As of Friday, April 23, 2021, Montana reports 107,873 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 158 new cases reported in the last day: 27 in Gallatin County, 27 in Yellowstone County, 14 in Lewis & Clark County, 13 in Flathead County, 12 in Missoula County, and more new cases in 23 more Montana counties. The number of active coronavirus cases in Montana is 1,003. Currently, 65 people are being treated in Montana hospitals for COVID-19. The most active cases are in Gallatin, Yellowstone, and Cascade Counties. 1,559 people have died in Montana of COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 570,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. There have been 32,000,000 cases of coronavirus in the US, and counting.

A week that started with transgender Montanans, college athletes and students protesting on a cold morning on the Capitol steps ended with GOP lawmakers passing a bill that would ban transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams. House Bill 112 is now on the way to Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk.

A legislative committee formed by Republicans in one branch of government, the legislature, to investigate another separate, independent branch of government, the judiciary, will likely continue past the 2021 legislative session, due to end next week, and into the interim. The Select Committee on Judicial Transparency and Accountability met Thursday to gather additional input from its members, four Republicans and two resistant Democrats, to prepare a report for the Legislature at large.

The unusual claw of a 3-foot-long dinosaur, which went extinct about 66 million years ago, has been unearthed in Montana — the largest specimen collected from the species so far. The fast, long-legged bird — which he named (tryer-arc-unk-us prayer-ee-ensus) Trierarchuncus prairiensis — had short, strong forelimbs tipped with a large claw next to two smaller claws.