Eric Whitney
Eric Whitney is NPR's Mountain West/Great Plains Bureau Chief, and was the former news director for Montana Public Radio.
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If the state's ballot initiative to fund Medicaid's expansion passes, it will mean a $2-per-pack increase in taxes on cigarettes and a new tax on electronic cigarettes.
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While Washington ponders the future of the Affordable Care Act, health insurers need to decide right now what to charge people for health insurance in 2018. "It's insane," says one CEO.
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Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke's confirmation hearing is scheduled for this week. Energy developers and tribal leaders are cheering. But environmentalists are wary of the Montana congressman.
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Results are in from a preliminary investigation into the fish killing disease that's caused the unprecedented closure of a long stretch of the Yellowstone River in Montana.
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Firefighters call the Roaring Lion Fire one of the worst they've ever seen. A common refrain among evacuees: The Forest Service should more aggressively thin forests to prevent fires and create jobs.
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Grizzly bears in Yellowstone may soon lose protection from the federal government. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking the bears off the endangered species list, saying the population has recovered to a self-sustaining number. Opponents dispute that, in part because they say federal biologists aren't sufficiently accounting for climate change threatening their food sources.
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Montana could soon dial back laws that allowed defaulters to have their professional and driver's licenses revoked after failing to pay back debt.
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DaVita HealthCare partners, a provider of dialysis for kidney patients, says its expertise working with very sick patients can help hospitals expand into wellness and prevention.
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George Risi spent a month in Sierra Leone. The infectious disease specialist cared for more than 300 patients. About 100 died. Nothing could have prepared him for the experience.
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Big aid agencies are gearing up to help Ebola-ravaged countries. Small communities are also pitching in. The Y in Missoula, for example, is raising money to help the Y in Freetown.