GOVERNMENT

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari didn’t pull any punches at Montana State University on Wednesday, discussing everything from trade wars to interest rates and Bozeman’s housing shortage.

Private holdings block public access to nearly 10 million acres of federal land in the West, hampering growth in the recreation economy, a new report says. The federal program that could help purchase access expires September 30.

The more information we receive from the people we serve, the better we can develop services to meet those needs.

Early this year, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock issued an executive order to protect net neutrality in our state. Bullock said that companies receiving state contracts must "adhere to internet neutrality rules."

Jonas Hedman, associate professor at the department of digitalization at the Copenhagen Business School, believes that becoming cashless is inevitable, not just for Sweden, but for other countries as well.

Some of the key areas targeted by the Bullock administration under this Thursday’s announcement include an across the board rate restoration for Medicaid providers and re-funding assistance programs for people who require behavioral health and developmental disabilities services.

Even more than the practical implications of the law, its passage spurred additional public debate that could lead to federal data privacy legislation and more particularized data privacy rights for U.S. citizens.

The announcement comes a few days after a Silicon Valley fire department revealed in court documents that Verizon intentionally throttled the department’s data speeds during the Mendocino Complex fire, the largest wildfire ever in California, covering more than 400,000 acres.

Professor John Bailey, an expert on all things fire, tells us about controlled burning, silviculture, and why Smokey Bear had it all wrong.