Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/113/)
I was down near Bridger today working on a story (look for it in a few days) when a very large group of people on horseback trotted into view, making their way across the parched hills a few miles south of town. (more…) Continue Reading →
Don’t miss Craig Lancaster’s interview with Adrian Jawort, who edited and published “Off the Path: An Anthology of 21st Century Montana American Indian Writers, Vol. 1.” We wrote about the book in February, but Lancaster’s interview has a lot of new information, including Jawort’s plans for upcoming anthologies and his own novel. Excerpt: “A lot of people open the book perhaps expecting something typical and almost clichéd and formulaic about Native Americans, but this is very edgy and atypical. We do touch on plaguing real issues like suicide, abuse , alcoholism, and poverty that Natives out west deal with on a seemingly extreme level and a lot of it is biographical, but it’s still very original fiction. Off the Path has basically created a life force of its own and a lot of that stemmed from positive reactions to it.” Continue Reading →
When I went into the Last Best biz, I thought one of the great advantages of this new kind of journalism would be the lack of deadlines. Working at a newspaper, you live and die by deadlines. You’ve got a physical product, a bundle of newsprint and ink, that has to be published every day of the year. To get a paper on the subscriber’s doorstep in the morning, the paper has to be printed the night before. (more…) Continue Reading →
Kristen Cates, the education reporter for the Great Falls Tribune, has written a brave, funny column on a sensitive subject. Here’s the best part, a perfectly succint, very useful piece of advice:
I’ve come up with this tip on when it’s OK to ask a woman if she’s pregnant:
• Never (unless you are in the labor and delivery room while she’s having that baby). I would even make sure you see the little head beginning to emerge before you ask. I am a dummy in countless ways, but my wife taught me well on this subject. Continue Reading →
FORSYTH — How do you make a living as an artist in a place like Montana or North Dakota? Just ask Bob Watts. He is an accomplished and prolific painter, but if he had tried to live solely on his paintings, he probably couldn’t have supported his wife and three children. (more…) Continue Reading →
When Kenny Biggs left Townsend to join the Marines in 1945, he was carrying a snapshot of the girl he loved. She had had the photo taken at the state fair in Helena a year earlier, when she was just 14. In the photo she is a fair-skinned, dark-haired girl wearing lipstick and a tentative smile. Her name was Nadine Biggs, and that was the problem. (more…) Continue Reading →
Hope Errico Wisneski told supporters of a nondiscrimination ordinance in Billings on Tuesday that they are moving forward swiftly, however slow the process might seem. Things truly move slowly in Washington, D.C., she said, which is why the Human Rights Campaign is working for change in states and individual communities. (more…) Continue Reading →
John Warner, a photographer in Billings who has put his stamp all over Last Best News, won a high honor a few days ago. (more…) Continue Reading →
BUTTE — During the opening ceremonies of the Montana Folk Festival on Friday night, a woman on the Original Stage was signing for the hearing impaired while a speaker welcomed everyone to Butte. (more…) Continue Reading →
People trying to alleviate homelessness and find a solution to problems with transients in downtown Billings are making plans to hear about models that seem to be working in other cities. (more…) Continue Reading →
