Photo illustration by Eric Harkleroad of KFF Health News. A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis, an infectious disease that has killed more people than any other. The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, created in 1921, remains the sole TB vaccine. While it is 40% to 80% effective in young children, its efficacy is very low in adolescents and adults, leading to a worldwide push to create a more powerful vaccine. One effort is underway at the University of Montana Center for Translational Medicine. The center ..read more

Former President Donald Trump addressed supporters at a rally in Freeland, Michigan on May 1. (Photo by Kyle Davidson of the Michigan Advance.) FREELAND, Michigan. —After flying into Freeland, former President Donald Trump drew a large crowd of supporters as he continued criticism of President Joe Biden’s economic policies while promising mass deportations on day one if elected in November.     In his speech, Trump celebrated the fall of Roe vs. Wade, arguing that Democrats will allow abortion in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and after birth, calling it an “exe ..read more

Xavier Becerra, nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill Feb. 24, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool | Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said. The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human ..read more

The Montana State Capitol on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, a day after the legislature adjourned the 2023 session. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan) A month out from Montana’s June 4 primary, Gov. Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Austin Knudsen have big cash leads over their opponents, and the race for chief justice of the Supreme Court is also bringing in large amounts of money, according to recent campaign finance filings from candidates running for statewide offices. With election season in full swing, candidates must report their fundraising and expenditures nearly every month starting ..read more

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast) WASHINGTON — Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals. During a hearing in the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor an ..read more

University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner) WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but “not the right to cause chaos.” “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Amer ..read more

Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary, shows marijuana plant buds on May 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The dispensary is one 25 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles fighting to stay open after city prosecutors began notifying 439 medical marijuana dispensaries that they must shut down by June 7. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian | Getty Images) Leading U.S. Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Wednesday to remove marijuana from the list of federal controlled substances, following the Biden administration’s move a day earlier to significantl ..read more

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sprawls to the shoreline of the Beaufort Sea, seen here in 2006. The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday to allow oil and gas leases in the refuge. (Photo by Steve Hillebrand | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday to counter an Interior Department order canceling oil and gas leases in a section of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, taking aim at the Biden administration’s conservation agenda that Republicans say weighs environmental concerns too heavily at the expense of economic opportunity. But the Republican major ..read more

Gov. Kristi Noem presents her fiscal year 2025 budget address to the South Dakota Legislature on Dec. 5, 2023, at the Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber | South Dakota Searchlight) Who’s to blame for the outrage about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s fatal shootings of a dog and goat? “Fake news,” according to her. Noem, a Republican, appeared Wednesday night on Fox News with anchor Sean Hannity for her first interview since the story broke last week. In his introduction, Hannity said Noem “is being attacked by both Republicans and Democrats, dog lovers and goat lovers.” Noem replied, “Well, S ..read more

Photo illustration by Getty Images. A Billings man who threatened to kill U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, and his family last spring was sentenced Wednesday to nearly three years in prison. Anthony James Cross, 30, will have to spend 30 months in prison, then undergo three years of supervised release, after he pleaded guilty in January to threatening to injure and murder a U.S. senator. He was sentenced in federal court in Billings. As part of a plea agreement with the government, Cross had a charge of threatening the president dismissed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Montana ..read more