"This has been a very difficult year," says Sheila Hogan, director of Montana's state health department. She was talking to hundreds of people online and in a hotel ballroom in Helena who were not shy about telling her just how tough their year has been. They were people impacted by a nearly three percent cut in payments people and organizations that help Montanans on Medicaid .

We’re going on the road with Kathleen Williams , the Democratic candidate for Montana’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, currently held by Republican Greg Gianforte .

Now that improved state revenues mean that more than $45 million is being restored to state agencies , the directors for the state budget and health departments are meeting with health care providers to talk specifics.

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Matt Rosendale sent a fundraising email Thursday saying that his Billings office was vandalized earlier this week when Vice President Mike Pence was in the city campaigning for him. Billings police say the case has run cold with no evidence of motive or a suspect.

Secretary of State Corey Stapleton says Montana’s election system was probed by Russia during the 2016 election cycle. Stapleton’s acknowledgement comes after a member of his staff told the Associated Press that Montana was not among the 21 states targeted by hackers in 2016.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines says that if there’s a trade war, the first casualties will be American farmers. "That is a big problem, so we don’t want that. Nobody wants that. President Trump doesn’t want that," said Daines.

Governor Steve Bullock says state agencies will soon see some of the more than $70 million in state budget cuts made during last November’s special session restored, because state revenues have bounced back. “As we close the fiscal year we find that we’ll have the ability to put about $45 million to restore some of the cuts that occurred,” Bullock said.

Governor Steve Bullock filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday over its decision to loosen financial disclosure requirements for so-called dark money groups. The policy change the IRS made last week means that some non-profit organizations that can spend unlimited money on political ads no longer have to turn over the names of their largest donors to government tax officials.

The committee that oversees Montana’s Medicaid expansion is expected to recommend that it continue beyond its 2019 sunset date. A draft document released Friday suggests expansion has helped nine percent more adults who are eligible for Medicaid join the workforce in Montana. It also says six percent more of Medicaid eligible adults with disabilities are joining the workforce. Montana lawmakers voted to expand Medicaid here in 2015 in part because the bill doing so included incentives to help

A ruling today from Montana’s top elections cop says the Green party violated state campaign law by not reporting electioneering spending. He says the Greens benefitted from an unknown amount of money from an unknown source to help them gather signatures on a petition to run candidates on the November ballot.