Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/68/)
It was a big year for news, all around the world and right here in Montana, where we did our best to remain in the very top ranks of Very Weird States. Let’s look back at the year that was:
It began with an occurrence that no one would have thought possible: a pipeline broke, spilling oil into the Yellowstone River. (more…) Continue Reading →
In honor of the new year, let me offer up what I consider the best of the Last Best News stories of 2015. Early in the new year, in a Prairie Lights column, I wrote about a deeply religious overseas terrorist organization. The conclusions I drew from that slice of history would resonate throughout the coming year. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional information provided Thursday morning by Paul Collins, chairman of the Tumbleweed board. Sheri Boelter, executive director of the Tumbleweed Runaway Program in Billings since 2011, has left the organization. (more…) Continue Reading →
A long-dormant proposal to develop a bicycle and pedestrian trail on a railroad corridor through downtown Billings will be the subject of a study later this year. The study, which will be commissioned by the Department of Planning and Community Services, will look at the possibility of making use of what is known as the Fifth Avenue North Corridor, stretching all the way from the YMCA at 402 N. 32nd St. to the entrance to MetraPark. (more…) Continue Reading →
If Tim Blixseth was released from jail in time for Christmas, it didn’t make the news. The last story I saw was dated Dec. 22 and said that lawyers for the “real estate mogul,” as he is usually described, had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency order that would allow him to spend Christmas with his family. I’m assuming he wasn’t let out of the Great Falls jail where he has spent the past eight months. Is it a violation of the Christmas spirit to admit that it warmed my heart to think of him still stuck in the cooler? Continue Reading →
I’m a big fan of Alexis Bonogofsky’s photography. She has great affection for the eastern half of Montana and a real knack for taking photographs that capture the spirit of this place. Her “2016 East of Billings” calendar brings together a striking collection of her photographs—of the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers, Otter and Rosebud creeks and lots more. You can read about it, and how to order it, at Alexis’ blog, also called East of Billings. (more…) Continue Reading →
The former director of the Michigan Audubon Society has been hired as the new director of the Montana Audubon Center in Billings. Jonathan Lutz, who headed the Michigan society for the past seven years, took over at the Montana Audubon Center on Dec. 1. He succeeded Darcie Howard, the longtime director who resigned last summer with plans to return to her East Coast roots. (more…) Continue Reading →
This has been a busy year for the construction industry in Billings. A year-end report from the Planning and Community Services Department shows that in almost every category of construction and remodeling, the numbers as of Dec. 1 this year were higher than those for 2014. (more…) Continue Reading →
If all goes well, Anytime Fitness will open its new downtown gym during the first week in February* in one of the biggest ground-floor spaces remaining on Montana Avenue. Anytime Fitness is moving into the 6,800-square-foot space of the building on the southeast corner of Montana Avenue and North Broadway, just across Montana from the Empire Parking Garage. (more…) Continue Reading →
Over at Mental Floss, there’s a new post up with the headline, “25 Picturesque Facts About Montana.” Most of these facts are pedestrian and not very interesting—there are a lot of mountains here; Brad Pitt starred in a fishing movie set here; Gary Cooper was from Montana; it’s the largest landlocked state, etc. But whoever put this list together did his or her homework, and brings to the world some genuinely interesting facts about our state. One has to do with “Absaroka,” which was to be the name of a state that some folks in Wyoming proposed to create in 1949. Absaroka would have included portions of northern Wyoming and chunks of Montana and South Dakota. Continue Reading →
