The Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance James Brown is asking for comments on Digital Assets including cryptocurrency Bitcoin and other related financial instruments including Blockchain Tokens. The input from all U.S. citizens and not just Montana residents will help shape potential regulatory approaches that safeguard investors while fostering innovation.
The City of Kalispell and Flathead Warming Center have come to an agreement that will allow the center to house homeless people. The shelter provider in the Flathead Valley was temporarily barred from housing homeless people in Kalispell after the city council revoked the center’s permit to operate last fall citing negative effects in the surrounding neighborhood. The center then filed a lawsuit with the national firm Institute for Justice, which argued in Missoula Federal Court that the center has a right to house the homeless on their private property.
U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen denied Representative Ron Marhsall’s attempts Wednesday to block lobbyists from major cigarette manufacturers from engaging lawmakers on his House Bill 149. He sued Altria and R.J. Reynolds earlier this month alleging they were violating anti-lobbying provisions set out in the 1998 settlement those companies made with several states including Montana. The judge found Marshall did not have any legal footing to bring the lawsuit.
U.S. fertility rates have been in decline the past few years and so has Montana’s but according to the March of Dimes at a much more steady rate. For births per 1,000 women age 15 to 44 Montana’s fertility rate dropped 15% from 2013 to 2023. As Montana’s fertility rates decline our state also has one of the oldest median ages in the country of 40.5 years. The youngest median population in the country is found in Utah at 31.2 years with one of the highest fertility rates in the nation.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore will retire effective March 3rd. Moore wrote in his staff email Wednesday it is due to the Trump administration’s mass layoffs which have led to 3,400 Forest Service employees including 360 in Montana being fired. He has led the agency that manages 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands since 2021 and became the first African American to serve as chief capping off a 45-year career with the Forest Service.
Republican lawmakers representing rural eastern Montana districts are sponsoring bills to restrict where new wind turbines can be built and how tall they can be. Proponents of the proposals argue they will reduce wind farms’ impact on neighboring landowners and communities. Opponents counter that the bills will stifle a growing but underdeveloped Montana industry and tax base by making utility-scale wind development a less profitable if not nearly impossible enterprise.
A free program through Helena Public Schools will expand for 4-year-olds from half-days to full days and its screening process is now open for fall. KinderSprouts was created under House Bill 352, which passed in the 2023 Legislature and it operates as an early literacy intervention program for 4-year-old students.
In late 2020 St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena fired its oncologist Dr. Thomas Weiner publicly accusing him of hurting patients. The hospital said the doctor overprescribed narcotics and gave chemotherapy to patients who didn’t have cancer among other allegations. Despite being notified by St. Peter’s that it had revoked Weiner’s privileges this week the Montana Board of Medical Examiners renewed his license for another two years.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has received reports of sick and dead waterfowl along the Bighorn River stretching from Afterbay lake in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area to the I-90 bridge near Hardin. It suspects the cause is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza but testing results at the FWP Wildlife Health Lab in Bozeman may take a few days.
After a train hauling coal derailed about 12 miles west of Miles City this week and concerns are rising about the potential environmental impact on the nearby Yellowstone River. The derailment involved 25 train cars but according to BNSF Railway none went into the river. There were no injuries and the cause is still under investigation.
