The Montana Legislature is approving at the Senate level an increase to the homestead exemption. The bill reads that the limitation on value for a homestead would change from $250,000 to $350,000. The bill passed its second reading by a 50-0 on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Bill sponsor Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, suggested an amendment to the bill on Jan. 27 that would automatically increase

•March 11: Seasonal Outlooks and Potential Climate Change Impacts for Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota - Patrick Gilchrist, warning coordination meteorologist/ service coordination hydrologist, NOAA, National Weather Service Station – Glasgow. •March 25: Topic: marketing; Title: pending; Keynote -Dr. Vincent Smith, professor, Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis,

U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Brian Schatz (Hawaii) introduced a bipartisan bill Feb. 1, The “USPS Fairness Act” is designed to repeal a mandate requiring the U.S. Postal Service to pre-fund its employees’ retirement health benefits. The USPS is the only federal agency that is subject to this requirement. “The United States Postal Service is essential to Montanans across our state,

U. S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., reintroduced the “Balanced Budget Accountability Act” last week to hold Congress accountable and require a balanced budget or members won’t get paid. This legislation would help address the country’s public debt crisis, and is the first bill Daines introduces each Congress. “With runaway public debt now exceeding $27 trillion, we face a looming crisis.

With more than 3,000 bill draft requests filed, just a few over 300 have been introduced in the 2021 Montana Legislature so far. This means much of our time now is spent analyzing, researching and talking to sponsors and agencies in Helena to better understand the intent and ramifications of potential bills before they’re heard in committee. We work proactively to suggest improvements, ask for

covid19.mt.gov or the CDC’s Coping with Stress page, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/ managing-stress-anxiety. html. Vaccine Info The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has released a new dashboard on Monday, Jan. 25, to feature county by county breakdown as far as vaccination numbers. In Roosevelt County, 713 total doses have been administered.

U.S. Wheat Associates has created a new film titled Wholesome: The Journey of U.S. Wheat that shows how the people in the export supply system maintain the wholesome, reliable character of U.S. wheat. Among the farms featured in the film is the Hucke family farm located in Geraldine. “In our organization’s mission to promote U.S. wheat exports, our representatives focus on the consistently