In The News

HELENA – Montana’s two senators split their votes early Friday on the federal budget deal that will avoid a government default and partial shutdown and set spending levels into 2017. Democrat Jon Tester, the state’s senior senator, voted for the deal, which passed 64-35 just after 3 a.m. eastern time. Republican Steve Daines was among the GOP senators who voted against it. Tester said he’s disappointed that budget talks apparently must come to a crisis to get resolved, but that the deal represents a compromise that includes many positive things. “By raising the debt ceiling, we will prevent interest rates from skyrocketing

Time has taken most of those who returned from WWII and earlier this week we lost another. Charles DeCrane, a proud member of the Crow Tribe and veteran of World War II, may have passed, but his family and friends will continue to honor his memory for years to come. Steve Daines spoke about Charlie today on the senate floor. He talked of his trip to D.C. with Charlie, whom he had selected to be his special guest at the State Of The Union Address. Charlie most definitely earned respect for his service to his country, his tribe and his

BILLINGS – Today Senator Steve Daines pressed the FCC to close the gap between rural and urban communities and to expand connectivity in rural areas to make broadband service more accessible to all Montanans. Daines pushed the USDA last week for quicker action to provide broadband for thousands of Montanans currently without service. Earlier this year, he worked with the federal government to make sure this issue was a top priority. He is now pushing for bringing connectivity to unserved communities rather than those that already have access. Both Senator Daines and Senator Jon Tester are pushing for broadband initiatives that

Following the Oct. 12 expiration of a major trade agreement between the United States and Canada, American timber companies are pushing for a new deal that will limit the flow of cheap lumber into the states from their neighbors to the north. The softwood trade agreement was finalized by the two countries in 2006 after decades of trade grievances arising from two starkly different styles of timber harvesting. Prior to 2006, Canadian producers would respond to declining lumber prices by ramping up production to compensate, and cheap Canadian timber would flood the U.S. market, to the detriment of American producers.

KALISPELL, Mont. – Kalispell received word Monday morning that it received a $10 million transportation grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, nicknamed TIGER grant, will partially fund a $21 million project the city has been planning for the last five years. “This is transformational for the city of Kalispell,” said Kalispell City Planner Tom Jentz. The project includes the construction of an industrial rail park at the site of the former McElroy & Wilkin gravel pit in Evergreen. Kalispell city planners say the Flathead County Economic Development Authority will build the rail park. They

HELENA — Attorney General Tim Fox announced Friday that Montana would join 23 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s “carbon rule,” which reportedly would restructure the way in which electricity is consumed in the United States. He accused the EPA of overstepping its authority. “The new regulations don’t bode well for states like Montana, which relies on abundant and inexpensive coal for stable, affordable electricity …” Fox said. According to Fox, the rule requires states to reduce carbon emissions from electric-generating plants by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. He said it could cost more

HELENA — For Lowell “Elton” Carver, getting his medals wasn’t about public pageantry or boasting rights. It was simply because the Vietnam veteran deserved them. On Friday, the 72-year-old Black Eagle resident received three medals from Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., at the American Legion Conference at Fort Harrison. When asked how he felt about getting them after nearly 50 years, he offered “Not too bad.” Carver, an aviation electronics technician petty officer 3rd class, served in the Navy from Oct. 30, 1963, to Oct. 27, 1967. For nearly two of those years, he served on the USS Hancock as a helicopter

This week Senator Steve Daines spoke with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and Rural Utilities Service asking officials to consider extending broadband services to Montanans that currently don’t have service. Daines encouraged legislators to focus on “unserved communities, not just improving speeds for those who already connectivity.” “Thanks to the dedication of Montana companies like Triangle Communications, residents of the Rocky Boy and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservations have access to broadband for the very first time,” Daines said. “However, the broadband access on tribal lands continues to be an issue. In fact, high-speed broadband on most tribal lands

It’s late August in Montana and the North Fork of the Flathead River is running low and slow, snaking through a chalky corridor of wildfire smoke, its steep banks inscribed with the tracks of deer and grizzly bears, wallpapered with a mix of blackened snags and young lodgepole pine, and scored with clusters of radiant fireweed.  The smoke blotting the sky overhead hangs in contrast against the transparency of the water below, magnifying the burnished bottom-stones and the shimmering flashes of bull trout, rainbows and cutties.  Somewhere downstream from the Glacier Rim river access, about 10 miles north of Columbia