Montana News

Everywhere you look in Montana, there are places to gamble. Odds are good you've seen machines in bars, liquor stores and of course, gas stations. How did Montana end up with so many "casinos," and what does it have to do with bingo? The only sure bet is that The Big Why team has the answers.

A state commission charged with rebuilding Montana’s mental and behavioral health system went over proposed recommendations this week.

The latest survey of Montanans views of public lands shows an increase in support for recreation and conservation but a sharp decline in Montanan’s reported quality of life.

Nearly two years after losing federal certification, the state’s adult psychiatric hospital in Warm Springs is facing leadership shakeups and turnover of medical providers and key staff.

The mystery of the lodged bullet continues. Is it fair for candidates to both criticize and shun the press? As expected, campaign fundraising is breaking records. Learn more now on Campaign Beat.

Pyramid Mountain Lumber's owners said a changing economy and a housing crunch made it impossible to stay in business. Now, mill workers and Seeley Lake residents are grasping for a future that may not include timber.

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The Montana Department of Justice is blocking access to what it calls privileged documents showing its communication with a Canadian mining company. An environmental group is now suing to access the information.

A circus elephant briefly escaped onto a busy street in the middle of Butte.

A power company and federal regulators are distancing themselves from a recently unveiled proposal for a nuclear reactor in Butte. The developer made comments last week that indicated the project had federal backing, but it doesn’t.

Montanans that lease state land for agriculture asked the state Land Board Monday to weigh-in on an ongoing dispute over water rights.

A working group tasked with reviewing and updating Montana’s Environmental Policy Act is beginning to draft recommendations.

The number of Montana high school seniors submitting an application for federal student loans is down sharply from last year, according to national data.

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy faces scrutiny over a mysterious bullet wound and his company’s finances. New polling illustrates just how close and competitive that Senate race is. And at least one candidate in the crowded Eastern District House race turns his back on Trump.

Montana legislators are urging Congress to help fund a program to extract rare earth minerals from the contaminated waters of Butte’s Berkeley Pit. The Environmental Quality Council is penning a letter asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold off on approving a clean-up plan for a superfund site in Columbia Falls.

State utility regulators Monday heard public testimony on a petition asking them to consider climate change impacts as part of their decision-making.

A campaign for a constitutional abortion rights amendment in Montana may soon begin collecting signatures to put the measure before voters this fall. But that process has been pushed back by Republican officials challenging the initiative’s content and by legal rulings.