Category: News Article

HELENA — For Lowell “Elton” Carver, getting his medals wasn’t about public pageantry or boasting rights. It was simply because the Vietnam veteran deserved them. On Friday, the 72-year-old Black Eagle resident received three medals from Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., at the American Legion Conference at Fort Harrison. When asked how he felt about getting them after nearly 50 years, he offered “Not too bad.” Carver, an aviation electronics technician petty officer 3rd class, served in the Navy from Oct. 30, 1963, to Oct. 27, 1967. For nearly two of those years, he served on the USS Hancock as a helicopter

This week Senator Steve Daines spoke with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and Rural Utilities Service asking officials to consider extending broadband services to Montanans that currently don’t have service. Daines encouraged legislators to focus on “unserved communities, not just improving speeds for those who already connectivity.” “Thanks to the dedication of Montana companies like Triangle Communications, residents of the Rocky Boy and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservations have access to broadband for the very first time,” Daines said. “However, the broadband access on tribal lands continues to be an issue. In fact, high-speed broadband on most tribal lands

It’s late August in Montana and the North Fork of the Flathead River is running low and slow, snaking through a chalky corridor of wildfire smoke, its steep banks inscribed with the tracks of deer and grizzly bears, wallpapered with a mix of blackened snags and young lodgepole pine, and scored with clusters of radiant fireweed.  The smoke blotting the sky overhead hangs in contrast against the transparency of the water below, magnifying the burnished bottom-stones and the shimmering flashes of bull trout, rainbows and cutties.  Somewhere downstream from the Glacier Rim river access, about 10 miles north of Columbia

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox on Thursday said he disagrees with the Missoula city attorney over the legality of a proposed ordinance requiring background checks for firearms sold or transferred within the city. Fox released his opinion via a one-sentence news release. Two hours later, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke, both Republicans, also released a joint statement urging the city to withdraw the ordinance. While they support local control, they said, the ordinance presented a “rare occasion” to express their opposition to what they described as “misguided” legislation. City officials vowed the public hearing set for Monday

Missoula’s proposed gun ordinance restricting sales hit a possible snag Thursday. The state’s attorney general thinks it’s unconstitutional. The ordinance aims to require background checks for all private gun sales.  There are a few exceptions — antique firearms, guns sold within a family and for temporary use while hunting. People will have to meet with a federally licensed dealer for the background check and to finalize the deal. Sen. Steve Daines, Rep. Ryan Zinke and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox are three of the top Republican officials putting pressure on the Missoula City Council over the ordinance. “Contrary to the

With laptops and tablets for all elementary students and the support of local Internet providers, the students at Fairfield Elementary School are fairing pretty well when it comes to Internet accessibility. But as Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler, Montana’s senators, school officials and providers discussed Tuesday, only 49 percent of Montana’s public schools have access to high-speed Internet. “Fairfield was a school that was an early adopter (of technology) and worked diligently,” said Kirk Miller, executive director of School Administrators of Montana. “That isn’t the case with much of the rest of Montana.” According to a report given to the Montana

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Local tech entrepreneur-turned-politician U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, meeting with the local business community at the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce on Friday, said he agreed with concerns raised by several people about the need for reform in the U.S. Patent system. “There’s this kind of arms race where you have to develop a patent portfolio to protect yourself from the other big guys who have patent portfolios,” said Bob Wall, a former engineer with RightNow and Oracle, now with startup IronCore labs. “This world of patent trolls, and people making their living on that, it is stifling innovation to some extent,”

The United States is the only country that has a ban on exporting crude oil. This Friday the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a bill that seeks to lift the ban on exporting U.S. crude oil. It’s a cold war era ban that was originally put in place during oil shortages in the 1970s. Congressman Ryan Zinke is co-sponsoring H.R. 702, and today he held a press conference to discuss the future of Montana’s energy economy. Zinke said lifting the ban would create more than 2,400 new jobs, and generate $120 million in economic growth in Montana alone.

Montana grain growers have an important new assurance that they can get their product to market, thanks to the Agricultural Reauthorization Act signed by President Barack Obama on Oct. 1. Included in the legislation is a provision requiring the USDA to continue grain export inspection if state inspectors are not on the job. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., championed this change in the Grain Standards Reauthorization Act to keep grain moving to export. The Senate bill was introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. As previously reported by The Gazette, grain inspectors employed by Washington state stopped work for five weeks in