News you can use
News you can use
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A compromise, bipartisan bill decades in the making set to help veterans exposed to toxic substances while in service finally looks to be headed to the floor of the Senate. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committe, respectively, held a press conference Thursday to talk about the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022. “This bill will address decades of inaction (and allow) the U...
Montana's U.S. senators continue to push for funding for - and changes on how to fund - the system that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year, likely almost all of the water flowing in the river this year. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., both spoke during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Water and Power Wednesday on their St. Mary's Reinvestment Act, which will authorize $52 million to rehabilitate...
by Sarah Mosquera Montana Free Press MOIESE - The sound of drumming filled the rolling hills of the National Bison Range. Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes and neighbors gathered under a large tent to sing and dance in celebration of a historic event: the tribes' reclamation of management of the Bison Range after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations. "This all dates back to the treaty of 1855, when that agreement...
This was provided by the office of Sen. Jon Tester (U.S. Senate) — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Thursday the U.S. Department of Transportation is providing $13,602,102 in funding for 19 Montana airports, including at Harlem, to expand and repair facilities. Harlem’s airport is receiving $166,500 to install apron edge lights and/or flood lighting, install runway vertical/visual guidance system, install taxiway lighting and rehabilitate access road. “Montana is booming, and it’s critical that the Treasure State has...
Staff and wire report The local economic development agency and Fort Belknap Indian Community have received more than $2.5 million to add to their programs used to assess and clean up contaminated property. Fort Belknap Indian Community was awarded $500,000 in a cleanup grant, and Bear Paw Development Corp. was awarded $2.15 million from the Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Coalition, part of nearly $10 million going to four Montana organizations. “With this funding, four impactful o...
After several months of shortened service, Amtrak’s Empire Builder soon will be running along the Hi-Line twice a day seven days a week. Amtrak announced Monday that four of its seven long-distance trains including the Empire Builder, which runs along the Hi-Line between Chicago and Seattle and Portland, Oregon, would return to daily service May 23. Some other services, such as the Northeast Regional, will be expanded immediately, an Amtrak release said. “This announcement is long overdue, and it’s great news for folks livin...
Montana Sen. Jon Tester held a rural press call Thursday primarily about his and his colleagues' recent efforts to curtail anticompetitive practices and consolidation in the meat packing industry. "Capitalism has helped to make America the greatest nation the world has ever seen - but capitalism only works if we have competition - and right now a lack of competition, specifically in our beef markets, is making it harder and harder for our family farms and ranches to succeed,"...
Montana Farmers Union hosted a debate between democratic candidates for the new eastern congressional district of Montana at Montana State University-Northern Thursday, where candidates were asked about a number of issues facing the agriculture industry and the people of rural Montana. The three candidates were Montana State Sen. Mark Sweeney, D-Philipsburg, Billings resident Skylar Williams and former Billings City Councilperson Penny Ronning. While candidates covered differe...
from the Office of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester congratulated Havre’s Orion Thivierge Wednesday on his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Thivierge is the captain of the football and wrestling team, student body secretary, and a National Honor Society member at Havre High School. He has also received the Presidential Education Award and is in the top 10 students of his graduating class. “As Montana’s senior senator, it’s an honor to help our state’s next generation of leade...
The Havre area may see quite a few infrastructure projects coming its way in the next few years, in part because of recent federal legislation and programs meant to shore up the U.S. infrastructure, a subject of disscussion at the city’s most recent town hall. Havre Public Works Director Dave Peterson said in the city’s latest town hall last month that his department has been in contact with three engineering firms they’re hoping to have work on a number of local projects, including one that will pave the way for Havre to im...
Another major water project is receiving a large chunk of funding courtesy of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester announced in a press release that Rocky Boy’s/North Central Montana Regional Water System will receive $57.5 million, part of $101.5 million of the first round in investments from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which he helped craft. “These rural water systems are essential to growing communities and creating jobs in central and eastern Montana,” Tester said. “I wrote t...
A project more than two decades in the making finally has some significant funding, with Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announcing Wednesday that $85 million is going to repairs and rehabilitation on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works. "This is a critical, targeted investment in the Milk River Project that will update essential water infrastructure for our state and provide certainty and economic growth for communities, producers, and future generations in north-central...
Note: This was provided by the office of Sen. Jon Tester As part of his ongoing push to support Montana small businesses and agriculture producers, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., secured $1,000,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding for three north-central Montana small businesses. Bear Paw Meats, Big Sandy Organics and Evergood Commodities Ltd, will receive $150,000, $400,000 and $450,000, respectively, as a part of more than $7.8 million in ARPA funds for 30 Montana small businesses, including 17 meat processing projects and...
Montana's senior U.S. senator said during a press conference last week he will continue to work to support Ukraine as it fights invading Russian forces and that Russia's president must be held accountable. "Vladimir Putin has single-handedly started an unprovoked war with the sovereign democratic nation of the Ukraine," Tester said Thursday. "His actions are making the world far less safe today than it was a month ago. There should be no reluctance to condemn Putin as an...
County officials discussed updates on the departments’ recent activities at their monthly meeting Wednesday including progress on the long-requested county credit cards officials have been asking for. Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said a draft of the credit card policy has been drawn up but the commission hasn’t had a chance to look at it and determine whether or not they agree with it. “It is, in fact, a pretty big jump for us, regardless of what all the rest of you think,” McLean said. She also provided updates on p...
According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 1 in 3 Montanans still lack access to reliable, high-speed broadband, and along with it the wide range of educational, commerce, health, and social opportunities critical to success in the 21st century. Montana’s number of unconnected residents –already three times the national average – is even more dire when we focus on the state’s rural communities, where an astounding 3 in 5 residents still lack connectivity. While Montana’s policymakers and industry leaders h...
As I watched Russian troops march across the Ukrainian border in an unprovoked war that immediately made the world less safe for our kids and grandkids, I thought about the words of a World War I veteran from Great Falls named Mike Mansfield, spoken in the days after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939: “Democracy — as we know it, understand it, and love it — is today facing a challenge to its continuance. This challenge must be met, met by all who believe fundamentally in the process and [who] love the freedom and the respo...
Sen. Jon Tester D-Mont. met with city and county officials at Bear Paw Development Corp. Friday where he talked with them about their concerns and what he can do to help. Havre Public Works Director Dave Peterson talked a lot about the city's roads and what needs to be done to improve them. Indeed, infrastructure was a massive subject of discussion Friday. Peterson said the city is doing the best with what they have, but the areas under Havre's streets are in serious need of...
Sen. Jon Teseter, D-Mont., talked about a variety of subjects in an interview Friday including the developing situation in Ukraine, infrastructure and upcoming bills in the Congress. The most pressing subject of the day was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which Tester unequivocally condemned as a blatant attempt by an authoritarian power to take over a neighboring democracy, something he said everyone should care about regardless of party or politics. “Anyone who’s concerned about democracy versus an authoritarian des...
Russian troops invaded Ukraine Wednesday in a move predicted by the United States and its allies for months, creating what could be the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II. President Joe Biden issued a release Wednesday decrying the invasion and promising action, which he and U.S. allies will impose on Russia for its actions. He also promised a united response to deter any aggression against U.S. allies in North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine t...
This month, Amtrak put new faster and more energy-efficient locomotives into service, including two on the Empire Builder route through Havre and the Hi-Line. Locomotives 301 and 302 which will be seen on the area's rails in the coming days are among the first of 75 ALC-42 locomotives to be put into use through 2024. The locomotives have been touted as being far more environmentally friendly than the 1990s locomotives they are replacing, mostly Amtrak P40 and P42 locomotives,...
Jon Tester, D-Mont., held a press call Thursday where he discussed a number of bills he's working on, as well as ongoing conflicts in Washington around new budgets and the results of the infrastructure bill's recent passage. Tester said it's already shaping up to be a busy year in Washington, and, right now, his attention is fixed on his Agriculture Right to Repair Bill, which will require agriculture equipment manufacturers to make the parts, tools and software necessary to...
A project started more than two decades ago to rebuild what has been called "The Lifeline of the Hi-Line" is getting some movement. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Friday that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced the first round of funding for the Milk River Project, for which Tester secured up to $100 million in his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now law. "I'm proud to announce the first round of funding for the Milk River Project from our...
Press releases President Biden convened a roundtable Monday with farmers, ranchers, an independent poultry processor and members of his cabinet to discuss the need for greater competition in beef, pork and poultry processing and to announce the administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain. “In too many industries, a handful of giant companies dominate the market. And too often, they use their power to squeeze out smaller competitors and stifle new ent...
Last year, the collapse of Drop 5 of the St. Mary Diversion and the coordinated effort to fix it was one of the biggest stories of of the year, and this year the ongoing efforts — and finally some success — to fund long-overdue repairs to the Diversion was one of the biggest ongoing stories. Local irrigators and residents had been warning for more than two decades that the diversion and conveyance system, which provides much of the water in the Milk River each year, was on the verge of collapse after many decades of rep...
