The Montana Free Press

Documents reveal state and federal agencies are training law enforcement agencies to surveil anti-Keystone XL pipeline activists’ social media, and how to arrest protesters en masse.

Daily Beast audio reveals potential illegal coordination between NRA and Rosendale

Lee Enterprises shutters Missoula Independent

Big Tobacco violated campaign laws, commissioner finds

ACLU sues feds for documents related to anti-protest activities

Judge temporarily blocks grizzly bear hunt

By Hunter Pauli, with additional reporting by John S. Adams

Oil and water: The fight to save clean water on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation

Watch Now: “Dark Money” official trailer

By John S. Adams

DARK MONEY, an acclaimed documentary film and political thriller, examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials.

Keystone XL

A broad landscape of prairie grass rolls toward the green floodplain of the Missouri River near its confluence with the Milk River. The Milk and Missouri Rivers make up portions of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation boundary.

Judge: TransCanada must study modified Keystone XL route

By Hunter Pauli | August 16, 2018

A federal judge in Great Falls on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of State to update its environmental assessment of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to reflect changes in the pipeline’s route through Nebraska. District Judge Brian Morris’ 13-page partial order is a temporary win for environmental and indigenous rights groups who sued the federal government under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Environment

Fort Peck tribal chairman signals desire to join Keystone XL lawsuit

By Hunter Pauli | August 8, 2018

Fort Peck Indian Reservation tribal chairman Floyd Azure said he plans to urge the tribes’ executive board to join a lawsuit that accuses the federal government of failing to address the threat a foreign-owned oil pipeline poses to the tribes’ drinking water.

2017 Legislature

Wes Baker sits on a bench in downtown Livingston, Mont. Baker is on disability and regularly visits the Livingston Food Resource Center to stock up on food.

Forgotten communities

By Amanda Eggert | August 2, 2018

How state budget cuts gut public aid infrastructure in Montana’s rural counties. When Bill Kaye says the staff and volunteers of the Livingston Food Resource Center saved his life, he isn’t speaking metaphorically.

2018 Elections

With the midterm field set, Tester faces another tough contest

By John S. Adams | June 11, 2018

The results of June 5 primary elections gave some clues as to the mood of Montana’s electorate, and all signs points to another competitive — and expensive — U.S. Senate race this fall.

Crime and Justice

A razor-wire fence surrounds a windowless concrete building that serves as one of the locked housing units at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

State settles decades-old lawsuit over inmate mistreatment

By Hunter Pauli | June 8, 2018

MISSOULA — The Montana Department of Corrections has reached a settlement with human rights groups that ends a nearly 30-year-old lawsuit over prison conditions stemming from a deadly 1991 prison riot at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Missoula U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch on Friday signed-off on the settlement brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.

Keystone XL

Federal judge hears arguments in Keystone XL pipeline lawsuit

By Hunter Pauli | May 24, 2018

Anti-pipeline plaintiffs presented oral arguments today in Great Falls federal court in a lawsuit against the federal government seeking to revoke permits greenlighting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that environmental and indigenous groups say were granted based on faulty outdated data.

Environment

Demonstrators march ahead of Keystone XL hearing

By Hunter Pauli | May 23, 2018

Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline gathered at Riverside Park in Great Falls on Wednesday in support of environmental and indigenous justice groups suing the U.S. government in federal court to stop the pipeline. The lawsuit, combined by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris from two similar suits, claims the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Land Management violated federal environmental laws when the Trump administration resurrected Keystone XL in January 2017.

Elections

2018 Republican Senate primary voting guide

By Charles Johnson | May 9, 2018

Four Montana Republicans are running in the June 5 primary election for a chance to unseat Montana’s Senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Jon Tester, in the Nov. 6 general election.

2018 Primary

2018 Democratic House primary voting guide

By John S. Adams | May 9, 2018

Five Montana Democrats are running in June 5 primary election for a chance to unseat first-term incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte in the Nov. 6 general election.

Billings

Judge temporarily bars Billings city officials from naming cops in sex case

By Ed Kemmick | April 23, 2018

A District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday barring the city of Billings from releasing the name of three police officers disciplined for having sex with a civilian employee on city property. The city was set to release the names, along with other documents related to the case, at 3 p.m. Monday.