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A fire broke out Monday morning at the historic Lissner Mansion in Helena.  The call came in to the Helena Fire Department at 10:43 a.m., with dispatchers saying neighbors had reported seeing smoke come from the roof. Helena fire Chief Ken Wood said the fire started in an upstairs bedroom, burned through the attic and into the roof. There was no one in the house when firefighters arrived and all occupants have been accounted for. Firefighters respond a fire inside the Lissner Mansion on State St. on Monday. THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record The cause of the blaze had yet to be...

PAUL HAMBY ROB CHANEY The Montana Legislature has ended this year with several bills making their way to Gov. Greg Gianforte that will have a lasting effect in the state's Indian Country.  Throughout the 2021 legislative session, 12 Indigenous people took their seats in the Montana House and Senate. The Montana American Indian Caucus this year was the largest since at least 1989, when the Legislature started collecting cultural heritage information from its members. Marijuana rollout After several contentious months, a marijuana implementation bill passed through the Legislatur...

At the end of a press conference Thursday after the echoes of the final gavel rang through the House and Senate chambers, Republican lawmakers started asking where to get a copy of talking points to take back home. For GOP members of all stripes, the list of party wins to show their constituents is long — from a slew of tax cuts and lifting regulations on businesses to reducing access to abortion and increasing places where firearms can be carried. Majority Republicans came to Helena with a self-branded mandate after one of the most dominant election showings in years. They left...

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on Friday, the day before the one-year anniversary of COVID-19's Montana landing, recalled the struggles endured since the pandemic began and the growing light at the end of the tunnel.  "Through it all we’ve seen the resiliency of Montanans," he said during a Friday press conference. "As has been the case for several weeks, we’re making encouraging progress in Montana combating this pandemic. Our trend lines remain promising." For the fourth straight week, daily new COVID-19 cases have remained below 200, while the last seven days have averaged at ...

In the background of the first half of the Montana Legislature, lawmakers have been quietly cultivating the bill to bring recreational marijuana's implementation to life. Legislators in the majority party said last week they hope to reach a consensus-worthy bill — a reflective but revised version of the initiative voters passed last year — and have continued to hold high-level meetings with the governor's office. The bill could surface by the end of this week, a spokesperson for the House GOP said.  Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, has taken a leading role in pulling the piec...