Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/blog/page/7/)
This is the weblog page of Last Best News. Here you will find some news, perhaps, but also lots of commentary, opinion and satire. Just so you know.
One way to judge a team is by the quality of its opponents. By that standard, Rocky Mountain College’s debate team has to rank with the best. RMC takes on a national champion team from Ireland on Saturday in a parliamentary-style debate. The Irish team is on a six-city tour of the United States after rising to the top in a country where debate has a long and honored tradition. The teams square off at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 8, in the Great Room of Prescott Hall at RMC. Continue Reading →
House hears two abortion bills
By Cole Grant
Montana lawmakers heard two bills Wednesday that would change when and how women can have abortions. The House of Representatives advanced Senate Bill 282, which would require, among other things, that if a fetus has more than a 50 percent chance of living outside the womb, a doctor would need to give it life-sustaining support. The bill needs one more vote to pass the House. Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, voted for the bill. “The pregnancy is terminated, which is the desire of the mom, but the life of the child is saved,” she said. Continue Reading →
Raise for care workers rejected
By Cole Grant
All day Monday, Montana senators debated the state’s $10 billion-plus budget. Sen. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, carried one of the more expensive amendments in the Senate that would have added a dollar an hour per year to the wages of workers who care for seniors and disabled Montanans. The amendment failed, as did similar ones throughout the day. “We have to recognize that there are a lot of people left on the table that are not going to get their needs met,” Caferro said. “And I think if this doesn’t get fixed down the road, we’re going to find in the next two years that we’ll be hearing from people in our districts.”
Sen. Eric Moore, R-Miles City, said giving money to programs like these would be a worthy act. Continue Reading →
Caregiver Act among bills signed into law
By Freddy Monares
Gov. Steve Bullock signed 12 legislative bills into law this week, including one that would establish something called the Caregiver Act. Created by House Bill 163, it will require hospitals to record the name and phone number of a patient’s caregiver when the person is admitted to the hospital. The bill also makes it so that hospitals have to coordinate with caregivers for after care before the patient is discharged. Bullock and Rep. Geraldine Custer, R-Forsyth, both praised the bill at Friday’s signing. “Good for the patient, good for the caregiver, good for the hospital and it’s good for the state,” Bullock said. Continue Reading →
Senator pushes for warnings on raw milk
By Freddy Monares
In response to a House-approved bill that would legalize raw milk, lawmakers are considering a bill that would label raw milk. Senate Bill 300 would require raw milk and products made with raw milk to have a warning label for consumers who are vulnerable to bacterial infections. That bill passed the Senate 29-to-21. Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, is the sponsor of the bill. “As a historian I will tell one of the reasons pasteurization became common was because of the number of deaths of pregnant women and stillbirths related to the consumption of raw milk,” Sands said. Continue Reading →
Push made for higher taxes on cigs, tobacco
By Freddy Monares
The sponsor of a bill that would increase the tax on cigarettes and tobacco says the generated revenue will help curtail the use of tobacco among Montana youth and provide a raise for personal-care providers funded by Medicaid. Senate Bill 354 would also include e-cigarette-related vaporizing substances in the tax for the first time, and allocate a majority of that money to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid. “What we know is that when we raise the price of tobacco and tobacco products it has a prevent nature,” said bill sponsor Sen. Mary Caferro, D-Helena. “It specifically helps with kids.”
Ron Marshall, the owner of a vape shop in Belgrade, spoke in opposition to the bill. “And I’m taxed at 74 percent?” Marshall said. Continue Reading →
Bill seeks to head off Real ID showdown
By Freddy Monares
Montana is facing a deadline at the end of this year to comply with a 2005 federal mandate called the “Real ID Act,” which requires states to meet minimum security standards for identification cards to access federal facilities or get through airport security. Senate Bill 366 would make it so that Montanans have the option to get a state driver’s license that complies with the standards. Sen. Jill Cohenour, D-East Helena, the bill sponsor, said, “The fact that Montana has not implemented (it) now, is going to start to affect actual citizens’ ability to get on a plane and fly domestically,”
Cohenour said the state’s issue with Real ID is a worry that private information could get leaked to the federal government. “I think we’ve gotten to the point where, let’s get our questions answered about what does compliance really mean, and put this in place as an option for folks,” Cohenour said. The Senate Administration Committee will hear first testimony on the bill Monday. Continue Reading →
Proposal would head off future sales tax
By Cole Grant
A bill heard in the Montana Senate Thursday would let voters decide if the Constitution should prohibit a future general statewide sales tax option. Senate Bill 351’s sponsor, Sen. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, says a statewide sales tax would unfairly tax people with lower income. “The higher your income, the lower the percentage of your income that you pay in tax,” he said. “Or turn it the other way around, the lower your income, the higher the percentage of your income that you pay in tax.”
He also says the proposed constitutional amendment would not include a ban on local option taxes. Bridger Mahlum with the Montana Chamber of Commerce says the chances of passing a statewide sales tax are slim. Continue Reading →
Mail-in-ballot bill up for hearing in House
By Freddy Monares
A contentious bill that would allow counties to opt for mail-in ballots for the upcoming special election to fill now-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vacated congressional seat is advancing in the Legislature. Senate Bill 305 passed the Senate in February and gets its first hearing in the House on Thursday. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said mail-in ballots could save counties up to $500,000. During debate on the bill last month, recorded by the Legislature, he also said the percentage of people voting by mail ballot has skyrocketed. “Most people vote by mail,” he said, “and we don’t have problems with fraud or any of these other things that people think they’re going to get from mail-in ballots.” Continue Reading →
Infrastructure projects proposed
By Cole Grant
Lawmakers heard proposals Monday for infrastructure projects across the state, from upgrades to university system buildings to wildlife habitat programs.
House Bill 5 allocates more than $50 million in federal and state money to infrastructure. The largest portion of that money would go to securing land for the Habitat Montana program, which, among other things, encourages wildlife conservation among landowners. Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, is carrying the bill. “These are the vehicles that actually build things around the state of Montana,” he said. Gov. Steve Bullock’s office proposed the list of projects last November. Continue Reading →
