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WASHINGTON ? Democratic leaders in Congress are offering to cooperate with Republicans on solutions to stabilize the Obamacare exchanges, but progressive groups and their congressional allies are heading in the opposite direction. Following the defeat of Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, left-leaning organizations are accelerating their long-standing goal of establishing a single-payer system in which the government provides health insurance for all. Although proponents of what they call “Medicare for all” acknowledge that such a radical overhaul of the health care system is impossible as long as Republicans control the White House and Congress, they want it to become a litmus test for 2020 presidential candidates

 bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Tuesday plans to introduce legislation seeking to address vulnerabilities in computing devices embedded in everyday objects – known in the tech industry as the “internet of things” – which experts have long warned poses a threat to global cyber security. The new bill would require vendors that provide internet-connected equipment to the U.S. government to ensure their products are patchable and conform to industry security standards. It would also prohibit vendors from supplying devices that have unchangeable passwords or possess known security vulnerabilities. Republicans Cory Gardner and Steve Daines and Democrats Mark Warner and

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared to change her stance on single payer health care Monday, also known as “medicare for all,” when she dodged a question on the subject at a campaign event. Warren did not confidently show her support on single payer when asked a question on the issue at an East Boston Neighborhood Health Center where she was campaigning for Senate. “I think of this as less about politics and more about values,” she said. “We are all part of the human family, and health care is a basic human right … As Democrats, we need to keep talking about our

Sen. Bernie Sanders is ramping up his campaign for single-payer health care, starting with digital ads that ask voters to endorse his planned “Medicare for All” legislation ahead of the Senate’s August recess. The six-figure buy, paid for by Sanders’s 2018 Senate reelection campaign, will direct readers to his website, where they can sign on to his bill. That will tee up legislation that Sanders (I-Vt.) has promised, then delayed, since March — a version of single-payer health care that, he hopes, will avoid some of the pitfalls that have made previous bills politically untenable. “We’re tweaking the final points of

Jeff Flake’s scathing critique of Donald Trump roiled the Capitol — and potentially his own reelection bid — on Tuesday as the first-term senator pressed his case that the GOP aided and abetted the president’s rise. Flake’s fellow GOP senators applauded him for writing his new book on conservatism, yet few were willing to endorse his central message: that their party has done little to push back against Trump. Flake’s detractors, meanwhile, seized on the treatise as another example of how the Arizona Republican, who made his mark earlier in his career as a fiscal conservative, is nevertheless not conservative

The alarm clock doesn’t go off at 3 a.m. anymore for Skip Walters. The longtime Great Falls radio personality isn’t making any more morning police calls for “Montana Live” at 7:15, either. And no longer is he offering “Close Enough Trivia” at 7:45. Skip, 65, has retired at Cherry Creek Media’s KMON after decades of disc jockey work that made his one of the most recognizable voices in the Treasure State. The Montana music man is proud of his 41 years on the radio. “Absolutely,” he says. “I could not have asked for a better career. I mean, I got

The nation’s worst wildfires are burning in Montana. Thousands of acres have been scorched, and thousands more will be lost before the last flame is doused this season. Already more than a dozen homes have been destroyed, and the running total of property damage is climbing. The smoke is harming air quality in many communities, including Missoula. Worst of all, a firefighter’s life has been lost. Wildfires in Montana are a certainty we anticipate every summer. The only question is how bad the fires will be – and how much they will cost us. Beyond Montana, wildfires are a growing