Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/news/page/63/)
Healthy-food entrepreneur Keith Lauver capped a nine-week national tour of grocery stores with a stop at the Good Earth Market in Billings on Tuesday—the store that helped launch his business five years ago. “This is where the magic was,” he said Tuesday morning while setting up a sample table just inside the main entrance to the downtown co-op. (more…) Continue Reading →
Jonathan Gruber got himself—and the Obama administration—into trouble last week when a tape surfaced in which he referred to the “stupidity of the American voter.”
The context made it worse. Mr. Gruber, an economist at MIT who had a hand in writing the Affordable Care Act, praised lack of transparency about the bill and said that it was written in a “tortured way” so the Congressional Budget Office would not score the individual mandate as a tax. (more…) Continue Reading →
Six years ago, Helen Slottje was a corporate attorney working for a big law firm in Boston. Moving to Upstate New York in 2009 turned her into an environmental activist, and this summer she was awarded a prestigious environmental prize for her work in helping communities in New York ban fracking. (more…) Continue Reading →
In one of my alternate lives, I teach German, so I was fired up on Election Night when I learned that my favorite German call-in talk show was going to discuss the topic (loosely translated) of “Why did Barack Obama Crash and Burn?” (more…) Continue Reading →
In his Sunday column in the Billings Gazette, editor Darrell Ehrlick dropped this nugget, just two days before the election: Prior to September’s debate in Billings between U.S. House candidates Ryan Zinke and John Lewis, Zinke said, “John plays the guitar. I waterboard.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Eight years ago, Mike Uhrich opened Carter’s Brewing in downtown Billings. The craft brewery was named for his son, Carter, then 6 months old. This Thursday, he’ll be pouring a brand-new beer, this one named for his 3½-year-old son, Mason. He’s starting with one batch of 10 barrels, or 326 gallons. If it does well, he might make it a couple of times a year. Continue Reading →
Nearly 200 people gathered in the Babcock Theatre Wednesday to hear how other cities developed innovative programs to ease two of the biggest problems in downtown Billings. Representatives from San Diego, Calif., talked about their Serial Inebriate Program to help alcoholics finally kick the habit, and the president of Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas, talked about what has been described as the largest single effort in the country to do something about homelessness. (more…) Continue Reading →
A fiction writing workshop held Tuesday evening a couple of blocks from McKinley Elementary School got off to an enthusiastic start. Local author Carrie La Seur was waiting at a conference table as those attending the session filed into the room. The first person to enter, a woman, exclaimed, “I heard ‘book seminar’ and I hopped to it!” (more…) Continue Reading →
A recently published study has found that in eight states where the Meth Project anti-methamphetamine advertising campaign has been used, there is little evidence that the campaigns had any effect on meth use among high school students. The study did find, however, that there was “some evidence” that the Meth Project may have decreased meth use among white high school students. (more…) Continue Reading →
Regular readers of this irregularly filled space know that I am no fan of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Daines. I have written columns:
* Criticizing his foolish and un-American bill that would tie congressional pay to balancing the budget. Why un-American? Because the bill would allow millionaires like Daines to hold hostage for partisan ends the paychecks of middle-class representatives like his Democratic opponent, Amanda Curtis. It’s a dumb idea, and the fact that a Democrat, John Lewis, argues that members of Congress shouldn’t get paid unless they pass a budget doesn’t make it any smarter. Continue Reading →
