Category: News Article

HELENA — The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan could mean the loss of thousands of jobs, millions in income and cause a population decline, bringing about “the most significant economic event to occur in Montana in more than 30 years,” according to a study released Wednesday that was challenged by several audience members. The report commissioned by NorthWestern Energy and the Montana Chamber of Commerce was done by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. Patrick Barkey, BBER director, presented his findings at the Red Lion Colonial Inn while on one side of the room people

GREAT FALLS – A $2.5 million grant will will be used to help fix what are described as “emergency health and safety conditions” in two Montana tribal schools. On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) announced that Lodge Grass Elementary School District and Heart Butte School District will receive the money in construction grants for fiscal year 2016. It’s estimated that more than 350 students will benefit from the projects.  Heart Butte will receive $1.7 million and contribute just over $1 million to fund the cost of the project, which includes replacing deteriorated and leaking roofs to both the high school and elementary portion of

HELENA — Sen. Steve Daines announced Wednesday that Lodge Grass Elementary and Heart Butte school districts were awarded nearly $2.5 million in construction grants for fiscal year 2016 to be used for emergency health and safety conditions in school facilities. They are among seven educational agencies nationwide to receive Impact Aid Discretionary Construction Grants. “This additional support will help students on the Blackfeet and Crow reservations to have the resources they need to learn,” Daines, R-Mont., said in a news release. Heart Butte School District will receive $1,764,973 to replace deteriorated and leaking roofs of the high school and elementary

After a wildfire season that burned up 9.4 million acres and cost taxpayers about $4.2 billion, lawmakers want a comprehensive solution to the budget and management problems that are fanning the fires. In the third hearing about the 2015 wildfire season held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said her state and other western states cannot endure many more fire seasons like 2015, which took the lives of three firefighters in Washington state. At one point this year, 200 fires were burning in Murkowski’s home state. Alaska accounted for 54 percent of the land

Senator Steve Daines and Attorney General Tim Fox have entered into their third annual wager over the upcoming University of Montana/Montana State University football game. If the Bobcats win the Brawl of the Wild, Attorney General Fox will be forced to wear a blue and gold Montana State necktie for a full day of work. Should the Grizzlies prevail, Senator Daines will likewise wear a University of Montana tie for a full workday. As Fox has won this bet in both of the past two years, the pressure is on to see if the Bobcats can pull through and break

WASHINGTON – Montana does not plan to close its borders to refugees from Syria following last week’s attacks in Paris, Gov. Steve Bullock said Monday. “Montana has a process in place for considering refugee settlement requests. We are reviewing those protocols to ensure that if a request comes (that) we take all appropriate steps to ensure that the safety of Montanans will not be jeopardized by their placement.” said Bullock, a Democrat. “If there are safety concerns about any refugees that are requesting settlement, they will be denied.” The governor said no Syrian refugees have settled in the state and he

(WASHINGTON) — In this week’s Republican address, Montana Sen. Steve Daines talks repealing Obamacare. According to the senator, the Senate will soon be voting to repeal the health care law, and he hopes Republicans will replace Obamacare with “state-led solutions that put patients back in the center of the health care equation.” “When the federal government takes over our health care system and puts the whims of Washington bureaucrats over the needs of hardworking American families, prices go up and the quality of care goes down,” said Daines. “After five years of seeing President Obama’s experiment with Americans’ health care

The Senate will soon be voting to repeal Obamacare, Montana Sen. Steve Daines said in Saturday’s GOP address, and he is pushing for Republicans to replace the healthcare law with “state-led solutions that put patients back in the center of the healthcare equation.”  Obamacare puts the “whims of Washington bureaucrats over the needs of hardworking American families,” Daines said Saturday. “After five years of seeing President Obama’s experiment with Americans’ health care result in failure and embarrassment, the American people know that it’s time to stop putting more Band-Aids on something that’s so far beyond repair.”  Open enrollment began for

Montana officials are expressing disappointment and outrage over the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone Pipeline construction permit. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said denying the permit was an “affront to the American people.” “It has taken more than seven years for President Obama to come clean with the American people and admit his anti-energy and anti-American-jobs agenda,” Daines said in a statement Friday. “President Obama had an opportunity to help create good-paying jobs with the construction of the Keystone pipeline, but instead he chose to blatantly disregard the economic needs of this nation, the need for good-paying jobs, like

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will receive more than $500,000 in federal funds for educational programs, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced Thursday. Salish Kootenai College was awarded $220,000 through the Department of Agriculture’s Tribal College Research Grants Program. The program helps tribal colleges build institutional research capacity through applied projects that address student educational needs and solve community, reservation and regional problems. The tribes also were awarded $287,769 through the Department of Education’s State-Tribal Education Partnership program. The grant provides funding from 2015 through 2019. The program provides funding to five Native American communities in Idaho, Montana and Oklahoma