Gov. Steve Bullock's budget proposal for the next two years includes a 10 percent cut for the Montana Highway Patrol — a 7.7 million dollar reduction that would mean the loss of 27 jobs, most of them troopers. Modular homes that are left over from the boom in the Bakken oilfields will soon be helping house people in Missoula. Gov. Steve Bullock declared a natural resource emergency today following the detection of aquatic invasive mussels in the state.

Two bulls on a Beaverhead County ranch have tested positive for brucellosis. The superintendent of Yellowstone National Park says he expects visitor numbers to continue to grow but that he's gotten better at managing the crowds. A defense attorney says a mentally disabled Colorado man serving a 100-year prison term in a Montana teacher's murder should be transferred to the custody of state mental health officials.

Montana Representative Ryan Zinke is considering a 2018 run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Tester. An attorney for a newspaper and an advocacy group will try to persuade a federal judge to strike down a 14-year-old court order that made settlement talks on Butte's ongoing mining waste cleanup confidential. The federal government released rules today designed to help states improve schools and narrow achievement gaps.

The federal government this week rejected Montana’s request to further delay implementation of the Real ID Act. The Office of The Commissioner of Higher Education says UM needs to further reduce its faculty and staff numbers to match its lower enrollment numbers. Montana's commissioner of political practices says state wildlife officials violated ethics laws by allowing the Montana Trappers Association to use state equipment to campaign against a ballot measure in 2014.

Missoula employees will now be able to take six weeks of paid maternity leave. A state lawmaker who was found to have accepted illegal corporate campaign contributions has appealed his $68,000 fine to the Montana Supreme Court. A Republican state lawmaker has filed a wrongful discharge lawsuit alleging his refusal to support certain bills during the 2015 Legislature got him fired from a sales job he'd held for more than 15 years.

A representative of a company seeking to mine for gold near Yellowstone National Park says a halt on new mining claims in the area appears designed to sink the project. The state commissioner of political practices rejected an ethics complaint against Governor Steve Bullock, saying it was filed too late, did not state a potential violation of ethics law, and that its unlawful release was clearly an attempt to embarrass the governor as he sought re-election. Dakota Access Pipeline protesters

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will visit Montana Monday to make an announcement about public land conservation near Yellowstone National Park. Montana's seasonally adjusted unemployment held steady at 4.3 percent in October, compared to the national rate of 4.9 percent. An attorney for Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl says Motl will dismiss an ethics complaint filed against Governor Steve Bullock next week.

Montana Department of Corrections director Mike Batista says he will step down, as Governor Steve Bullock meets with his cabinet members about whether they will remain for his second term. A legislative committee is recommending the state spend a million dollars on suicide prevention efforts over the next two budget years. Wildlife officials have moved one step closer to removing the Yellowstone grizzly population from the Endangered Species Act by approving a future conservation strategy.

It was a big day for the Blackfeet tribe today. Wednesday morning, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced a negotiated settlement with an energy company to cancel oil and gas leases in the Badger Two Medicine area considered sacred to the tribe. The Blackfeet water rights compact passed out of a key House committee Wednesday, moving next to the full House. A Blackfeet woman who led a 15-year legal fight against the federal government over mismanagement of Indian trust funds will be

Republican legislative leaders are calling the budget Montana Governor Steve Bullock released today unrealistic in a time of declining revenues. Demonstrators across the nation Tuesday, Nov. 15, rallied against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Officials say an Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring was looking for a place to "hot pot," the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features.