Montana Politics: Latest News

Less than two months into her new job as director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Montanan Tracy Stone-Manning said Friday she’s determined to help lead the beleaguered agency in a new direction – both for energy development and long-term preservation of the nation’s public landscape.

Helena restaurant manager John Schneider says he feared for his life last November, when a customer upset about being told to leave the premises for not wearing a mask fought with him and then allegedly threatened him with a gun.

A new report released Monday lays out more details about the contact Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and other public officials had with St. Peter’s Health when they inquired about a patient’s COVID-19 care last month.

Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen and his office did not attempt to threaten or intimidate Helena hospital officials or health-care providers when they inquired about a patient’s COVID-19 care last month, says a report released late Monday evening by Republican legislative leadership.

Missoula’s rate of unemployment fell again in October, hitting a near-record low of 1.9% while unemployment across the state sank to just 3.1%.

A Republican state senator’s comment that appeared to condone violence against gay couples in Montana should be clarified and, if necessary, retracted, her gay colleagues at the Legislature said Friday. She says it was taken out of context.

Montana’s only congressman, U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, voted “no” Friday morning against President Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better plan, calling it “the largest tax increase in American history.”

Montana’s Democratic U.S. senator, Jon Tester, is supportive of President Biden’s ambitious social-program package known as Build Back Better, but says it can’t increase the federal debt – and that means some tax increases, which Tester says should fall primarily on the wealthy.

Democratic state Rep. Laurie Bishop of Livingston, one of the first candidates to announce her candidacy for one of Montana’s new congressional seats in 2022, said Wednesday she’s dropping out of the race.

As congressional Democrats prepare to tackle President Biden’s ambitious social-spending proposal known as Build Back Better, Montana’s two U.S. senators remain on opposite sides of the political divide.

Montana and 11 other states are suing to stop the Biden administration’s rule requiring most hospitals and other health-care facilities to have their employees vaccinated against Covid-19 by January, calling it an illegal overreach of federal power.

On Monday at Dick Anderson Construction in Helena, Governor Greg Gianforte signed a proclamation declaring the week of November 15th to November 21st to be Apprenticeship Week in the state of Montana.

Calling Monday “one of the best days I’ve have in Washington, D.C.,” Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester joined President Biden at the White House for the signing of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

The bill is called the Comprehensive and Overdue Support of Troops (COST) of War act.

County election officials say they’re worried a planned conversion of the state’s massive voter-registration database for 2022 isn’t ready for prime time, and that it could cause problems at a time of heightened scrutiny of elections.

Pastor Brandon Huber of the Clinton Community Church is facing an ethics complaint before a Missoula realtors group for engaging in “hate speech” – and has filed suit to void the realtors’ ethics rule.

The panel drawing Montana’s two new congressional districts on Tuesday affirmed its pivotal vote from last week, creating an eastern and western district for the 2022 elections – but not before making one small adjustment in the boundaries.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, one of the architects of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed Congress on Friday, says it will bring good jobs to the state and make it easier to do business in Montana.

Montana hospitals said Friday they will “work to comply” with the Biden administration’s mandate that all health-care facilities receiving federal funding must require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen Friday joined 10 other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s rule that larger companies must require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

A divided state commission lined out Montana’s two new congressional districts Thursday evening, as chair Maylinn Smith sided with Republicans to create a western district that includes Missoula, Bozeman, Kalispell and Butte – but not Helena.

U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., has been named in a lawsuit that alleges “illegal coordination” between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and political candidates and other campaign finance law violations.

In the new western Montana congressional district proposed by GOP redistricting commissioners, Democrats running for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in 2018 would have won, according to voting data analyzed by MTN News. So, does that make the new GOP proposal “competitive” in one district?

Former state Rep. Tom Winter on Wednesday became the fourth Democrat to enter the 2022 race for Montana’s new western congressional district, saying he will bring a “progressive, populist and people-focused” campaign to the contest.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines visited Bozeman on Friday, October 29, 2021, in partnership with the Montana chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

Ten Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Friday against the Biden administration for imposing a vaccine mandate on federal contractors and federally contracted employees.

State leaders say a program to provide bonuses to Montanans who returned to the workforce is likely to pay out only a third of what was allocated for it. A state commission has now recommended reallocating $10 million of that money to other programs.