Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/54/)
BALLANTINE — On her husband’s farm 25 miles east of downtown Billings, Kate Vogel is standing amid green blades of annual ryegrass on what would normally be bare soil between silage stalks. She is holding a forage collard plant, its tangled roots clinging to a big mass of black dirt. The collard was part of a cover crop her husband, Marc Vogel, planted last fall, after harvesting a crop of silage corn. (more…) Continue Reading →
Thursday night, many of the people and the dogs who considered Tom Weaver their friend will take to the sidewalks on either side of Broadway in downtown Red Lodge, to mark Weaver’s death and to remember his life. “I was a pretty good friend of Tom’s,” Gordie Blevins said. “I’m not saying I was his best friend, but my dog was probably his best friend. My dog loved Tom.” (more…) Continue Reading →
I had a dream last week that I was driving a semi-truck. In the dream I had just topped a steep pass to start my descent when I realized that I didn’t know the first thing about semis and that I was probably doomed. I forgot all about the dream until a few days later, when I received an email from the American Trucking Association, the subject line of which read: “Have you ever taken a ride in a big rig?” (more…) Continue Reading →
Red Lodge Ales is on the verge of a major expansion into Billings, which includes opening a taproom, making fresh-pressed hard cider and hiring Jason Corbridge as the chef. “I think it’s really an exciting project,” said Sam Hoffmann, president of Red Lodge Ales. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Filling out a medical form the other day, I was asked whether I had lately felt any “fatigue or disinterest.”
I wanted to say, “As a reporter and proprietor of an online newspaper, I strive to be disinterested on a daily basis, unless I am clearly stating my opinion, and even then I hope a spirit of disinterestedness informs what I have to say.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Among guests at the opening of a new art gallery in downtown Billings Thursday night was Bob Durden, senior curator at the Yellowstone Art Museum. Standing in the long, narrow, high-ceilinged Stapleton Gallery on the second floor of the Stapleton Building at North Broadway and First Avenue North, Durden said that what he liked most about the new gallery was that it brought art back to a building that used to be teeming with it. (more…) Continue Reading →
FISHTAIL — On a tour of the Tippet Rise Art Center on a rainy Wednesday morning, Alban Bassuet did not need to say much about the impressions made by monumental outdoor sculptures dotting the 11,500-acre ranch. Like Stonehenge, the Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower, the art installations at Tippet Rise speak for themselves. (more…) Continue Reading →
Red Lodge Mayor Ed Williams announced Tuesday evening that he will be resigning as of June 29, one day before the the official last day of Police Chief Steve Hibler, who announced his resignation on April 6. Williams could not be reached for comment, but Diane Dimich, a member of Red Lodge Community Oversight Representatives, confirmed that the mayor announced his resignation shortly after the start of a 7 p.m. meeting of the Red Lodge City Council on Tuesday. (more…) Continue Reading →
If you’re wondering exactly what a cooperative is, specifically as it relates to This House of Books, a cooperative bookstore that is hoping to open by Sept. 1 in downtown Billings, here’s a video you’ll enjoy. It is a conversation between Gary Robson, who will be managing the store, and Precious McKenzie, vice president of the bookstore board of directors. They talk about why the cooperative model was chosen and what it means for potential investors and customers, and they also talk about how the store was named, among other topics. Continue Reading →
Hugo and Becca Bumgardner were wed Saturday evening in Marmarth, N.D., 15 miles east of their home in Baker. Like nine or 10 people on hand for the wedding, Hugo and Becca are members of the Baker Rural Fire Department. At the reception afterward, right after dinner, numerous pagers started going off, alerting them to one of the biggest disasters in the history of Baker. (more…) Continue Reading →
