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.

Related Topics:

Recent Posts

Railroad Earth: An up-close look at a hard-working band

By: |
RE

Bethany Schatzke, who had been writing about music for The Billings Outpost until it recently ceased publication, is continuing her endeavors on her own blog, and this week has posted a good story about Railroad Earth. Here’s how she describes the band, which is opening a swing through Montana with a show at the Babcock Theatre next Wednesday:

“The New Jersey based sextet is a sort of musical chameleon going from rock to bluegrass to folk to tribal to … something delightfully indescribable, something uniquely Railroad Earth.  No other labels needed.” Bethany bases her story on an interview with mandolin player John Skehan, who had a lot say about the band members’ performance style, their perpetual touring and their attitude toward free music-sharing. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Babcock Theatre, Bethany Schatzke, Railroad Earth

‘Cranktown U.S.A.’—the myth that won’t die

By: |
Iowa

This morning on Facebook, Gary Robson, the owner of Red Lodge Books & Tea, shared a link to my latest story on the Red Lodge police drug raid in Bearcreek. Gary had some interesting things to say, as always, but what really caught my eye was the ensuing discussion of how the perception of crime in a given community affects tourism. One commenter said there was no effect on visitation after “Billings was called ‘Cranktown USA’ on the cover of TIME magazine.” I already added my two cents on that page, but allow me to elaborate here, because this was, for me, a fascinating experience in charting the invention and cultivation of myths. Way back in 2005, I did a multiple-day series of stories on the so-called meth epidemic in Billings. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Bearcreek, Billings Gazette, Gary Robson, Kathy Woodward, Time magazine

Montana production company’s new film in festival

By: |
Stones

“Skips Stones for Fudge,” a new movie from the Montana production company Highway Goat, has been selected for inclusion in the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, which will run Feb. 19-28 this year, in Missoula. Among those involved in the making of the movie, which will be screened at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Wilma Theatre in downtown Missoula, is Ryan Seitz, a graduate of Billings Senior High School, and Alex Downey, a native of Butte. Their new movie takes an in-depth look at the world of competitive stone-skipping, focusing on Russ “Rock Bottom” Byars and Kurt “Mountain Man” Steiner, two very different men who have long competed to be known as the best rock skipper in the world. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, "Freeload, Alex Downey, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Bryan Seitz, Highway Goat Productions

World-class con man plied his trade in Montana, too

By: |
Wilson

It turns out that the notorious serial impostor Jeremy Wilson—if by some chance that’s his real name—brought his rolling con show to Montana. The New York Times interviewed Wilson in jail, and even in cold type the man’s skills as a charmingly relentless fabricator are almost palpable. Here’s a pocket description of some of his activities:

“He has portrayed himself as a Scottish-born D.J., a Cambridge-trained thespian, a Special Forces officer and a professor at M.I.T. He has posed as executives from Microsoft, British Airways and Apple, always with a military background. He pretended to be a soldier seeking asylum in Canada to escape anti-Semitic attacks in the United States. He once maintained an Irish accent so well and for so long that his cellmate in an Indiana jail was convinced that he was an Irish mobster.” Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Fort Harrison, Jeremy Wilson, Malmstrom Air Force Base, New York Times

Maybe we’re not doing so badly after all

By: |

Somehow, Billings, even with all its problems, is seeming like a pretty decent place this morning. I decided this after reading the three most recent tweets (as of 9 a.m.) from the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal. Here, honest to God, were those three consecutive tweets:

♦ Rise in violent crime rate fueled by drug use. ♦ Closure of Rapid City High School a possibility in upcoming years. ♦ Fence proposed to keep homeless out of shopping area. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Rapid City, Rapid City Journal

Collection of Montana facts includes a few dandies

By: |
Sedition

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 →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Absaroka, Brad Pitt, Gary Cooper, Mental Floss, Montana Sedition Project

Lee brass insulated from ‘change of ownership’ impacts

By: |
Junck

Finally, some good news from Lee Enterprises. In the midst of stories about layoffs, cutbacks, consolidated “design centers,” smaller papers and higher prices, we learn that there is enough money floating around Lee to upgrade the top executives’ parachutes from golden to platinum. In truth, I don’t know how big the upgrades are, and I suppose it is even within the realm of possibility that the rewards for these folks have been reduced. But that would run counter to every single action taken by the company’s board of directors in the last 15 years. Here’s what we do know: Jim Romenesko, the mostly retired media blogger, reported last week that under an SEC filing dated Dec. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Lee Enterprises, Mary Junck, Mike Gulledge, Romenesko

Montana Quarterly: Counting our blessings

By: |

Editor’s note: This has been updated to cover a lamentable oversight. Dear readers, consider this a public service announcement. If you are not a subscriber to the Montana Quarterly, or if, God forbid, you have never even looked at a copy of that fine magazine, here’s what you should do: run out right now and buy the winter edition. It’s available at a lot of stores, including all the Albertsons stores, as far as I know. The Montana Quarterly is always good, but this winter edition is uncommonly good, showcasing some of the MQ’s best writers doing what they do best. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Craig Lancaster, John Clayton, John Warner, Montana Quarterly, Scott McMillion, Sid Gustafson

Tip of the day: Lee stocks rated a ‘strong sell’

By: |

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is yet more bad news for Lee Enterprises, the newspaper chain that owns the Billings Gazette and papers in Missoula, Butte, Helena and Hamilton. InvestorPlace.com has a story today headlined “9 Media Stocks to Sell Now.” Each of the nine rates a “D” (“sell”) or “F” (“strong sell”). Seven of the stocks were downgraded to “D” this week from “C” last week. Lee Enterprises is one of the two downgraded from a D to an F. Here’s the paragraph on Lee: “Lee Enterprises, Incorporated’s (LEE) rating weakens this week, dropping to a F versus last week’s D. Lee Enterprises, Incorporated owns various daily newspapers and a joint interest in several others. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Billings Gazette, InvestorPlace, Lee Enterprises

Watch the old Corette plant smokestack coming down

By: |
Stack

The 350-foot smokestack on the old J.E. Corette coal-fired power plant in Billings came down Friday morning. As part of the demolition of the plant, which PPL Montana closed last spring because it could not meet new mercury pollution standards, the smokestack was brought down by explosives about 8 a.m. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, Corette plant, Gary Helmbrecht, PPL Montana, Talen Energy