Corin Cates-Carney

Democrat Jon Tester is making his second appearance at the picket line of locked-out union workers in Three Forks this Saturday. They’ve been in an ongoing contract dispute since early August. 

Up to 90,000 Montanans have been getting mail this week from a political group backing Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, encouraging voters to register for absentee ballots. 

The latest campaign finance reports show that a lot of the $3 million that’s flowed into the race for Montana’s I-186 ballot measure so far has come from organizations and individuals with out of state and international ties. 

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order yesterday extending an Obama administration ban on new mining in the mountains north of Yellowstone National Park by 20 years.

Zinke stood with this back to the Absarkoa Mountain Range, the peaks half hidden in clouds hanging low over the Paradise Valley, as he said some places should not be mined, even though he describes himself as “a pro-mining guy”.

A backlog in the review of water pollution permits within Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality is leading to an increased risk to public health and aquatic life. That’s according to an audit of the state’s pollution control program given to state lawmakers Friday.