One of the Montana Legislature’s blockbuster proposals to boost school funding received universal, bipartisan acclaim during its debut hearing this week.

The state Senate’s ethics committee is scheduled to meet Monday to start its investigation into a deal Republican Sen. Jason Ellsworth brokered with a longtime business associate.

Bills that would continue and end the state’s Medicaid expansion program are moving through the Legislature. More than a third of Fort Peck tribal members are enrolled in the program.

A bill that would make Montana’s Medicaid expansion program permanent will move onto the House floor. Montana legislators advance plan to give raises to state employees.

The Montana Senate unanimously voted to convene its ethics committee to review a public contract brokered by a state senator from Hamilton.

A bill on human trafficking education in Montana’s public schools is moving its way through the Legislature.

The state’s legislative auditor says a sitting legislator abused his power and wasted government resources when he gave a public contract to a longtime business associate.

It’s National School Choice Week, when advocates spotlight education options outside the public system, like private, charter and homeschooling. Government support for those options will be hotly contested in the state Legislature this year.

A Republican state senator is in trouble for a questionable no-bid contract. Courts side with the Montana press in legislative transparency case. And Montanans imprisoned for attacking the Capitol on January 6th are freed by the new Administration.

Montana GOP lawmakers are prioritizing bills that would give them more oversight of the judicial branch. More than half a dozen advanced on Friday.