Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/david-crisp/page/24/)
Ten years after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Jon Tester, D-Mont., still continues to farm near his home in Big Sandy. It isn’t about the money. “One of the reasons I still farm is because I go home and can get things done,” Tester said during a telephone town hall last week. In Washington, D.C., not so much. (more…) Continue Reading →
A Billings-based environmental group has taken to social media to spread stories of Westerners whose lives have been touched by oil and gas development. Still in its early stages, the experiment appears to be a budding success. In just two months, the Living with Oil and Gas project has attracted more than 2,200 likes on Facebook and more than 400 followers each on Twitter and Instagram. (more…) Continue Reading →
Billings voters in 2013 approved two new middle schools and renovations of two elementary schools in School District 2. Now, school supporters say, it’s time to add more staff. The Yes for Kids Ballot Initiative Committee kicked off its campaign for passage of a mill levy on Thursday at the Mansfield Health Education Center. Mail-in ballots for the May 3 election are expected to arrive in mailboxes on April 16. (more…) Continue Reading →
One good thing about having a colossal blowhard like Donald Trump run for president is that he occasionally blurts out a gaffe, which Michael Kinsley famously defined as “when a politician tells the truth–some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Greg Gianforte, a Republican candidate for Montana governor, has been going around the state arguing that Montana ranks 49th in the nation in wages. Is he right? Well, sure. But one might also argue that in terms of income, Montana ranks 47th—or 44th, or 42nd, or 41st, or 37th, or 35th or 31st. It depends on who is measuring and exactly what is being measured. Continue Reading →
On an unappetizing day to make a case for solar power, about 30 environmentalists huddled in rain and snow Tuesday to urge U.S. Sen. Steve Daines to pay more attention to renewable energy sources. The rally on a bleak afternoon at the Yellowstone County Courthouse preceded Daines’ Montana Energy Conference, which got underway with continuing education sessions on Tuesday at the Radisson Convention Center. The conference continues through Thursday. (more…) Continue Reading →
In April 1864, months before one of the most contentious elections in American history, the New York World accused President Abraham Lincoln of having urged a friend to sing a comic song as they strolled among the dead and wounded two years earlier at Antietam. The World pounded on the false story for five months, eventually adding the fanciful detail that Democratic opponent George McClellan, the general Lincoln had fired for timidity and a fatal case of the “slows,” had pleaded in vain for Lincoln to show respect to the fallen. (more…) Continue Reading →
It was Larry Alex Taunton’s show, but the Babcock Theater stage was dominated Thursday night by the man who wasn’t there: Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens, a noted author, journalist and enemy of religion, is the subject of Taunton’s new book, “The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist.” The book won’t be officially released until April 12, but Taunton previewed the book before about 75 people in the theater where he and Hitchens debated in 2010. (more…) Continue Reading →
Even the humble wild leek provides fuel to keep alive centuries of stereotypes of Appalachian Americans, according to a Montana State University Billings professor. Melissa Boehm was speaking Tuesday evening in “What’s Cooking? Exploring American Food, Culture, Politics, and History,” a series of six lectures in the MSU Billings Library Lecture Series. The series started last week with a talk by Sam Boerboom on “Americans at the Table: The Political Language of Food.” (more…) Continue Reading →
So how big a racist are you? Even just asking the question sort of rankles, doesn’t it? Nobody wants to be called a racist. Even when he was grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke denied that he was “anti-black.” (more…) Continue Reading →
