A couple of hundred Missoula high school students walked out of class today, demanding tough action on climate change. "It’s a huge deal!" says Big Sky High School Senior Cassie Farago.

Tonight on Capitol Talk : State lawmakers are buckling-down on a number of issues, including increased oversight of non-profit schools for troubled teens; what infrastructure projects to support or reject; what to cut or support in the health department; and whether ratepayers should bear the burden of keeping Colstrip's coal plant going. Learn more now on Capitol Talk .

The State Legislature will be in session on Saturday to take up what's arguably the biggest issue of this year's legislative session: Medicaid expansion. The two parties will introduce bills with clashing visions for how to continue the state’s health insurance program for low-income adults, which expires in just over three months.

HELENA — A bill moving through the Legislature would allow microdistilleries to increase their alcohol production and still keep their tasting rooms. Under current law, distilleries can’t produce more than 25,000 gallons of liquor and have a tasting room. Senate Bill 182 would change that cap to 200,000 proof gallons, which is a gallon with 50 percent alcohol.

State legislators are considering giving counties greater powers for managing aquatic invasive species. House Bill 402 would allow counties to adopt local ordinances aimed at preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species, levy taxes for vertebrate and invertebrate pest management and allow counties within the Columbia River Basin to quarantine lakes.

A bill that would rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day in Montana had its first hearing in a Senate committee Wednesday after clearing the House last month .

Nationwide, military veterans commit suicide at the rate of 17 a day, and despite many efforts to bring it down, the rate has remained constant for years. On Wednesday, Montana Sen. Jon Tester has introduced a bill aimed at making an impact, by containing numerous directives for the U.S. Veterans Administration .

A plan to allow the state’s largest electric utility to buy a bigger share of the coal-fired power plant in Colstrip is taking a new form. The so-called Montana Energy Security Act of 2019 was introduced Wednesday in the state Legislature. Hours after senators voted to table a prior proposal to allow NorthWestern Energy to buy more of Colstrip and pass along certain costs to their customers for up to 30 years, a similar idea landed in the hopper.

UPDATE: House Appropriations voted 17 to five to pass the bill out of committee following its first hearing. Gov. Steve Bullock says a Republican-sponsored infrastructure bill could break through what he calls a “log jam” that’s prevented other major public works proposals from passing in the state Legislature. The so-called State and Local Infrastructure Act got its first hearing in House Appropriations, Wednesday.

Republicans’ long-awaited proposal to modify and continue Montana’s Medicaid expansion program was introduced Tuesday in the state Legislature. Rep. Ed Buttrey’s bill would make permanent the state’s health coverage program for low-income adults — along with making some major changes.