Five legislators received awards for support of agriculture and rural Montana during the Montana Farm Bureau Summer Conference June 5-7 at the GranTree Inn in Bozeman. Rep. Josh Kassmier, HD 27, Fort Benton, Sen. Mike Lang, SD 17, Malta and Rep. Ken Walsh, HD 71, Twin Bridges, received the Outstanding Friend of Farm Bureau Award. This award is given to the senator and representative who had

State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen said on Thursday, July 13, that the state could see 1,000 teacher vacancies going into the upcoming school year — or roughly one in 10 positions. “A thousand new teachers or teachers will be requested within our 928 schools across our state, our 402 school districts,” Arntzen said during the Montana Board of Public Education meeting. Teacher pay has

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who is leading the Senate’s bipartisan investigation into the Chinese spy balloon that was first spotted over Montana in February, has announced he will offer a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual must-pass defense bill, to assess commercially available technology that can and is being used in foreign espionage programs. “This