COVID-19

Hundreds of recipients of unemployment insurance through the federal CARES Act are now being asked to give that money back. 

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program is designed for gig workers, the self-employed and other groups not normally eligible for unemployment benefits. The Bozeman Chronicle reported Thursday that recipients are now receiving bills, some for more than $10,000. 

A Flathead County District Court judge Thursday denied the state’s request for a temporary restraining order against five businesses alleged to have violated Gov. Steve Bullock’s mask directive.

Gov. Steve Bullock and health officials today asked Montanans to stay home as COVID-19 numbers flare across the state. The plea comes as the disease rises to the fourth leading cause of death in Montana and ahead of a holiday season that health experts expect will make matters worse.

As COVID-19 cases across the state increase, Montana’s rural counties, which largely escaped the state’s first peak this spring and summer, are now grappling with large outbreaks.

MTPR’s Aaron Bolton spoke with New Media Broadcasters News Director Josh Margolis, based in Havre, about what he’s seeing along the Hi-Line.

Amid job losses that haven’t fully recovered this year because of the pandemic recession, competition in many of Montana’s housing markets is also on the rise. That means many Montanans are struggling to find and keep housing.

Republican Governor-elect Greg Gianforte has put together a task force that will help inform the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic when he assumes office in January.

The Blackfeet Nation in the northwest corner of Montana shut its borders in an effort to stave off the coronavirus. Mary Auld reports on central South Dakota, where the Cheyenne River Sioux are enacting their own preventative measures as a sovereign government.

When the Blackfeet Nation closed its borders in the hopes of keeping COVID-19 out, the tribe suffered economically. But the virus still found its way in, sometimes with fatal effects. Kylie Mohr reports on why Blackfeet residents are worried as cases spike for the first time in months.