Gov. Greg Gianforte has announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently designated five Montana counties as primary natural disaster areas due to drought. In a letter received from USDA Undersecretary Brooke Appleton, the governor was notified that the following counties were designated, having experienced severe or extreme drought during the growing season: Dawson, Richland, Roosevelt,

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has announced the Montana Motor Vehicle Division is extending the fee waiver for some renewal and replacement driver license and identification card fees through September. The fee waiver, which was expected to last through July 31, was first announced last month by Knudsen to encourage Montanans to add the new black eagle-in-flight citizenship marker on

District Judge Benjamin Fosland presided over change of plea and petition to revoke hearings in Roosevelt County District Court on Tuesday, July 28. Andrew Michael Heser changed his plea to guilty for possession of dangerous drugs. A pre-sentencing investigation was ordered. Stuart Murray Double changed his plea to guilty for possession of dangerous drugs along with three misdemeanor charges.

Wildfire smoke continues to roll into Montana as fire season has begun to pick up both in the state and regionally the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said Monday, July 27. Much of western Montana was near or above 100 AQI, with Great Falls and some sensors around Helena picking up air quality readings in the red, or “unhealthy category” on Monday, a trend that continued from

Jeanie Alderson, who ranches in the southeastern Montana town of Birney, can tell you exactly how much she sold her cattle for in the fall of 2015. And she knows how much the going price dropped the next year, too, when revenue at her family operation dipped by about $120,000. “A lot of money for a little ranch like ours,” Alderson said. In December 2015, after Alderson sent that year’s

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reversing course on a change to a federal crop insurance policy to allow farmers to buy more protection if weather or field conditions prevent them from planting a crop. USDA had eliminated the option to buy additional prevented planting insurance going into the 2026 growing season. This raised concerns from growers in North Dakota, where the buy-up option