis, D-Billings, said the 14th Amendment requires “fitness to proceed” — meaning those charged with a crime must be able to understand what they are being accused of and that was the reason for his House Bill 236. Reavis said current law only includes psychological screening at one in-person facility in the state. “And that was...
Representatives from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T asked Montana lawmakers Friday to pass a bill that would offer them a property tax break if they expand their Montana networks, saying a lighter tax load on wireless infrastructure would encourage them to invest in reaching difficult-to-serve rural areas. The proposal, Senate Bill 534, would add wireless infrastructure such as cell towers to an existing tax break available to companies that expand their wired broadband networks. Shortly after the bill wrapped its initial public hearing before the...
In a House committee in late February, a legislator passed a tiny cylindrical object around the room, saying it is the key to Montana’s future energy security. The cylinder was a model for one nuclear pellet, which Rep. Gary Parry, R-Colstrip, says is equivalent to 157 gallons of regular gasoline. According to Parry, nuclear energy is the way forward for Montana as the coal energy industry wanes. “What we need to do is make sure that for Montanans we have a reliable, dependable base load,” Parry said in an interview, “that when it’s 50 below...
SUNDAY, MARCH 23 10:13:56 Traffic Stop 10:43:14 Traffic Stop 11:11:34 Traffic Stop: E Legion/B St 11:22:43 Vehicle Accident (Non-Injury): I-90 11:50:26 Traffic Stop 13:43:31 Welfare Check: Lost Moose Bend 16:02:09 Traffic Stop 16:17:07 Traffic Stop: W Legion St 16:46:38 Traffic Stop 16:47:21 911: I-90 17:26:33 Traffic Stop 17:48:51 Traffic Stop: W Legion St 18:19:10 Traffic Stop 18:54:51 Traffic Stop MONDAY, MARCH 24 16:23:40 Traffic Offense: Hwy 55 16:27:10 Traffic Offense: Hwy 2 W 17:09:52...
The Whitehall politically concerned citizens group now has an official name, Whitehall Indivisible. Whitehall Indivisible met on Wednesday, March 19th at 6 PM in the Whitehall Community Library basement meeting room and had 15 people in attendance, with eight new faces. The group received their first piece of anonymous correspondence (thankfully, not filled with poisonous powder) and added two people through the website. Whitehall Indivisible has a facebook page and is listed on...
A Senate Fish and Game Committee meeting last week was dedicated entirely to three hours of fiery debate on two controversial gray wolf management bills from Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls. House Bill 258 would extend the seven-month wolf hunting season by another three months and House Bill 259 would legalize infrared and thermal imagery for wolf management. Fish, Wildlife and Parks Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala, speaking for the department director, opposed the season’s extension into Spring. “A spring hunting season dur...
The Montana Senate on Thursday advanced a proposal that seeks to reallocate tens of millions of dollars of recreational marijuana taxes the state collects annually. Senate Bill 307, proposed by Sen. Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, would rejigger where roughly $63 million in marijuana taxes are directed, stripping allocations for wildlife habitat, state parks and youth suicide prevention programming and instead funneling those revenues toward law enforcement and substance use disorder treatment programs. “If marijuana taxes are d...
A bill in the Legislature would offer free school breakfast and lunch to all students who qualify for reduced meals. Supporters say it would offer critical help for children as grocery prices increase and food security becomes scarcer for families. Kim Popham, Director of Public Policy and Research for the Montana Federation of Public Employees, urged the House Education Committee to support House Bill 551 during the bill’s initial hearing last week. “In this committee, many of you often bring up the fact that our test scores are low, but let...
Montanans could have access to fully insured mental health screenings if a bill working its way through the Legislature passes. Sen. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings, is carrying Senate Bill 244, which would mandate insurance coverage for standardized, evidence-based behavioral health screenings and assessments. The Senate passed the bill on a 40-8 vote last month and it is now up for debate in the House. At a hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee last week, proponents, mainly healthcare providers and hospital representatives, urged the...
