Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/110/)
To mark the 75th anniversary of Billings Senior High School, a volunteer committee has launched a “Save Our Murals” campaign to restore and protect the iconic artwork adorning walls and stairwells around the school. “Just think of them not being on the walls anymore,” Kristeen Keup said. “That’s just not possible.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Dear Ed: I gave up the Internet for the summer, thinking I needed to get off the digital merry go-round, read some books and experience the real world in real time. I was doing just fine — actually, I hadn’t felt better in all my 20 years — until recently. (more…) Continue Reading →
At a meeting Friday morning to talk about how to get students and teachers into and out of Broadwater Elementary School starting next week, Principal Joe Halligan cut to the chase. “The first couple days — it’s going to be crazy,” he said. (more…) Continue Reading →
The company that is proposing to build five oil refineries in Montana and North Dakota — projects that would require funding of $2.5 billion — appears to have very few assets itself. Bloomberg was reporting as of Wednesday afternoon that Quantum Energy Inc.’s market capitalization — the number of outstanding shares times the value of a share — was about $3.8 million. (more…) Continue Reading →
This just in: We received a press release by email this evening, supposedly from an outfit called “PCA America’s Cement Manufacturers,” though we have a sneaking suspicion that it might have emanated from The Onion. The press release was headlined “Daines Tours Ash Grove Cement Plant in Montana City.” As gripping as the headline was, the body of the release was even better, as you will see from this, the second paragraph:
“Ash Grove’s Montana City plant manager remarked, ‘Congressman Daines has been a strong supporter of American cement producers since his election to Congress. His interest in experiencing the cement manufacturing process firsthand demonstrates his commitment to cement manufacturing in Montana and across the country.’”
I don’t know how many times I have stood in the voting booth and asked myself, “Ed, before you fill in that oval, who is the candidate who will step up and do what needs to be done to give American cement producers the support they need to ensure that we maintain our reputation as the world’s greatest cement manufacturers?” And just because that quote above wasn’t good enough, the release continued: “The congressman is an influential member of congressional committees that are critically important to cement producers, including the Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and the Committee on Natural Resources.” Continue Reading →
Last Memorial Day, Billings Senior High graduate Ryan Seitz was in Texas, hanging out on a lake near Austin. He and Daniel Skaggs had covered 14,000 miles in three months, following the film festival circuit to promote their documentary, “Freeload.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Barely 48 hours after being chosen as the new Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat from Montana, Amanda Curtis stopped in Billings briefly to cheer on supporters of a nondiscrimination ordinance. Curtis, a Billings native and Butte schoolteacher serving her first term in the Montana House, spoke Monday evening on the steps of the First Congregational United Church of Christ. (more…) Continue Reading →
RED LODGE — A group of Clarks Fork Valley landowners appealed to the Carbon County Commission on Monday to create a special zoning district that would protect them from the impacts of oil and gas development. “We’re not here to stop it,” organic farmer Bonnie Martinell told the commission. “We want it done correctly.” (more…) Continue Reading →
A huge windstorm nearly canceled a show by Rick Springfield at the Fallon County Fair in Baker on Saturday, but an improvised concert was quickly arranged and became “a once-in-a-lifetime” experience. (more…) Continue Reading →
I suppose I should explain why I decided to take photographs of panhandlers. But first let me explain what the collection of photos is not. It is not, for starters, an attempt to weigh in on the whole question of whether you should give money to panhandlers. (more…) Continue Reading →
