Montana
Montanas to consider extending postpartum Medicaid coverage beyond two months
Lawmakers in a number of conservative-led states — together with Montana, Wyoming, Missouri, and Mississippi — are anticipated to contemplate proposals to supply a 12 months of steady well being protection to new moms enrolled in Medicaid.
Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide are assured steady postpartum protection through the ongoing COVID-19 public well being emergency. However momentum has been constructing for states to increase the default 60-day required protection interval forward of the emergency’s eventual finish. Roughly 42% of births nationwide are lined below Medicaid, the federal-state medical insurance program for low-income folks, and lengthening postpartum protection goals to scale back the danger of pregnancy-related deaths and sicknesses by guaranteeing that new moms’ medical care isn’t interrupted.
The push comes as a provision within the American Rescue Plan Act makes extending postpartum Medicaid protection simpler as a result of states now not want to use for a waiver. A renewed concentrate on maternal well being amid excessive U.S. maternal mortality charges is also driving the proposals, as is the expectation that extra ladies will want postpartum care as state abortion bans proliferate within the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courtroom’s resolution to remove federal protections.
Thirty-five states and Washington, D.C., have already prolonged, or plan to increase, postpartum eligibility of their Medicaid packages. That quantity consists of Texas and Wisconsin, which didn’t implement the ARPA provision however have proposed restricted extensions of six months and 90 days, respectively.
The 15 states that restrict postpartum Medicaid eligibility to 60 days are predominantly a swath of Republican-led states that stretch from the Mountain West to the South. However that would change when legislative classes begin within the new 12 months.
In Montana, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and Division of Public Well being and Human Companies Director Charlie Brereton included 12-month postpartum eligibility within the governor’s proposed state finances. It could price $9.2 million in federal and state funding over the subsequent two years, in keeping with the proposal, with the federal authorities protecting almost 70%.
Montana
Laurence Fishburne's Daughter Montana Sentenced After Battery Arrest
Laurence Fishburne’s eldest daughter, Montana Fishburne, has been sentenced to 24 months of probation following a 2022 arrest, Us Weekly can exclusively confirm.
Montana, 32, was arrested in January 2022 by Broward County sheriffs and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. According to police records in Florida obtained by Us, Montana called 911 about an ex-boyfriend allegedly stalking and threatening her. After police officers arrived on the scene, there was no one home. Per records, Montana allegedly started yelling at cops “that no one helped her” from the sidewalk near the reported address and approached them, with police telling her “multiple times to back up.” According to the police report, she slapped one of the deputies on the side of his head, causing swelling and redness on the officer’s ear.
Montana initially pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, but changed her plea to no contest on April 10.
“There is no admission of guilt and no conviction and the case will be sealed and put in the rearview,” Montana’s attorney, Michael Grieco, tells Us in a statement. “And young Ms. Fishburne will be able to move on with her life.”
Grieco also noted that Montana’s probation period will end after she completes a 13-week anger management program.
Montana has previously been arrested twice. In 2017, she was charged with three misdemeanors for a DUI but released the next day after posting a $2,500 bond. Three years later in 2020, Montana was also arrested for driving under the influence in Florida. She was once again released on bond.
Laurence, 62, is a father of three. He shares daughter Montana and son Langston, 36, with ex-wife Hajna O. Moss. The actor also coparents daughter Delilah, 16, with Suits alum Gina Torres.
Montana previously told Us she didn’t have an interest in following in her famous father’s footsteps.
“I wasn’t really into mainstream acting,” Montana exclusively told Us in 2010. “People would ask me, ‘Do you want to get into acting? Do you want to be an actress?’ and I would say, straight up, ‘No.’ I knew I wanted to do adult [films].”
Montana further noted that she was proud to star in X-rated movies. “I had a little passion inside me to do porn,” she said. “I didn’t really want to tell too many people about it because I was afraid of their reactions when I was younger. I started thinking about it … when I was 16.”
She continued at the time, “I absolutely didn’t make this movie to hurt my parents or bring shame to my family name. This was something that I wanted to do and I think that, in time, my father will support me in my decision.”
Montana moved out of her parents’ home when she turned 18, telling Us that her mother still supports her. “[My mom] just tells me that she loves me and that whatever decisions that I make, she wants me to be sure about it. And I am,” Montana added.
Laurence has never publicly addressed Montana’s career aspirations or her multiple arrests.
Montana
Group kicks off signature gathering efforts for Montana abortion access ballot petition • Daily Montanan
The group behind a ballot petition to enshrine abortion access in Montana’s constitution formally kicked off its signature gathering campaign Tuesday, telling supporters it is critical the initiative pass in November if Montanans want to avoid restrictions being imposed like those in Texas and other Republican-led states.
Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights had already started gathering signatures to try to get Constitutional Initiative 128 onto November’s ballot last week in some of the state’s most populous cities, but Tuesday’s event at Mt. Ascension Brewing Company in Helena marked its official start to its effort to gather more than 60,000 valid signatures from Montana voters by the June 21 deadline.
“Abortion is a topic that’s become politicized and stigmatized, but in reality, we all love someone or are someone who’s had an abortion,” said Martha Fuller, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, one of the organizations that makes up Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights. “We can no longer let politicians threaten access to the lifesaving, essential care that thousands of Montanans need and deserve. Montanans must act now to proactively secure our right to abortion and CI-128 will protect the rights that we currently have for good.”
Speaking to several dozen supporters, members of the group, which also includes the ACLU of Montana and Forward Montana, said they believe Republican lawmakers in Montana will continue to push the bounds of the 1999 Armstrong v. Montana Supreme Court decision that found Montanans’ right to privacy includes a right to abortion access.
They said passing the initiative in November would ensure the legislators do not continue creating laws restricting that access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and put decisions about abortion access back into the hands of the states.
Dr. Sam Dickman, an abortion provider and physician who is the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Montana, was nearly brought to tears as he recounted working in Texas when its abortion ban took effect and seeing patients have to travel to other states for care, and others who were pregnant after being sexually assaulted being forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
He said while the current court precedent has upheld abortion access in Montana, passing the constitutional amendment would ensure that lawmakers or courts couldn’t take that access away overnight. He cited the Arizona Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding a law passed before Arizona became a state as an example of how quickly the landscape can change for patients and providers.
“Montanans deserve dignity; they deserve the right to make medical decisions for themselves and their families, and no politicians should interfere with those decisions,” Dickman said. “I’ve seen what those abortion bans lead to, and we don’t want to see those consequences here in Montana.”
Fuller said the group already had at least 400 volunteers signed up to help gather signatures and promote the campaign. Akilah Deernose, the executive director of the ACLU of Montana, said she believed efforts by the attorney general to keep the group from moving their initiative forward reinforced the group’s stance that abortion access is still under threat, and that has invigorated supporters.
Mikayla Pitts, the voter engagement and reproductive rights organizer for Forward Montana, said in the months the group has been doing voter registration drives on college campuses this year, she’s heard from many students interested in supporting the initiative.
Emma Foster, a Montana State University student, and Lily Madison, a high school junior, both said that younger people they had spoken with were energized by the campaign because it could have a large say in whether they want to stay in Montana for college or their careers.
“Attacks on our fundamental rights are bad for Montana. They cost us students, workers, doctors and businesses, and they make young people like myself feel like the state doesn’t value our rights and who we are,” Foster said.
The group said the signature gathering effort would be focused in Montana’s larger population centers, but that they have volunteers ready to go in more rural parts of the state as well since they have to gather signatures from 10% of the voters in 40 different state House districts.
“I think it’s going to be a volunteer effort like you don’t see with a lot of ballot measures,” Fuller said. “People are really engaged.”
She said the group will not be participating in Thursday’s Law and Justice Committee hearing on the initiative. Republican lawmakers decided to hold the hearing in order to give the measure an up-or-down vote despite the Montana Supreme Court already ruling that the initiative did not need to go through the committee hearing because of the way the law is written and that the committee’s vote will not be recorded on the ballot petition.
“I think that we’ve seen a lot of theater so far around this ballot measure and we are just ready to get to work and leave the theater up to politicians,” Fuller said.
The group said it was prepared to fight any other possible legal battles surrounding the initiative and the validity of the signatures it gathers should they arise, but their hope is to put the matter of abortion access to rest through a citizen-approved amendment to the constitution that legislators cannot change through lawmaking.
“Some legislators come into this town to rip our rights away instead of defending our constitutional rights and embracing freedom,” Pitts said. “Legislative session after legislative session, they push more extreme bans, and we’re tired of it. And we’re going to tell them at the ballot box.”
ci-128
Montana
Escaped Circus Elephant Goes Exploring in Montana Town
An elephant literally wandered the streets of Butte, Montana, on Tuesday before she was returned to the circus from which she escaped. The pachyderm had quite the adventure, carefully treading across multi-lane roads, visiting the parking lot of a casino, leaving what NBC Montana calls “a surprise” on a resident’s lawn, and quickly becoming the talk of the town. She was “trying to play some slots. Having a fun time, making the best of her Butte experience,” resident Mataya Smith tells NBC. The whole thing was “pretty exciting,” adds resident Josh Hannifin. “It’s not everyday you see an elephant walking down Harrison Avenue in Butte, Montana.”
Viola the Asian elephant from the visiting Jordan World Circus had been getting a bath in her pen outside Butte’s Civic Center when a truck backfired, spooking her, per NBC. The elephant escaped her confines but was closely followed. Video footage showed a handler jogging alongside the escaped animal, trying to corral her, per KXLF. It didn’t take long. NBC reports Viola was loose for no more than 20 minutes. Smith says handlers were gentle with the elephant. “They just nicely asked her to move with them and said ‘Hey, please don’t break this fence.’” Eventually Viola was coaxed into a truck and reunited with her mate. “They started trumpeting at each other. It was very adorable,” says Smith, who credits the community’s respect for large animals like bison for the lack of injuries in this case. (More Montana stories.)
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