Montana’s Junior Senator has Thrown his Support behind the Trump Administration’s push to end Birthright Citizenship.

Montana Public Radio | By Shaylee Ragar, published 02/05/26, at 
 5:29 pm, shaylee.ragar@mso.umt.edu.

President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining citizenship was challenged and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy signed on to a brief supporting the administration’s policy.

Trump’s order relies on a narrow application of the U.S. Constitution’s citizenship clause. It would end automatic citizenship for children of parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the country. The administration argues such parents are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Montana-Canada Border Traffic Falls Sharply in 2025

Passenger and freight traffic across Montana’s northern border fell sharply in the first 11 months of 2025, with commercial freight seeing the sharpest decline from a for comparable periods in at least 30 years. The number of inbound people crossing also saw the steepest year-over-year percentage declines of recent decades outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics indicates that full shipping container crossings into Montana for the first 11 months of the year fell 21% from its 30-year peak in 2024. Over the same period, individual crossings dropped 29%. The drop comes after years of sharp increases in freight and individual crossings coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economy and tourism experts interviewed by MTFP pointed to President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff battle with Canada as a likely explanation for the drop.

McDonald's Owners Apologize After Browning Wrestling Team Denied Service

The owners of a McDonald’s in Ronan [Montana] on Friday apologized after a viral video appeared to show an employee refusing service to the Browning High School wrestling team. 

The 14-second video, reportedly recorded on Thursday, shows a man who appears to be an employee saying, “Browning school is not allowed. We’re not allowed to serve you guys.”

A student can be heard mumbling, “I guess they don’t like Indians here.” Browning is located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana.

Lawsuit says State isn’t Managing Rivers for the Benefit of All

[For more information, read source documents]

Graham Coppes entered the spring hopeful. Despite a slow start to winter, most western Montana river basins were reporting a near-average snowpack by April. But when warm May temperatures brought an underwhelming runoff, Coppes knew it would be a long, difficult summer for aquatic ecosystems and the $1.3 billion recreational economy they support. 

Slow-motion alarm set in as Coppes, a Missoula-based attorney, watched one blue-ribbon river after another dip to record lows. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks [FWP], which forecasted the difficult summer ahead in June, responded by partially or fully closing more than a dozen rivers to fishing after they reached low streamflow thresholds and high temperatures that can endanger trout.

In a lawsuit filed on Aug. 8, Coppes argued that FWP should have done more for iconic rivers such as the Blackfoot, Clark Fork and Big Hole to benefit the fish that live in them and the broader Montana public. Since then, rivers have remained at record lows, and Coppes told Montana Free Press in a recent conversation that the future is going to be “pretty bleak” for Montana’s aquatic ecosystems unless the state starts using and enforcing its water rights and reservations to bolster instream flows more assertively and proactively. ...

Guy Alsentzer with Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, says FWP is choosing politics over science, even as rivers are “diminished and degraded” by extreme drought and unchecked pollution.

Complaint: Public Service Commissioner Using State Resources for Private Business

Keila Szpaller, Friday October 31, 2025, 

Montana Public Service Commission (via PSC Twitter account).  Public Service Commissioner Annie Bukacek, also a doctor in private practice, is using state equipment to copy medical records unrelated to agency work, a complaint filed this week with the state ethics watchdog alleges.

Bukacek, elected in 2022, declined Friday to address the question and directed the Daily Montanan to the Public Service Commission director.

Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar filed the complaint, dated Wednesday, with the Commissioner of Political Practices, which monitors and enforces ethical standards for public officers.

In the complaint, Molnar, recently ousted as president, asks the Commissioner of Political Practices to estimate the money Bukacek owes ratepayers for her alleged abuse of state resources and levy penalties accordingly.  Bukacek is a licensed physician based in Kalispell, according to the Montana Board of Medical Examiners. She is on the Logan Health Medical Center receptionist directory. 

The State has Money for a Parenting Program at the Prison, But it’s not operating Yet

 After losing federal funding, the Department of Corrections hasn’t restarted a parenting program that state lawmakers put $120,000 toward earlier this year. The program had served roughly 160 fathers and 400 children during the program’s four-year tenure. By Zeke Lloyd

Frederick Maw VI was 14 months old when his father, Freddie J, received a 20-year sentence to Montana State Prison in 2018. Caterina Maw, Little Freddie’s grandmother, remembers driving alongside a “trembling and scared” child on a bus to a small red cabin in 2022 during her grandson’s first trip to meet his father. 

“He saw the swing set and he saw all the dads standing there with smiles on their faces — then he just got this huge smile and ran to his dad to give him a hug,” Caterina Maw said in a recent interview.

The pair reunited through a Montana Department of Corrections initiative called Connecting Adults and Minors through Positive Parenting, a multi-part program that included a three-month parenting course for incarcerated parents. Parents also were able to see their children in person and have dedicated video calls.

Montana Public Service Commission Declined to Make Declaratory Ruling

The Montana Public Service Commission declined to make a declaratory ruling incorporating climate change into its regulatory oversight of the energy sector.

A coalition of 41 businesses and nonprofits submitted a petition to the PSC in March of 2024 in the wake of a state district court finding in Held v. Montana that the state’s right to a “clean and healthful environment” incorporates a right to a “stable climate system.” 

The petition before the PSC had two parts. One asked the agency to adopt rulings “affirming its obligation to consider the adverse climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions under the Montana Constitution and the statutory and regulatory framework governing its decision making.” The other included a specific rule giving the commission a framework for weighing the social, economic and environmental costs of different energy sources. That framework, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is called the Social Costs of Greenhouse Gases.

In his presentation before commissioners on Tuesday, PSC Chief Legal Staff Lucas Hamilton argued that the authority for declaratory rulemaking rests with the judicial and legislative branches, not with an executive-branch agency such as the Public Service Commission. He urged the commission to reject the declaratory ruling part of the petition. The commission has not yet acted on the other part of the petition regarding the implementation of the Social Costs of Greenhouse Gases analysis.

Montana GOP in Court Over Blocking some Republican Senators from Electing Party Leadership

The Montana Republican Party in court Wednesday refuted allegations that it wrongly disenfranchised Republican state senators at its June convention.

Responding to allegations publicly for the first time, Montana GOP leadership told a Lewis and Clark County district court judge that it had the right under the First Amendment to manage its affairs as it sees fit, including censuring and expelling members.

At issue is the party’s decision to deny nine Republican members of the Montana Senate a chance to elect new party leadership during the convention. Members of the hard-right Montana Freedom Caucus called on MTGOP delegates to not recognize the nine senators and prevailed on a 136-to-97 vote.

The nine Republican lawmakers are entangled in a months-long feud tied to their votes that broke with the rest of the GOP caucus on several key issues during the 2025 Legislature, including passage of the state budget and a version of property tax relief generally opposed by a majority of Republican senators. Sens. Jason Ellsworth, of Hamilton; Denley Loge, of St. Regis; and Shelley Vance, of Belgrade sued over their disenfranchisement. Vance took the witness stand Wednesday, receiving pointed questions from GOP attorney Emily Jones.

Felony Warrants Issued for Father and Son

MILES CITY — Felony warrants have been issued for a Michigan father and son accused of killing a trophy bull elk in Treasure County and leaving most of the meat to waste in the field.

Ronald Schubert and his son Chad Schubert, both of Belleville, Michigan, each face felony charges for unlawful possession of a trophy bull elk. Chad Schubert faces an additional felony charge for tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

The investigation began when the Rosebud County Sheriff’s Office provided information to Montana game wardens. Warden Kyle Queer determined that Chad Schubert allegedly killed the trophy bull elk in Hunting District 702 without a valid permit.

“The elk also was taken on private land without permission, killed with a rifle during the archery-only season, and most of the meat was abandoned and left to waste in the field,” according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

The investigation revealed that Ronald Schubert was present during the incident and allegedly assisted with removing and transporting the head and antlers while leaving the carcass behind.

Chad Schubert also faces four misdemeanor charges: hunting during a closed season, failure to obtain landowner permission, waste of a game animal, and violation of commission rules for failing to return to the kill site. Ronald Schubert was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass.

Montana to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day

Bill establishing Indigenous Peoples Day in Montana becomes law

After a decade-long fight between Republican state lawmakers and members of Montana’s American Indian Caucus, the state of Montana — home to 12 tribes and seven reservations — will now recognize Indigenous Peoples Day.  

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on May 9 signed Senate Bill 224 into law, making Indigenous Peoples Day an official state holiday, alongside Columbus Day, on the second Monday in October. 

Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, the bill’s sponsor, said the bill’s passage is “good for Montana.”

“This is about learning from one another and bringing each other together,” he told Montana Free Press. “It’s something we can take pride in. … We’re going to have a day where we can empower our youth and future generations in a positive way.”

Montana Lawmakers Weigh Assisted Suicide Bills

https://www.choiceillusionmontana.org/2025/03/montana-lawmakers-weigh-assisted.html

Opponents and advocates say the issue isn't red or blue--it's emotional and personal. 

On Friday, a Montana bill that would have codified assisted suicide into state law died in a state House committee after gaining bipartisan support.

Two days before, the committee heard more than an hour of emotional testimony on the bill from members of the public. Rep. Tracy Sharp, a Republican, acknowledged that the bill raises questions about the sanctity of life.

“I’m anti-abortion,” he said ahead of a vote on the bill. “But I just can’t vote to deny all the people that we heard … something that I would want for myself.” Sharp said that voting no on the measure “would be too hypocritical. I would like to die with dignity.”

Assisted suicide in Montana has taken place in a legal gray area since 2009, when the state Supreme Court ruled that doctors can cite the consent of a patient as a defense to a charge of murder. Despite a longstanding Republican majority in the House and Senate, the topic has divided the state legislature for years. Montana has neither officially legalized the practice nor closed the court-created loophole. As legislators consider the issue again this year, lawmakers and lobbyists attribute the bipartisan support and opposition to assisted suicide to the personal nature and emotional complexity of the debate.

Bill bolstering Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force becomes Law

While Montana is one of only a few states to have a dedicated Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force, the inability of that organization to accept funding has hamstrung its efforts. [Pictured members listed below] *

That will soon change thanks to a new state law. 

Brought by Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, House Bill 83 establishes a state special revenue account, allowing the task force to receive donations, grants, gifts and other money for training, equipment and operational expenses. The bill also appropriates $1 in state funding to get the new account started. 

HB 83 sailed through the House and Senate and was signed into law Thursday by the governor. It takes effect July 1.