As of Friday, September 3, 2021, Montana reports 129,487 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 660 new cases reported in the last day: 102 new cases in Yellowstone County, 86 new cases in Missoula County, 68 new cases in Lewis & Clark County, 58 new cases in Cascade County, 58 new cases in Gallatin County, and more new cases in 39 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 6,086. Montana hasn’t seen that high a number since January. Currently, 266 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 1,811 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Four more deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 645,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 39,700,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

Talen Energy, one of the six owners of the Colstrip Power Plant and the company which operates the plant, is $4 billion in debt and negotiating with creditors as its bonds are downgraded to a substantial fundamental credit risk. What the company’s financial troubles mean for its Colstrip future remains to be seen.

The mask-optional Monforton School District in Four Corners just outside Bozeman has moved two grade levels to remote learning due to COVID-19 spread and lack of staff a little more than a week after starting classes. Seven positive COVID-19 cases have erupted in the middle school among students and teachers, and requires about six staff members to quarantine. All sixth and seventh grade classes and one fifth grade class transitioned to remote distance learning due to possible COVID-19 spread and a lack of staff. A second grade class had also been quarantined.

The Blackfeet Indian Nation in northwest Montana is planning a large search for a missing 3-year-old, Arden Pepion, Labor Day weekend. Arden was 3 when she went missing April 22 and vanished in the area surrounding Joe Show East of U.S. Highway 89 South. Arden’s birthday is Sunday; she would have turned 4 on the day of the search.