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Supreme Court rules law school grads must take bar exam

“[W]e find that the Board has clearly given a great deal of thought to the actions it could take to mitigate the risk to examinees,” the court wrote.

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the request of dozens of recent law school graduates to skip the bar exam in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but still be licensed to practice law. […]

‘Up until two weeks ago, it was working’

As COVID outbreaks increase nationwide, Montana’s early warning system falters.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Montana, surveillance testing designed to serve as an early warning system to prevent large outbreaks and keep businesses open is increasingly becoming ineffective, public health officials told Montana Free Press. From Libby to Butte to Great Falls to Gardiner, tests of asymptomatic individuals are taking up to two weeks to produce results. That lag time can eliminate the strategic effectiveness of the testing, which is aimed at vulnerable populations like nursing home residents and front-line workers who are likely to be exposed to the virus. […]

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Note that the bubble sizes on our map have been updated to account for the state’s increasing case counts. Yellow-shaded counties have seen at least one documented COVID-19 case. Orange-shaded counties are currently above the four-active-case threshold for the state mask mandate enacted July 15.

Montana coronavirus report

As of Thursday, July 16, Montana reports a total of 2,231 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 134 new cases since yesterday, 1,226 active cases, and 35 deaths from the disease. State officials also report that 150 of the cases have resulted in hospitalizations, with 37 patients currently hospitalized, and 970 patients considered recovered. […]

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