Aaron Bolton
Aaron is Montana Public Radio's Flathead reporter.
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The number of seniors who are homeless has increased dramatically. This "gray wave" is being driven by inflation and a lack of affordable housing, especially for older people with disabilities.
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A Supreme Court ruling eliminated the requirement of sheltering homeless people in some states. Advocates worry the ruling also motivates cities hostile to shelters to get rid of them altogether.
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Famed Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has a project dedicated to promoting and celebrating ecological healing. That led him to Glacier National Park to play for a herd of newly reintroduced bison.
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New research indicates the uptick in requests for sterilization following the Dobbs decision on abortion was not a temporary trend. Nationally, numbers of tubal ligations and vasectomies are up.
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The U.S. and tribal governments make progress against contaminated coal mine runoff from British Columbia, which has been polluting Montana and Idaho for years.
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A long waiting list at Montana's only state-run psychiatric hospital has left inmates untreated and stuck in county jails. To fix it, health officials want changes to involuntary commitment laws. -
Montana inmates with severe mental illness can languish for months in jail. They are too ill to stand trial, and there's only one state hospital that can treat them.
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As the climate changes, places where home air conditioning used to be rare are now seeing a need for artificial cooling. In places like the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest, lives are at stake.
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As the climate changes, places where home air conditioning used to be rare are now seeing a need for artificial cooling. It's a new expense that's especially hard for people in low-income housing.
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New ideas like "safe storage maps" show gun owners where to put their firearms in safekeeping if a mental health crisis happens. The idea has support, but obstacles are in the way in some states. -
Gun owners in psychiatric crisis can lower their risk of suicide by temporarily storing their guns at a gun store or with family or friends. But "safe storage" is easier in theory than practice.
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Gun rights and gun control advocates are coming together over safeguarding gun storage in an effort to reduce suicides, which account for more than half of gun fatalities nationwide.
