As of Friday, March 26, 2021, Montana reports 103,980 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 149 new cases reported in the last day: 52 in Gallatin County, 18 in Missoula County, 12 in Yellowstone County, 10 in Silver Bow County, and more new cases in 21 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 979. Currently, 42 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Gallatin, Missoula, and Yellowstone Counties. 1,435 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 546,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 30,100,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

The US government in coordination with Eli Lilly said it will no longer distribute the Covid-19 monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab for use on its own. The halt is due to the “sustained increase” in coronavirus variants in the United States. The government stopped distributing the treatment on Tuesday. Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration updated guidance to say the therapy on its own may not work as well against variants. FDA Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock had said that the US had stopped shipping bamlanivimab to Arizona, California and Nevada due to the variants, and the FDA asked the companies to assess their therapies against the variants.

A mysterious streak of lights dazzled the night sky over parts of Oregon and Washington, leaving stargazers wondering what the unusual sighting might be. After some people speculated that it was a meteor shower, the National Weather Service said it was more likely to be debris from a SpaceX rocket “that did not successfully have a deorbit burn.” A deorbit burn takes place when a spaceship fires its engine before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Social media users in Seattle and Portland saw the spectacular display over the Pacific Northwest sky as the debris reentered orbit at around 9 p.m. PT. Others said the bright streaks were caused by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket coming back down from its orbit. Part of the SpaceX rocket, which launched in early March, did not come down where it was expected to. Founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX aims to reduce space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. Last year it used a Falcon 9 rocket to transport cargo and satellites, becoming the first private company to launch astronauts into orbit.

Dominion Voting Systems, a voting technology company that was the target of baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the right-wing channel Fox News on Friday. The company alleged that the network “recklessly disregarded the truth” and participated in a disinformation campaign against it because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.” In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump falsely asserted that the election had been rigged against him. His allies promoted outlandish conspiracy theories about Dominion to support Trump’s false claims. “Fox took a small flame” of disinformation and “turned it into a forest fire,” Dominion said in its lawsuit. “The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Dominion’s lawsuit added. “Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.” Dominion said that as a result of Fox’s “orchestrated defamatory campaign” it had suffered “enormous and irreparable economic harm” and that its employees had been subject to death threats.
Dominion is the second election technology company to file a lawsuit against Fox. Smartmatic sued Fox for $2.7 billion in February, making similar allegations against the network.

Montana Republican Governor Greg Gianforte said he should have known about a state-mandated certification class before trapping a wolf near Gardiner last month, an action for which he received a written warning from a Montana game warden. Gianforte killed a trapped wolf on Feb. 15 and received a written warning from game wardens for doing so without first completing a required certification course. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game wardens have discretion in issuing citations or warnings, and typically used warnings as a means of education. The governor was allowed to keep the wolf’s hide and skull and agreed to take the next available certification course. Gianforte said failing to take the class was unintentional. “I made a mistake. I should’ve been more familiar with the regs. I work really hard to follow all the rules. I think as a sportsman, that’s very important and I screwed up,” he said. Gianforte was previously cited in 2000 after self-reporting shooting a spike bull elk in a district restricted to brow-tined bulls. The governor has said he mistook tree branches for brow tines and immediately reported the incident to game wardens, which resulted in a $70 fine.