Lerum Auto in Boulder is open for business — but you wouldn’t know it. The repair shop is exempt from Gov. Steve Bullock’s March 26 closure order, but “it’s really, really dead,” said owner Dana Lerum. “There’s one possible job coming, I’m not sure. I’ve been in business since 1976, and I’ve… Read Article

Faced with COVID-19 restrictions that prohibit in-person worship, local Christian churches and their members are calling on faith — and technology — to stay connected with one another. Read Article

On March 27, the Boulder Community Library closed its doors — but only because the Jefferson County Commissioners told it to. Read Article

A recap of what’s happened in Jefferson County since the March 25 issue of The Monitor. Read Article

Montana has not had a Republican governor since 2005. In the June 2 primaries, three candidates will vie for the chance to change that — among them Attorney General and Clancy resident Tim Fox. Read Article

A man arrested March 23 in Basin after eluding capture for little over a day may face 12 felonies when his case reaches Montana Fifth Judicial District Court in Boulder. Meanwhile, he remained in the Jefferson County Detention center Monday with bail set at $250,000. Read Article

Reported cases of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, came later to Montana than most of the rest of the country. But soon after the last edition of The Monitor was printed, local urgency heightened quickly: Jefferson County declared a state of emergency and limited ac… Read Article

On Sunday evening, March 15, Jefferson High School Superintendent Tim Norbeck had just arrived at home. He had canceled a motorcycling vacation with friends in the Southwest; that was to have been his first break ever during a school year. Read Article

Montana voters in state and overseas are scheduled to fill out their ballots between April 17 and June 2 to decide on Democratic and Republican candidates for Montana and national offices. A lot is at stake — the Governorship, Attorney General and Secretary of State, U.S. Senate and House se… Read Article

Once each month, the Jefferson County Local Emergency Planning Committee comes together, rotating between locations in Whitehall, Boulder, and Montana City. The agenda is nearly the same at every meeting – parsing the details of one section or another of the county’s Emergency Operations Plan. Read Article

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. to provide more context. Read Article

Montana City Volunteer and Helena Fire Departments responded to a one-vehicle crash in the median at mile marker 190 on Interstate 15 amid a snow squall Friday, March 13. Icy road conditions were a factor, according to responders. Read Article

Before...everything, the Jefferson High School band held its fifth annual Jazz Dinner on Thursday, March 12. The food was hot, the jazz was cool, and the event raised money for the high school’s music department. Read Article

The Boulder and Bull Mountain Volunteer Fire Departments’ annual corned beef and cabbage dinner left diners at the fire hall, the Boulder Senior Center and the Windsor Bar with full bellies and leftovers. It netted $1077 for the departments.  Read Article

Clancy and Montana City Volunteer Fire Departments responded to a house fire in Clancy’s Gruber Estates on March 14. Crews and equipment from Helena Fire Department, East Helena Volunteer Fire Department, East Valley Volunteer Fire Department and West Valley/Lewis and Clark County Volunteer … Read Article

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, citing “the potential for extraordinary health risks from [the novel] coronavirus in our state,” on Sunday afternoon ordered public K-12 schools to close from March 16 until March 27 — a decision he said was made to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and not… Read Article

By KEITH HAMMONDS and john blodgett Read Article

On March 13, Montana reported its first four known coronavirus cases, confirming the presence in the state of the virus that has spread quickly around the world since appearing in China’s Wuhan province in December. Read Article

Montana is the oldest state west of the Mississippi, and demographic projections show the state growing collectively older as more Montanans enter their senior years. The economic, cultural, and personal impacts of that trend present the state and its residents with new challenges and, with … Read Article

People have been parsing the human lifespan into a taxonomy of ages forever. Aristotle proposed three categories: youthful, prime of life, and elderly. Two thousand years later, Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man carved human chronology into seven slices, with the body’s final frailty circling … Read Article

Instances of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had been reported in a few dozen states as of March 8, but not in Montana. Meanwhile, worldwide more than 100,000 infected people and over 3,600 deaths had been reported in 101 countries, according to the World Health Organization Situation Report, a… Read Article

A year ago, much of Jefferson County was a broadband backwater, with pokey, funky Internet service that seemed to sputter as often as it sped. Read Article

Dozens of truckloads of snow and snowmaking weren’t enough to overcome Mother Nature’s lack of cooperation. Organizers of “Skijoring the Big Rock,” slated for Feb. 29 and March 1 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, called off the event Feb. 25. Read Article

A report comparing and contrasting three potential sites for a proposed Western Legacy Center in Boulder has been released and the public is invited to provide feedback at an upcoming meeting. Read Article

One of three men charged in a November 2018 shooting case involving a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy has accepted a plea agreement and another is set to as the alleged gunman awaits trial. Read Article