Aaron Bolton
Aaron is Montana Public Radio's Flathead reporter.
-
In Montana, dogs are being trained to sniff out chronic wasting disease. The animals will be deployed on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to prevent the disease from being passed to humans.
-
Montana's Blackfeet Nation is experimenting with a new way to detect chronic wasting disease in animals and toxic substances in plants used by tribal members for food and cultural practices.
-
After 17 overdoses — including four deaths — this spring, Indigenous leaders in Montana and surrounding states look for ways to stop the fentanyl crisis and provide more treatment and care.
-
The only public psychiatric hospital in Montana had important federal funding pulled after failing to correct patient safety issues, which resulted in deaths. Advocates worry things will get worse.
-
The Red Cross has, for the first time, declared a national blood donation crisis. Some hospitals say they're rationing blood products. And blood banks are scrambling to encourage donations.
-
Some states are aggressively promoting the new COVID-19 vaccination shots for kids ages 5 to 11. But Montana is not among them. The state also didn't promote vaccinations for 12 to 18 year olds.
-
A surge in COVID hospitalizations in Montana just won't end. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is being criticized for his response.
-
To keep emergency services afloat in rural areas, communities will have to go beyond volunteer-based programs to get people to distant hospitals, experts say. Meanwhile, some 911 calls go unanswered.
-
When the tribe closed some the roads to Glacier National Park, businesses worried for their future. But it worked, and with one of the nation's highest COVID-19 vaccination rates, they've reopened.
-
The highest rates of vaccine hesitancy are concentrated in Western states. Local health officials in Montana are going the extra mile to make it easier for people to get shots.