MONTANA HEADLINE NEWS, 09/18
The Montana Supreme Court denied the state Democratic Party’s request for an intervention in its case against the Secretary of State and the Green Party Tuesday. Earlier this summer it sued Christi Jacobsen and the Montana Green Party arguing the Greens could not field a candidate in the state’s U.S. Senate race because of a last-minute shake-up in Green candidates. The appeal to the high court is still pending.
The U-S Forest Service is spending 8-million dollars to reduce wildfire risk in Montana as part of a larger federal program funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The money allocated to Montana is part of the 14-state Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program and will be used to reduce fire fuels in the Custer Gallatin and Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forests. Forest Service Partnership Coordinator Melissa Simpson says the program also seeks to restore habitat for native species and protect the Bozeman watershed.
All evacuation notices issued for the Short Draw Fire in southeast Montana have been rescinded. The wildfire that started in Wyoming last Wednesday and quickly spread north into Montana has burned an estimated 35,222 acres and is 40% contained. A total of 233 firefighters continue to work on the wildfire employing 20 engines two helicopters six hand crews and three heavy equipment. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Congressman Matt Rosendale introduced new legislation Tuesday that will prohibit the importation of platinum and palladium from the Russian Federation. It is in direct response to approximately 700 layoffs announced at Sibanye Stillwater Mine last week. The company headquartered in South Africa cited decreasing metal prices as one of the reasons for reducing their footprint in Montana. Palladium was about $2,300 an ounce two years ago and has dipped below $1,000 an ounce over the past three months.
Montana State University has become the first university in the history of the state to enroll more than 17,000 students. MSU is also seeing record four-year graduation rates and a record high rate of students staying in school to complete their degrees.
A Montana Dakota Utilities plan to not charge its customers a second year in a row for strains on the power grid related to a cryptocurrency data center in northwest North Dakota has been complicated after federal regulators rejected a complaint and request for refund from the utility. They said MDU did not provide enough evidence that the Southwest Power Pool had improperly charged the utility for grid congestion in the northwest.
