Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/45/)
Is it really still October? Starting about six weeks ago, time slowed down in a way I’d never experienced before. There were some stories I wanted to finish before Election Day, but every time I’d try to remind myself how many weeks I had until then, my first thought was wrong. (more…) Continue Reading →
Like a lot of other people, I was impressed with “Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana,” which was published in 2012 by the Montana Historical Society Press. It is full of superb photos by Tom Ferris and great stories by Christine Brown and Chere Jiusto and it features an amazing variety of barn styles from all over the state. (more…) Continue Reading →
I wrote a story last month about a Red Lodge teacher, a story that began like this: “Kate Belinda needs your vote, but she’s not running for office.” Well, it’s crunch time now and she needs your vote more than ever. Your votes, rather, since everyone is free to vote once a day for their favorite teacher in a Dream Big Teachers Challenge, sponsored by Farmers Insurance. Belinda is the adviser for the Red Lodge High School Green Team, which hopes to use the $100,000 contest prize to erect a wind turbine on school property, saving the school lots of money in electricity costs and greatly reducing its carbon footprint. The Red Lodge teacher has already come far by being named one of 15 finalists from among several hundred teachers nationwide who sent in proposals. Continue Reading →
Fifteen years ago, nobody thought it would work. Six ranchers were proposing to start their own bull-breeding business, bypassing the big artificial insemination outfits to gain more control over the process and to keep more of the profits in their own pockets. Their business, ORIgen, was designed from the start to be a breeder-to-breeder service, giving the power of numbers to breeders of beef bulls. (more…) Continue Reading →
If I thought it would make the slightest difference, I would urge readers of Last Best News to vote for Hillary Clinton, given the mountain of evidence that Donald Trump is completely unfit to be president. But it appears that Montana voters are going to favor Trump in any case. Fortunately, it appears just as likely that the country as a whole will reject him by a large margin. (more…) Continue Reading →
Backers of a medical marijuana initiative, who appear to be fighting an uphill battle, rallied Thursday on the lawn of the Yellowstone County Courthouse. Coming the day after the final presidential debate, it could be that many people were suffering from “election fatigue,” in the words of Barbara Sample, one of four Initiative 182 supporters who spoke at the noon rally. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Billings City Council will have its first chance to endorse a multimillion-dollar downtown development project when it meets Monday night. The council will be asked to vote on a pre-development memorandum of understanding with the developers proposing to create the One Big Sky Center in the area of First Avenue North and North 29th Street. (more…) Continue Reading →
Sue Bach can’t wait for this week’s Friends of the Billings Public Library’s book sale. “Right now we’re all full to the rafters because we have not had a sale in eight months,” she said. (more…) Continue Reading →
It looks like the presidential election might be over already. Thank God. But the creatures that spawned the Creature from the Reality TV Lagoon are likely to be with us for a while yet. I refer to the lords of talk radio, whose unrelenting sledgehammer attacks on conventional governance finally coughed up presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. He has been, sure enough, unconventional. Continue Reading →
Sarah Butts has fond memories of working in Billings, where she had her first professional job in the theater. “I feel like in many ways I grew up as an artist in Billings,” she said. “So I really feel like I’m coming home.” (more…) Continue Reading →
