Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/montana/page/49/)
BUTTE—Six years ago, when she was still teaching English and history for Billings Catholic Schools, Stella Burke organized a two-day field trip to Butte for about 80 seventh-graders. There, among other activities, her pupils went into an underground mine and visited the mansion of Copper King William Clark. But the highlight of the trip, she said, was spending time in the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. (more…) Continue Reading →
COLUMBUS—When the owner of a bookstore in Cody, Wyoming, offered her entire inventory of 41,000-plus books to the Stillwater County Library, director Della Haverland had two questions. “How do you turn this down?” she said. “But we also asked, how do we take this on?” (more…) Continue Reading →
MISSOULA—In a few months, Scott Crichton is going to be playing a lot more guitar. Twenty-eight years after becoming the first full-time executive director of the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, he plans to leave his job in August. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last spring, Sam Bruner, the principal of two small schools on the Crow Indian Reservation in Pryor, knew he needed to hire two teachers for the upcoming school year. So he drove more than two hours west to a job fair in Bozeman, where he set up his table and then watched as a stampede of job-hunting teachers passed him by. (more…) Continue Reading →
Every year, about 12,000 babies are born in Montana, among the 4 million babies born annually in the United States. Like every other state, Montana has a newborn screening program. Shortly after a baby is born, between 24 and 48 hours of age, it is subjected to routine tests for 28 rare disorders that, if left untreated, could result in intellectual disability, brain damage or death. (more…) Continue Reading →
From all over the country, monetary support continues to flood in for the family of a Jordan-area rancher who died last month. Anne Miller, a family friend who helped organize an online fundraiser for the family of Owen Murnion, 38, who was crushed to death while unloading farm equipment in Jordan on Feb. 12, said donations had reached almost $225,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. (more…) Continue Reading →
Shane Clouse is a country singer who has opened for top acts, toured nationally and put out four albums, with his fifth set to release in April. Next week, he’ll be opening for Clint Black on Tuesday at the Dennison Theatre at the University of Montana in Missoula, and on Wednesday at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings. (more…) Continue Reading →
Tom Keith has never lived in Montana, but he has written a fine novella about the adventures of a man seeking a new life in Montana Territory in 1882. The self-published book, “When Everything Changed,” is very loosely based on the life of Keith’s great-grandfather, Mell Keith—named Daniel McHarg in the book—who arrived in Fort Benton aboard the steamboat Red Cloud in 1881. (more…) Continue Reading →
An unknown number of non-criminal patients at Montana’s overcrowded state mental institution are stuck in limbo awaiting transfer to less restrictive facilities. The law says mental health patients must be held in the least restrictive setting possible. But even after Montana State Hospital civil patients have stabilized enough that mental-health staff clear them for transfer to less institutional treatment centers in or nearer their home communities, some patients report being delayed at the Warm Springs campus for months at a time. (more…) Continue Reading →
JORDAN—Having already opened their pocketbooks, residents of Garfield County opened their hearts Monday to the family of Owen Murnion, who was killed in a farm accident four days earlier. Hundreds of people crowded into the gym of Garfield County High School in tiny Jordan to pay their respects to Owen, 38, and to show their support for his wife, Briana, and their seven young daughters. (more…) Continue Reading →
