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government & politics

Commerce announces seven large tourism grants for rural communities

The Department of Commerce announced last week it awarded grants to seven projects to increase tourism in rural communities throughout the state. The program stems from 2023 legislation brought by Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, a Billings Republican. Each project is receiving $1.25 million to start and the projects will be

President finalist for University of Montana sees ‘community’ at flagship

Jeremiah Shinn, finalist for the University of Montana president job, said he was drawn to it because of its sense of community, evident in higher education in general but especially in Missoula. “Certainly there’s a sense of community on a lot of campuses, but there’s a particular brand

Cancelled Clancy event becomes example of censorship at U.S. Senate hearing

At a Democrat-led Congressional hearing in late February, children’s author and former TV writer Bess Kalb used a previously unreported incident in Clancy where she had to cancel a book reading event to illustrate a point about the broader impacts of the Trump Administration’s crackdown on the

Record low number of threatened species get new protections under Trump, zero in second term

President Donald Trump’s administration listed fewer vulnerable species for protection than any other presidential administration since Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Trump’s first term added 22 species to the 1,700-species list. So far in his second term,

University of Montana president finalist announced

The finalist candidate for the University of Montana president job is Jeremiah Shinn, interim president of Boise State University, UM and the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education announced Friday. Shinn will be on campus in Missoula on Monday and Tuesday, April 6 and 7. A news release

Judge says Forest Service must consider grizzly bears before Bitterroot logging project can proceed

A thinning and logging project spanning more than 55,000 acres in the Sapphire Mountains of the Bitterroot National Forest has been paused after a federal magistrate judge found the United States Forest Service had failed to properly analyze new evidence of grizzly bears being in the area. Two groups,

NorthWestern Energy files data center tariff proposal

NorthWestern Energy announced it filed an application requesting approval of its terms for serving data centers — a “Large New Load Tariff.” The utility filed the application this week with the Montana Public Service Commission, which has been anticipating the proposal. In an email, PSC spokesperson Jamey Petersen said the Commission