Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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Growing up in rural Utah, I had incredible public hunting opportunities just like so many in Montana have enjoyed for generations. I spent time with family and friends, pursuing mule deer and elk on both public and private lands in what were the defining moments of my upbringing. That all changed when a group called Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife took over my home state’s wildlife agency, and made hunting strictly something for the wealthy. The public gets the crumbs, reduced to a handful of licenses. Even worse, in many hunting areas the p...
The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) announced today that $31 million in federal funding is now available to Montanan child care providers via an online application. “Access to child care is an essential piece to the state’s workforce and plays a critical role in supporting Montana’s hardworking families, our economy, and our businesses,” said DPHHS Director Adam Meier. “This funding will help address immediate challenges currently facing the child care industry due to COVID-19, and help resolve this longstand...
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that up to $3 million in funding for locally-focused environmental education grants is now available under the 2021 Environmental Education (EE) Local Grant Program. EPA will award grants in each of EPA’s 10 Regions, for no less than $50,000 and no more than $100,000 each, for a total of 30-40 grants nationwide. Applications are due Dec. 6, 2021, and the Request for Application (RFA) notice is now posted on www.grants.gov. “Tackling the climate crisis and delivering on our health and env...
More than $260,000 was raised for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ conservation and restoration programs during a wildlife auction held Sept. 25 in Billings. The auction included antlers, horns, hides and skulls that were confiscated by FWP over the last four years. Most of the items came from poaching incidents. Montana statute requires FWP to sell seized items at public auction. This includes all birds, animals, fish, heads, hides, teeth or other parts of any animal other than a grizzly bear. When a carcass is confiscated, FWP donates the m...
1. Many taxpayers are still waiting to receive their 2020 Tax Refund due to unprecedented processing delays at the IRS and not at eFile.com. Details on the IRS Refund processing delays. 2. All of these sobering facts are no consolation if you, as an individual taxpayer, have not yet received your 2020 Tax Return Refund in 2021. • Myth: A tax refund is always free IRS money a taxpayer gets with a tax return. Details. • Myth: A tax refund is the result of sophisticated tax software or a tax professional’s planning. • Myth: A tax refund amount...
Following an announcement that the Biden Administration will allow fully vaccinated travelers to enter the U.S. by air next month while continuing to restrict “nonessential travel” across the land border indefinitely, U.S. Senator Jon Tester is questioning the Administration’s medical justifications for the uncoordinated reopening and urging it to fully open the northern border to all vaccinated travelers immediately. Tester and a bipartisan group of his northern border state colleagues wrote a letter to Centers for Disease Control and Preventi...
Over nine decades of meals, laughter, memories, and music came to a screeching halt in the early morning hours of Thursday, September 30, 2021, when LaHood Park Steakhouse went up in flames. "It happened so fast, we couldn't do anything," LaHood employee and tenant Stephanie Adams said. "We grabbed the laundry basket of clean clothes I had just washed, our dogs, some sweaters, and that's it." Built by Shadan LaHood in 1928, the property transitioned from a general store to a post office, then a...
In public comment to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Governor Greg Gianforte and four state agencies raised issues with the BLM’s Environmental Assessment of the American Prairie Reserve’s (APR) bison grazing proposal. Gov. Gianforte and leaders from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Livestock highlighted the BLM’s lack of statutory authority to enact its proposal, the BLM’s failure to analyze the full range of impacts of its proposa...
U.S. Senator Steve Daines pushed back against President Biden’s attempt to infringe upon Montanans’ Second Amendment rights by joining the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), an international agreement that would increase international oversight and regulate trade in firearms. Biden’s attempt to join the ATT comes after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate rejected ratifying it in 2013. “The vague language of the ATT makes American commitments uncertain, the most concerning of which is the lack of protections for lawful gun ownership which threate...
U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced he has secured more than $7 million to upgrade and expand Community Health Centers (CHCs) across Montana as they continue to combat the COVID-19 crisis. Tester secured the funding—which will help support new construction so CHCs can upgrade and expand their existing facilities and serve more patients—through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Tester was the only member of Montana’s congressional delegation to vote for this funding. “Community Health Centers provide folks across Montana with afforda...
This month, U.S. Senators began the markup of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution package. This rubber-meets-road moment seems to have given pause to some in their party whose votes will be needed to get a bill through Congress and across the President’s desk. Among them is Montana’s Senator Jon Tester. The President and the progressive left members of Congress have proposed financing the Administration’s marquee spending bill largely by raising the U.S. corporate tax rate. It is a moral imperative, they say, to make big busines...
U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced that more than $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding is headed to Montana to help protect patients and health care workers from COVID-19. The funding—administered by the Center for Disease Control—will help strengthen and equip state and local public health departments and other partner organizations with the resources needed to better fight infections in U.S. health care facilities, including COVID-19. Tester was the only member of Montana’s Congressional delegation to vote to deliver this...
Governor Greg Gianforte today announced he is sending Montana National Guardsmen to hospitals across the state to support their COVID-19 response, fulfilling all current formal requests for National Guard resources. “Joining doctors and nurses on the frontlines, the men and women of the Montana National Guard will provide critical supports to our hospitals as their systems are strained,” Gov. Gianforte said. “While these Guardsmen will help ease the heavy burden our frontline health workers face,” Gov Gianforte continued, “the best long-term...
As part of his ongoing fight to secure our elections, U.S. Senator Jon Tester introduced critical legislation that will ensure every eligible Montanan has fair and equal access to the ballot box and clean up our campaign finance system. Tester’s Freedom to Vote Act secures access to the ballot box for all eligible voters, shines a light on dark money in politics, and advances commonsense election security reforms to defend elections from bad actors. The bill also includes Tester’s Spotlight Act to require certain political non-profit org...
Montana’s unemployment rate hit a 14-year low, dropping to 3.5% in August. The national unemployment rate for August is 5.2%. “With Montana open for business and more Montanans returning to good-paying jobs, our economic and jobs recovery continues at a strong pace,” Governor Greg Gianforte said. “Montana is a leader in our nation’s economic comeback, with our state’s unemployment rate at its lowest level in 14 years.” Montana’s unemployment rate of 3.5% in August is the state’s lowest since July 2007, when it was also 3.5%. In August, 521,40...
More than half of the nation’s governors, including Governor Greg Gianforte, called on President Joe Biden to end the crisis at the southern border and secure the United States. “The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states,” Gov Gianforte and the governors wrote. “A crisis that began at our southern border now extends beyond...
U.S. Senator Jon Tester sent a letter to President Biden urging the administration to allow vaccinated Canadians to travel to the U.S. through land ports of entry. Noting the economic and familial strains caused by the continued restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border, Tester and seven of his colleagues from states along the Northern Border asked the President to ease travel restrictions before October, create a public plan to reopen land ports of entry to vaccinated Canadians and appoint an interagency lead to spearhead coordination. “As S...
Everyone is invited to the Capitol rotunda Friday, Sept. 17, at 1 o’clock for a Constitution Day ceremony featuring Lt. Governor Kristen Juras, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, and Dept. of Justice Solicitor General David Dewhirst, all speaking about the meaning and defense of the U.S. Constitution, and presenting a Governor’s Proclamation. Music will be provided by Kaylee Rose Lian, Clancy Elementary School sixth grade student, singing “The National Anthem” and “This Land is Your Land...
Governor Greg Gianforte announced that 10 Montana National Guardsmen have volunteered to assist the Billings Clinic in its COVID-19 response. “Over the last year, soldiers in the Montana National Guard have consistently stepped up to the plate, and today is no different,” Gov. Gianforte said. “We’ll continue working with hospitals to address their individual needs as the state responds to COVID-19.” “Billings Clinic is incredibly grateful to have support from the Montana National Guard to help with immense capacity and staffing challenges...
As a part of his years-long push to improve market transparency and ensure fairer prices for Montana producers, U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced bipartisan legislation, the American Beef Labeling Act, which would ensure that beef raised in the United States is labeled as a product of the USA. The legislation is also sponsored by Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and will be introduced next week. “Montana ranchers raise the best cattle in the world, and it’s time American families are gua...
U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, announced more than $5.8 million in federal funding to help end veterans homelessness in Montana. Tester secured these funds as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The $5,825,234 grant comes from the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the Volunteers of America Northern Rockies, a service organization based out of Billings. Since 2012, the Volunteers of America Northern R...
Governor Greg Gianforte today announced Montana’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.1% in July to 3.6%, while the unemployment rate for the U.S. was 5.4% for the month. The labor force also had strong growth over the month. “Montana continues to attract workers back into our labor force, helping to alleviate pressure on employers who are looking to hire,” Governor Greg Gianforte said. “This report is good news for Montana businesses in the midst of the summer travel season and good news for workers who are enjoying higher wages as our economy...
U.S. Senator Steve Daines is urging the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to withdraw the mask mandate on school buses that infringes on the authority of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to make their own decisions regarding the safety and health of their students. “This fall, a significant proportion of Montana students will return to their classrooms without masks. Forcing young children to wear masks on the school bus, only to arrive at school and remove them makes no sense. Furthermore, it exposes an intrusion of the federal go...
This Secretarial Natural Disaster Designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or the refinance of certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability....
A dual degree student, Orion McKinney of Great Falls completed a Certificate of Applied Science Degree in Welding from Great Falls College-MSU before graduating from CMR High School. “In high school I never thought I’d go to college, but then realized I could afford it,” he says. A Gianforte Trades and Technology Scholarship through Reach Higher Montana made this possible. “The scholarship helped me a lot. It was the biggest thing that paid for my college.” McKinney went on to earn his Associate of Applied Science Degree this past spring. A...
