Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/david-crisp/page/20/)
Like a lot of small-town girls, Kirsten Morissette couldn’t wait to finish high school and get out of town. A few years later, she couldn’t wait to get back. Morissette’s family goes back four generations in Hardin. Her great-grandfather, she said, essentially kidnapped and eloped with her great-grandmother, and they became homesteaders at Hardin. Family members have been justices of the peace and started the Purple Cow restaurant. Continue Reading →
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was predictably (the man is nothing if not predictable) pleased by the U.S. Supreme Court’s indecision on Thursday in a case challenging the Obama administration’s immigration policy. “Too many times during his tenure in office, President Obama has skirted Congress and the will of the American people by using executive action to get his way,” Daines said in a news release. He added, “The American people, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court must all continue to push back against the President’s unlawful and overreaching use of executive power and protect the Constitution.”
Now, if you are like me, you haven’t followed this case closely. Apparently, neither has Daines, who has been too busy helping make sure Congress doesn’t get its work done. When the lawsuit was first filed, I read and heard a number of legal scholars, including some with excellent conservative credentials, argue that the case would go nowhere. Continue Reading →
The U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock Thursday on President Obama’s immigration policy was an unpleasant reminder of just how hideous the federal government can be. The court’s breakdown left intact a federal appeals court injunction blocking enforcement of Obama’s policy. And it left in limbo the lives of millions of people who may have been brought here illegally but have never known any other home than America. The ruling brought back nasty memories of a series of columns I wrote at the Billings Outpost about people in Montana who faced deportation because they weren’t here legally. I don’t remember all of the details, and the columns are not available on line, but one of the cases involved Laurent Zirotti, the first chef at Enzo’s restaurant on Billings’ West End. Continue Reading →
When the Northern Plains Resource Council opened its Home on the Range building in 2006, it wanted to make a point about the importance of sustainable, energy-efficient building practices. It also wanted to save money. When NPRC celebrates the 10th anniversary of the building at 220 S. 27th St. on Saturday, it will argue that it has done both. The event, from 10 a.m. to noon, will include the dedication of a new solar array that is designed to offset all of the building’s electricity costs. Continue Reading →
Few stories I have written have been so dispiriting as my June 9 article on cable TV ads criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It wasn’t that I was unable to come up with the source of the ads, which were placed by a shadowy group called Protect America’s Consumers. Reporters who have tried harder than I did to find out just who this group is also failed. What bugged me was that there seems to be no way to determine the source. In today’s political world, anything goes. Continue Reading →
The Montana Chamber of Commerce has come out with its endorsements in statewide races, and the only surprise is the total lack of surprise. There’s the usual heavy bias toward Republicans, the usual focus on the candidates’ perceived tilt toward business interests, the one token Democrat endorsement (Jesse Laslovich for state auditor). To which one might make the usual complaints: There really isn’t much evidence that picking Republicans helps the economy. In fact, the evidence at the presidential level since World War II has been quite the opposite, for reasons that are very much open to debate. In Montana, the evidence is no more convincing. Continue Reading →
Major League baseball is more than a third of a way through its season, but professional baseball in Billings started Friday night. Watching games on television is a lot more enjoyable these days than when I first started 50 years ago, but no major sport has a bigger gap between the game as viewed and the game as actually seen than baseball. The dimensions are all wrong on TV: Baseball is not a rectangular game, and even the biggest screen gives only a constrained sense of the dimensions of the field. My wife and I have had season tickets since Dehler Park opened, and it always takes a few innings to adjust to the games in person. So much more is going on, and I don’t just mean the crowd. Continue Reading →
Back on June 7, I reported that the son and widow of Leif Hoklin were traveling to France to take part in a ceremony honoring his service during World War II. The ceremony was at Batz-Sur-la-Mer, near where his B-17 Flying Fortress went down after dropping bombs on a German submarine base in 1943. Hoklin, ball turret gunner on the Yahoodi, was one of three survivors of the 10-man crew on the mission. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. Dedication of a memorial listing the names of the airmen who took part in the mission was part of the ceremony. Continue Reading →
On Sunday morning came two pieces of bad news—first that at least 20 people (later, 49) had been shot to death in Orlando, Fla., then that my old pal Paul Barton had died. I try to be hardhearted about terrorist attacks, not because they are not tragic and horrible but because terrorists want me to panic, and I will not. So I rationalize. But my heart softens for Paul Barton, 58, who died much too young last week. (more…) Continue Reading →
After all of the hoopla over last week’s primary election, it’s kind of hard to believe that was only the semifinals. The championship round is still coming up in November. So how are the final matchups looking? Here’s a quick overview of the races, top to bottom, that affect Yellowstone County voters. (more…) Continue Reading →
