Mark Blasdel

This year, the volume of bills Montana lawmakers heard as they crashed against the midpoint time frame was tremendous.

The legislation passed second reading votes on mostly party-line margins.

Results from tests Monday show three positives, which include a legislator case previously reported and two members of House staff.

If passed, voters would see the amendment on their ballots in November 2022. 

One recently introduced bill would give Gianforte immediate power to directly appoint state District Court judges and state Supreme Court judges. 

The bills drew intense debate on the House floor, which followed contentious hearings last week in the House Judiciary Committee.

As a mob in Washington, D.C., forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, roughly 100 people bunched onto the state Capitol lawn in Helena on Wednesday with Trump flags, some with their children and a few with sidearms.

Rep. Wylie Galt, of Martinsdale, was elected Speaker of the House. Sen. Mark Blasdel, of Kalispell, was voted President of the Senate.

Gianforte, 59, was sworn in Monday as Montana's 25th governor. 

Some legislative staff will work remotely for the first two weeks of the 2021 session, according to an email sent to lawmakers late Wednesday.

As lawmakers prepare to meet virtually Wednesday to determine how the 2021 legislative session will function in a pandemic, incoming Republican Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte sent leadership a letter outlining the protocols his office plans to take.

The day after nearly 100 mostly unmasked Republican lawmakers gathered in Helena to caucus, the local city-county health board sent a letter telling newly elected legislative leaders the "safest possible plan" would be to hold the upcoming session remotely.

Lawmakers gathered in Helena on Wednesday to elect their leadership for the upcoming session in caucuses that, at least on the Republican side, offered little in the way of mask use in acknowledgement of the novel coronavirus and pandemic.

The Montana Legislature easily passed a bill Tuesday creating a new program aimed at securing access to public land.

A bill to feed coal tax revenue into affordable housing loans heads to a state conference committee Friday after its sponsor declined to ask the House to concur with amendments made last month in a Senate committee.

A new program aimed at securing access to public land through private land saw the unanimous support of a legislative committee Monday.

Montana would join a growing list of states with legalized sports betting if a bill proposed in the state Legislature passes.