Twenty-one Montana counties have COVID-19 transmission rates high enough to trigger the CDC advisory for vaccinated people to again mask up to stem the risk of infection. But Sean Lynch was having none of it.
Lynchâs live music venue, The Pub Station, only recently reopened after being shuttered for 14 months because of the pandemic. He had supported that closure realizing that without a vaccine available, large crowds increased the risk of the sickness and death. But new COVID cases, 97% of which occur in people still unvaccinated, are a different issue.
The vaccine has been available to all but the youngest Montanans for more than four months. Roughly 48.9% of the population is fully vaccinated. People are still getting sick with COVID-19, with roughly 664 new cases last week and 10 new deaths.
TOM LUTEY
There will be an investigation into the Montana Public Service Commissionâs decision not to allow NorthWestern Energy to bill customers $6 million for costs related to a months-long malfunction at Colstrip Power Plant.
The investigation will focus on whether PSCâs decisions about not billing customers for replacement power related to Colstrip shutdowns hurt NorthWestern Energyâs bond rating, as well as how not being billed affected customers.
Most recently, commissioners disallowed customers being billed $6 million for replacement power stemming from 77-days in the summer of 2018 during which Colstrip Units 3 and 4 couldnât meet mercury air toxics standards because of hazardous air pollutant levels. Commissioners concluded that costs were avoidable had NorthWestern managed the situation differently. The decision was made in the fall of 2020 and it resulted in a customer rebate of more than $9 million, in part because NorthWestern had been
After a dispute over the meeting s start time, some members of the House Energy, Technology and Federal Relations Committee weren t able to participate Saturday in a vote that revived a bill saying internet providers would have to give consumers an option to opt in or opt out of receiving hard-core pornography.
The committee chair, Rep. Derek Skees, R-Kalispell, said during the hearing that Democrats who joined the meeting over Zoom before he gaveled the end of the roll call but after he d called out their names and declared them absent and unexcused from the meeting, could not vote. You weren t here at the roundup and you were unexcused, so you don t get to vote in the meeting, Skees told a Democrat who asked why they weren t allowed to vote. There was a roll call, if you re not here and didn t talk to me about not attending, you re unexcused. If you re unexcused, you don t get to participate.
Legislature Seeks To Ban Affordable Care Act Plans That Cover Abortion
Montana Republicans are adding another bill to the slew they’re bringing this legislative session to restrict access to abortion in the state.
House Bill 229 would bar plans offered through the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange from covering abortion, except in the event of a medical emergency. It was heard and endorsed by the House Judiciary Committee Friday on a party-line vote.
Rep. Jane Gillette, a Bozeman Republican, is sponsoring the legislation. She said there’s at least one plan on the health coverage exchange available in Montana that covers abortion.