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Montana Free Press
Pennsylvania woman drowns after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park
WEST GLACIER — A 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman drowned after being swept over a waterfall on the east side of Glacier National Park, park officials said. The woman fell into the water above St. Mary Falls at around 5:20 p.m. Sunday. She was washed over the 35-foot (11-meter) tall waterfall and trapped under water for several minutes, the park said in a statement.
Canadian environmentalists question plan to sell coal mines above Lake Koocanusa
This story is adapted from the MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest containing original reporting and analysis published every Friday. It was originally published under the title “Downstream effects.”. A pair of Canadian environmental organizations have asked Canadian regulators to consider several issues that could throw a wrench in...
Lawmakers muse about health coverage for Montanans disenrolled from Medicaid
This story is adapted from the MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest containing original reporting and analysis published every Friday. For more than a year, Montana’s state health department has been embroiled in a sweeping effort to “unwind” the state Medicaid program, conducting a mass eligibility review of every person enrolled in the public health program, which provides health coverage for many lower-income residents.
Supreme Court rules that COVID-era law doesn’t exclude Great Falls officials from city-county health board
The Montana Supreme Court earlier this month ruled in favor of the city of Great Falls in a yearslong dispute with Cascade County over the makeup and powers of the city-county board of health. The dispute stems from COVID-era legislation that sought to give elected officials greater power over these...
135,000 Medicaid question marks
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. For more than a...
Abortion rights group says it has signatures to qualify initiative for ballot
Despite legal delays and a persistent opposition movement, organizers of an initiative to enshrine a right to abortion in the Montana Constitution say they have gathered enough signatures to put the proposal on the November ballot. The group behind Constitutional Initiative 128, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, said in a Friday...
Rosendale, Zinke vote to restore Confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery
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. Call it a “monumental” decision. The last thing on the U.S. House...
Cryptocurrency lobby targets anti-regulation contingent in Congress
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. It wasn’t long after the crypto crash of 2022 that U.S. Sen. Jon Tester...
Montana Reps vote to Re-Memorialize Confederacy in Arlington
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. June 20, 2024. Let’s just...
New state program aims to put 500,000 acres of Montana prairie under conservation leases
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks has received tentative approval to enroll 10 eastern Montana properties in a newly launched state program to conserve prairie habitat. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to authorize the Prairie Habitat Conservation Lease Program’s first batch of agreements and signaled its support for the program’s larger objective of putting 500,000 acres of eastern Montana prairie into 40-year conservation lease agreements.
Cascade County hires former Alluvion CEO to lead finance office
Cascade County has hired the former CEO of Alluvion Health as its chief financial officer, a position that replaces the former budget officer role. Trista Besich started on June 3. “I am excited to be back at the county,” Besich said. “I’ve got about 12 years of finance background, so...
‘How do we keep this around?’
WILSALL — In a pasture thick with yarrow, sagebrush and wheatgrass, Montana Audubon’s Peter Dudley scribbled all the plant species he could identify onto his data sheet. It was just before 5:30 a.m., and the grassland had a dull orange tinge as the sun rose over the Crazy Mountains. Dudley was about to start his mid-June bird survey on North Bridger Bison’s ranch, about 45 minutes outside Bozeman.
FWP employee fired three months after being cleared of hunting-without-permission charge
Longtime Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee Michael Volesky, of Helena, is alleging that the department’s recent decision to fire him is politically motivated. Volesky, who most recently served as chief of operations for FWP, told Montana Free Press the department had no defensible cause for terminating his employment last week, especially after a county attorney dropped the hunting-without-permission charge that purportedly led the department to place Volesky on extended administrative leave in October.
Tale of a changing West
Doug Rand is a lucky man. The 84-year-old Gallatin Gateway resident is a former assistant professor at Montana State University and lives in a home he designed and built himself over more than 50 years. Rand’s home, a storybook creation with twisting metalwork, multiple interconnected split levels, a whimsical ship’s...
Blackfeet Tribe and Reclamation Bureau to share response at St. Mary Canal failure
The Blackfeet Tribe and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will work together to address the impacts of this week’s St. Mary Canal siphon failures, tribal officials said Tuesday. On June 17, a section of the St. Mary Canal siphon ruptured, resulting in localized flooding in Babb, on the northern...
Great Falls commissioners reappoint library board member who opposed library levy
Great Falls city commissioners reappointed Noelle Johnson to the Great Falls Public Library Board of Trustees by a split vote Tuesday night during a lengthy public meeting. Johnson was serving the remainder of a term that ends on June 30. Her initial appointment was controversial because she publicly opposed the public library levy that passed in 2023. Johnson’s supporters have touted that factor as an alternative voice for the board, a viewpoint that Commissioner Rick Tryon shared.
Teacher retention, wages hot topics at meeting of state education officials
Discussing likely areas for future policy improvement in Montana’s K-12 school system at a meeting in the state Capitol Monday, officials with the Office of Public Instruction highlighted teacher retention as a continued challenge across the state, noting that Montana public schools lost 2,039 educators to attrition during the 2021-22 academic year.
Internet watchdog says secret group recruited pro-Trump Montana Libertarian into congressional race
Dennis Hayes had been posting his outrage toward the federal government on Facebook without so much as a like when he was contacted by an unfamiliar group suggesting the 70-year-old retired handyman run for the U.S. House. Patriots Run Project, a furtive recruiter of hardcore conservative third-party candidates, indicated it...
Crispy chickpeas for snacktime savings
Wide Open Table is a bi-monthly Montana Free Press column on all things food and cooking. Sign up for this newsletter here. We’ve seen the price tags of just about everything go up in the last several years, including food. We are paying more for staples these days, and it shows when the cashier hits the “total” button at the end of a grocery store run.
UPDATED: ‘Catastrophic’ failure of St. Mary siphons leads to localized flooding in Babb
UPDATED 10:56 A.M., JUNE 18: A piece of infrastructure used to divert water from the St. Mary River to the North Fork of the Milk River has suffered a “catastrophic failure,” according to Milk River Project personnel. The failure involves the St. Mary River Siphon, which is composed...
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