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The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal is a weekly print newspaper and online news source serving Virginia's Middle Peninsula.

The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal is a weekly print newspaper and online news source serving Virginia's Middle Peninsula.

HELENA — A bill working its way through the Montana Legislature could result in hundreds of positions within state government being reclassified from career positions to political appointments, meaning staffers would likely turn over as administrations change. The bill’s sponsor, House Speaker Pro Tempore Casey Knudsen, R-Malta, has argued that having more politically appointed staffers in the state workforce would make it easier for elected officials to shift the direction of state agencies by giving them and governor-appointed agency directors more opportunity to appoint like-mind...

A bill that would have eliminated the state’s law regulating wetlands was amended Wednesday morning to tackle the issue of wetlands regulation surgically, rather than with a “meat cleaver.” The bill, which has been the subject of heated debate, initially proposed repealing the state’s environmental program protecting wetlands, which would have left more than 80% of the state’s wetlands unprotected. Authors claimed the program created unnecessary red tape and was costly for landowners.  Environmentalists and good government experts alike staunchly opposed the legislation, pointing ...