Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/33/)
The 2017 Montana Legislature is not scheduled to adjourn for three more weeks, but I think we can already identify the most craven act of the session. That would be the House’s rejection of a bill to allow all-mail balloting in the special congressional election scheduled for May 25. (more…) Continue Reading →
Thanks to the never-ending fascination with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a rifle linked to the battle recently sold at auction for a quarter million dollars. The Sharps rifle was billed by the company, Brian Lebel’s Old West Events, as “The first firearm forensically proven to have been used at Custer’s Last Stand,” using the old name for the famous battle. (more…) Continue Reading →
One hundred years to the day after the United States entered World War I, 23 female veterans of that conflict received a long-overdue salute. A plaque honoring the women, all of whom were either born or buried in Yellowstone County, or entered federal service here, was dedicated Thursday morning on the lawn of the Yellowstone County Courthouse. (more…) Continue Reading →
All across the country, voters often sit elections out because they lack access to good, reliable information about the candidates and issues. With a special election coming up in Montana on May 25 to find a replacement for Ryan Zinke, until recently Montana’s lone House member and now secretary of the Interior Department, Forward Montana is hoping to change that. (more…) Continue Reading →
Owner-members of a cooperative bookstore in downtown Billings heard a bit of good news at the store’s annual meeting Wednesday night, but also some sobering statements about what might lie ahead. Carrie La Seur, board president for This House of Books, said that after months of losing money, the store had enough money last month to pay the rent and meet payroll without borrowing money, for the first time in three months. (more…) Continue Reading →
Plans for a multimillion-dollar pedestrian bridge that would provide access to MetraPark across Exposition Drive will be unveiled April 19 at the annual meeting of the Billings Industrial Revitalization District. Those plans call for an eye-catching steel bridge faced with wood and stone that would stretch 175 to 200 feet over Exposition Drive where it meets Third Avenue North. (more…) Continue Reading →
A trio of local architects is hoping to do something different, something big, with the concept of tiny homes. Brian Johnson, Nick Pancheau and Jeff Kanning, partners in Collaborative Design Architects, started a sister business, Arch 406, to cater to clients whose smaller, custom-designed projects weren’t quite big enough to interest most contractors. (more…) Continue Reading →
Late last decade, Matt Melvin, a chef and baker who had worked for a lot of restaurants, started thinking about opening his own place. But he and his wife, Maggie, were looking at an upfront investment of up $200,000, and it was a hurdle they couldn’t get over. Things started looking up last year, when Brian Johnson got a hold of him. (more…) Continue Reading →
The more things change…
My first full-time reporting job was in Anaconda, back in 1980. One of our neighbors, at the first house we lived in, was an ancient Italian woman who filled me in on a lot of local history. One story of hers I never forgot was about what happened in the old days when a worker died up on the hill, at the smelter owned by the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Within a day or two, she said, a company lawyer would show up at the widow’s door with money and a piece of paper. (more…) Continue Reading →
Two things surprised me about Vince Larsen’s obituary, which appeared in the Gazette on Tuesday. The first surprise was his age. I don’t know that I ever thought how old he was, but 87? Vince had the energy and the intellectual curiosity of someone half that age, and he had a way of transmitting his enthusiasm for life to everyone around him. (more…) Continue Reading →
