`As of Thursday, September 2, 2021, Montana reports 128,835 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 738 new cases reported in the last day: 124 new cases in Yellowstone County, 112 new cases in Flathead County, 100 new cases in Cascade County, 86 new cases in Missoula County, 53 new cases in Gallatin County, and more new cases in 39 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 5,770. Montana hasn’t seen that high a number since January. Currently, 258 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 1,807 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Four more deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 642,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 39,500,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen signed onto a lawsuit filed Monday against the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies to overturn LGBTQ protections. The lawsuit carries the names of 20 attorneys general, all Republicans, who claim that President Joe Biden’s administration has conflated a 2020 landmark ruling from the US Supreme Court prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace to include a ban on such discrimination in education.

NorthWestern Energy residential customers will pay another rate increase of about $22.20 a year beginning in October. This rate increase follows a July rate increase of $26.40 a year. NorthWestern Energy can impose a rate increase every fall to recover costs. The rate increase on the captive customers in Montana allows the utility to charge more money from customers while the PSC determines if the under-collection alleged by the utility is true.

The American Fork fire burning in the northeast Crazy Mountains is now 76% contained and evacuation orders have been lifted. Lightning sparked the American Fork fire in the northeast Crazy Mountains about 24 miles southwest of Harlowton on July 17. In the months that followed, the blaze burned through 21,892 acres of grass, brush and timber on federal and private land in Park, Meagher and Sweet Grass counties.