Last Best Blog

This is the weblog page of Last Best News. Here you will find some news, perhaps, but also lots of commentary, opinion and satire. Just so you know.

Recent Posts

Obamacare update: the good, bad and ugly

steve daines

I got a “Dear David” email from U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., on Friday that began, “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news … .”

Actually, it sounded like he was delighted to be the bearer of bad news. Proposed healthcare premiums under Obamacare are soaring next year, the email said, proving once again that “Obamacare is failing Montanans,” and allowing him to echo what has been a Republican mantra ever since the bill passed. Unfortunately, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., wasn’t much more helpful. In a statement on Friday, he said, “It is outrageous that a major corporation is trying to raise insurance rates on Montanans as they hand out lavish bonuses to their executives.”

Neither senator wastes the precious time of his constituents by delving into the actual facts. A quick check of the website of the state insurance commissioner, Monica Lindeen, bore out the bad news. Continue Reading →

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Fossil hunter Nate Murphy back in the news

Nate Murphy, the commercial dinosaur prospector I wrote about extensively during my time at the Gazette, is in the news again. I had never heard of Inverse before, but it appears to be a publication that does a lot of good science reporting, and this story on Murphy is well done. The piece is headlined “Is Nate Murphy Holding a Dinosaur for Ransom?” and deals with Murphy’s latest find, from a ranch north of Roundup. Murphy has been touting it as the largest dinosaur ever found in Montana and definitely a new species. Continue Reading →

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In Butte, a small victory over bigotry

Kirby

On this Fourth of July, let’s count our blessings by reading a truly funny piece of work from Robert Kirby, a columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune. One blessing is freedom of speech, which gave a couple of out-of-staters staying in a Butte hotel the right to display their monumental jackassery, to demonstrate the essence of what it is to be a supporter of Donald Trump. That same freedom allowed our columnist, who “sensed an opportunity to make things worse,” to directly confront the Trumpsters and expose them for the mindless bigots they were. There is also freedom of the press, which allowed the Tribune to publish Kirby’s column. And now we all have the freedom to laugh (this right has more to do with the Declaration of Independence than the Constitution, but hey, it’s the Fourth of July) at Kirby’s brilliance. Continue Reading →

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Final resting place for Roger Clawson

roger clawson

From Sharie Pyke comes word of a fundraising effort to pay for a headstone for the grave of Roger Clawson, a longtime Billings Gazette reporter, columnist and editor and a columnist for the Billings Outpost for 15 years. Clawson’s ashes were buried March 29 at Custer Cemetery in his hometown of Custer. Sharie was his longtime friend, partner and caretaker. Ed and I were both great admirers of Roger’s prose and of his often contrarian take on life and humanity. When he died last year, each of us wrote an in memoriam column. Continue Reading →

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Constitutional usurper Reagan thwarted again

steve daines

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was predictably (the man is nothing if not predictable) pleased by the U.S. Supreme Court’s indecision on Thursday in a case challenging the Obama administration’s immigration policy. “Too many times during his tenure in office, President Obama has skirted Congress and the will of the American people by using executive action to get his way,” Daines said in a news release. He added, “The American people, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court must all continue to push back against the President’s unlawful and overreaching use of executive power and protect the Constitution.”

Now, if you are like me, you haven’t followed this case closely. Apparently, neither has Daines, who has been too busy helping make sure Congress doesn’t get its work done. When the lawsuit was first filed, I read and heard a number of legal scholars, including some with excellent conservative credentials, argue that the case would go nowhere. Continue Reading →

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When all else fails, try political stunts

The U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock Thursday on President Obama’s immigration policy was an unpleasant reminder of just how hideous the federal government can be. The court’s breakdown left intact a federal appeals court injunction blocking enforcement of Obama’s policy. And it left in limbo the lives of millions of people who may have been brought here illegally but have never known any other home than America. The ruling brought back nasty memories of a series of columns I wrote at the Billings Outpost about people in Montana who faced deportation because they weren’t here legally. I don’t remember all of the details, and the columns are not available on line, but one of the cases involved Laurent Zirotti, the first chef at Enzo’s restaurant on Billings’ West End. Continue Reading →

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Montana Chamber of Commerce releases endorsements

Zinke

The Montana Chamber of Commerce has come out with its endorsements in statewide races, and the only surprise is the total lack of surprise. There’s the usual heavy bias toward Republicans, the usual focus on the candidates’ perceived tilt toward business interests, the one token Democrat endorsement (Jesse Laslovich for state auditor). To which one might make the usual complaints: There really isn’t much evidence that picking Republicans helps the economy. In fact, the evidence at the presidential level since World War II has been quite the opposite, for reasons that are very much open to debate. In Montana, the evidence is no more convincing. Continue Reading →

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The boys are back in town

Major League baseball is more than a third of a way through its season, but professional baseball in Billings started Friday night. Watching games on television is a lot more enjoyable these days than when I first started 50 years ago, but no major sport has a bigger gap between the game as viewed and the game as actually seen than baseball. The dimensions are all wrong on TV: Baseball is not a rectangular game, and even the biggest screen gives only a constrained sense of the dimensions of the field. My wife and I have had season tickets since Dehler Park opened, and it always takes a few innings to adjust to the games in person. So much more is going on, and I don’t just mean the crowd. Continue Reading →

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Billings man honored in France

Back on June 7, I reported that the son and widow of Leif Hoklin were traveling to France to take part in a ceremony honoring his service during World War II. The ceremony was at Batz-Sur-la-Mer, near where his B-17 Flying Fortress went down after dropping bombs on a German submarine base in 1943. Hoklin, ball turret gunner on the Yahoodi, was one of three survivors of the 10-man crew on the mission. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. Dedication of a memorial listing the names of the airmen who took part in the mission was part of the ceremony. Continue Reading →

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Bookstore video explains ‘cooperative’ concept

books

If you’re wondering exactly what a cooperative is, specifically as it relates to This House of Books, a cooperative bookstore that is hoping to open by Sept. 1 in downtown Billings, here’s a video you’ll enjoy. It is a conversation between Gary Robson, who will be managing the store, and Precious McKenzie, vice president of the bookstore board of directors. They talk about why the cooperative model was chosen and what it means for potential investors and customers, and they also talk about how the store was named, among other topics. Continue Reading →

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