Matthew Brown

Stay informed with Matthew Brown’s coverage and analysis.

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  • Interior Secretary Deb Haaland shakes hands with Gov. Myron Armijo of Santa Ana Pueblo after signing Public Land Order 7940, which protects more than 4,200 acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands that is sacred to Tribes in the Placitas area, during a community event at El Zócalo Plaza in Bernalillo, N.M., Thursday, April 18, 2024. For the next 50 years, the lands will be closed to new mining claims, mineral sales, and oil and gas leases.(Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)Environment

    Biden administration moves to let conservation groups rent government-owned land just like oil, ranching and mining companies do

    By Matthew Brown and The Associated Press
  • FILE – Environmental cleanup specialists work at one of the last remaining residential asbestos cleanup sites in Libby, Montana, in mid-September. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. (Kurt Wilson/The Missoulian via AP, File)Environment

    Warren Buffett-owned railway says it didn’t know about asbestos it hauled that killed hundreds in Montana town

    By Matthew Brown, Amy Beth Hanson, and others
  • FILE – A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, Oct. 5, 2023, in Penrose, Colo. The couple who owned the Colorado funeral home — where 190 decaying bodies were discovered last year — have been indicted on federal charges for fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds from the U.S. government, according to court documents unsealed Monday, April 15, 2024. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP, File)Health

    Owners of Colorado funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were found are now being charged with misspending $900,000 in COVID relief funds

    By Jesse Bedayn, Colleen Slevin, and others
  • A BNSF coal train with coal from eastern MontanaFinance

    Montana asbestos victims want Warren Buffett’s railroad company held responsible for thousands exposed to toxic dust

    By Amy Beth Hanson, Matthew Brown, and others
  • Paul Resch is seen on Thursday, April 4, 2024, near Libby, Mont. The 61-year-old has asbestos-related disease and Paul Resch (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)Health

    Victims of asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett’s railroad to court: ‘At some point, probably everybody got exposed to it’

    By Matthew Brown, Amy Beth Hanson, and others
  • Wesley MiaskochEnvironment

    As backcountry skiing takes off in the age of climate change, avalanche forecasters work overtime to save people’s lives

    By Matthew Brown and The Associated Press
  • Special Agent Gary France, second right,, Dr. Francis Wood and Wood’s children stand next to the John Opie painting that was stolen from Wood’s parents’ home in 1969 in Newark, N.J.,on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. The 18th-Century John Opie painting stolen by mobsters in 1969 with help from a New Jersey state lawmaker has been returned more than 50 years later, the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office announced Friday, Jan. 26. (FBI via AP)Lifestyle

    1784 British painting stolen by New Jersey mobsters is returned to the owner’s son—54 years later: ‘This piece of art, what a history it’s had’

    By Matthew Brown and The Associated Press
  • Crews work to deice an airplane at Denver International Airport in Denver, ColoradoEnvironment

    Almost 3,000 flights canceled and 110,000 businesses and homes without power after massive cold blast slams U.S.

    By Carolyn Thompson, Matthew Brown, and others
  • Stephens’ kangaroo ratEnvironment

    America spends $1.2 billion a year on endangered species, but almost half goes to just 2 kinds of fish

    By Matthew Brown, John Flesher, and others
  • oil drilling platform 'Hickory' is seen here in the Gulf of MexicoEnvironment

    Oil firms offer $382 million for right to drill in Gulf of Mexico after courts reject Biden administration plans to protect an endangered whale

    By Matthew Brown, Matthew Daly, and others
  • A wolf stands in the enclosurePolitics

    Cattle industry sues to block the reintroduction of gray wolves as rural businesses and urban environmentalists clash in Colorado

    By Matthew Brown and The Associated Press
  • Montana Senator Jon TesterPolitics

    Democrats have a flat-topped, Carhartt-wearing Montana farmer with a hoard of lobbyist cash in the way of GOP Senate control

    By Matthew Brown and The Associated Press
  • Pallbearers carrying a wooden casketLifestyle

    Funeral home that offered “green” burials let 189 bodies pile up and lied about it, say authorities who responded to complaints of “abhorrent” smell

    By Jesse Bedayn, Matthew Brown, and others
  • FILE – This April 10, 2011, file photo, shows a rig and supply vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. The Biden administration on Friday proposed up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years — and none in Alaska — as it tries to navigate between energy companies that have pressed for greater oil and gas production and environmental activists who have urged President Joe Biden to shut down new offshore drilling in the fight against climate change. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)Environment

    Biden stirs anger on all sides with oil and gas lease sales in Gulf of Mexico: ‘Showing the world that it’s OK to prioritize polluters’

    By Matthew Daly, Matthew Brown, and others
  • Gen Z MontanaEnvironment

    Gen Z activists just won a first-of-its-kind trial against the state of Montana for violating their right to a clean environment

    By Matthew Brown, Amy Beth Hanson, and others