Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/43/)
The day after GE Capital announced what had long looked to be inevitable—that it would be closing down its Billings operations and laying off 60 people—Steve Arveschoug was working on what comes next. Arveschoug is the director of Big Sky Economic Development, the agency that built a 40,000-square-foot “Center of Excellence” for GE Capital in 2009. (more…) Continue Reading →
In annoucing the proposed expansion of the Art House Cinema & Pub during an event at the downtown business Monday night, Matt Blakeslee told about going to see “The Artist” back in 2011. The black-and-white silent movie, which would go on to win seven Oscars, including Best Film, had won high praise from critics and movie-goers for many months before Carmike Cinemas, which then owned every screen in town, finally brought the movie to Billings. (more…) Continue Reading →
There has been no lack of disappointing, discouraging news over the past few months, but I don’t think anything I read was as depressing as these two sentences:
“Six months ago, Wade and his business partner, Ben Goldman, were unemployed restaurant workers. Now they’re at the helm of a website that gained 300,000 Facebook followers in October alone and say they are making so much money that they feel uncomfortable talking about it because they don’t want people to start asking for loans.” (more…) Continue Reading →
When the Pub Station opened inside the old downtown bus depot on the day before Thanksgiving in 2014, Sean Lynch hoped to be able to expand into the larger, rear portion of the depot within five years. The Pub Station has been so well received that he and his wife and business partner, Ann Kosempa, are planning to put on their first show in the venue’s new ballroom in early January. (more…) Continue Reading →
I was glad to see Tom Lutey’s story in the Billings Gazette this morning, a solid follow-up to my Sunday column about the presidential elector from Miles City who went on Facebook six years ago to make joking comments about the killing of gay people. (more…) Continue Reading →
JOLIET — Dave Engel has been making and restoring wagons, coaches and other horse-drawn conveyances for almost 40 years, but the commissioned project he’s working on now is likely to be seen by far more people than anything else he’s done. Working out of Engel’s Coach Shop on Joliet’s Main Street, just off Highway 212, Engel and one employee have been laboring since last February to build replicas of two of the wagons once used to haul borax in California’s Death Valley. (more…) Continue Reading →
My, how things have changed in six short years. In 2010, as you may recall, Tim Ravndal, the president of the Big Sky Tea Party Association, was ejected from the group because of comments he made on Facebook that appeared to endorse the murder of gay people. (more…) Continue Reading →
I’m probably late in noticing this, but James Welch, who surely ranks as one of the best writers in the history of Montana, is the subject of today’s Google doodle. Today would have been the 76th birthday of the author of “Winter in the Blood” and “Fools Crow,” along with other novels and poems. The beautiful doodle by artist Sophie Diao nicely captures Welch’s thoughtful, placid demeanor. Most references to Welch that I found today refer to him as a Blackfeet writer, but Indian Country Today has the more correct designation: Blackfeet/Gros Ventre. I thought Google’s announcement was slightly off in one respect, in the way it confidently asserts that “Fools Crow” was his “best known work.” That was actually the first Welch book I read and I certainly loved it, but I would have to say that “Winter in the Blood” is his best-known work, especially after the release of the Smith brothers’ film of the same name. Continue Reading →
Compared with the coal-fired power plant in Colstrip, the Huntley Generating Station in Tonawanda, N.Y., was not all that large. At its height, when all six units of the Huntley plant were operating, the power station could generate up to 598 megawatts of electricity—compared to a capacity of 2,094 megawatts at Colstrip’s four units. (more…) Continue Reading →
One Big Sky Center, a proposed development that would create the tallest building in Montana as the centerpiece of a $165 million project in downtown Billings, won the grudging support of the City Council Monday night. On a 6-2 vote, with two absences and one abstention, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with the project developers, giving them until June 30 to work with city staff and the city’s legal and financial consultants to come up with a final development agreement. (more…) Continue Reading →
