Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/27/)
I have lived in Billings since 1989. I have covered the city of Billings as a reporter for more than 20 years. And a few days ago, I finally toured the Moss Mansion. How can that be? Preston Boyd Moss, who built the imposing red-stone mansion at 914 Division St., had a hand in just about everything that mattered in early Billings. Continue Reading →
Talk about a bad penny… Max Lenington, the former treasurer, assessor and superintendent of schools for Yellowstone County, ended his long career of public service in disgrace a few years ago, after it became publicly known that he harbored racist, homophobic and all-around reprehensible beliefs. When I interviewed him in the midst of the firestorm about his comments, he still seemed rather proud of his notoriety, saying, among other things, “I enjoy the infuriation of the liberal left-wing media like you. I could say ‘fuck’ and I wouldn’t get as much news as when I said ‘Obama.’”
Since he left office, he has continued to trumpet his extreme, offensive views. Just this morning, in a letter to the editor of the Billings Gazette, he was at it again. Continue Reading →
I’m not usually one for looking at weather forecasts. I figure that because the weather is something you can’t change, what’s the point of reading about what it is expected to be? But it’s hard not to be interested in the near future when you’re looking at a string of six days with temperatures of 100 or above. (more…) Continue Reading →
The educational plans of Fort Peck native Natasha Chamberlain just got a big boost. The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans announced last week that Chamberlain, who will be a sophomore at Carroll College in Helena this fall, was one of 10 students nationwide who will receive a $10,000 Horatio Alger Honeywell Scholarship. (more…) Continue Reading →
Trent Inderland is looking forward even more keenly than usual to a bluegrass concert in Billings next week. Inderland, vice president and concert coordinator for the Yellowstone Bluegrass Association, is excited partly because the group that’s playing July 7 is the Gibson Brothers band, winner of numerous awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association and veteran of the Grand Ole Opry. (more…) Continue Reading →
Driving back to Billings from Great Falls on Wednesday, I took a long detour. I was in the mood for back roads, for one thing, and I specifically wanted to see the one-room schoolhouse—right next door to a nuclear missile silo—that I’d visited in 1999. That visit was part of the week-long journey I made with photographer David Grubbs, driving from Yaak to Alzada on unpaved roads and then writing up our experiences for the Billings Gazette. (more…) Continue Reading →
GREAT FALLS — It almost sounds like some kind of Olympic event: Bike 1,200 miles across the rugged terrain of Montana in six weeks, stopping every few days to put on a play. And carry everything you need to live and perform—food, clothing, sleeping gear, costumes, sets, props and musical instruments—on those bicycles. It’s a combination that Billings native Kean Haunt finds intriguing and satisfying. (more…) Continue Reading →
WYOLA — It’s 9 a.m., the start of the day in Dorcella Plain Bull’s fourth-grade classroom at Wyola School. A drumbeat is playing over the PA and all of Plain Bull’s students are standing up and singing the Wyola district song, singing in the Apsaalooke language of the Crow Indians. They sing it every morning before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Each of the six districts of the Crow Nation has its own song. The Wyola district song was written in the early 1960s by the father of Levi Yellowmule, the school’s athletic director. Continue Reading →
On Pure Wow, a website I’d never seen before, I came across a list naming the best bookstore in every state in the union. The winner in Montana? The Montana Valley Book Store in Alberton, just off I-90 about 30 miles west of Missoula. The store was described like this:
“It doesn’t get any more charming than a lovingly tended book collection, run by a mother and son, out of a turn-of-the century former butcher shop in a tiny railroad town (population: 420).” I won’t argue with that. Continue Reading →
We received a press release yesterday from the Montana Human Rights Network about a truly epic gathering scheduled for this weekend in Bozeman. I have been traveling way too much lately so I can’t be in Bozeman this weekend, but let’s hope the Bozeman Chronicle does as much thorough coverage as its reporters can stand. Meanwhile, it seems pointless to try condensing the network’s lengthy, well-researched press release, so we’ll just give it in full: (more…) Continue Reading →
