Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/120/)
A group of mostly local journalists are planning to do some in-depth coverage of developments in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and Eastern Montana, and they need your help. (more…) Continue Reading →
Guitar Odyssey: A Journal of Musical Growth, by Michael Rays, Smashwords, 2013. 59 pages, $4.99. A few years ago, Mike Curtis set two goals for himself. He wanted to write a book and he wanted to master Ritchie Blackmore’s blazing guitar solo on Deep Purple’s “Highway Star.” (more…) Continue Reading →
At the beginning of a panel discussion on the future of the printed word Tuesday night, magazine editor Seabring Davis told the audience, “When you figure out what the current state of publishing is, please let me know.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Things tend to get a little busy around Last Best News. I had completely forgotten that I was interviewed a month or two ago by a reporter for Editor & Publisher. This morning I heard from an old colleague who saw the story that E&P wrote about Last Best News, which you can find right here. (Link restored.)
Editor & Publisher describes itself on its website as “the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates.” So I am honored to capture their fleeting attention. Continue Reading →
Most of us are so glad to live here that it’s almost a pleasant surprise to find somebody really down on the Last Best Place. The Great Falls Tribune reported hearing from a California transplant who had a long list of things he hates about Montana. Here’s my favorite excerpt:
“If you plan to come here, get a Dodge diesel four-wheel-drive with a very loud exhaust, guns to kill things and talk about every day, drink alcohol every day and drive drunk (it doesn’t matter here), smoke and chew tobacco (even the girls) and spit it everywhere.” The ranter was identified as Bryan Boelkens, a resident of northcentral Montana. I don’t know what town he lives in, but I have a feeling he is not going to be very popular there. Continue Reading →
One of the most popular trees in Billings — yes, a popular tree — is no more. The huge, five-trunk willow tree that sat just south of the main tennis courts at Pioneer Park was cut down on Arbor Day. (more…) Continue Reading →
On the slowest day in the short life of Last Best News, just 131 people visited the site. That was on Saturday, Feb. 15, two weeks after the site launched on Feb. 1. That depressing day was followed by a few more slow Saturdays, which convinced me that people simply don’t spend much time on the Internet on that day of the week. Continue Reading →
There wasn’t a whiff of controversy Saturday afternoon during Greg Gianforte’s commencement address at Rocky Mountain College. (more…) Continue Reading →
Norm Clarke agrees: he’s come a long way from his small-town start. His lengthy journalism career began when he was in high school in his Eastern Montana hometown of Terry. The personable Clarke talked the editor of the local weekly newspaper, the Terry Tribune, into letting him report on a Class C basketball tournament in a nearby town. (more…) Continue Reading →
Now that you have had a couple of weeks to cool down after paying income taxes, let’s see if we can bring the temperature back to simmer. Almost everybody agrees that the federal tax system is bizarrely complex, unfair and incomprehensible. And almost everybody agrees that nothing substantive is likely ever to be done about that. (more…) Continue Reading →
