Montana

Montana Senate takes up school vaccination and election registration bills

Published

12 months ago

March 5, 2025

Montana Senate takes up school vaccination and election registration bills

HELENA — The Montana Senate is having marathon floor sessions over the next few days as the transmittal deadline approaches.

Among the proposals that got initial approval Wednesday was Senate Bill 474 – on a 29-21 vote. The bill, from Republican Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, would make it easier for someone to claim a personal exemption to school vaccination requirements.

(Watch to hear from senators debating Wednesday’s bills)

Montana Senate takes up school vaccination and election registration bills

Emrich said his daughter had experienced a serious health issue after receiving a vaccination, but he couldn’t get approval for a medical exemption for her.

“People need the right to choose,” said Emrich on the floor of the Senate. “We can’t force everybody to get a vaccine. Most people want to get a vaccine; there’s not that many people that don’t. But we need to give them that option, that freedom to choose.”

Opponents said the current exemption process is working and warned, if more people opt out of vaccines, it will start to affect the state at large.

“The only reason that people in this country can decide not to get vaccines and that this feels like, you know, ‘This is a personal choice, I should be able to choose whether or not I do this,’ is because my kids are vaccinated,” said Sen. Cora Neumann, D-Bozeman, who has worked in the public health field.

The Senate also endorsed SB 490 on a vote of 33-17. It would make significant changes to Montana’s late voter registration laws.

Currently, people can register and vote at county election offices until noon the Monday before an election and as long as polls are open on Election Day.

The bill — sponsored by Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka — would eliminate registration on Monday and close it at noon on Election Day, but allow people to register on the Saturday before the election.

MTN News

Opponents said the change was going to make it harder to register, especially for young voters.

“One thing that I think is going to really suppress the vote is the stop-start — so you can register Saturday, Sunday, but you can’t register Monday, you can register Tuesday only till noon,” said Senate Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade.

Supporters said it would relieve the burden that long same-day registration lines put on election workers, while working within a Montana Supreme Court ruling that blocked a bill to repeal same-day registration.

“We’re trying to work around the court’s decision, and make same-day registration available to people, to the very best of our ability, and still have an efficient, safe election,” said Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton.

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Related Topics:Elections Featured SB 490 School Vaccination Senate Bill 474

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

14 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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Montana

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.

The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.

MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.

MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74

MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.

Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.

Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.

But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.

As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.

Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Montana Western 65, Carroll 56

After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.

Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.

Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.

Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.

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