Category: News Article

Conservation and conservatism: The two are rightfully inseparable. Yet it is fair to say that the Republican brand has for many years been divorced from environmental causes in the public imagination. Widely associated with climate-change skepticism, unquestioning support of the fossil-fuel industry, and the blind harvesting of resources, the GOP’s record on conservation is a bit rocky. But as voters become increasingly worried about the environment, Republicans on the Hill have finally realized that there is no time like the present to show some concern for the fate of the natural world. Last Wednesday, a group of Republican senators and

President Donald Trump is pushing better forest management as a big part of his plan to stop the number of large wildfires that have caused devastation in the western United States in recent years. In a speech at the White House this past week, the president touted an executive order signed last December promoting more active forest management. “You can’t have dirty floors. You can’t have fallen trees. After the first 17 months, they say a tree is like a piece of tinder,” said Trump, a Republican. Wildfires have gotten worse in recent years — burning up a large part

Glacier Park International Airport has received $5.7 million in federal funds to help pay for its ongoing terminal expansion and the purchase of new firefighting equipment. The money was awarded through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program and comes on the heels of two other major FAA grants GPIA has received in recent years: a $7.5 million grant in 2017 and a $2 million grant in 2018. GPIA is currently in the midst of a three-year expansion project that will add about 40,000 square feet to the terminal area. “This grant is critical to Glacier Park International Airport’s capital

BILLINGS – The Billings Logan International Airport will receive about $1 million of federal grant money to buy new aircraft rescue and fire equipment, as well as partially fund the upcoming terminal expansion project in 2019. “This grant will help us secure new equipment that will be good for the next decade or so,” said Billings Airport Director of Aviation and Transit Kevin Ploehn. This money will allow the Billings airport to purchase about $200,000 worth aircraft rescue and firefighting equipment. Ploehn said some of the current firefighting equipment has expiration dates that are about to be reached. The remaining $800,000 will

Efforts by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) to revoke the government pension of a retired federal medical doctor convicted of sexually assaulting minors gained ground last week. The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps assured Sen. Daines that his call for action against convicted pedophile Stanley Patrick Weber, a retired doctor with the U.S. Indian Health Service, was under consideration. “I’m glad to see HHS respond to my demand and take action in finding a way to prevent this convicted pedophile from receiving a dime of his government pension,”

Two Montana airports will share $9.7 million in federal funds, to help with airport expansion, terminal reconstruction, safety and aircraft parking.  Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell will receive $3.5 million in federal funds to help it buy an airport rescue and firefighting vehicle, expand the commercial terminal apron for more airplane parking and help with design work for upcoming terminal expansion, an airport official said Wednesday. And $6,283,353 will be distributed to Missoula International Airport to help with construction of a new terminal.  Sen. Steve Daines announced that $9.7 million in Airport Improvement Program funds, under the U.S. Department

ANACONDA – According to U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, this year’s open house at the Anaconda Job Corps Center was anything but routine. While the Anaconda Job Corps’ open house is an annual event, Tuesday’s had a special feel to it. Last May, the career-training program was set to be closed, and some Job Corps participants heard the news before going off on training. “We wound up hearing about how the center was closing before we left,” said Job Corps participant Dylan Kurz. An outcry from the community and work from U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester helped reverse that

BUTTE, Mont. — Organizers broke ground on the new Southwest Montana Veterans Home in Butte on Tuesday. The $20 million home will house 60 veterans in five cottage-style units. United Veterans Council commander Mike Lawson says there will also be a community center. “It will be a veterans home-like experience for those that are sent there. That’s what we proposed to begin with,” Lawson said. He tells NBC Montana the proposal has been in the works for 26 years. “There was a lot of anticipation, a lot of disappointments along the way, but it finally happened. We’re here,” Lawson said.

The Helena Regional Airport recently received more than $3 million in federal funds, which local officials plan to put toward some needed maintenance projects. Helena was one of 13 Montana airports to receive more than $8 million total in funding from the Airport Improvement Program under the Department of Transportation. U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester announced the funding last week.  About $1.3 million of Helena’s allocation was an expected entitlement, but the additional $1.7 million came through a competitive application process, said airport Director Jeff Wadekamper. “It was a request we’d had out there for quite a while,

Sen. Steve Daines sent a letter Friday to the federal agency that oversees nursing homes, asking about issues raised in a recent New York Times story on some poor-performing homes being backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The June 24 Times story by Matthew Goldstein and Robert Gebelhoff noted 74 nursing homes listed among 478 identified in a recent report of having “serious deficiencies” have HUD-guaranteed mortgages. ] Daines asked Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials if it coordinates with HUD as it oversees the program known as “Special Focus Facility,” of SFF, for poor performing