The Billings Gazette: Tester backs gun rights case
HELENA – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is part of a group of lawmakers signing a brief supporting a gun rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court is considering whether the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms applies to state and local laws restricting guns. The case arose from a handgun ban in Chicago.
The Billings Gazette: Rehberg, Tester help support soldiers
HELENA — Rep. Denny Rehberg’s offices in Helena, Missoula, Billings and Great Falls will again be donations centers for the Christmas for Our Troops program.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., took part in the American Red Cross’ annual Holiday Mail for Heroes this week, signing cards for service members, veterans and their families worldwide. “It is important for men and women serving our country away from home to know they are appreciated, especially during the holidays,” Tester said in a press release. “Sending a card is a small gesture to remind our troops that we’re always thinking of them.”
Missoulian: Tester bill to aid rural veterans passes Senate on unanimous vote
HELENA – A bill written by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., passed the Senate on a unanimous vote Thursday, keeping what he described as America’s promises to its veterans, particularly those living in rural America.
The Rural Veterans Health Care Improvement Act, introduced by Tester on March 15, must be combined with a similar bill passed by the House before being sent to President Barack Obama for his signature.
As written, the bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with local mental health centers to provide care to veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars. It also provides financial assistance to families who care for critically injured vets.
Outdoor Life: Senator Jon Tester: Politician with a Hunter's Heart
For more than 25 years, some 600,000 acres of Montana backcountry have been lost in bureaucratic limbo, legal leftovers from pitched battles between wilderness zealots and timber barons. Described on maps as “wilderness study areas,” these alpine peaks, timbered slopes and foothills grasslands have been off-limits to logging and mining, but have also been a sort of no-man’s land for hunters, anglers and landscape preservationists.
Are “study areas” open to resource development, or are they locked up in wilderness? Every Montana politician for a generation has tried to untangle the land-use stalemate before being cowed by one interest group or another. Now, thanks to a U.S. senator with a flat-top haircut and a butcher’s build, hunters will be able to access these lands, watersheds will be preserved and unemployed loggers and mill workers will go back to work. Jon Tester crafted his landmark “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” to preserve the majority of land as wilderness, but require sustainable timber harvest on much of the rest.
