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Local governments in Colorado would gain the ability to purchase multifamily properties before private bidders as long as they commit to use them for affordable housing under a recently introduced bill in the state Legislature.

Under a bill moving through the Montana Senate, landlords and property owners would have to pay back rental application fees to applicants who don’t end up leasing the property.

Logan Health and Billings Clinic, two not-for-profit Montana-based health systems, announced Wednesday they have signed a non-binding letter of intent to explore uniting the two organizations into one integrated health system.

A small survey of residents named the cost and availability of certain food in Missoula as among the top changes they would like to see addressed in the local food system.

The fees would be levied on nonprofit churches, educational facilities, health care facilities, public museums, art galleries, zoos, facilities to care for people with disabilities and mental illness, athletic fields, low-income housing and more, according to the bill.

Jon Ellingson writes, "A tax cut that supports the spending habits of our wealthiest and creates a larger servant class is not the kind of progress we need."

The Montana Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Restaurant Association told lawmakers the increase was a bad idea. Tabling the bill leaves the state minimum wage at $9.95 an hour.

Hotel room rates on the Las Vegas Strip have hit record levels, but is it a price-fixing scheme or the result of record inflation and rising costs for everything from food to labor?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finally agreed to conduct more sampling for toxins at the Smurfit-Stone mill site.

The bill would allow owners of gambling machines to report “negative income” and deduct it from their total earnings so they don’t pay the state’s 15% gambling tax when their machines pay out more in winnings than they earn.