Shaylee Ragar

Montana lawmakers declined to override eight vetoes from Gov. Greg Gianforte on bills that saw close votes when passed during the 2021 legislative session. 

State health officials heard opposition Thursday to a policy changing how transgender Montanans can amend their birth certificates. The public hearing drew health care professionals and LGBTQ advocates who urged officials to reject or ease the policy.

A Montana Supreme Court justice who voted in a 6-1 ruling to uphold a new law allowing the governor to appoint judges directly to open benches is also condemning Republican lawmakers and the state’s attorney general for their handling of the proceedings.

The two Democrats and two Republicans in charge of redrawing the state’s new congressional and legislative districts are in disagreement over how to start drawing lines.

The U.S. Census Bureau has not yet released the final data states need to start drawing districts, but Montana’s Districting and Apportionment Commission met Thursday to talk about the rules that will guide the process.

Montana’s governor will retain a new power to appoint judges directly to vacant benches without the input of the Judicial Nomination Commission. The Montana Supreme Court upheld the law in a ruling issued Thursday.

The Montana Nurses Association and St. Peter's Health based in Helena have ratified a collective bargaining contract for more than 300 nurses in the area. 

The Montana Office of Public Instruction has submitted a plan to distribute $382 million to schools from federal pandemic aid. The state’s public schools superintendent is pushing back on some of the strings attached to the money.

Montana lawmakers will consider overriding eight of Gov. Greg Gianforte’s vetoes from the 2021 legislative session. The bills Gianforte vetoed meet the threshold for an automatic poll of lawmakers asking if they’d like to reverse the governor’s decision.