Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/edkemmick/page/86/)
Faith Chapel, 517 Shiloh Road
Service, 9:30 a.m., Sunday, March 16, 2014
Length of service: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Length of sermon: 41 minutes. After having made six forays to churches of varying size, I decided it was time to take on one of the big boys. (more…) Continue Reading →
We are aware that according to the calendar, the first day of summer is still three weeks away. (more…) Continue Reading →
I suppose it’s still possible that Billings Gazette editor Darrell Ehrlick, in his Sunday column, will formally salute Chuck Johnson and Mike Dennison, the two experienced reporters whose last day as employees of Lee Enterprises was Friday. With more than 70 years of reporting experience between them, Lee’s Capitol bureau team certainly deserved a proper send-off. But because Lee treated them so shabbily, and because it seems to believe that closing the bureau is merely a cosmetic change in the way it covers the news, a proper tribute seems most unlikely. (more…) Continue Reading →
Work began Friday on an “alley art” project that will enliven a canyon of asphalt, steel and brick in downtown Billings. The project is a partnership between property owners, the Downtown Billings Association, Sherwin-Williams and Underground Culture Krew, an art gallery at 2814 Third Ave. N. (more…) Continue Reading →
Brenda Chamberlain was driving down Monad Road on Monday morning and thought she saw Mike Mallory on the sidewalk in front of the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter. But she figured she was mistaken. “I didn’t recognize him because he didn’t have his dogs,” she said. “He always has his dogs.” (more…) Continue Reading →
In David Crisp’s column this morning, he said he was unable to find any references in any of Montana’s Lee newspapers to the Great Falls Tribune story about the closing of Lee’s Capitol bureau. In David’s defense, he did say he couldn’t find any such reference “as of this writing,” which was Tuesday night. In fact, as I have just belatedly discovered, there are references to the bureau shutdown in the Billings Gazette today. Oddly enough, however, all of them are on the opinion page—guest editorials from Jim Elliott and James Nelson and a letter to the editor from Don and Mary Ann Dunwell. As far as I know, the Lee papers have yet to run a news story on the decision to close the bureau and send their two excellent reporters, Chuck Johnson and Mike Dennison, packing. Continue Reading →
ROBERTS—John Dubsky decided to switch careers when it was time to move his grandparents from their ranch in Northern California to an assisted-living home. That was in 2011. Dubsky, then a general contractor living between Joliet and Roberts, went to California to join other family members in helping their grandparents make the move. Dubsky remembered raising horses and breaking colts on his grandparents’ ranch, near Sonora, and he understood his grandfather’s reluctance to leave the place. (more…) Continue Reading →
Billings Freedom Church, 550 32nd St. W.
Service, 10 a.m., Sunday, March 2, 2014
Length of service: 1 hour, 55 minutes. Length of sermon: 41 minutes. I arrived at the Freedom Church about a minute after the service was supposed to have begun, slowed down as I was by ice-packed streets on a 10-below-zero March morning. (more…) Continue Reading →
Five hundred trips later, I may have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. The number could be an exaggeration. Maybe I’ve only driven between Montana and the Twin Cites 70, 80 or 90 times. However many it’s been, we will be making the drive a lot less often. Our daughter and her husband and their daughter will be moving to California this summer. Continue Reading →
The news is out that news coverage in Montana is taking a huge hit. Lee Newspapers is closing its State Bureau in Helena, the Great Falls Tribune has reported, and KXLH TV in Helena has a story that adds some details. Chuck Johnson, who has been covering Montana politics for more than 40 years, will take a buyout and retire. Mike Dennison, who has done the same kind of reporting for almost 25 years, will be taking a buyout while he looks for a new job. I couldn’t reach Johnson, but Dennison told me Lee offered the two veteran reporters continued employment—if they would accept quite substantial pay cuts. Continue Reading →
