State budget director Dan Villa will leave that position in about five weeks to become the next executive director of the Montana Board of Investments.

A labor dispute continues at a Montana talc-milling company. The state’s top elected officials are rallying behind the 35 unionized workers now locked out of their Three Forks plant.

Representative Greg Gianforte toured areas affected by the Howe Ridge Fire in Glacier National Park Wednesday morning.

A committee of Montana lawmakers unanimously approved a revised sexual harassment and discrimination policy for the state legislature Thursday. The policy they approved, though, dropped provisions that would make training mandatory for legislators themselves.

A fight backed by hospitals and tobacco companies over an initiative that will appear on Montana ballots this November has amassed more than $2 million. Ballot Initiative 185 asks voters to raise taxes on all tobacco products, and for the first time tax e-cigarettes and vaping products, to fund health programs, including the state’s Medicaid expansion .

Republican Matt Rosendale says Montana farmers stand with him in supporting President Trump on trade issues. But Montana grain trade executives he spoke to Tuesday were unsure if Trump’s hard line stance on trade will end up helping their industry.

Montana’s senior U.S senator continues to reserve judgement on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Judge Brett Kavanaugh is now making the rounds on Capitol Hill ahead of his September confirmation hearings. Democratic Senator Jon Tester says he hoped to have met with the judge by now.

Governor Steve Bullock is standing by his comments over the weekend that he'd support a ban on some semiautomatic weapons such as the AR-15 rifle. “When I view an assault weapons ban, it’s sort of a military, semi-automatic, typically removable clips, a magazine of 10 or more - it's like the AR-15s,” he said.

High tech executives in Missoula told Congressman Greg Gianforte that finding qualified labor, and the cost of health coverage are among their biggest challenges. Gianforte invited a handful of representatives from Montana’s growing high-tech industry to meet with him Monday.

The Montana Board of Investments is expected Tuesday to formally name current State Budget Director Dan Villa as manager of the Montana Investment fund. Villa will oversee the board’s management of roughly $18 billion in state assets.