By Chris Woodward, The Center Square

Mountain States are among the most gun-friendly states in 2024.

Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North and South Dakota all rank high in rankings from ammunition e-commerce and wholesaler company Ammo.com. 

Montana is fourth on this year’s ranking. Like other states in its region, Montana is a Constitutional Carry state with no registration or permit requirements. Meanwhile, Montana does not impose a sale tax on firearms, something Ammo.com said means firearms will “be a bit cheaper than in most other states.”

In a statement, Gov. Greg Gianforte said Montanans are proud of their Second Amendment rights. They also know they have a “responsibility” to preserve those Second Amendment rights. 

“We’ll continue to keep Montana a sanctuary for freedom and free enterprise, and we’ll always defend the rights of law-abiding Montanans,” said Gianforte.

In February 2023, the governor wrote United States Attorney General Merrick Garland to criticize the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to erode the 2nd Amendment rights of Montanans. In January of that year, Gianforte took steps with the Board of Investments to block Environmental Social Governance (ESG) investigating of state funds. 

More than 150 firearms and ammunitions businesses are in Montana.

Wyoming is 12th this year, due in part to the Cowboy State having Constitutional Carry, a governor that is pro-2nd Amendment, and Stand Your Ground Castle Doctrine, and No Duty to Retreat policies. 

Idaho is the 11th most gun-friendly state. As it is in Wyoming, Idahoans can open and concealed carry without a permit.

“Those traveling to Idaho will need a concealed carry (CCW) permit, although the state accepts permits from all 50 states,” said Ammo.com in this year’s report. “The state’s standard sales tax applies to all firearms and equipment, but you won’t have to register your firearms or take additional courses before purchasing.”

North Dakota ranks 10th for reasons such as one needs to only reside in the state for 30 days to partake in open and concealed carry freedoms. Gun owners do have to be at least 18 years of age, have no felony convictions, and face no pending criminal charges. Still, Ammo.com applauds the state for allowing those with prior convictions to get their 2A rights restored in the state of North Dakota.

“Governor Doug Burgum recently declared North Dakota a Second Amendment Sanctuary State,” added Ammo.com.

South Dakota ranked ninth. Governed by 2nd Amendment supporter Kristi Noem, South Dakota currently has no registration requirements for firearms, nor does it have additional background checks. Want an enhanced carry permit for travel? Visit your local sheriff’s department for an application. 

“South Dakota accepts CCWs from all 50 states,” wrote Ammo.com. “You can also apply for a Gold Card to bypass the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System).”

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By Maggie Davis, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

From coming of age in the wake of the Great Recession to bearing much of the brunt of today’s soaring home prices, many people seem to think millennials have it pretty bad.

Contrary to that belief, the latest LendingTree study indicates millennials are in a better financial position than their Generation X and baby boomer counterparts at similar ages — particularly regarding net worth, assets, income and spending.

Here’s what we found.

Key findings

* When adjusted for inflation, millennials appear to be in a better financial condition than Gen Xers or baby boomers at similar points. In 2022, millennials (ages 26 to 41 at the time) had a median net worth of $84,941. In 2007, Gen Xers (ages 27 to 42 at the time) had a median net worth of $78,333 in 2022 dollars. In 1989, baby boomers (ages 25 to 43 at the time) had a median net worth of $58,101 in 2022 dollars. That means millennials’ net worth was 8.4% higher than Gen Xers’ and 46.2% higher than baby boomers’ at those ages.

* Millennials are more likely to have assets and carry debt than other generations at similar ages. 99.3% of millennials had assets in 2022, while 97.5% of Gen Xers and 93.8% of baby boomers had assets when they were around the same ages. Meanwhile, 88.1% of millennials carried debt in 2022, compared with 86.9% of Gen Xers and 85.8% of baby boomers around that age.

* Midpoint millennials have a higher median cumulative income than older generations. Millennials born in 1989 earned a median of $446,570 between 2014 and 2023 (ages 25 to 34). When the midpoint Gen Xers and baby boomers were 25 to 34, the median cumulative income was $417,700 and $362,330, respectively, in 2023 dollars.

* Still, millennials face significantly higher rent costs and homeownership hurdles. Adjusted for inflation, the median rent in 2024 for midpoint millennials age 35 is $1,481. That’s considerably more than the $1,251 for midpoint Gen Xers in 2008 and the $1,174 for midpoint baby boomers in 1990. Additionally, a 20% down payment on a median home purchase in 2024 is a breathtaking $85,960, compared with inflation-adjusted amounts of $69,305 in 2008 and $57,107 in 1990 — though comparatively low interest rates benefit millennials.

* Looking at overall expenses, millennials spent more money than boomers, but a smaller portion of their income. When midpoint millennials turned 33 in 2022, younger adults ages 25 to 34 spent an average of $67,883 across all items that year. When Gen Xers were of a similar age in 2006, they spent an average of $69,084 in 2022 dollars, and baby boomers spent an average of $63,761 in 1988. But factoring in average pretax income, those millennials spent 75.8% of their annual income — far less than the 83.2% spent by Gen Xers and 91.0% spent by baby boomers.

Matt Schulz — LendingTree chief credit analyst and author of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How to Take Control of Your Financial Life” — believes prior generations’ struggles have helped prepare millennials.

“I think that the scars from the Great Recession and the pandemic have helped shape millennials’ views on money, forcing them to be more focused on their finances than other generations have had to be,” Schulz says. “That focus has prompted them to learn more about money, get started with investing and savings earlier, become more entrepreneurial and make other financially focused moves that have helped set them up for success. It’s certainly helped that we’ve seen stocks hit record highs.”

Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Montana is among the first wave of 16 rural electric cooperatives that will receive subsidies from the USDA’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) to leverage projects for carbon-free energy in rural communities across 23 states. The majority of new electricity sources that will be funded are solar and wind power.

The funds will fund “renewable energy projects” totaling 1400 megawatts across Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. A press release states that the efforts will reduce greenhouse gas pollution by an estimated 2.2 million tons annually.

In total USDA estimates these projects will avoid more than 43 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

USDA estimates New ERA government funding will spur the creation of an estimated 4,500 long-term jobs and 16,000 short-term jobs.

As a result of these projects, renewable capacity supply for rural co-ops will increase by 35 percent from 26 to nearly 35 gigawatts, with wind and solar capacity rising by more than 60 percent from 14 gigawatts to 23 gigawatts.

A few examples of clean energy projects providing real savings to co-op members are Dairyland Power Co-operative, which is expecting rates 42 percent lower over ten years compared with business as usual; and Great River Energy, which expects cost reductions by $30 million annually. More member savings can be found below, compiled from the USDA’s announcement. 

“With the help of the New ERA program, rural cooperatives across the country are leading the way in demonstrating how to deploy clean energy to deliver affordable and reliable power for the benefit of their member-owners — and in ways that really work for the communities they serve. The diversity of investments and approaches taken by co-operatives is a testament to the power of the co-op model in fostering innovation tailored to local community needs,” said RMI electricity expert Uday Varadarajan.

 The clear winner in terms of technology was utility-scale solar, however an encouraging number of co-ops will also be investing in utility-scale battery storage systems, demand-side resources, and transmission improvements, which can support additional clean energy investments in the future. 

RMI (founded as Rocky Mountain Institute) provided resources to applicants in the form of a series of webinars, bootcamps, and a financial modeling tool to support ambitious and efficient project designs by co-ops. We have also published a Community Benefits Catalog to support applicants for federal funding in the creation and execution of community benefit plans (CBPs), to ensure every project supports the long-term growth and financial welfare of local communities. 

A new report from researchers at the University of Montana shows shorter school weeks may hurt student performance and school budgets, according to a report from Montana Public Radio.

While a growing number of schools in Montana have switched to four-day weeks, the researchers say data analysis on four-day school weeks “demonstrates a disturbing trend for education in Montana.” They found that student performance under four-day school weeks declines the longer a district uses the schedule, and lags behind kids in traditional five-day weeks.

Schools with shorter weeks often spend more on instruction, maintenance, transportation and food per student than similarly sized schools on a five-day schedule. A typical Class-B school in Montana would likely spend about $100,000 more annually after transitioning to a four-day week, according to the report.

State lawmakers allowed schools to switch to four-day instruction in 2005. Since then, 260 mostly small schools have adopted the schedule. District leaders have suggested shorter weeks could help them recruit and retain teachers. But the researchers say more evidence is needed to prove or disprove that argument.

The report’s authors recommend a return to five-day school weeks statewide.

New research suggests that the U.S. economy has been in a recession for the last two years if one adjusts the statistics used for inflation, reports Epoch Time.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, cumulative inflation since 2019 has totaled nearly 25 percent. But inflation figures have been understated by nearly half, resulting in cumulative growth to be “overstated by roughly 15%,” say economists EJ Antoni and Peter St. Onge.

“. . . these adjustments indicate that the American economy has actually been in recession since 2022,” they wrote in a new study published in Brownstone Journal.

Undercounting inflation has implications for economic growth because rapid price changes have bolstered the nominal values of a wide array of economic metrics “without resulting in any real change.”

New orders for durable goods have increased 7.5 percent (nominal) but fallen 13.4 percent (real). Retail sales have rocketed more than 23 percent (nominal) but rose 3.2 percent after adjusting for inflation. Nominal disposable personal income has surged about 35 percent, but the real rate has been just nearly 13 percent.

Nominal GDP at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate shows the national economy has soared 37.4 percent from the first quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2024. But the way the Bureau of Economic Research evaluates those figures is “flawed,” report the economists.

Utilizing more accurate measures for housing, regulatory costs, and indirect costs yields a more accurate inflation measurement and therefore a more accurate valuation of real GDP, say the researchers.

Antoni and St. Onge conclude that the adjusted real GDP (gross domestic product) fell 2.5 percent from the first quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2024, which means that the nation entered a recession in the first quarter of 2022 and remained in that contraction through the second quarter of 2024.

The paper aimed to address various “egregious biases in inflation statistics” to gauge an accurate assessment of inflation over the last five years.

“The CPI has grossly underestimated housing cost inflation,” they wrote, highlighting that the consumer price index (CPI) fails to “actually account” for the direct cost of homeownership. Instead, federal statisticians rely on the “owners’ equivalent rent of residences,” which accounts for more than 26 percent of the CPI.

“If the costs to rent and own change commensurately over time, then this methodology will be relatively accurate,” the economists stated. “Unfortunately, the cost of owning a home has risen much faster than rents over the last four years and the CPI has grossly underestimated housing cost inflation.”

Measuring price changes when consumers are not directly charged for services is another challenge to accurately measuring inflation.

Health insurance is one example of this hurdle to correctly assessing inflation.

“Premiums are used both to pay for the actual cost of providing the service of insurance (risk mitigation) and for medical services and commodities,” the report said. “The CPI neglects both, and instead imputes the cost of health insurance from the profits of health insurers.”