At the May meeting of the Whitehall Town Council new town councilors Bill Lanes and Linda Jung were approved and seated. Lanes, who was mistakenly serving for the wrong ward, now serves in Ward 1 (replacing Logan Reiff) and Jung will serve Ward 2....

Montana businesses are applauding Governor Gianforte’s recent “Return-to-Work Bonus” initiative. The plan is bold, innovative and a welcome bump to our economic recovery. Early last winter, the Montana Chamber Board, led by Chairman Paul...

The Montana Department of Revenue reminds taxpayers that payment options are available for people unable to pay their 2020 Montana income taxes in full. Montana taxpayers can request a payment plan using the department’s TransAction Portal (TAP)...

Governor Greg Gianforte visited Missoula College to tout the state’s growing cybersecurity workforce through the college’s National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Two-Year Education. (CAE2Y) “Missoula College is nationally recog...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that agricultural producers in the Prairie Pothole states can now sign up for the Soil Health and Income Protection Program (SHIPP), which provides a short-term option to plant cover on less productive...

Governor Greg Gianforte announced two measures to address the state’s severe workforce shortage and incentivize Montanans to reenter the labor force. The State of Montana will launch a return-to-work bonus program, utilizing federal funds...

Montana Farmers Union appreciates the efforts of two state law makers whose work to amend HB 2, a budget bill, which will allow the state to explore more opportunities for meat processing as well as level the playing field for custom butchers. The tw...

Montana will regain its second congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the 2020 Census state population count released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The count reveals that Montana’s population grew from 989,415...

The Office of the Governor released the 2021 Montana Water and Supply Drought Outlook Report. According to data in the report, 42 percent of the state is classified as abnormally dry, with another 18 percent of the state in severe to extreme drought...

During the last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offered hunter and bowhunter education classes online due to COVID concerns. Since last spring, more than 17,000 Montanans completed the online courses, which is nearly double the number of...

Governor Greg Gianforte signed two bills to help address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) in Montana. “Montana faces a tragic trend of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons, and we must bring all resources to bear in...

U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bipartisan bill, the “Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act,” to support wildland firefighters. The bipartisan bill would require the Office of Personnel Management...

Montana’s unemployment rate declined in March to 3.8%, the state’s third consecutive month of lower unemployment rates. Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 6.0% in March. “For the third consecutive month this year, Montana has seen the...

Representative Rosendale and his colleagues introduced the “No Taxpayer Funding for Vaccine Passports Act.” This bill would prohibit any federal funds from being used to implement, enforce, or assist in the establishment of a COVID–19 vaccine...

Governor Greg Gianforte announced that the Montana Emergency Rental Assistance program is taking applications from Montanans who have lost income and are at risk of housing instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The last year has brought real,...

Senate Bill 379 is a bill that is anti-jobs and anti-economic development. For a legislature supposedly focused on the Governor’s rightful concerns for entrepreneurship, it’s a real step backward. Higher electricity bills will harm efforts to...

By now I am sure that anyone who watches the news has seen the spat about the revamping of Georgia’s voting laws. I listened as the President stood at the podium and made many claims about the bill – calling it Jim Crow on steroids. That is...

Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law that bans sanctuary cities in Montana. “We are a nation of laws, and immigration laws will be enforced in Montana,” Governor Greg Gianforte said. “HB 200 ensures drug dealers, human traffickers,...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed their 5 year status review of the grizzly bear in the lower 48 states and announced that they will recommend the species retains their threatened status under the “Endangered Species Act.” Senator...

In response to a request for feedback by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on the development of coronavirus response programs, the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) submitted specific...

Governor Greg Gianforte announced March 29th that Montana is one of four states selected to participate in the National Governors Association’s (NGA) 2021 Policy Academy to Advance Whole-of-State Cybersecurity. In the new policy academy, Montana...

As the regulatory agency for the insurance industry in Montana, we are tasked to review health insurance rates offered by commercial plans, like Blue Cross or Pacific Source. One clear and unchanging trend is that health insurance plans spend a treme...

One year into this pandemic, Montanans are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our vaccines are safe and effective, COVID cases are falling thanks to the tireless efforts of our frontline health care workers, and Spring is on...

On March 24th, U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced a bill to require each U.S. meat processing facility that slaughters over 125,000 head of cattle each year to purchase fifty percent of their weekly volume of beef...