Matt Jennings

The state health department is offering $6.5 million in grant funds to help county jails offer mental health evaluations, medication and stabilization services to inmates. The hope is that inmates on the waiting list for care at the Montana State Hospital can get that care in jail instead.

Montanans living with severe mental illness are cycling in and out of ERs, jails, shelters and the state psychiatric hospital. Many never get the long-term help they need. One Missoula woman has been caught in that cycle for years. Her daughter uprooted her life to help. MTPR's Aaron Bolton brings us their story and reports on whether proposed reforms to the state mental health system offer them hope.

The 2023 Legislature passed a bill criminalizing the use of three common ‘date rape’ drugs in response to college students’ concerns. Now that the school year is starting back up, legal officials in the state say the law hasn’t changed the legal landscape surrounding these crimes.

So-called “date-rape drugs” are commonly slipped into someone’s drink without them knowing prior to a sexual assault. In the past, drugging someone wasn’t considered assault on its own. A new law that went into effect this month changes that.

A man accused of threatening and intimidating Missoula public officials was arrested this week and made his initial court appearance Thursday.It's a case…