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

Waiting for governor’s race to be about something

By: |

One of my favorite Montana columnists, Dan Brooks, who writes for the Missoula Independent, has a good piece out about the governor’s race. So far, he says, the contest between sitting Gov. Steve Bullock and his Republican challenger, Greg Gianforte, has boiled down to partisan attacks on Bullock for using the governor’s plane for personal matters and partisan attacks on Gianforte for a lawsuit he filed nearly 10 years ago to kill an easement that gave the public access to the East Gallatin River across his family’s property. Both things really did happen, Brooks writes—Gianforte did file a suit and Bullock did apparently overuse that plane—but neither camp has made much of a case for what either candidate will actually do if elected next fall. “What’s the hot idea out of Bullock for Governor right now, besides that Greg Gianforte tried to shut down a beach?” Brooks asks. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Dan Brooks, Greg Gianforte, Missoula Independent, Steve Bullock

New video celebrates downtown Miles City

By: |
Drone

If you’re a fan of Miles City—and if you’re not I’m going to have to assume you haven’t been there—you’ll probably enjoy this 90-second video highlighting what downtown Miles City has to offer. “The Heart of Home” video was created by Spotlight Productions for the Miles City Downtown Urban Renewal Agency and the Tax Increment Finance District Board. The video was the result of one idea cooked up by marketing students from Montana State University Billings, who worked with the the agency and the TIF board on ways to promote the downtown business area. The drone footage of the downtown and areas around town was filmed by Matt Hanvold. The video will be featured in television ads airing in Eastern Montana and will be posted on social media, too. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Downtown Urban Renewal Agency, Matt Hanvold, Miles City, MSU Billings, Spotlight Productions

Guy Clark: Another good man gone

By: |
Clark

First Merle, then Prince and now comes the news that Guy Clark is gone, too. Clark was a songwriter’s songwriter, one of those funny, literate, hardboiled, authentic masters who showed the way to so many others. It didn’t hurt that he was a good guitar player with an affecting, whiskey-soaked voice. I didn’t start listening to Clark until about 15 years ago, and I came at him backward, through listening to Steve Earle and then turning to Clark, who was a mentor to Earle. Clark played at the Texas-heavy 2011 edition of the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs. I can’t remember where I was, but I know I couldn’t make the festival that year. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Guy Clark, Red Ants Pants Music Festival, Steve Earle, Texas Monthly, Townes Van Zandt

Volunteers to help thousands of hungry kids this weekend

By: |
Little

During just four two-hour shifts this weekend in Billings, volunteers will be packaging enough food to feed almost everyone in Montana one meal. But the food won’t be going to people in Montana. It will be delivered to severely malnourished children around the world. As many as 750 volunteers are expected to show up this Friday and Saturday at the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark to make up to 150,000 food packets, each of which contains six servings. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Montana, Cooksimple, Feed My Starving Children, Harvest Church, Keith Lauver, SAGE Homeschool Co-op

Swallow your skepticism, vote for Billings!

By: |
Mag

Can I admit that until this afternoon I hadn’t even checked out the whole Outside magazine best-town-in-the-nation thing? I had seen headlines and photos and mentions of it on Facebook and Twitter, on the Q2 website and in the Gazette, but I hadn’t bothered to really look into it yet. I’m busy, for one thing. For another, in my Gazette column over the years I took many opportunities to make fun of this or that contest, including several previous Outside contests. As I pointed out every time, these contests are not designed primarily to determine which town is the coolest, or the family-friendliest or the best to retire in, etc. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Billings the river town, Gazette, Outside magazine, Q2

A modest proposal for fixing tourists’ stupidity

By: |
Stocks

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column more or less defending tourists unwise enough to think their trip to Yellowstone National Park should include a close encounter with a bison. I’m going to have to reconsider my stance after reading about the father-and-son team who put a bison calf in their SUV and took it to a ranger station, worried that the creature was freezing to death. What’s next? Will tourists net fish to save them from drowning? Maybe capture a pelican and put it in a cage so it doesn’t get hurt falling from the sky? Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, bison, Yellowstone National Park

Prairie Lights: Here’s your speech, you find the speaker

By: |
Rogers

Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons delivered the commencement speech at the University of Montana yesterday and I heard it went well. He’s a great actor and reportedly a great guy. Few schools are able to attract that kind of star power. Small high schools in particular are often thrown back on the unpleasant expedient of asking some local politician to speak, or just bagging the commencement speech altogether. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Abe Lincoln, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, J.K. Simmons, Joan of Arc, Will Rogers

In Ballantine, ‘We’re the church that feeds the children’

By: |
Boys

BALLANTINE — It was a jar of pickles that convinced Doug Oltrogge that something needed to be done. Late last July, grant funding for a summer-lunch program served at the Ballantine Congregational United Church of Christ ran out three weeks before the start of the new school year. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Ballantine, Ballantine Congregational United Church of Christ, Billings Food Bank, Doug and Rita Oltrogge, Huntley Project Schools, Project Merc, the Rev. John Dyce

Prairie Lights: The dis-United States of Facebook

By: |

I saw on Facebook the other day that a Trump-loving tow-truck operator in North Carolina refused to help a disabled woman whose car was inoperable, saying it was the Bernie Sanders sign in her window that prompted his decision. This gentleman, who calls himself a Christian, told local reporters, “Something came over me, I think the Lord came to me, and he just said get in the truck and leave. And when I got in my truck, you know, I was so proud, because I felt like I finally drew a line in the sand and stood up for what I believed.” (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks, Donald Trump, Facebook, Hillary Clinton