American Red Cross phlebotomists from Bozeman and Great Falls conducted a blood drive event at the Culbertson Town Hall Jan. 21. The next drive is currently scheduled for March 18. For more information, visit redcrossblood. org or call 1-800-733-2767. (Photo by James Walling)

Lynn Nyquist of the Nyquist Foundation (from left) honors Cullbertson’s freshman writers Emma Henry and Serenity Rogalla. Also pictured is English teacher Shelly Panasuk. (Photo submitted)

Placing in Bainville’s spelling bee last week were (from left) Carys Holbrook in first, Madison Blakely in second, Riley Radke in third, Tacey Traeger in fourth, Xander Vaira in fifth and Zyley Poitra in sixth. (Photo submitted)

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-overyear percentage declines of recent decades outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation