MONTANA HEADLINE NEWS, 09/19
Childcare shortages exist in every county in Montana and 59 percent of counties are designated as child care deserts with the highest unmet childcare demands in rural parts of the state with four counties having no licensed childcare providers at all. In 2023 more than 46,000 Montana children under six lived in households with working parents and potentially needed care.
$900,000 of federal grant funding is now available to help small Montana businesses accelerate and grow international sales. The U.S. Small Business Administration funding is administered through Montana Department of Commerce’s State Trade Expansion Program.
The Montana State Hospital won’t apply for Medicaid and Medicare recertification until at least late 2025 nearly a year later than the director of the state health department had originally projected. The Warm Springs-based psychiatric facility had it revoked in April 2022 following failures to meet health and safety standards. Until then it was being reimbursed an average of $7 million per year in federal funds for the services it provided.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials asked for help Wednesday in finding the people responsible for killing a bull elk in Tizer Basin south of Helena using a firearm during archery season. The antlers were removed and the rest of the animal was left and wasted.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s funding bill was sunk Wednesday with the government scheduled to shut down at the end of the month without one. Fourteen members of his Republican party including Representative Matt Rosendale voted alongside most Democrats against the six-month stopgap bill with a measure aiming to require proof of citizenship to vote.
In 2023 the state legislature appropriated funds requiring the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to complete an analysis of winter-time cloud seeding to enhance mountain snowpack in southwest Montana. Preliminary studies of its potential to augment snowpack in the watershed of the Big Hole River have suggested the Beaverhead Mountains could provide conditions favorable to seeding.
The City of Havre has launched an urban deer management plan to address expanding deer populations within and adjacent to its city limits. The archery harvesting opportunity begins Friday and will run through next February 15th.
