Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s Chief Legal Council Raph Graybill has announced he’s running for attorney general in 2020. Gov. Bullock has signed two bills aimed at protecting youth in residential treatment programs. Continuing a trend of climatic unpredictability this winter, Montana’s very dry March was followed by above-average April precipitation.

Montana has become the first state in 2019 to authorize sports betting. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has vetoed two more bills passed by the Legislature, including one he says would give the Child and Family ombudsman too much control over the administration of the child welfare agency. Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf has returned to his Montana hometown to deliver a speech about dealing with mental health and substance abuse.

Gov. Steve Bullock has signed a bill allowing emergency care providers to offer non-emergency medical assistance in their communities to reduce noncritical calls to 911, especially in rural areas. A 23-year-old Montana man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for what the judge called 'horrific' sexual exploitation of young girls via social media. Tundra swans are dying along the Coeur d'Alene River flood plain in northern Idaho.

The Montana Supreme Court says a judge can't order a public defender to represent a criminal defendant if no jail time is at stake. A Montana judge has ruled a man charged in the May 2017 shooting death of a sheriff's deputy can be forcibly medicated so he is fit to stand trial. President Donald Trump and a dozen Democratic lawmakers agreed Tuesday to work together on a $2 trillion dollar infrastructure package.

At last night’s public meeting in Livingston on the proposed Black Butte copper mine opinion was evenly split between those who say it would be an economic boon and those who don't want to risk harming one of Montana's most popular recreational waterways. The Democrat who lost to Republican Elsie Arntzen in the Montana public school superintendent election three years ago says she'll run again in 2020. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has set a new round of town hall meetings for feedback

The U.S. Interior Department on Monday announced it’s offering more than $27 million to landowners on the Fort Belknap Reservation in north-central Montana to consolidate tiny privately owned land shares common on reservations all over the country. A divided Montana Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that allows advanced practice registered nurses to provide abortions while they challenge a state law that says only physicians and physician assistants can perform the procedure. A man died and five

The Office of the United States Trade Representatives says Montana exported a record $1.6 billion worth of goods to more than a hundred countries around the world in 2017. Police say two officers were injured, including one who was shot, during a standoff at a home in northern Montana on Monday. Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay a $1.05 million penalty to settle alleged federal pollution violations resulting from a 2011 oil pipeline spill into Montana's Yellowstone River.

The Montana legislature adjourned today sending a $10 billion state budget to Gov. Steve Bullock's desk. Republican and Democratic leaders say their parties each picked up political wins and loses. The Montana Legislature completed its only state constitutionally mandated task today by passing the bill that sets the budget for state agencies with a 73-to-25 vote. A Montana legislative committee rejected efforts to include funding for preschool in the state budget over the next two years.

A 1 cent per gallon tax increase on airplane fuel has passed the Montana Legislature and is headed to the Governor’s desk. A Montana man has pleaded not guilty to felony charges that accuse him of making or receiving a pipe bomb and illegally having guns. Wildfires in Montana have made the state a prominent feature in the American Lung Association’s 20th annual “State of the Air” report, which looks at 2015 to 2017.

Montana lawmakers still must pass the state's next two-year budget as the legislative session wraps up this week. Bozeman commissioners have settled a lawsuit accusing city officials of breaking campaign laws in the lead up to last year's elections. Montana wildlife officials are urging residents to keep their distance if a cow moose and its yearling calf make another appearance in Hamilton.