Billings Montana

Billings Clinic announced Thursday that it’s become the state’s first Level 1 trauma center. As a Level 1 trauma center, it will become the primary hospital that people with severe injuries are sent to in the region.

Soon, Montana veterans will be able to receive mobile treatment for depression. It’s part of a first-of-its kind effort for the VA.

Keldon Joyner, a Montana performer whose drag persona goes by Anita Shadow, read books about wildlife and diverse identities at the zoo as part of pride celebrations scheduled in Billings for the last full week of June.

A weather system is edging into western Montana that forecasters are calling “excessive rainfall.” A handful of flood watches are now posted for the region. Cooler, unsettled conditions are anticipated to last through the rest of June and impact fire season.

The Billings Public Schools Board of Trustees voted Monday night to keep “Lawn Boy” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir” in circulation at the high school level, saying both books meet the libraries’ selection criteria.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte held a roundtable in Billings last week to talk about public safety challenges and solutions.

After announcing last month it was planning to make masks optional, Billings Public Schools now says it will keep its mask requirement in place when the new semester starts next week.

Billings Clinic is just one of the scores of hospitals across the U.S. looking abroad to ease a shortage of nurses worsened by the pandemic. The national demand is so great that it’s created a backlog of health care professionals awaiting clearance to work in the U.S.

Of the Montana schools that have met the state's program deadline, most show high levels of lead in school drinking water.

New COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations in Billings are putting so much strain on the local health care system that one hospital may start rationing care as early as this week.