The Billings Gazette has written a story on the troubles at the Tumbleweed Runaway Program, following up on the story I posted yesterday. Derek Brouwer, a reporter I have met only a couple of times, did a good job on it. In particular, he had the good idea of asking Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder about the very large encampment of teens that Tumbleweed Director Sheri Boelter supposedly visited during a Youth Count survey in 2013. Boelter’s claims about that camp, and the many discrepancies in her account, are at the heart of allegations of fraudulent activities raised by five current and former employees of the nonprofit agency. Here’s what Linder had to say:
Camps of that size have never been discovered by Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder or his staff, Linder said Thursday. Continue Reading →
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
National Geographic takes a shine to another John Warner pic
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I feel compelled once again to let you all know that John Warner has been singled out for plaudits by National Geographic, this time for his incredible photograph of a winter-bound beaver at Lake Elmo State Park, which appeared on Last Best News in December. It is featured as the Photo of the Day by National Geographic for Feb. 26, 2015. John was also kind enough to have a bit of fun with the photo, which turned into Last Best News’ digital Christmas card:
Filed under: Last Best Blog, John Warner, Lake Elmo State Park, National Geographic
Montana, where even the billionaires are pampered
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A man who says he writes about “luxury” for a living has penned a touching tribute to the Resort at Paws Up near Missoula. Jim Dobson, writing for ForbesLife, took his “billionaire vacation” in the company of his 6-year-old nephew. He, Dobson, was absolutely enthralled with the butler, the chef, the concierge and the exceedingly obliging general managers. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Blackfoot River, David Lipson, ForbesLife, Last Best Place, Resort at Paws Up, Whitefish Mountain
More attention for a worthy artist
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I’ve been meaning to post this since Friday, when the Billings Gazette featured Ben Pease in a story about the Yellowstone Art Museum’s annual auction. I wanted to draw readers’ attention to a story I wrote about Ben in the earliest days of Last Best News. We had a lot fewer readers then, naturally, so I wanted to give current readers a chance to catch up. I also wrote a short blog item about how I stumbled onto Ben’s great work at the Montana Folk Festival in Butte and just knew I had to write a story about him. As a bonus, the story contains some fine John Warner photographs. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Ben Pease, Montana Folk Festival, Yellowstone Art Museum
For your viewing pleasure, new aerial photos of giant house
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For no particular reason except that Marty Connell has kindly provided us with new aerial photos, we offer up—you guessed it!—new aerials photos of what is going to be the biggest house ever built in Yellowstone County. We have written about the big house before, so we won’t go into all the particulars again. Suffice it to say it will be a 26,000-square-foot castle-like abode with a bowling alley, home theater, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a drawbridge. It is being built just northeast of the developed part of the Ironwood Subdivision. And no, we still don’t know who is going to live there, though rumors continue to fly and dozens of readers have told us who it is. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Ironwood Subdivision, Larry and Amy Price, Marty Connell, Scheels
MSUB resumes popular WWI lecture series Tuesday
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Montana State University Billings’ popular lecture series on World War I, which packed the largest classroom on campus on five Tuesday evenings last fall, will resume Tuesday evening. Meant to commemorate the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the lecture series features MSUB professors from diverse fields examining the immediate effects and continuing legacy of what was called, with a tragic optimism, “the war to end all wars.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Montana State University Billings, World War ! Lecture Series. MSUB Library
Guilty conscience prompts return of Scouts’ trailer, gear
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After the news got out last week that a Billings Boy Scout troop had had a trailer full of camping gear stolen, community members responded with donations of money and gear. The publicity also rattled the conscience of the thief, apparently. Scoutmaster Rick Lindholm of Troop 373 said a member of the Billings Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 2929 Belvedere Drive, left a meeting at the center Sunday night to find an anonymous letter on her windshield. The trailer was believed to have been stolen from the church parking lot, just off Grand Avenue and 30th Street West, on Jan. 12. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Boy Scouts, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Rick Lindholm, Western Sugar Cooperative
Vice turns its lens on Williston
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From the bad boys at Vice, we have a photo gallery titled “Friday Night in the Bakken Oilfield.” The photos all were taken in Williston as part of a “Friday Night in…” series. The premise is pretty basic: “send photographers to the planet’s finest cities and towns to capture Friday night as it unfolds.” Use of the word “finest” may be facetious, I don’t know, but other cities featured so far include Hamburg, Bucharest and Ferguson, Missouri. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Bakken Oilfield, Cold Hard Cash Show, Vice, Williston
Another vehicle slams into railroad underpass
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Last month, I wrote a story about how a man driving a pickup and pulling a skid steer on a trailer crashed into and damaged the railroad underpass at North 21st Street between Minnesota and Montana avenues. Well, this morning a little after 11, I was standing about 20 feet away when another person, this one driving a U-Haul, crashed into the underpass, which is owned by Montana Rail Link. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Last Best Blog, Montana Rail Link, U-Haul, Underpass
Still another free-speech history lesson from Montana
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Three days after we published Russell Rowland’s piece about attacks on press freedoms in Montana history, and on the same day we published David Crisp’s column touching on similar subjects, we have learned of a new article of a similar nature. It is a story at Smithsonian.com, written by Billings native Patrick Sauer, about Montana’s World War I-era sedition law, which was used to imprison people for, among other things, expressing mild opposition to U.S. involvement in the war. The story has been told before, but this is a good recap, and a timely one. Sauer also tells of the efforts of some really admirable people—with Clem Work and Jeff Renz leading the way—who succeeded in securing posthumous pardons for all the people convicted under the infamously bad law. If I could add my own two cents to this fascinating piece of Montana history, it would be to note that in 1995, as part of the Billings Gazette’s “History on Your Doorstep” series, I wrote several stories about the labor troubles in Butte, culminating in the occupation of that city by National Guard troops, briefly in 1914 and then for 42 months starting in August 1917. Continue Reading →
