Edward O'Brien

“We're just hoping that making some of these changes will help speed up our ability to get through the large number of new cases and close contacts that are coming in every day," Missoula COVID-19 Incident Commander Cindy Farr says.

Martha Williams has informally led the Fish and Wildlife Service since January. The federal agency manages wildlife and habitat across the country and is in charge of more than 150 million acres of land in the National Wildlife Refuge System. FWS also administers the Endangered Species Act.

La Niña, a band of cooler-than-normal ocean water, is once again setting up in the Pacific. This could have far reaching implications not only on Montana’s winter conditions, but our deep drought as well.

“Everybody is hard-up for concentrators. We have never run into this kind of shortage. We’ve been sending people home with these oxygen concentrators in record numbers and it’s stressed our supply.”

Suppression efforts continue on a 30 acre wildfire burning outside Missoula. The investigation into its cause is underway and law enforcement is now asking for the public’s help.

Flu season is here, and health officials say it could be one marked by both influenza and COVID-19, further stressing Montana's already strained health care system. A word has already been coined for that potential viral convergence: “Twindemic”

Two Montana schools announced they're moving to remote instruction this week due to staff shortages. Another is going remote to give COVID contact tracers time to work.

Missoula’s school board of trustees voted to maintain public school mask mandates, at least for now. The board is also thinking about the metrics that will be used to eventually lift the rule.

The Missoula School Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday evening on whether or not to change its mandatory face covering guidelines.

According to the state health department, 191 people died in September of COVID-related complications, topping January’s death count. The pandemic shows no sign of slowing in Montana.