Free Republic

Montana legislators were able to shut down Democratic Governor Steve Bullock's attempts to expand ObamaCare in Big Sky Country for two years. But in 2015, with the help of Ohio Governor John Kasich and some legislative trickery, Bullock and his pro-ObamaCare allies got their way. A small group of moderate Republicans joined with the Democrats to change the legislature's procedural rules and yanked the bill to the floor for a vote. The bill passed narrowly, making Montana the only state in 2015 to legislatively authorize ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion. (Alaska Governor Bill Walker unilaterally expanded Medicaid in 2015, despite a clear...

Though Montana's newly redesigned driver's licenses and identification cards include increased security features, they still do not meet federal standards that might soon be required for air travel and access to federal buildings.

<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- A Montana man is charged with threatening to shoot a boy for sharing information about a subplot of the new "Star Wars" movie during an online conversation.</p> <p>Arthur Charles Roy, of Helena, was charged with felony assault with a weapon Monday during an appearance in Lewis and Clark County Justice Court. He remains jailed with his bail set at $10,000.</p>

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - A chat with a Buddhist monk. An encounter with a gift horse named Montana. A peek inside a yurt, the traditional felt tent home. A word with Mongolian veterans of the war in Iraq. No outpost is too distant, no audience too small for U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, globe-trotting to bolster support for Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider fight against terrorism. The roaming Rumsfeld dropped in Saturday for an official visit with senior leaders of this once communist nation of about 2.7 million, home of the legendary horseman-warrior, Genghis Khan. Rumsfeld wound up...

What do Common Core and Obamacare have in common, other than the enthusiasm they engender in the White House and widespread disappointment they generate outside of it? Both programs have fatal computer glitches. "New Hampshire-based company Measured Progress, which developed online Common Core tests used in Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota, has acknowledged a major glitch in the tests' rollout," Chris Neal reported in School Reform News. "Technical malfunctions, such as servers crashing during testing, resulted in only 37 percent of Nevada students being able to take their exams." "Meanwhile, Montana and North Dakota only managed to test 76 percent...

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

Montana Governor Steve Bullock released a statement on Monday afternoon saying that state officials are reviewing the process of accepting refugees. “Montana will not allow any terrorist organization to intimidate us into abandoning our values. The safety of Montanans is my top priority. No Syrian refugees have been settled in the state and we have had no formal requests to do so," the governor's statement read. "Montana has a process in place for considering refugee settlement requests; we are reviewing those protocols to ensure that if a request comes, we take all appropriate steps to ensure that the safety of...

An El Al Israel Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles made an emergency landing in Montana on Sunday after the pilot received an automated alert that the aircraft's engine was on fire, transportation officials said.The Boeing 777 aircraft, carrying 279 passengers and 20 crew members, landed on the runway of Billings Logan International Airport about 6 a.m. local time, Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting supervisor Mike Glancy said.The pilot grounded the plane after a cockpit warning light switched on, indicating a fire in the right engine, Glancy said. After the plane landed, fire and transportation officials examined it but...

Only 1% of the Bakken Play area is commercial at current oil prices based on my analysis that follows. Only 4% of horizontal wells drilled since 2000 meet the EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) threshold needed to break even at current oil prices, drilling and completion, and operating costs. The leading producing companies evaluated in this study are losing $11 to $38 on each barrel of oil that they produce, the very definition of waste. Although NYMEX prices are about $46 per barrel, realized wellhead prices in the Bakken are only $30 per barrel according to the North Dakota Department of...

Judge stalls approved Montana coal mine expansion in 2nd successful suit citing climate change. The U.S. Interior Department should not have approved the expansion of a southeastern Montana coal mine without taking a closer look at its effect on the environment, a federal judge said about a lawsuit arguing the government ignored coal's contributions to climate change. Environmental groups sued the Interior Department after it approved an expansion of the Spring Creek Coal mine in 2012. The case marks the second time conservationists have used worries over climate change to successfully challenge approval of a coal mine after it had...

The decision by officials at a high school in Montana to give up $117,000 in federal money and drop Michelle Obama's healthy lunch program has proved to be a popular and profitable success. Business has been booming in Bozeman High School's cafeteria since its board members voted to drop the National School Lunch Program in a bid to keep students from leaving campus to eat. The lunch program set limits on calories, fat and salt in lunches and mandated that more whole grains, fruits and vegetables should be served in order to curb the onset of childhood obesity.

On September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the...

accounting for roads that have been decommissioned along with roads considered “unauthorized,” the mileage of road closures on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land in Montana balloons to 21,951 miles. On Monday, Media Trackers reported that a study commissioned by the state legislature earlier this year and reported to the EQC last week found that 9,784 — or nearly 31 percent — of the nearly 32,000 miles of roads in Montana managed by the USFS were “level 1 roads,” meaning they are closed to motorized traffic and only open for “administrative use.” However, the 32,000 total miles of roads does not...

A U.S. judge on Friday approved a deal between conservationists and Montana officials to restrict road-building and logging in roughly 22,000 acres of state forest lands that make up core habitat for federally protected grizzlies. The agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by conservationists after the state had sought to open 37,000 acres , mostly in the Stillwater State Forest, to timber harvesting despite what environmentalists said would be the destruction of prime grizzly bear territory. ... U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in a decision last year found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by...

A transient is behind bars after police say he attempted to rob a couple with a sword on Sunday evening on the west end of Bozeman. Diamond Jade Brock Lorenz, 21, is being held in the Gallatin County jail on a felony charge of attempted robbery. He will appear in Gallatin County Justice Court on Tuesday morning to have his bail set. According to charging documents: Shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday, Bozeman police were dispatched to a field near the intersection of Fallon and Ravalli streets for a report of a robbery in progress. A man told police he had...

The Interior Department said Tuesday that the greater sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird whose vast range spans 11 Western states, does not need federal protections ... The fight over whether to list the bird as endangered or threatened recalled the battle over the spotted owl 25 years ago, where federal protection greatly impeded the logging economy. ... could help defuse a potential political liability for Democrats heading into the 2016 election; ... House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop said Tuesday's announcement was a "cynical ploy" intended to mask the fact that the Obama administration has imposed limits on development...

How’s this for American exceptionalism: It has now officially taken longer for the federal government to review the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit application than it did to build the entire transcontinental railroad 150 years ago. Yes, you read that right. Today marks the seven-year anniversary of what has become one of the most embarrassing examples of bureaucratic You’ve no doubt heard of the Keystone XL pipeline by now. On September 19, 2008, the company planning to build it filed a routine permit application with the State Department. The pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil from Canada and...

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.” “I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according...

Mrs. Clinton has refused to say whether she supports building the pipeline, saying it would be wrong to weigh in because she was involved in the deliberations when she was in the administration. The White House has yet to announce a decision even though the issue has been pending for years. Asked again about the matter at a town hall Thursday, she said she has deferred because she thought it was “right thing to do.” But she said she thought it would have been decided by now and would give her view soon even if the issue remains unsettled. “I...

The thrill of shooting real handguns, rifles and machine guns attracts Chinese visitors by the busload — often 20 to 30 tour buses a day, says co-owner Eric Yarger. Shooting firearms — at a cost of $25 to $350 — is something they can’t do legally in China. Chinese tourists make up about 80 percent of the range’s summer business. It’s not unusual for Chinese customers “to shoot every gun we have,” Yarger said. “They can spend over $1,000.”