Columbus
Montana Free Press
What Supreme Court candidates are saying about the politics of Montana’s high court
Montana’s nominally nonpartisan state Supreme Court has come under intense partisan scrutiny in recent years, as Republicans argue the court’s repeated rulings blocking GOP-backed laws on constitutional grounds are evidence of liberal bias. The rulings that have infuriated some members of the GOP include nullifying a law that...
The high cost of business includes parking
Friends Anita Mehus and Bobbi Lambertson have rented a space for their two small businesses in downtown Helena on the corner of East Broadway Street and Hibbard Way for the past four years. Mehus, the owner of Sunflower Salon, and Lambertson, who owns Bobbi Salon, say they enjoy being part of the downtown community but have recently considered moving because of the cost of the city’s parking permits.
Food bank construction in full swing
A new food bank to serve Helena’s expanding need is getting closer to reality. The food bank broke ground last summer on the 19,500-square-foot facility on the corner of Boulder and Montana avenues. The $11 million building, to be named the Community Food Resource Center, is funded through tax credits, loans, grants and donations, according to Patty White, the communications director for Helena Food Share.
Stories from Montana’s childcare crisis
The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Late last year, Frenchtown...
Deadline arrives but confusion persists over tribal law enforcement in Lake County
The state of Montana’s May 20 deadline to release Lake County of its obligation to conduct felony law enforcement of tribal members on the Flathead Indian Reservation came and went, but as of this week, the local sheriff’s office is proceeding as normal — with one key difference. It’s now keeping track of its cost to handle tribal felonies and is considering sending the bill to the state.
Great Falls group seeks $1M to ensure suburban grassland remains undeveloped
Head south on Fox Farm Road and it’s not hard to tell where the city of Great Falls ends. A line of backyards on the last block of the neighborhood abruptly gives way to open space and sporadic houses dotting the hillsides. Alan Rollo has lived on that border...
Safety in Helena schools will take an investment
A security consultant told Helena school officials and parents recently that schools will need funding to better ensure the safety of the community’s children. Jason Russell, the founder of Secure Environment Consultants, met last week at Capital High School with representatives of local colleges, law enforcement and the school district to discuss the next steps in creating safer environments after voters rejected the district’s requested security levies earlier this month.
Knudsen camp calls for dismissal of political practices complaint
This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter featuring expert reporting, analysis and insight from the reporters and editors of Montana Free Press. Want to see Capitolized in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here. The re-election campaign of Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen this week called for the...
Residents of an affordable housing complex in Missoula accuse management company of negligence
After the heat went out in her Missoula apartment building amid mid-January’s below-zero temperatures, Barb Winslow waited about nine hours to hear back from her property management company. “I had been sitting in my apartment all day long, wrapped up in clothing and blankets, waiting for somebody to respond...
Knudsen camp says COPP complaint is ‘frivolous’
Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. May 23, 2024. The re-election...
What state superintendent candidates are saying about school funding
Many of Montana’s large school districts are facing budget crunches — and many of their leaders are arguing publicly that the state’s school funding formula hasn’t kept up with the high inflation of recent years. As such, school funding is almost certain to be a major discussion topic heading into next year’s session of the Montana Legislature.
Appeals court sides with government in Crazy Mountains trail dispute
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with the Forest Service in a five-year-old dispute about its management of a contested trail in the Crazy Mountains. In a five-page opinion issued last month that was first reported by the Billings Gazette, a three-judge panel affirmed a lower court’s ruling in its finding that the Custer Gallatin National Forest adequately studied the impacts of a trail the agency rerouted to limit public passage through private land in the west side of the Crazies.
Current utility board commissioner and insurance salesman square off in GOP primary for state auditor
A prominent attorney-turned-politician and a police officer-turned-insurance salesman are vying to become the state’s top consumer watchdog in the upcoming primary election. The Montana state auditor is most regularly associated with its regulation of insurance companies operating in Montana, but it also investigates and prosecutes fraud in the financial industry and works on consumer education and protection initiatives. The office also regularly serves as a political launchpad: Republican Matt Rosendale was elected to U.S. Congress in 2020 after declining to run for a second four-year term as state auditor, and sitting auditor Troy Downing, also a Republican, is following in Rosendale’s footsteps.
Cascade County Commission primary opponents see dysfunction in the office but from different angles
A self-described constitutional conservative, Cascade County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski found it frustrating to have a primary challenger from her own party. “I’m pretty confused about why there’s another Republican running against me,” Grulkowski said. “It just shows how screwed up this Republican party is.”. “I’m pretty...
Montana’s stubborn childcare conundrum
Lauren Cochrane, 34, perched at the head of a long wooden table, phone in hand, checking her workday schedule out loud. One meeting at 10:30 a.m., another at 11:30. A few feet away, her husband, Kyle, 39, compared her daily calendar to his own, mapping out overlapping obligations and strategizing time slots when he could watch their 11-month-old daughter, Sloane. Between them, Sloane lifted bits of orange and homemade bread to her mouth, juice and crumbs dribbling onto her green mealtime poncho.
Wrongful conviction claim fails in court
MISSOULA — In the first and last test of a Montana law providing compensation to those wrongly convicted of a crime, a Missoula jury Tuesday rejected an attempt by Cody Marble to claim a $750,000 judgment — despite his exoneration seven years ago on a rape conviction. The...
What Montana’s U.S. House candidates are saying about the southern border
Candidates seeking the two seats representing Montana in Congress have prioritized the federal government’s management of the U.S.-Mexico border as one of the key issues of this year’s campaign season. As part of our 2024 Election Guide project, Montana Free Press asked candidates for the U.S. House where...
The GOP-heavy primary for Montana’s utility-regulating PSC
On June 4, most voters in and around Billings, Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Butte will have an opportunity to revise the composition of an under-the-radar state commission that has an outsized influence on Montana’s energy mix and residents’ monthly power bills. The Public Service Commission might have a...
Medicaid unwinding deals a blow to a tenuous system of care for Native Americans
About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the COVID-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people nationwide have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. A chorus of stories recount the ways the unwinding has upended people’s lives, but Native Americans are...
Gianforte pushes university regents to restrict transgender athletes
This story is adapted from the MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest containing original reporting and analysis published every Friday. Having lost a court fight over an attempt to establish restrictions on college-level transgender student athletes through state legislation, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has shifted his party’s efforts to a more administrative venue: the Montana Board of Regents.
Montana Free Press
3K+
Posts
11M+
Views
Montana Free Press is an independent, nonprofit source for in-depth local news, information, and analysis. We work independently and in collaboration with other news outlets around Montana to produce meaningful news stories that have an impact on the lives and livelihoods of local communities.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.