Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/david-crisp/page/19/)
In one of the best scenes in the 1932 Marx Brothers movie “Horse Feathers,” Harpo Marx plays a dog catcher accosted by a cop for blocking traffic while stopping for lunch. The cop pulls out a notepad and begins writing Harpo a ticket. (more…) Continue Reading →
An ongoing dispute has led to clashes between county commissioners and County Auditor Debby Hernandez, who says commissioners have stripped her office of funding needed to do her job properly. The result, she said, is that large revenue accounts go unaudited, which could hurt taxpayers. (more…) Continue Reading →
I got a “Dear David” email from U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., on Friday that began, “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news … .”
Actually, it sounded like he was delighted to be the bearer of bad news. Proposed healthcare premiums under Obamacare are soaring next year, the email said, proving once again that “Obamacare is failing Montanans,” and allowing him to echo what has been a Republican mantra ever since the bill passed. Unfortunately, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., wasn’t much more helpful. In a statement on Friday, he said, “It is outrageous that a major corporation is trying to raise insurance rates on Montanans as they hand out lavish bonuses to their executives.”
Neither senator wastes the precious time of his constituents by delving into the actual facts. A quick check of the website of the state insurance commissioner, Monica Lindeen, bore out the bad news. Continue Reading →
“Yellowstone Ranger,” a memoir by former park ranger Jerry Mernin, has all of the ingredients of a boring book. It’s a book by and about a man who was by no means a professional writer and who spent most of his career out of the public eye. It is long and episodic, and the humans it mentions are among the least interesting critters in the whole book. But if Mernin set out to write a boring book, he failed miserably. Instead, he wrote a book that should appeal to just about everybody who loves bear stories and to anybody who has ever dreamed that being a park ranger must be the best job in the world. Continue Reading →
Homesteader Days may not be what it used to be, but the changes aren’t all bad. Live concert performances by Blackhawk and Aaron Tippin kick off the annual celebration this weekend at Homesteader Park between Huntley and Worden. (more…) Continue Reading →
Americans are among the most mobile people on the planet, so my wife and I spent the Fourth of July weekend in the most patriotic way possible: We helped somebody move. According to various sources, average Americans move about 12 times in the course of their lives. I’m way above average. By my fingers-and-toes count, I’ve lived in 25 different places, if you count Army barracks and the nine months I lived mostly out of a Volkswagen van. (more…) Continue Reading →
Supporters of public lands who filled a room at the Crowne Plaza on Wednesday were warned not to ignore rural people who feel threatened by federal land ownership. “I’m very concerned about what I see in this country right now,” said John Sepulvado of Oregon Public Broadcasting. Unless people listen to each other, he warned, controversy over the transfer of federal lands to state management will continue to fester. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last week I was feeling dispirited about the propaganda flowing into Montana by way of TV ads attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This week, I feel an acorn of hope. No, I still don’t know who has been buying those ads, other than the nonhuman face of Protect America’s Consumers. And the ads are still running in abundance, hour after hour, on cable news channels in a few targeted states, including Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
Wade Christiansen ran out of chances in May 2013. But chances for other wounded veterans live on through Operation Second Chance, a group he worked with in Red Lodge. Operation Second Chance and partners are holding a barbecue fundraiser on Sunday, July 3, to raise money for the Wade Christiansen Purple Heart Scholarship Fund, which is administered at Montana State University Bozeman. According to the fund’s website, $22,320 has been raised so far toward the fund’s goal of $50,000. (more…) Continue Reading →
From Sharie Pyke comes word of a fundraising effort to pay for a headstone for the grave of Roger Clawson, a longtime Billings Gazette reporter, columnist and editor and a columnist for the Billings Outpost for 15 years. Clawson’s ashes were buried March 29 at Custer Cemetery in his hometown of Custer. Sharie was his longtime friend, partner and caretaker. Ed and I were both great admirers of Roger’s prose and of his often contrarian take on life and humanity. When he died last year, each of us wrote an in memoriam column. Continue Reading →
