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KALISPELL, Mont. — Sen. Steve Daines made a trip to the Flathead Valley Monday morning to talk about a bipartisan forest management reform bill. Daines was joined by elected officials as well as conservation and timber leaders. The bill is about addressing wildfires, wildlife, watersheds and workers. Daines is working with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, on the bill. “Montanans are tired of breathing smoke during fire season, and they want to see people back in the forest actively managing them. At the end of the day, we’re either going to manage our forest or the forest is

HELENA — State judges presiding over Montana’s drug-treatment courts said they’re a much better route than throwing addicts in prison. But, late last week, treatment court officials told U.S. Senator Steve Daines that they could use more resources for more courts and that the pandemic isn’t helping either. Members of Helena’s drug-court treatment team met with Senator Daines on Friday to talk about successes and struggles. Two drug-court treatment graduates, Dawn Knowles and Joe Wolhers, said the program has helped them recover, after years of addiction and family trauma. Daines said he’s a big proponent of treatment courts which sometimes

HELENA – Members of Montana’s treatment court program met for the first time since the start of the pandemic at the Helena American Legion to discuss the best ways to get Montanans help during these isolated times. Representatives from Great Falls and Missoula treatment courts were in attendance to discuss concerns of COVID-19 and its impact on Montanans participating in treatment court programs. “The ones that came into the program right before the pandemic, we just don’t have that by in with them and the trust so it’s been really difficult with our group of people,” says Layla Eichler, First

Treatment courts have seen success in Montana but faced significant struggles during the coronavirus pandemic, Lewis and Clark County officials told U.S. Sen. Steve Daines on Friday. Daines joined a roundtable with treatment court staff, graduates and veterans’ advocates at American Legion Post 2 in Helena. The group came to discuss the value of treatment courts and the struggles they faced during COVID-19 when many of the face-to-face interactions the programs are based on became impossible. “I think this is such a great investment in taxpayer dollars because we’re literally seeing men and women on paths to incarceration get into

Senior living providers should be included in future federal funding allocations from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (PHSSEF), wrote U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in an Aug. 12 letter sent to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar II. “The healthcare heroes in these communities are on the front lines of this crisis, and while they continue to do everything they can to care for our nation’s seniors and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, they need financial relief,” Sen. Daines wrote. “I appreciate the allocations that the administration has already made to numerous healthcare

HELENA — Montana’s congressional delegation Friday continued to raise questions about U.S. Postal Service actions they feared could delay mail service in the state – including the removal of mail drop-boxes from several cities. The Postal Service said Friday it’s putting on hold the removal of any of the traditional blue drop-boxes in Montana – although it has also said removal of some boxes is fairly routine, in response to mail volume. The drop-box-removal issue was raised first by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Thursday, in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, asking if the removals were occurring