Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/blog/page/30/)
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.
I’m not a big fan of those really silly lists—Top 10 Promiscuous Cities, Top 10 Fattest Cities, etc.—but here’s one we’ve earned:
Livability.com has named Billings one of its “10 Beer Cities 2014.” (more…) Continue Reading →
In response to the recent article you posted in the Last Best News, “As Predicted, Chickens Coming Home to Roost” (Nov. 30, 2014), I take umbrage with your allegation that Billings City Council members were duped into supporting the Backyard Chicken Ordinance passed in August of 2012. (more…) Continue Reading →
Brian D’Ambrosio, a frequent contributor to Last Best News, is also the author of “Warrior in the Ring,” a biography of Flathead Indian boxer Marvin Camel. Brian tells me today is the day the book is being released in paperback. Here’s a link to the Riverbend Publishing page about the book. (Ignore the notice about the paperback being available Dec. 15; you can order it now.)
Here’s part of the publisher’s description of the book:
“In the Golden Age of boxing, Marvin Camel—a mixed blood from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana—defied all obstacles of race, poverty, and geographical isolation to become the first Native American to win a world boxing title. Continue Reading →
Don’t miss this story from the New York Times, which shows what North Dakota would look like if all 40,000 miles of underground well bores in the state were aboveground. (more…) Continue Reading →
Don’t miss this fine tribute to sportswriter Bill Bighaus, now retired, written by Gazette sports editor Jeff Welsch. Then there was the altogether fitting decision to devote this week’s 5 on 5 feature to reflections on Bill’s career and legacy. His colleagues took the opportunity to lob some witticisms his way, which was only fair. In person, on your your feet, it was difficult to match wits with Bill. His colleagues earned the right, after all these years, to have a little fun at his expense when he was not available to respond. Continue Reading →
Chris Kimbrough, formerly a star athlete at Billings Senior High and Rocky Mountain College, has done us proud. Last week, she set a new women’s beer-mile world record with a time of 6:28.6 in her first attempt at the event. That means she ran four laps around a track, having drunk a beer before each lap. She shaved 13 seconds off the old record. Did we mention that she is 44 years old and has six children? Continue Reading →
Cities all over the country have been struggling for years to find the best approach to helping homeless people while improving the general quality of life, particularly in downtown areas. Just witness what Billings has been trying to do. Then there is Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where an ordinance basically banning the sharing of food in public took effect last week. As a result, police have arrested three men—two pastors and a 90-year-old Good Samaritan—for feeding homeless people. If convicted of the “crime,” the men could be fined up to $500 and sentenced to jail for 60 days. Continue Reading →
Exactly one month after he died, basketball legend Elvis Old Bull has gotten the tribute he deserved, on Vice Sports. Old Bull played for the Lodge Grass Indians from 1988 to 1990, when the team took three state titles and Old Bull was named tournament MVP all three years. I never saw Old Bull play, but I was lucky enough, at the state tournament in Butte in the early 1980s, to see Hardin player Jonathan Takes Enemy, another Montana legend mentioned in the article. As I say, this tribute by Patrick Sauer is worthy of its subject. Here are two of my favorite parts:
In Old Bull’s sophomore season, the Lodge Grass Indians came out of nowhere to win the Class B title in Missoula, and he exploded onto the state basketball scene, long before the advent of YouTube or MaxPreps, back when a 20-second clip on Chris Byers KULR sports wrap-up was all the footage hoop fans were going to get. And this:
Old Bull had his demons. Continue Reading →
Since 2010, four Montana natives have died under similar circumstances in the Bakken oil fields. All were found unconscious or already dead on steel catwalks above tanks of crude oil whose levels they were checking. Trent Vigus, 30, of Glendive, originally of Butte, died at an XTO Energy well site near Lambert, Mont., on July 2, 2010. Dustin Bergsing, 21, of Edgar, originally of Livingston, died at a Marathon oil well near Mandaree, N.D., on Jan. 8, 2012. Continue Reading →
A really fine profile of Joseph Medicine Crow was posted today—on the occasion of Medicine Crow’s 101st birthday—at Al Jazeera America. His story is familiar to most people in this part of the world, but this is the most comprehensive piece I’ve read about him, and it seems to capture his personality very well. The story was written by Mary Hudetz, a native of Crow Agency and editor-in-chief of Native Peoples Magazine. Here’s a bit more from her profile at the website of the Native American Journalists Association, of which she is president:
“She is a former editor on The Associated Press’ West Regional Desk in Phoenix, where she filed national breaking news and daily stories on broad range of topics and events in the West. She also worked closely with a team of reporters to develop stories specifically about Native issues and communities.” Continue Reading →
