Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/david-crisp/page/15/)
When a ballot initiative’s chief talking point is wrong in two different ways, it’s time to give it a closer look. Such were my thoughts when I started hearing radio ads for Constitutional Initiative 116, the so-called Marsy’s Law amendment to the Montana Constitution. The ads say it’s time to guarantee “equal rights for victims.”
Wrong. And wrong. People who create crime victims fall into two categories: those who have been convicted of a crime and those who have not. Continue Reading →
Scholars, political strategists and us media elites with our chauffeured limousines and steak dinners have been struggling to understand the broad appeal of Donald Trump, a man whose contributions to society include possibly paying federal income tax. Is it his fourth-grade speaking level? Is it his brilliant use of repetition? Maybe. But in poring over the transcript of Monday’s debate with Hillary Clinton, it struck us that what we have found in Trump is a Homer for the modern age. Continue Reading →
By the time you read this, I may be a grandfather. Or maybe not. My daughter’s due date was Tuesday, but no word as of late Tuesday night. Never trust a Crisp to make a deadline. There is no trick to making babies. Continue Reading →
Better get involved, Denise Juneau warned about three dozen Rocky Mountain College students on Tuesday night. “If you’re not at the table,” she said, “you might be on the menu.”
Juneau was speaking as the part of the Freshmen Experience program, which is on the theme of “Self and Society.” Juneau, who has been Montana’s superintendent of public instruction for the last eight years, is running as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Ryan Zinke for the state’s seat in the U.S. House. Juneau pointed out that only about 60 percent of eligible voters turn out for presidential elections. In off-year elections, that percentage falls to 40 percent or lower. “We cannot afford to have people sitting on the sidelines,” she said. Continue Reading →
I was just about ready to start this column this way: If you are not sufficiently depressed yet about the 2016 election, then I have a reading assignment for you. But suddenly I feel better. I admit that I’ve become unhealthily obsessed with this year’s presidential race. It’s the first time since the Kennedy-Nixon election of 1960 that I have genuinely worried about what will become of the country if the wrong candidate wins. I was only 9 years old then. Continue Reading →
Greg Gianforte and Steve Bullock painted very different pictures of Montana in a debate at Montana State University Billings Monday night. Gov. Bullock, the incumbent Democrat, described a Montana that is fiscally prudent and a magnet for entrepreneurs. He said the state is growing rapidly in terms of median income and gross domestic product. Gianforte, the Republican challenger, characterized Montana as poorly managed, with declining reserve funds and low wages that drive young people out of the state. (more…) Continue Reading →
In 1956, after 11 years in Siberian prison camp and internal exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn began writing seriously. He never expected to see a single word of his in print. But in 1962, his first novel, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” appeared in a Russian magazine. It was for many years the last of his work that would make it into print in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn was exiled in 1974, and the KGB, the secret police serving at the direction of the Soviet government, launched a campaign to publicly discredit him. Continue Reading →
At a time in campaign season when election-weary voters are curling up into tiny balls to ward off the endless phone calls, TV ads and door knockers, one group of young people in Montana is revving up its efforts. (more…) Continue Reading →
The West Yellowstone News is dead. Long live the West Yellowstone Star. West Yellowstone News Editor Jeremy Weber penned a farewell column last week for the News, which closed its doors after 30 years in business. One day earlier, Weber announced on his Facebook page that he was starting the Star, with the first issue to be out “in a week or two.”
Weber will edit the new paper, he said, and Mike Moore will stay on as reporter. It will be owned by the publishers of the Ennis Madisonian, Susanne Hill and Erin Leonard. Continue Reading →
A Montana House candidate emphasized Thursday that he is not now suing anybody for libel but that his opponent has to be held accountable for “blatantly false” statements. Robert Saunders, 27, had a Billings law firm send a cease-and-desist letter over Labor Day weekend to Rep. Jessica Karjala, whom he is attempting to defeat in the House District 48 race. The letter threatened to sue Karjala for defamation if she did not apologize to constituents to whom she made allegedly false statements and to provide copies of the apologies to the law firm. Saunders responded on Thursday to a telephone message left by Last Best News on Tuesday. “This isn’t about hurt feelings,” he said. Continue Reading →
