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I take care of patients whose kidneys do not work. As a result, they rely on a dialysis machine to clean their blood. The treatments they receive three times a week for four hours at a time help them stay healthy. Because of the care they receive, they are able to have careers and enjoy time with family. Now, these lifesaving treatments are being threatened. Recent cuts to Medicare proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would cut reimbursement for dialysis by over 9 percent. Kidney failure patients, like...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus says Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will attend his economic development summit next month in Butte. Baucus says Schmidt will help host an online workshop for businesses on Sept. 17, the second day of the meeting. Google experts will help small-business owners create websites. They will also get help with a domain name, web hosting and other Google tools. Baucus' office says most Internet users look online for local products, but most small businesses do not have a website. Other s...
Last month, Chuck Roady, vice president and general manager of F.H. Stoltz Land and Lumber Co., a family-owned sawmill that has been operating in northwest Montana for more than 100 years, traveled to Washington, D.C., to share with the powers that be what it’s like to run a mill in Montana. At the invitation of Rep. Steve Daines, Roady spoke to the House Natural Resources Committee about the web of lawsuits that too often ensnare federal timber sales. He called it, with g...
As Congress’ August recess neared, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., continued to push on issues, including following up on another bill related to leaks of classified information about government surveillance and on a companion to a bill by Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., dealing with nuclear missiles. Tester and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., added an amendment to a military spending bill that blocks a proposed study on the environmental impact of removing nuclear missile silos. Both Tester and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., have said t...
The members of Montana’s congressional delegation have been busy in the last few days before the nation’s lawmakers went into their August recess, including pushing on some signature bills. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., both saw some success Wednesday, with the recess expected to start today. Commitees approved two of Daines’ bills, one to allow irrigation districts to develop hydropower on federally owned irrigation canals and another to reduce the paperwork and processing for timber harve...
When I was younger, I spent countless hours hunched over a reloading vise, cranking out rifle and shotgun reloads for my days afield with gun in hand. Few experiences stirred my blood more than a trip to Herter’s in Waseca, Minn., where I’d spend my time admiring the unaffordable rifle actions and stocks that were poking out of barrels in a rear section of the store. My view of guns was closely associated with the romantic images found on the cover of Field and Stream magazine, and nobody in my small-town, Norman Roc...
HELENA (AP) — A U.S. Senate subcommittee is again taking up bills from U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester that deal with federal land protections in Montana. Tester told the Public Lands, Forests, and Mining Subcommittee Tuesday that it is time to pass his bill that aims to both mandate more logging and expand wilderness area. The measure was first introduced in 2009 and is billed as a compromise between timber mills and environmentalists. It stalled last year amid partisan differences accentuated by his heated r...
HELENA (AP) — The Democratic Party can still win the Senate seat being vacated by Max Baucus, but it's going to take a lot more work now that former Gov. Brian Schweitzer isn't running, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Friday. Schweitzer was the Democrats' best chance of winning the 2014 election, but there are good potential candidates in the state Legislature, administration and the private sector who can the 2014 election if they're willing to do the work, Tester said. Losing Baucus' seat to a Republican candidate would make i...
HELENA — A foundation run by a New York private equity firm pledged $2 million Friday to help pair young entrepreneurs at the University of Montana and Montana State University with businesses that can help get their ideas off the ground. Blackstone Group president Tony James announced Montana as the fifth state with a Blackstone LaunchPad program, a $50 million initiative that aims to encourage entrepreneurship across the nation. "I think entrepreneurship is absolutely the core of the American character," James told a p...
HELENA — Another top potential Democratic candidate is rejecting a run for Montana's open U.S. Senate seat. Insurance commissioner Monica Lindeen said in a release Tuesday that she doesn't want to leave Montana and will stay in her current job. Democrats are scrambling to find a candidate after former Gov. Brian Schweitzer announced Saturday that he would run and had no interest in serving in the Senate. Lindeen has twice won statewide elected office and was considered a top option for Democrats. Superintendent of Public I...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans received a boost in their attempt to win back the majority in the Senate next year when a former Democratic governor bowed out of Montana's open Senate race, a development that could further hamper President Barack Obama's agenda during his final two years in office. Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Saturday he would not run for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Max Baucus in 2014, dealing a blow to Democrats who considered the popular ex-governor their best chance of keeping the o...
HELENA — Popular former Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Saturday morning that he will not run for Montana's open U.S. Senate seat in 2014, an announcement that complicates Democratic efforts to retain their majority in next year's elections. Schweitzer told The Associated Press that he doesn't want to leave Montana and go to Washington, D.C. He had been considered the Democrats best candidate for holding onto the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus next year. Schweitzer said he felt compelled to consider the race only b...
Just days before a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new clinic for Havre’s community health center, Montana’s senior U.S. Senator announced funding for a new position at that health center. Sen. Max Baucus said the position will help people get insurance to use at the center — and other hospitals and clinics — by helping them use the new insurance exchanges being set up by the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Havre's Bullhook Community Health Center will receive a $73,476 share of the $1....
President Barack Obama has, again, declared a disaster in the region, opening the gate for federal assistance to local governments to recover from this spring’s flooding. Obama declared a disaster in all 12 counties and three Indian reservations for which Gov. Steve Bullock requested the declaration, including Blaine, Chouteau and Hill counties and the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy’s Indian reservations. “By issuing this declaration, the White House recognizes the widespread damage flooding caused in north-central and northeaste...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus is asking President Barack Obama to consider Montana as the administration develops its policy to deal with climate change. The president has said rules are needed to curb greenhouse gases. Baucus sent a letter to Obama on Tuesday asking him to reach out to individual states and avoid a one-size-fits-all solution. He outlined 15 priorities for Montana. The senator says the president should approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline that runs through Montana, upgrade electric transmission lines t...
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is bringing Washington to Havre to discuss a matter close to home: border security. Tester, a Montana Democrat, will hold a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee he chairs, with U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., a member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, scheduled to participate. The hearing, “Protecting Our Northern Border: Enhancing Collaboration and Building Local Partnerships,” is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Friday in Hensler Au...
HELENA — Appointees of former Gov. Brian Schweitzer shared the governor's campaign address and received contributions from an organization that Schweitzer was involved in, even as the governor was bashing other such nonprofits for hiding from state disclosure laws. The same post office box address is listed on Schweitzer's website as he considers a run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. If he gets in the race, Schweitzer would be considered the Democrats' best chance of keeping the seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Max B...
For the third time in four years, Montana’s governor has asked President Barack Obama to declare a disaster in north-central Montana due to flooding. “I have asked the president to consider the devastating effects Montana's flooding has caused the people and infrastructure of north-central and northeastern Montana,” Gov. Steve Bullock said in a press release Tuesday. “Montanans hardest hit by these floods continue to do all they can to clean up and rebuild, and we need to support and help them in every way we can.” If the pr...
Montana delegation blasts farm bill failure HELENA (AP) — The Montana congressional delegation is blasting the House for failing to advance a farm bill. The House rejected its version of a half-trillion-dollar farm bill on Thursday amid wrangling over food stamp cuts. The Senate overwhelmingly passed its version of the bill last week. Freshman U.S. Rep. Steve Daines called the bill's failure "unacceptable." He voted for House legislation he called "long overdue," and said it still needs to be passed. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus s...
The Rocky Boy’s and Fort Belknap Indian reservations have received significant grants to help build housing for their residents, Montana’s U.S. senators announced Wednesday afternoon. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, both Democrats, said the Indian Housing Block Grant Program has awarded nearly $21 million in grants to Montana reservations to use in building affordale housing, with $1,421,716 going to the Chippewa Cree Housing Authority for housing at Rocky Boy and $1,116,729 to the Fort Belknap Indian Community. The mon...
Montana’s U.S. senators said they were pleased that their chamber — again — passed a five-year Farm Bill. The Senate passed the bill Monday on a 66-27 vote. It passed a version last year, but Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, never scheduled it or the House version its Agriculture Committee passed to be debated. The Farm Bill sets national policy on agriculture programs and provides nutrition programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly k...
When asked if Congress is taking any action to undo or mitigate the effects of sequestration, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said nothing is happening yet. “We don’t have the numbers to do it right now, I will just tell you that right now, and I will tell you … that this sequestration thing is not a good thing,” Tester said from Washington in a telephone press conference Thursday. Sequestration — across-the-board 5 percent cuts to government programs — was set up as part of a deal to reduce the federal deficit. If the Supe...
HELENA (AP) — Former state legislator Ryan Zinke of Whitefish said Wednesday he might consider a U.S. Senate run if the Montana Republican Party's big names don't get in the race. The ex-Navy officer has been the focus of a recruitment effort by a political action committee called Afghanistan & Iraq Veterans for Congress. The group lauds his leadership in the famed SEAL Team Six and a biography that included a stint in the Montana state Senate. Interest in the race has sharpened since six-term U.S. Sen. Max Baucus a...
The members of Montana’s congressional delegation have been busy this week before going into a week-long recess for the Memorial Day holiday. Freshman U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., reported that in a hearing Thursday, his bill opening up hydropower electricity generation on federal irrigation projects received bipartisan support, including in testimony by representatives of President Barack Obama’s administration. “In Montana, we say ‘whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.’ That’s how important water is to our s...
It’s like watching an old black-and-white movie with the Keystone Cops, or Bud Abbot and Lou Costello, doing slapstick — but maybe, maybe, not as funny. Once again, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency have agreed to use the same hours at the Port of Wild Horse north of Havre after — once again — first saying they wouldn’t extend summer hours, then saying maybe they would, then saying they probably wouldn’t, then one side extending hours with the other not. It’s bureaucratic slapstick. Is...
