Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/60/)

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

Missoulian editor Bunk reportedly resigns

By: Ed Kemmick | April 11, 2016

The Missoula Current is reporting that Matt Bunk, the Missoulian editor suspended two weeks ago after bringing a concealed weapon to work in violation of company policy, has resigned. Martin Kidston, the founder of the Current, said his sources were newspaper employees and that no other information was available Monday night. As Kidston also reported, Bunk was named editor of the Missoulian only last August by publisher Mark Heintzelman. And Heintzelman had been on the job not quite a year himself when he hired Bunk away from a twice-weekly paper in Libby. Bunk was hired after former Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin was demoted, and she later filed a lawsuit in District Court, saying she had been unjustly demoted and replaced by a less-qualified male. Continue Reading →

Prairie Lights: Some readers buffaloed by April Fools’ fun

By: Ed Kemmick | April 10, 2016

Some years back, I wrote an expose of an article that ran in the now-defunct Weekly World News. The article claimed that Montana Highway Patrol officers had gunned down a Bigfoot, also known as a sasquatch, after the brute terrorized a New Zealand couple in Beaverhead Rock State Park near Dillon. (more…) Continue Reading →

Children and mental health care: ‘It’s OK to ask for help’

By: Ed Kemmick | April 7, 2016

Mariah Bryant has seen a lot of troubles in her 15 years. She was mostly neglected by her parents, who were into drugs and alcohol, and when she was 6 her mother dropped her off at Mariah’s grandmother’s house and never came back. Mariah has suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, and in school she was often subjected to bullying. Even so, she sounds surprisingly optimistic. “I hear other people’s stories and I feel pretty lucky,” she said. Continue Reading →

Nixon, citizen group react to Red Lodge chief’s departure

By: Ed Kemmick | April 6, 2016

Our story on the resignation of Red Lodge Police Chief Steve Hibler is long enough, so we thought we’d do a separate post on some reaction to the news. (more…) Continue Reading →

In honor of the late Merle Haggard, 2 reading suggestions

By: Ed Kemmick | April 6, 2016

Merle Haggard, one of the best songwriters and the owner of one of the most distinctive voices in the history of country music, died Wednesday, on his 79th birthday. You don’t need me to tell you of Merle’s life and legacy. You’re on the Internet, with Google at your fingertips. But allow me to recommend two superb pieces about Merle, one quite short and one very long. The short one was published two years ago by the Wall Street Journal, as part of its occasional “Anatomy of a Song” series. Continue Reading →

Red Lodge police chief to quit, cites lack of support

By: Ed Kemmick | April 6, 2016

Citing hostility from Carbon County officials and a lack of community support, Red Lodge Police Chief Steve Hibler has resigned effective June 30, the Carbon County News is reporting. The report was posted to the weekly newspaper’s Facebook page shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and apparently is based wholly or in part on a press release given to the newspaper earlier in the day by Red Lodge Mayor Ed Williams. (more…) Continue Reading →

Billings native, noted soprano back for pair of local shows

By: Ed Kemmick | April 6, 2016

Christie Hageman Conover was 16 or 17 years old when, for her grandmother’s 80th birthday, she learned to sing Patsy Montana’s “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” complete with the yodeling. This weekend, at concerts in Billings and Bozeman, she’ll be singing that song again as part of her “Women of the West” show with Bozeman pianist Stefan Stern. Later in the month, she’ll be back in her hometown to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Billings Symphony Orchestra. (more…) Continue Reading →

Pistol-packing editor says gun was an antique

By: Ed Kemmick | April 4, 2016

Following up on a story broken by the Missoula Current, the Missoula Independent has new details on the suspension of Missoulian editor Matt Bunk, who violated company policy by bringing a gun to work. Indy reporter Derek Brouwer (formerly a reporter for the Billings Gazette) writes: “In a personal Facebook post he shared Monday with the Indy, Bunk says the incident involved an antique handgun his girlfriend recently gave him as an engagement gift. The editor says he has a concealed carry permit and often wears a gun, but forgot to remove it from his hip before entering the office one day. ‘Someone pointed it out, and I put it back in my car immediately,’ he wrote.” The Missoulian, like the Gazette, is owned by Lee Enterprises, and Brouwer points out that the “antique firearm” excuse wasn’t good enough for another editor at a Lee newspaper. Continue Reading →

A little Kiss on Minnesota Avenue

By: Ed Kemmick | April 4, 2016

We couldn’t resist this scene Monday afternoon. Nicole Knight of Advantage Signs and Graphics was completing a portrait of Ace Frehley, former lead guitar player for Kiss, on the outside of Smiling Dog Records at 2702 Minnesota Ave. Knight said she has been friends with Mike Ludlam, the owner of Smiling Dog Records, for more than 25 years. Ludlam opened the used-vinyl store in February. He blacked out the windows on the north side of the store and asked Knight to do adorn them with her paintings. Continue Reading →

Joseph Medicine Crow, last of the war chiefs, dies at 102

By: Ed Kemmick | April 3, 2016

Joseph Medicine Crow, the great Crow Indian historian, author and war hero, often called the last living Plains Indian war chief, reportedly died this morning at the age of 102. His death was reported on the Facebook page of Ben Pease, the artist whose portrait of Medicine Crow is above. In a private message, Pease said Medicine Crow “passed to the ‘Other Side Camp’ Sunday morning.” Among his many honors, Medicine Crow was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor—by President Obama in 2009. In Billings, the District 2 School Board voted last year to name a new middle school in the Heights—the first public school built in Billings in 30-some years—after Medicine Crow. Continue Reading →