Category: News Article

The number of fatalities in Montana due to COVID-19 grew to 39 on Monday as state health officials announced two more deaths in a Billings nursing home.   The state added 88 new cases on Monday, including four in Missoula, increasing the running tally to 2,621. More than 48 people remain hospitalized in the state and 1,248 cases are considered active.   “Two more Montanans have sadly passed from COVID-19. My heart goes out to their families and community,” Gov. Steve Bullock said. “As we continue to see the tragic situation unfold at Canyon Creek (Billings), I call on Montanans

The threat of infection had kept the USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation cooped up in Washington D.C. for months. On July 15 he arrived in Great Falls, noting that his trip to Montana was the first he’d made outside the beltway since last March.   “One of the best parts of the job is to get out of D.C. and be able to get to real farm country,” Under Secretary Bill Northy said to an assemblage of Montana ag producers who gathered at a machine shop on the Bumgarner farm east of Great Falls last Wednesday.  

BELGRADE- Business leaders in the Bozeman area met with Senator Steve Daines on July 16, 2020, to discuss a new and booming industry making big strides across Montana.   The roundtable meeting included businesses like Ascent Vision, Wavelength Electronics, and many more who all reside here in the Bozeman area in the industry of photonics.   The optics and photonics industry uses laser research in a variety of ways including healthcare, law enforcement, transportation, and even farming purposes.   Photonics is the science and technology of generating, detecting, and controlling light.   In Montana, the industry employs almost a thousand

DOCUMENT DRAWER The FDA has added brucellosis, as well as opisthorchiasis and paragonimiasis, to the list of designated tropical diseases whose product applications may result in the award of priority review vouchers.   Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), in a letter to McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called for more funding on the development and manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines and drugs in the next coronavirus relief package.   The FDA will have a public advisory committee meeting of the Science Advisory Board to the National Center for Toxicological Research on Aug. 18-19.   The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS will

The Crow Tribal Police and Crow leadership are eyeing a closed Bureau of Indian Affairs jail on the reservation to meet the newly formed police force’s detention needs.   Several administrators with the Crow Tribe, Bureau of Indian Affairs and gathered at the site of a former BIA jail on the Crow Indian Reservation to discuss the possibility of the tribe taking ownership of the jail to book offenders arrested by the new tribal police force.   On Friday, several Crow Tribe administrators, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., toured the facility and discussed the challenges

BILLINGS, Mt. – Early Friday afternoon Crow Tribe Chairman AJ Not Afraid, Senator Daines, Crow Tribe Police and Tribal members took a tour of the empty detention facility in Crow Agency.   The detention center is currently leased by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Crow tribe is looking to take over the lease to utilize the facility as they continue to lack enough holding space to maintain their policing needs on the reservation.   The crow tribal police department wants to clean out and refurbish the empty jail before they open the facility for the police force.   Crow

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) is requesting more funding for potential COVID-19 vaccines in any new coronavirus relief package.   “As you continue your work on critical legislation to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, I write to you today to urge your support for robust funding that will help accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments,” Daines wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Finding a cure to this virus will help save lives, restore confidence in our communities to safely reopen, and jumpstart our economy

As Congress prepares to debate another stimulus package to prop up the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, farmers and ranchers are lobbying for more help.   Inside a farm shop southeast of Great Falls Wednesday industry representatives met with federal agriculture department Under Secretary Bill Northey and U.S. Sen. Steve Daines to voice their concerns.   Brett DeBruycker farms and ranches in Teton County. He says the assistance he got from the United States Department of Agriculture Coronavirus Food Assistance Program was miniscule compared to his actual need.   “There are some glaring holes that were left behind that really

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Sen. Steve Daines hosted a roundtable discussion at Ascent Vision to highlight leaders in the optics and photonics industry on Thursday.   Photonics is the science and technology of generating, detecting and controlling light. The industry is made up of companies that use, create and research light-based technologies.   Daines says the optics and photonics industry is growing and there are 35 businesses around the state.   He says the industry employs over 800 Montanans.   Businesses range from quantum computing, healthcare and energy to precision agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.   Daines says this industry is crucial

On Wednesday morning, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) joined USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey and a number of farmers, ranchers and organization representatives from across Montana to discuss the state of the Agriculture industry in the Treasure State, as well as the impact that COVID-19 has had on the industry, and the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program   “Nothing beats having an Undersecretary of Agriculture leave Washington D.C. and come to Montana and literally hear directly from our farmers and ranchers across Montana,” said Daines after the roundtable discussion wrapped up. “Some have driven seven hours to be here today, to