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EPA testing yards near former Spokane factory
Seattle Times
07/01/2009
Crews are testing residential yards near W.R. Grace & Co.'s former insulation factory in Spokane for asbestos fibers that can cause cancer. The work was prompted by the recent declaration of Libby, Mont., as a public health emergency.
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Tribes keep eye on health care reform
Missoulian
06/30/2009
As much as reform could affect any individual American, it has the potential to affect tribal members more. That's because of the unique relationship Indian nations have with the federal government, which must offer free health care on reservations. No one knows how national health reform may affect that agreement.
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Montana Congress votes on emissions bill
Missoulian
06/30/2009
US Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., voted "no" on the climate change legislation that passed the House last week - but Montana's other two members of Congress aren't saying how they'll vote on the measure.
The bill, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases by limiting emissions from major industrial sources, such as power plants, passed the House on Friday on a 219-212 vote.
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Missoulia leaders compromise on 'granny flats'
Missoulian
06/25/2009
"Granny flats" -- other mother-in-law apartments -- likely will be easier to build in some parts of town, while and in other parts of Missoula new ones probably won't be allowed at all.
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Missoula zoning for 'granny flats'
Missoulian
06/24/2009
A rewrite of Missoula zoning laws has sparked controversy over mother-in-law units or "granny flats." But many citizens also praised the new regulations for considering business interests, for looking at transit and affordability, for planning for a future when many more people will live alone instead of with families, and even for being readable.
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Pine beetle damage could fuel Montana wildfires
Missoulian
06/23/2009
State Forester Bob Harrington warned Monday that the pine trees damaged and killed by beetles could provide fuel for major fires here this year.
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Coalition petitioning for Glacier Park protections
Missoulian
06/22/2009
Glacier National Park and its neighbor to the north are endangered by mining proposals, according to tribal leaders, business interests and conservationists petitioning the international community. They say Canada has failed to meet conservation obligations by moving ahead with controversial coal and coalbed methane energy development plans in southeastern BC, on the borders of the parks.
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Asbestos-coated Libby, MT, gets federal cleanup
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/18/2009
The Environmental Protection Agency pledged at least $125 million to speed Libby, Montana's cleanup work of going door-to-door, raising tents over contaminated homes, removing contaminated soil and vacuuming out attics, and any other surface once contaminated by asbestos miners returning from work.
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Asbestos health emergency in Montana
Washington Post
06/17/2009
The Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in northwest Montana.
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EPA calls MT asbestos site a public health emergency
Oregonian
06/17/2009
Federal officials Wednesday declared a public health emergency in the northwestern Montana towns of Libby and Troy, an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund National Priority site because of asbestos in the land and air.
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Is native health care a federal failure?
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
06/16/2009
On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is, "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one because it is sometimes true. Officials said they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
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Beetle-ravaged forests prone to summer fires
AP
06/16/2009
Officials from Rocky Mountain states urged Congress on Tuesday help them avert a potential catastrophe this summer as they grapple with millions of acres of beetle-ravaged pines that are prone to fire.
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Zoning fear keeps MT fire measures from passing
Missoulian
06/14/2009
Attempts to pass legislation that would encourage rural property owners to fireproof their property died in the 2009 Legislature, over fears that identifying what the wildland-urban interface is could limit what kind of growth can take place there.
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Health industry big donor to Baucus
Missoulian
06/15/2009
As Montana Sen. Max Baucus has taken the lead on health-reform legislation in the US Senate, he's also become a leader in something else: campaign money received from health and insurance industry interests.
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NW biologist trying to cheat cheatgrass
KPLU
06/09/2009
This summer is expected to be drier than usual, and one of the most dangerous fuels for wildfires across the West is cheatgrass, an invasive weed that burns like gasoline spreads rapidly and is hard to kill. Now scientists are testing a seed-killing fungus with an ominous name: Black Fingers of Death.
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Study: Federal firefighting efforts deficient
Missoulian
06/09/2009
While more than 1,000 homes across the West burn each year in forest and brush fires, only a fraction of federal efforts to reduce fire danger in the region has been concentrated in the communities at greatest risk, a group of scientists found.
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Public option health care is political dynamite in DC
Missoulian
06/09/2009
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., says a "strong public-option" health plan will be part of health reform legislation produced this summer in Congress. The public option is a government-run health insurance plan that would be offered for sale to the general public, to compete against private insurance.
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Stimulus awards favor big firms over community
Missoulian
06/07/2009
Across the nation, local firms can expect to lose billions of economic stimulus dollars to large multinational corporations, thanks to a government contracting scheme that puts paperwork speed ahead of community recovery.
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'Public option' health care is political dynamite
Missoulian
06/08/2009
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., says a “strong public-option” health plan - a government-run health plan to compete with the private sector - will be part of health reform legislation produced this summer in Congress. But details are cloudy, reflecting the reflect the political dynamite that the public option has become.
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Hydrogen-powered cars fuel interest
Missoulian
06/05/2009
The phone at Missoula's Lolo Community Garage has been ringing off the hook, ever since a Missoulian feature story ran last month, showcasing the garage's hydrogen-powered cars. The curious, the skeptical, the unbelievers have all come a-calling.
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Grasshopper infestation threatens Montana farms
Missoulian
06/04/2009
Hoards of grasshoppers are threatening cropland in parts of Lake and Sanders counties in Montana, with officials calling it the worst infestation in 20 years.
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Baucus, Kennedy to push health care reform bill
Missoulian
06/02/2009
Montana Sen. Max Baucus, who has spearheaded health reform discussions in the US Senate, and Sen. Ted Kennedy will work toward producing a single, comprehensive bill by August. It will include a government-run insurance plan and reform the private health insurance market to extend coverage to all, attempt to control rising costs and revise how hospitals and physicians are paid, Baucus said.
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Baucus, Kennedy push single health care reform bill
Missoulian
06/02/2009
Montana Sen. Max Baucus, who's been spearheading health reform discussions in the US Senate, said Monday he and Sen. Ted Kennedy will work toward producing a single, comprehensive bill by August.
The bill, a product of the two key committees chaired respectively by Baucus and Kennedy, will reform the private health insurance market to extend coverage to all, attempt to control rising costs and revise how hospitals and physicians are paid for medical care, Baucus said in a telephone interview.
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Following forest stimulus funds proves difficult in Montana
Missoulian
06/02/2009
Tracking federal stimulus dollars is kind of like tracking a deer in the woods: It appears, it vanishes, suddenly the whole herd wanders by.
That's been the case with American Reinvestment and Recovery Act allocations to the US Forest Service in Montana.
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Finding forest stimulus money proves difficult
Missoulian
06/01/2009
Tracking federal stimulus dollars is kind of like tracking a deer in the woods: It appears, it vanishes, suddenly the whole herd wanders by. In Montana, the state's congressional delegation said $48 million “shovel-ready” forestry projects were being funded just as the federal Web site listing those projects was pulled off-line.
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