Government
MONTANA — In 2020, the state of Montana joined a pack of 20 other states and the District of Columbia when it legalized recreational marijuana. Montana voters passed ballot Initiative 190 on a thin margin of 57% for and 43% against. The legalization came with a brand-new pipeline of tax money and now that the money is starting to flow, a debate is building in the Capitol over how that money should be used and who should be controlling it. Just like alcohol or tobacco and nicotine products, recreational marijuana has a tax of 20% and medicinal marijuana sits at 4%. The current total this year from marijuana sales sits at about $50 million that the state can use. As th...
News from USDA BOZEMAN — USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is accepting applications for grants until May 26, 2023, to fund Montana projects that could stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies. Conservation Innovation Gr...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) encourages urban producers, innovative producers and other stakeholders to submit comments for and virtually attend the fifth public meeting of the Federal Advisory Committee for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (Committee) on April 18, ...
MONTANA — Roberta Duckhead Kittson Nyomo said she and her brother were among the last Native American children adopted out of Thompson Falls before the federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978. The siblings were sent to live with a non-Native family. Nyomo remembers them lacking empathy.&nbs...
MONTANA — In a recent press call, Senator Jon Tester addressed bipartisan bills in the works to support Montana’s law enforcement and measures to be taken to support the mental wellbeing of Montanans. During the week of March 22, Tester backed the “Recruit and Retain Act,&rdqu...
News from the MT Dept. of Labor and Industry HELENA — Montana’s unemployment rate set a new all-time low in February, declining 0.1% to 2.4% according to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Montana Department of Labor & Industry. The February rate of 2.4% is t...
News from DPHHS MONTANA — “This is an excellent opportunity for farmers to get additional sales on their locally grown fruits and vegetables,” said Lacy Little, director of the Montana Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program that oversees Farm Direct. “It also helps WIC partic...
News from DPHHS MONTANA — The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is asking Montanans to submit nominations for the annual Emergency Medical Services (EMS) awards ceremony to be held Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at the Capitol Rotunda in Helena. The event, held during Emerg...
By Caven Wade & Elinor Smith, UM Legislative News Service, University of Montana School of Journalism MONTANA — The 68th Montana Legislature, with an unprecedented Republican supermajority, is halfway through its 90-day session and the next 45 days promise to be dominated by debates over the s...
HELENA — There’s broad bipartisan agreement in the Montana Capitol that rising housing costs, driven by the state’s finite supply of homes and rapid in-migration from other states, rank among the most pressing issues facing Montana residents. According to real estate website Zillow...
