Great Falls Tribune
States map out celebrations
This year, Arizona will ferry a replica of the Liberty Bell through its 15 counties; New Jersey will host a slate of history-themed 5K races; Kentucky will plant a tulip-poplar tree in each of its 120 counties, and Colorado will dazzle nearly 150 of...
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Trump threatens Insurrection Act
President Donald Trump on Jan. 15 threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give him power to deploy armed forces domestically, as tensions ratcheted up yet further in Minnesota following a second shooting involving a federal agent. The...
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Trump encourages Iran protesters, issues tariffs
WASHINGTON – A day after the Trump administration said attacking Iran with air strikes was on the table, President Donald Trump encouraged protesters to continue the fight. “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the...
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FIGHTING THE CLIMATE
WAWANESA, Manitoba – When farmer Simon Ellis first drove his combine into his 2025 crop, he expected “catastrophic failure,” after a season of flooding followed by a long drought. But instead of shriveled kernels, plump seeds of wheat, oats and...
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Furor continues over ICE shootings
Tensions remained high Jan. 9 after shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis and in Portland, Oregon, drew protesters to the streets and deepened fractures between federal and state officials. In Portland, a U.S. Border Patrol officer...
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AI frenzy driving supply chain crisis
An acute global shortage of memory chips is forcing artificial intelligence and consumer-electronics companies to fight for dwindling supplies, as prices soar for the unglamorous but essential components that allow devices to store data. Japanese...
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Maduro, wife plead not guilty in court
Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded “not guilty” in federal court on Jan. 5 on U.S. drug trafficking charges, days after he and his wife were captured by U.S. forces in a surprise attack on the oil-rich country. Maduro, dressed in prison...
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Democrats face scrutiny over Israel-Gaza war
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker recently visited New Hampshire, where he met with activists and spoke at a town hall meeting, sparking speculation about a potential 2028 presidential run. The trip also underscored a political reality confronting Booker...
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Roberts: Nation’s legal foundation unshaken
WASHINGTON – The legal underpinnings of the nation remain strong, Chief Justice John Roberts said in an annual report Dec. 31 that looked ahead to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Roberts’ 2025 year-end report on the federal...
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AI to review Medicare claims in pilot program
A new Medicare program that uses artificial intelligence to review medical claims is set to launch in six states. Critics worry it will lead to patients being denied necessary care and more red tape for providers. The controversial new six-year pilot...
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Arizona traffic stops lead to deportations
On a heavily patrolled stretch of Interstate 10 south of Phoenix, people pulled over for having a cracked windshield or an object dangling from their rear view mirror have ended up in deportation proceedings. The stated goal of the traffic stops is to...
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Big events on calendar for 2026
As a new year dawns, many Americans are reflecting on 2025, a year marked by historic events including the inauguration of a president, the appointment of the first American pope, and major pop culture moments like the release of “Wicked: For Good” and...
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WalletHub ranks safest, most dangerous cities
When Mayor Frank Picozzi learned Warwick, Rhode Island, had topped a list of the safest cities in the United States, he wasn’t surprised. The charming city on the coast took advantage of federal money handed out during the COVID-19 pandemic to bolster...
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‘The freedom to be unkind’
Alley Mills Bean approached the podium at a Los Angeles City Council meeting alongside council member Traci Park on a June day in 2024, Emmy in hand. She’d won it the previous year for her role as the hook-wielding serial killer Heather Webber on...
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Regenerative farming making a comeback
At Troon Vineyard, in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley, Garett Long has turned composting into an art form, using it to support soil microbes and eliminate the need for petroleum-based fertilizers. h When Andrea Malmberg and her husband, Tony, bought...
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‘Help’s farther away’
In the 1960s, doctors believed heart muscle died instantly during a heart attack, like throwing a light switch, according to the American Heart Association. Dr. Eugene Braunwald’s research proposed a heart attack was more like a dimmer – the damage...
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Education Department probing Brown security
PROVIDENCE, RI − The Trump administration has opened an investigation into security protocols on Brown University’s campus after a Dec. 13 mass shooting that killed two students and injured nine others. The investigation is looking into what happened...
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Federal agents pull back in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO – President Donald Trump vowed this year to flood San Francisco with federal agents – and even soldiers – to crack down on crime. Instead, his administration has quietly taken law enforcement away, leaving the city with less help to fight...
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Turning Point USA gains ground on campuses
Apair of students stood in the Indiana University Indianapolis student center asking a simple legal question: “Is ‘hate speech’ protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution?” Students slowed to read the white board, and many shuffled toward...
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THE INVISIBLE KILLER
Lung cancer? “But I never smoked,” Melissa Derrig said after doctors finally figured out what was causing her headaches, vertigo and the strange noise she heard deep inside her throat last year. Melissa, a retired small-business owner, had always been...
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Top 5 most banned books
With Green’s “Looking for Alaska” at No. 1, the top five books banned since 2021 are: Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” with 142 bans. Patricia McCormick’s “Sold” with 136 bans. Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” with 135...
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President Trump plays blame game in address
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump delivered a forceful defense of his first 11 months in office during a prime-time address from the White House, blaming Democrats for Americans’ economic anxieties in a combative speech that set the tone for the...
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FBI seeks leads in Brown shooting
A search in Rhode Island rolled into its fourth day Dec. 16 as federal and state officers pursued a suspect who opened fire during a final exam at Brown University, killing two, injuring nine and leaving no obvious indication of a motive. The widening...
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Police arrest son in Reiners’ deaths
Police have arrested Nick Reiner, the son of actor-director Rob Reiner and his film producer wife, Michele Singer Reiner, following the deaths of the couple. Nick Reiner, a 32-year-old screenwriter, was taken into custody on Dec. 14, and is being held...
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‘SEEING PEOPLE AS PEOPLE’
When Elizabeth Dalzell’s daughter Liesl complained of severe pain in her left shoulder in June by using sign language, it began a nearly monthlong odyssey through New Jersey’s health care system before the young woman with multiple disabilities...
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Deadliest sport for kids: MOTOCROSS
THURRICANE MILLS, TN – wo medics rolled Ashlee Sokalski onto a backboard and fitted the 19-year-old with a neck brace in the middle of the dirt motocross track. h Other teen racers whizzed past on their off-road motorcycles, no halt to the race, no...
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Abrego Garcia released from detention facility
In a whiplash series of events, a federal judge on Dec. 12 blocked an effort to have Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to custody a day after his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. On Dec. 11, District Judge Paula Xinis ordered...
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Private firms snap up mobile home parks
One of America’s most affordable paths to homeownership is slipping away. At manufactured home parks – sometimes called trailer parks or mobile home parks – rents are rapidly rising due to large-scale buyouts by private equity firms. Although private...
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You asked for it
Rodney asks, “I enjoyed a goat cheese-stuffed date at a restaurant that was different from what I usually prepare. The filling seemed lighter and even a little sweet. Can you guess what type of goat cheese was used?” Rodney: My guess is that the...
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Survey: Kirk killing had chilling effect
A new survey conducted in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September is providing new insight into how college students – and those at Utah Valley University, where the conservative activist was killed – view free speech on campus. The...
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Delivery drivers face different conditions
American households have become dependent on Amazon. h The numbers say it all: In 2024, 83% of U.S. households received deliveries from Amazon, representing over 1 million packages delivered each day and 9 billion individual items delivered same-day or...
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DOJ identifies suspect in Jan. 6 pipe bomb case
WASHINGTON – Before joining the Trump administration, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino promoted conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs planted in Washington ahead of the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, going as far as...
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Watchdog: Signal chats violated Pentagon policy
WASHINGTON – A Pentagon watchdog found that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth risked the safety of American troops and their mission when he discussed a covert military operation in Yemen over the commercial messaging app Signal, but that he had the right...
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AI could worsen school inequalities
Today’s teachers find themselves thrust into a difficult position with generative AI. New tools are coming online at a blistering pace and being adopted just as quickly, whether they’re personalized tutors and study buddies for students or lesson plan...
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CIA-backed units hired DC suspect
WASHINGTON – The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers blocks from the White House served with CIA-backed “zero units” in Afghanistan – paramilitary groups that carried out secret raids against suspected terrorists and U.S. enemies...
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Centuries-old seashells tell history of habitats
During a day at the beach, it’s common to see people walking up and down the shore collecting seashells. As a paleontologist and marine ecologist, we look at shells a bit differently than the average beachcomber. Most people dig up shells in the sand...
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2026 results key for Vance’s future
WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance has a lot riding on the November 2026 midterm elections. He is seen as the front-runner to be the next Republican nominee for the White House, yet he faces the more immediate challenge of being one of his party’s...
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‘I wish this country supported artists’
Being an artist is not viewed as a real job. It’s a sentiment I’ve heard time and again, one that echoes across studios, rehearsal halls and kitchen tables – a quiet frustration that the labor of making art rarely earns the legitimacy or security...
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Kirk death fuels revival and renewal at churches
The assassination of Charlie Kirk changed Danika Meyerson in a way that, at first, made her deeply uncomfortable. She wanted to develop a relationship with God. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. But Meyerson, a 45-year-old mom of two boys, wasn’t a...
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Inflation weighing on income growth
WASHINGTON – Inflation has helped set back income growth to levels comparable to the slow recovery from the Great Recession more than a decade ago, potentially constraining the spending power of consumers ahead of the critical holiday retail season,...
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Black Friday crowds to find fewer deals
NEW YORK – Unprecedented numbers of Americans are expected to hit stores this Black Friday, but they are likely to curtail their spending as they find fewer bargains from tariff-hit retailers. Marking the biggest turnout ever for the five-day stretch...
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Rain, snow may disrupt Thanksgiving travel
Heavy rain and snowstorms expected across wide swaths of the United States this week could muck up Thanksgiving travel for millions of Americans taking to the roads and skies. Much of the country, from Seattle to Dallas, could be hit with heavy rain,...
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Banned books being judged by their covers
Over the past decade, a growing movement to restrict access to books in public schools and libraries has spread across the country. Every year, there are hundreds of attempts to challenge or ban books, targeting thousands of titles. h According to the...
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Get the latest
Find results of the House’s Nov. 12 vote to potentially end the shutdown in Nation & World Extra, a subscriber-only feature in your eNewspaper.
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Senate approves plan to end shutdown
WASHINGTON – The Senate approved a deal late Nov. 10 to end the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown, putting Congress on the brink of resolving a weeks-long fight that has disrupted flights and halted food stamps for millions of Americans. In a...
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Shutdown appears closer to ending
WASHINGTON – The longest-ever government shutdown is on the verge of ending, as food aid benefits are in limbo and flight cancellations and delays disrupt travelers. The U.S. Senate on Nov. 9 took the first big step toward voting on a bipartisan deal...
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Official: Air travel could slow to ‘trickle’
For a third day on Nov. 9, travelers found themselves glued to their phones and computers, tracking whether their flights were among the growing wave of government-mandated cancellations. Some disruptions and delays were reported during the first two...
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ICE guts oversight, pays billions to private prisons
During the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix – an annual trade show for government officials, technology manufacturers and policy advocates – Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons expressed a desire for migrant arrests to be...
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SNAP disruptions could hurt grocers
Like the millions of Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, retailers are bracing for the effects of reduced or delayed funding to a program that typically injects billions of dollars into the U.S. economy each month. The...
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Flight cuts coming due to shutdown
Americans are bracing for flight cancellations at dozens of major airports across the country due to the ongoing government shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that there would be a 10% reduction in flights at 40...
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Democrats sweep off-year elections
President Donald Trump received a rebuke as Democrats swept every major contest on Nov. 4, which they hope foretells a nationwide backlash to Republican control in Washington in the pivotal 2026 midterm elections. The results represent the first...
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‘Much more than vice president’
WASHINGTON – Richard Bruce Cheney was the most powerful and the most controversial vice president in American history. Cheney, 84, died surrounded by family members on the evening of Nov. 3, of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular...
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Big questions hang over off-year elections
Election Day has arrived. Democrats are trying to bounce back from their 2024 thumping, while Republicans are working to blunt the typical momentum for the party out of power as voters hit the polls Nov. 4 for contests that show the mood of the...
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Federal drug prosecutions at lowest level in decades
WASHINGTON – The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades this year after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deporting immigrants, a Reuters review of nearly 2...
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Trump crackdown upends life in some American cities
In Chicago, federal agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters onto an apartment building. In Portland, Oregon, masked officers clashed with protesters wearing inflatable animal costumes. In the nation’s capital, police set up checkpoints and troops...
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Trump targets filibuster rule to end shutdown
WASHINGTON – As the shutdown drags on, President Donald Trump is urging Senate Republicans to go around Democrats to break an impasse with growing ramifications. Millions of Americans were poised to lose federal food assistance, but two federal judges...
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Pranks sparked Halloween tradition
ANOKA, MN – Anoka’s Halloween tradition began less as a celebration than an intervention. It was 1919, and the one-time logging town set along the Rum River about 20 miles north of Minneapolis was having a problem. All Hallows’ Eve was more trick than...
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Congress remains at odds over funding
WASHINGTON – The government shutdown is getting worse, and members of Congress are starting to realize it. That’s why they’ve begun proposing more standalone bills that, while not capable of fully reopening the government, would address the crisis’...
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East Wing erased for ballroom vision
President Donald Trump’s desire to build a ballroom in the White House predates his first presidency – which began almost a decade ago – and spans three presidencies. But concrete plans remained elusive – until late July. Trump was ready with...
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Shutdown will affect SNAP benefits soon
The 42 million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will go without their benefits come Nov. 1 because of the ongoing federal government shutdown, according to a new message from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. SNAP,...
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Striking nurses find new, winged patients
Walking the picket line for more than 80 days, Ian Lacombe and many of his fellow nurses at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, missed the nurturing nourishment they received from helping to heal hospital patients. h After Lacombe rescued an...
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Hegseth wants leaders similar to Gen. Patton
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wants military officers to take risks again – and history may be on his side. h A case in point: the day a 31-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant assigned to hunt Mexican rebel general Pancho Villa was ordered to take 10 men and...
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Persistent inflation is up again in September
Inflation rose again in September, revealing the persistence of rising prices as the job market showed signs of cooling and consumers begin to think about the holiday season. Consumer prices increased 3% from a year earlier, slightly up from 2.9% in...
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More than 30 indicted in gambling probe
The FBI secured multiple indictments for more than 30 people related to their alleged role in an explosive gambling scandal that has rocked the NBA. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player...
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Government shutdown one of nation’s longest
WASHINGTON – The federal government shutdown is already one of the nation’s longest at 23 days with no end in sight, as Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain locked in a bitter stalemate. The shutdown has placed 750,000 federal workers on...
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Work begins on Trump’s $250M ballroom project
Construction began on President Donald Trump’s new $250 million White House ballroom with workers demolishing part of the East Wing ahead of building a 90,000-square-foot addition, one of the biggest changes to the presidential residence in...
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Gaza ceasefire hangs in balance
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s top messenger, Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Israel to try to rein in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while seeking to prevent the collapse of a week-old peace deal hailed as a coup for the United...
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LOSING A LIFELINE
For the first time in U.S. history, there are more Americans over 62 than under 18. With the national workforce getting older every year, many economists argue that having people keep working longer than they used to would help maintain a robust labor...
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Top border official allegedly targeted
CHICAGO – A native of Mexico and longtime city resident has been indicted after being accused of putting a bounty on the head of a top immigration enforcement official, according to court filings published Oct. 15. Juan Espinoza Martinez aimed to have...
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Conflicts bring fears of new world war
Early this fall, Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz assured a group of reporters in Duesseldorf that his country was “not at war.” “But we are no longer at peace either,” he added. Merz was speaking about what he characterized as Russia’s repeated...
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Trump mulls strikes on Venezuelan land targets
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he is considering U.S. military strikes on land targets to combat the flow of drugs from Venezuelan cartels into the United States after five recent maritime attacks on alleged drugsmuggling boats. “We are...
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Path out of government shutdown uncertain
WASHINGTON – There’s no clear way out of the seemingly intractable government shutdown, now in its third week. The Senate has struck down the same budget bills more than half a dozen times. Another vote on a Republican funding measure failed on Oct....
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Trump Cabinet blames protests for shutdown
Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries said Democrats are keeping the government closed for the sake of “No Kings” mass protests scheduled for Oct. 18. The comments, made on the same Fox Business show on Oct. 13, echoed congressional...
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A ‘DAY OF PROFOUND JOY’ ACROSS ISRAEL
Israel celebrated the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks as the first phase in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan was met with joy around the world on Oct. 13. Twenty Israeli hostages in Gaza were...
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Civil servants caught up in ‘loyalty trap’
For many Americans, work is not just about earning a paycheck. It is a centerpiece of their lives, and they want their job to be meaningful. h Decades of research suggest this is true for most federal civil servants, who aim to serve not only their...
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