Max Baucus

A million dollar gift to the University of Montana is permanently endowing an internship program that will allow 10 students a year to spend a summer working in Washington, D.C.

President Trump’s announcement of a trade deal with Mexico sounds like good news for Montana farmers. So says former Montana Senator Max Baucus, now co-director of an advocacy group called Farmers for Free Trade.

Baucus says the 25-year-old NAFTA treaty with Mexico and Canada has generally been good for Montana ag producers. He says he doesn’t know the details of the U.S. Mexico agreement that the President today announced would replace NAFTA, but Baucus says a new trade agreement is generally a positive.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock says all flags flown in the state will be lowered for seven days to honor U.S. Sen. John McCain. Bullock says flags will fly at half-staff from Monday, August 27 until McCain is buried on Sunday.

The Arizona Republican died Saturday of brain cancer.

Former Montana Democratic U.S. Senator John Melcher died Thursday.

Melcher’s daughter Joan, says her dad died peacefully at his home in a chair overlooking Missoula’s Rattlesnake Creek.

His 35-year political career included seven years in the House and two terms in the U.S. Senate.

Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines says he’s encouraged that President Trump appears interested in the US returning to negotiations to become part of Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. And Daines said he told the President farmers and ranchers prefer access to international markets to subsidies that would protect them from tariffs.

How might the trade sanctions President Donald Trump is proposing for China affect Montanans? We put that question to former Montana Senator Max Baucus, who also served as U.S. Ambassador to China in the Obama administration. In October, Baucus joined former Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana to form an advocacy group called Farmers For Free Trade, which represents the National Wheat and Corn Growers Associations, the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, among others. 

The brewing trade war between China and the U.S. is making Montana farmers and ranchers nervous.

Former Montana Senator Max Baucus' job as U.S. ambassador to China ended in January. He now divides his time between Missoula, Bozeman, and global public speaking engagements.

Baucus this week stopped by Montana Public Radio Studios to talk about China, The Affordable Care Act, and tax reform.

Earlier this month, Iraq's prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory over Islamic State — or ISIS — in the city of Mosul after nine months of urban warfare. Almost one million people from Mosul have been displaced.

A brother and sister who fled that city and settled in Missoula four years ago are adapting to life as Americans. They’re making a living selling Iraqi flatbread in Montana, and marketing it to fit American tastes.