University of Providence will close after the 2026-27 school year

If you've followed the independent candidates' ballot story, here's where it stands: the Cascade County Attorney's Office filed four misdemeanor counts against Nathan Ross Harlan over allegedly forged signatures on petitions for independent U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and independent U.S. House candidate Mike Eisenhauer. Investigators found no wrongdoing by either candidate, and the flagged signatures weren't counted toward ballot qualification.

In May, KSEN reports, an elections office employee spotted her adult daughter's name on a petition, with her maiden name and old Montana address. Detective Nick Allison found that the two gatherers Harlan allegedly used, "Mr. Ball" and "Mr. Diaz," don't exist. Court documents describe an out-of-state political firm allegedly exploiting independent candidates' signature needs, and both campaigns had retained Ballot Access Marketing, LLC. Elections Administrator Terry Thompson said she hopes for legislative changes to how petitions are handled.

• Description: 5-foot-9, 210 pounds, brown hair and eyes
• Tip: contact the Cascade County Sheriff's Office
• Officials say he did similar work in North Carolina
• Harlan is presumed innocent unless proven guilty

If you vote in Great Falls, you may live in a House district the parties are watching. Both parties have placed a special focus on twelve seats as battleground districts around Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings after redistricting. Sen. Greg Hertz, who chairs the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, named House Districts 3 and 4 in Great Falls among Republicans' targets.

Republicans held 58 House seats and 32 Senate seats in 2025, and Democrats held 42 and 18. Hertz told KTVH he sees one or two Senate seats and two to four House seats that could go either way. Ciara Maxwell, who directs the Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said Democrats hope to keep what they have and possibly pick up a couple more in each chamber.

• Republicans have held both chambers for 15 years
• 2024: Democrats gained 10 House seats and two Senate seats
• Republican goal: 4.7% flat income tax, projected $140 million less revenue
• The 2027 session starts in January

Two Box Elder men were sentenced to federal prison for trafficking fentanyl on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation as part of a larger drug ring. Allen Nathan Parisian, 34, known as "Little Al," got 15 years Tuesday. Tanner Cole Parisian, 27, got 10 years last week. Both pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.

Federal prosecutors told KECI the ring moved fentanyl and methamphetamine on the reservation between 2023 and 2025. Tanner Parisian was riding in a truck Montana Highway Patrol pulled over near Vaughn in July 2024. Investigators later learned he had been on one of about seven such trips for his father, Leonard Parisian.

• Supervised release: 10 years for Allen, five for Tanner
• Prosecutor: Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey K. Starnes
• Investigators: the FBI and Montana Division of Criminal Investigation