A legislative change in the funding for Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks means game wardens will be required to do more wildlife management work, making them less available for conservation law enforcement needs. A Missoula-based fire aviation company is pulling planes out of retirement to help battle California’s devastating wildfires.

A pilot program to help protect the Flathead Basin from invasive aquatic mussels faces funding problems. A federal court is recommending dismissal of a civil complaint filed on behalf of more than two dozen homeless residents of a northwestern Montana Indian reservation in 2013 to prevent them from panhandling during a rodeo weekend.

The owners of one of the largest underground coal mines in the United States said today that the clock is running on potential layoffs at the mine. The Northern Cheyenne Constitutional Court issued an emergency order yesterday declaring that ongoing efforts to remove Tribal President Jace Killsback from office are illegal. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Belgrade News are being sold next month. Montana utility regulators have approved more favorable contract terms for a proposed solar farm

Some Republican legislative leaders are now saying Montana will need a special session to deal with the state’s current budget crisis, and that they may be open to targeted, temporary tax increases. The Interior Department says it is withdrawing protections for 10 million acres of federal lands used by the threatened sage grouse to open it up for energy development.

State lawmakers started taking up the challenge of Montana's $282 million budget shortfall in the first of two days of hearings in Helena Wednesday. Federal wildlife officials say a cat-sized predator that lives in old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies is not in danger of extinction despite worries about habitat loss and accidental trapping. There has been hours of public testimony in Helena today about the $228 million in state budget cuts Governor Steve Bullock is proposing.

A winter storm that dropped heavy snowfall in north-central Montana Monday night closed roads and schools and brought down power lines. An attorney for Montana Representative Greg Gianforte now says the congressman does not object to the release of his mug shot. As many as 900 people are without power on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation following a record-breaking snowstorm.

The Interior Department's office of inspector general says it is investigating Secretary Ryan Zinke's use of charter flights. Zinke disclosed last week that he has taken three charter flights, including a late-night trip from Las Vegas to Montana costing more than twelve thousand dollars. The Chippewa Cree tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs can't fully account for $3.5 million, primarily in federal funds. That includes money for a corruption-plagued water project that's resulted in numerous

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke disclosed today that he has taken three charter flights since taking office in March, including a late-night trip from Las Vegas to Montana in June that cost more than $12,000. The minimum wage in Montana will increase by 15 cents starting next year, according to the state labor department’s most recent cost-of -living analysis.

One of the Republicans campaigning for Montana’s Senate seat that’s up in 2018 is facing multiple charges for trying to purchase resident hunting and fishing licenses as a non-resident. Next Month Republican Senator Steve Daines is hosting a conference about the high tech industry at the University of Montana’s Missoula campus.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has closely followed his boss' playbook, encouraging mining and drilling on public lands and reducing the size of national monuments that President Donald Trump called a "massive land grab." Yet Zinke has made an exception in his home state of Montana. Homecoming activities are back on at Whitefish High School after they were previously cancelled due to cyber threats that targeted schools in Flathead County. One day after Senate leaders officially pulled the