The State of Montana has dumped nearly all of its assets tied to Russian interests, some $14 million, Board of Investments Executive Director Dan Villa told lawmakers.
Republicans on Wednesday passed a heavily amended elections bill that now establishes broad conflict-of-interest guidelines for judges in Montana, while prohibiting some political activities in dorms and other areas on public college campuses.
The requirement for judicial recusals was added Tuesday as an amendment to a largely unrelated bill, and comes as Republican lawmakers have been escalating a fight with the judicial branch.
Under the freshly amended Senate Bill 319, judicial officers would be disallowed from presiding over a case if they received at least half of the maximum individual contribution from a lawyer or party during the previous six years. They would also have to recuse themselves if a lawyer or party to the case donated to a political committee that supported the judge or opposed their opponent in the past six years.
Expanding broadband infrastructure has emerged as a top priority for both Democrats and Republicans in the 67th Legislature, and several bills, along with hundreds of millions of federal COVID relief dollars, are poised to potentially remake access to high-speed internet in Montana.
Sen. Jason Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican sponsoring legislation to create a massive program to subsidize broadband expansion in the state, said his interest in the subject grew out of his own business experience.
âWe were only a few miles from town and couldnât get access even though broadband was literally in the ground in front of us, but there was no point to access it,â Ellsworth said in an interview last week, referring to the Bitterroot Gun Garage he owns outside Hamilton. âAnd thatâs been a frustration our business has had for eight to 10 years.â