As of Wednesday, February 23, 2022. Montana reports 264,277 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 655 new cases of coronavirus infection reported since yesterday: 154 new cases in Cascade County, 153 new cases in Flathead County, 65 new cases in Gallatin County, 52 new cases in Yellowstone County, and more new cases in 38 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 2,348. Of Montana’s 56 counties, 52 report active cases. Currently, 164 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. 3,156 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Thirty-one more people’s deaths have been reported since yesterday. Nationwide, more than 937,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 78,600,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

A Bozeman man pleaded guilty this week to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, break-in and riot at the U.S. Capitol. Andrew Cavanaugh, the owner of the now-defunct Tactical Citizen firearm academy in Belgrade and a former Marine, pleaded guilty this week to parading, demonstrating and picketing in the Capitol.

A snow biker killed in an avalanche near Cooke City over the weekend was Nathaniel Wolfe, a 34-year-old from Bismarck, North Dakota. Wolfe died of asphyxiation in the avalanche. Wolfe was riding a snow bike on Saturday with a group of three snowmobilers and one other snow biker on Miller Mountain in the Sheep Creek Drainage.

Yellowstone National Park has begun trapping bison near the park’s northern border in an effort to cull the population. The bison will be trapped and then shipped to slaughter.