In The News

The U.S. and China have finally reached an agreement on commercial shipments of beef according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the first time since 2003, the U.S. is now allowed to begin beef exports to China. The USDA and Chinese officials finalized the details on Tuesday. The USDA reported that since 2003, the U.S. had been banned from China’s market. They also said until the ban took effect, the U.S. was China’s largest supplier of imported beef, providing 70 percent of their total intake. The U.S. is the largest producer of beef in the world. The agreement is

Several Republican senators have no knowledge of the specific policy proposals GOP leadership is weighing for inclusion in the pending legislation to overhaul the U.S. health care system. The lack of widespread knowledge among members about the exact policy under review calls into question whether Republicans will be able to advance a bill before the Fourth of July recess, the timeline that GOP aides say Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is operating under. While there have been thrice-weekly meetings on the legislation to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law, those have mostly focused on broad policy. And while complete legislative text

Troy’s summer meal program begins Monday, June 12 and will run Monday through Friday until August 17.  This year two meals will be served each day at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Troy Baptist Church. Meals are free to anyone under 18.  April Turnage, who is involved in the program through her position as an Americorps volunteer at Morrison Elementary and oversees the state funded No Kid Hungry program, is organizing activities in conjunction with the church so that kids can have fun and be fed at the same time.  The season will kick off with a barbeque

President Donald Trump outright denied former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a press conference Friday afternoon, forcing a question many GOP lawmakers don’t want to answer: do they trust Trump or Comey? “No, I didn’t say that, and I didn’t say the other,” Trump defiantly told reporters Friday afternoon. When asked if he would dispute Comey’s claims under oath, Trump answered, “100 percent.” During the hearing, Comey repeated his allegations that Trump asked him for his loyalty and later asked him to let former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn off the hook under oath. Directly

Unanimous huckleberries to U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, to celebrate this week’s unanimous Senate passage of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. Tester, a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was a lead sponsor of the legislation to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs’ process for reviewing complaints about VA employees. The bill is meant to allow the VA more freedom to fire those who perform poorly, while also providing for more protection for those who call attention to problems and better training for VA leadership. In these increasingly partisan times, it’s encouraging to see bipartisan agreement on anything. U.S. Sen.

Unanimous huckleberries to U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, to celebrate this week’s unanimous Senate passage of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. Tester, a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was a lead sponsor of the legislation to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs’ process for reviewing complaints about VA employees. The bill is meant to allow the VA more freedom to fire those who perform poorly, while also providing for more protection for those who call attention to problems and better training for VA leadership. In these increasingly partisan times, it’s encouraging to see bipartisan agreement on anything. U.S. Sen.

Nine blows of the original Granite Mountain whistle sounded Thursday night to break a moment of silence for the lives lost in the 1917 fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator mines. Nine whistles meant that an uncontrollable fire was burning in the mine. Some in the crowd at the memorial site wore T-shirts commemorating the anniversary of the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine fire of June 8, 1917, which remains the worst disaster in hard-rock mining history 100 years later. Hard-rock miners Larry Hoffman and Matt Krattiger wore helmets with carbide lamps, their open flames jumping and flickering in the breeze.

Montana’s U.S. senators both honored the victims and survivors of the Granite Mountain-Speculator mine disaster with statements on the Senate floor and in the Congressional Record. On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines read a Senate proclamation “meant to recognize the strength of those Montanans who sacrificed their lives in support our nation’s military work in World War I, as well as those who jumped to help a fallen brother without question.” He added, “One hundred years after this tragedy, we are also reminded of how far we have come in hard rock mining. Jobs that were once seen as high

The U.S. Forest Service’s proposed 2018 budget presents its public and private observers with lots of rebuilding work to do. On Wednesday, Montana’s Democratic and Republican senators both challenged Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell to replace or re-energize programs slashed in President Donald Trump’s preliminary budget plan. And more locally, Forest Service partners have started bracing for dramatic losses of funding. “This budget is a wreck,” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana told Tidwell during a hearing before the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, pressed Tidwell for stronger efforts to get national forest timber into local sawmills and maintain