Missoula businesswoman and philanthropist Whitney Williams announced Thursday she’s running for governor. She’s the fourth Democrat to enter the race . Williams launched her first campaign for public office in a video Thursday morning and then rallied a small group of supporters on the state Capitol steps in Helena that afternoon.

Starting this week pharmacies in Montana will need to see identification from patients picking up prescriptions for opioid painkillers like hydrocodone or oxycodone.

Two more Montana Democrats are entering the party’s primary to challenge Republican Steve Daines in the 2020 U.S. Senate race. Cora Neumann of Bozeman announced her candidacy Tuesday morning in a video.

While federal debate rages over the future of the Endangered Species Act, Montana’s representative in the U.S. House says the Trump administration's rollbacks last month don’t go far enough. Republican Greg Gianforte introduced a bill making it easier to delist species protected by the ESA at a Congressional Western Caucus roundtable in Washington D.C. Tuesday.

Nearly two dozen U.S. Senate Democrats are planning a marathon floor session this Tuesday evening to speak out on what they call congressional inaction on gun violence. Montana’s Democratic Senator, Jon Tester, won’t be among them. But Tester says it's long past time the Senate take up gun violence legislation.

Montana Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ballard announced Friday that he’s ending his campaign. The writer and photographer from Red Lodge says earlier this week he was diagnosed with symptoms of a heart condition. Ballard wrote in a statement Friday that he “made a final decision to cease the campaign” on the advice of his doctor and family.

A new state revenue update says Montana’s rainy day and firefighting funds are looking flush as more money is coming in than projected. But a report from legislative researchers indicates the recent cashflow spike could be a temporary blip.

A former head of the Montana Republican party is entering the 2020 race for the state’s lone seat in the U.S House. Debra Lamm is now the fifth Republican in the party’s primary race for the House seat, which the GOP has held for more than two decades.

The Montana Secretary of State's Office has decided how to distribute $750,000 in federal grant money to upgrade voting equipment across the state's 56 counties. A statement by Secretary Corey Stapleton Tuesday shows the amount of each sub-grant will range from $3,500 for the smallest counties to nearly $46,000 for Missoula County. The money is matched by an equal amount contributed by the counties.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is around a dozen presidential candidate hopefuls who failed to make the third Democratic Party debate. Bullock didn’t reach the 2% mark in four polls and the 130,000 donors required to participate in the next debate, scheduled for September 12.