Tennessee resident George Raines works on mobility issues with physical therapist Brad Ellis, standing, at Ascension Living Alexian PACE in Chattanooga, Tenn., in March 2024. PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) centers provide government-funded medical care and social services to people older than 55, and they are a growing alternative to nursing home care. (Anna Claire Vollers |Stateline) CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — George Raines, a white-haired man in a red track suit and matching University of Alabama ballcap, cracked jokes as physical therapist Brad Ellis led him through a s ..read more

Elevated Access is a nonprofit organization made up of volunteer pilots across the country who will fly people in need of abortion or gender-affirming care wherever they need to go, at no cost. (Courtesy of Elevated Access) With Florida set to enforce a six-week abortion ban as early as May 1 and a near-total prohibition taking effect soon after in Arizona, staffers at abortion funds say they won’t be able to meet the increased demand for help funding out-of-state travel — a development that could lead to more people continuing unintended pregnancies. About this article This artic ..read more

The Office of the Governor in the Montana State Capitol in Helena on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (Photo by Mike Clark for the Daily Montanan) Gov. Greg Gianforte’s campaign released his endorsements for Republican legislative candidates in the upcoming primaries Thursday with some surprising choices, including choosing not to endorse House leadership. Some snubbed Republican candidates said the only endorsement that matters is from the voters and Gianforte endorsing in a primary only furthers the perception of division in the party. House Speaker Matt Regier and Speaker Pro Tempore Rhonda Knud ..read more

A gray wolf (Photo by MacNeil Lyons/United States Fish and Wildlife, Midwest Region via Flickr/CC-BY-SA 2.0) Another coalition of conservation groups, including several from Montana, has given notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it plans to sue to try and force the agency to give Endangered Species Act protections back to gray wolves in Montana and other states in the West. The group, which includes the Gallatin Wildlife Association and Footloose Montana, is the third to threaten or file a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service since it in February announced that there was a W ..read more

Photo illustration by Getty Images. Students already are signing up to attend Montana’s new public charter schools — the Board of Public Education approved a whopping 19 of them this year, and more are on the way. Doug Reisig, with the Montana Quality Education Coalition, said more applications will be submitted this summer to the Montana Board of Public Education. “It’s an exciting development for Montana education and for us to meet the needs of students in Montana,” Reisig said this week. In Billings Public Schools, Superintendent Erwin Garcia said the largest district in the state is open ..read more

The Montana State Capitol building in subzero temperatures on Dec. 21, 2022 (Photo by Nicole Girten/Daily Montanan) A federal Montana judge on Wednesday temporarily enjoined two parts of a bill dealing with extra voter registration requirements that was passed by the legislature last year, which the judge said the state did not plan on currently enforcing but still harmed the two voter groups which challenged the law. Chief District of Montana Judge Brian Morris issued a preliminary injunction that blocks state officials from enforcing the part of House Bill 892 that implemented law saying a ..read more

Montana 2024 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. (Courtesy Tim Sheehy campaign) In the nearly 10 months since Tim Sheehy formally launched his campaign to try to unseat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, the first-time politician has consistently touted his business bonafides and opposition to what he has referred to as the “climate cult” as reasons voters should send him to Washington over the three-term senator from Big Sandy. But the annual report filed in March to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for Bridger Aerospace, Sheehy’s aerial firefighting and surveillance compan ..read more

An anti-Trump "kangaroo court" posed outside the Supreme Court while Trump v. United States was argued inside. (Photo by Jane Norman | States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical Thursday of former President Donald Trump’s argument he is immune from criminal charges that he tried to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. But conservatives who dominate the court appeared open to returning key questions to a trial court, possibly delaying Trump’s prosecution beyond the November election — and essentially assisting the former president as he fights legal challenges ..read more

A bipartisan agreement on government spending for the remainder of fiscal 2024 emerged just before 3 a.m. on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt | States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — U.S. House lawmakers will no longer be able to request earmarked funding for some nonprofits under a change in eligibility made by the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The alteration is related to an uproar during last year’s annual government funding process, when House Republicans, who are in the majority, included three LGBTQ projects in one of their spending bills and then  ..read more

Protesters gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 24, 2024, while justices hear oral arguments about whether federal law protects emergency abortion care. (Photo by Sofia Resnick | States Newsroom) U.S. Supreme Court justices spent two hours Wednesday debating whether a federal law about emergency treatment encompasses abortion care even in states with strict abortion bans, with no clear indication of how they may ultimately rule. A decision could come as soon as the end of June to decide whether Idaho’s near-total abortion ban means doctors who might need to terminate a pregnancy dur ..read more