Ed Kemmick

Ed Kemmick has been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist since 1980. Except for four years in his home state of Minnesota, he has spent his entire journalism career in Montana, working in Missoula, Anaconda, Butte and Billings. "The Big Sky, By and By," a collection of some of his newspaper stories and columns, plus a few essays and one short story, was published in 2011.

Recent Posts

Train ride is a wonderful outing, a worthy cause

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River

Jeremy Lundblad, a Montana Highway Patrol trooper who lives in Laurel, went on the first train ride of his life Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t a terribly long trip—Billings to Pompeys Pillar and back, in about two hours—but it was an enjoyable, memorable ride. “I normally work weekends because that’s when all the fun stuff happens,” he said. “But luckily I was off today.”

So were dozens of other law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders and their families—about 250 people all told—who were guests of BNSF Railway. They came from towns all over Yellowstone County. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Montana, News, Billings Depot, BNSF, First Responders, Mike Cooney, Yellowstone County Fire Council

Prairie Lights: Cities lead the way in luring millennials home

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Martini

Here’s some moderately good news, I guess: In a ranking of best states for millennials, compiled by MoneyRates.com, Montana came in fifth, after first-place North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. The worst five states were, in descending order, Vermont, California, Arizona and Virginia (tied for second-worst) and rock-bottom Washington. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Greg Gianforte, millennials, MoneyRates.com, Strawberry Festival

Downtown co-op bookstore plans open house June 30

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An open house for This House of Books, a community-owned bookstore going into downtown Billings, is scheduled for Thursday, June 30. The event will run from 5 to 7 p.m. in the old Wendy’s restaurant at Second Avenue North and North 29th Street. Local residents and potential members of the cooperative bookstore will be able to have a look at the building, meet people involved in the project and sample some of the teas that will be featured in the store’s tea bar. Light snacks will also be served. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Culture, Diversions, Carrie La Seur, Gary Robson, Nina Hernandez, Prescious McKenzie, Red Lodge Books & Tea, This House of Books

Independent looks at state’s newspaper landscape

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What happens when a small town loses its local newspaper? Derek Brouwer, a former Billings Gazette reporter now working for the weekly Missoula Independent, attempts to answer that question in a front-page story published yesterday. He writes of the demise of the Bigfork Eagle, which went from independent ownership to becoming a property of Lee Enterprises (publisher of the Gazette, the Missoulian and a few other Montana papers) and then of Duane Hagadone, the owner of a regional media conglomerate. Along the way, Brouwer looks at the venerable Choteau Acantha, a much-respected little paper that has been publishing in Teton County for 123 years. (One of its editors was A.B. Guthrie’s father, and Guthrie worked there as a boy, in the capacity of printer’s devil, a term so old I’m not even sure what it means.)

The article covers a lot of familiar ground—Facebook is the new small-town newspaper, print is nearly obsolete, etc.—but from a purely Montana perspective. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Bigfork Eagle, Chaoteu Acantha, Derek Brouwer, Lee Enterprises, Missoula Independent

With perks, County Commission job suddenly attractive

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Kennedy

As was reported this morning, Denis Pitman appears to have won the race for Yellowstone County Commission, since he was well ahead of incumbent Republican Jim Reno in Tuesday’s election and there was no Democratic candidate. The Gazette also reported that the commissioner job comes with a base salary of about $64,000. That’s not quite right—it’s closer to $68,000—but it’s pretty decent pay in Montana by any measure. However, and I think you will agree, the benefits attached to the job are at a level that most people in the private sector can only dream of. Bill Kennedy, the only Democrat on the commission, recently announced that he will be stepping down Aug. 1 to take a new job as president and CEO of the Montana State University Billings Foundation. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Bill Kennedy, Denis Pitman, Jim Reno, John Ostlund, Kevan Bryan, Pam Ellis, Yellowstone County Commission

Audubon Center rolls out new summer activities

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Tours

Responding to requests from the public, the Montana Audubon Center is offering several new programs this summer, including weekly nature tours of Norm’s Island and monthly early-morning bird walks. Also new are Tuesday-evening and Sunday-afternoon events involving canoeing on the nature center’s ponds or taking self-guided tours with “Nature Knapsacks” full of activity suggestions and equipment for each activity. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Carolyn Sevier, Montana Audubon Center, Norm's Island, Shepard Nature Play Space, Yellowstone River

Prairie Lights: Savoring the first faint blast of summer

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Park

Let the baking begin. Saturday put me in mind of my first couple of summers in Billings, in 1989 and 1990, before which all my Montana summers had been spent in Missoula and Butte. Missoula was always cool at night, no matter how hot it was during the day, and Butte was so cool that during two summers we spent there, I think we might have taken our (then) only daughter to the city swimming pool maybe three or four times. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Norm's Island, Riverfront Park, Summertime, Terry Park, Yellowstone River

Sunday events will support Shadow Warriors Project

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Reed

A businessman from Garryowen is sponsoring two fundraisers in Billings on Sunday for the Shadow Warriors Project, which provides support for private military security contractors and their families. Christopher Kortlander, director of the nonprofit Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen, a tiny historic town that he also owns, is putting on the fundraisers. A special guest at both events will be Mark “Oz” Geist, founder of the Shadow Warriors Project and a survivor of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: News, Benghazi, Christopher Kortlander, Custer Battlefield Museum, Garryowen, Harry Bologna, Hillary Clinton, Mark "Oz" Geist

The strange case of a home-grown terrorist

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Hutson

A lengthy report on what happened in the legal system after a Kalispell resident threatened repeatedly to slaughter schoolchildren was published online Thursday by Political Research Associates. Headlined “Racial Double Standards in a Mass Shooting Threat Case: David Lenio & White Nationalism,” the piece by Jonathan Hutson argues that Lenio was treated leniently—and even had his guns returned by the state of Montana—because our judicial system routinely tolerates activities on the part of white terrorists which, if indulged in by, say, a person of Middle Eastern extraction or Islamic background, would bring down swift punishment. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Brady Campaign, David Lenio, Flathead Beacon, Jonathan Hutson, Political Research Associates

At Pictograph Cave park, a reminder of nearby treasures

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Overview

As a pre-event kickoff to the Montana Preservation Road Show that began in Red Lodge a little later in the day, a handful of visitors took a ranger-guided tour of Pictograph Cave State Park on Wednesday morning. I’d taken the tour before, many years ago, and had been back to the caves more than a few times on my own, but like Pompeys Pillar and a few other area landmarks, there are some places that we who live here should keep going back to, to remind us how lucky we are. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Fish Wildlife and Parks, Jarret Kostrba, Montana Preservation Road Show, Pictograph Cave State Park, Sara Scott