Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/prairie-lights/)
John Kuglin, who retired in 2005 after a long career as a reporter and editor in Colorado, Wyoming, Washington and Montana, recently told the Montana Standard in Butte that he was thinking of writing a book called “When Journalism Was Fun.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Supporters of refugee resettlement, for good reason, tend to focus on all the good things that we can do for people who come here from other countries. On Friday, as I listened to Wilmot Collins, who entered the United States as a Liberian refugee and is now the mayor of Helena, it occurred to me that we should also spend some time considering how good it is for us to have refugees in our midst. (more…) Continue Reading →
I often buy old magazines at thrift stores and take them with me to the Y, so I can read them while working out on an elliptical machine. Most of these “old” magazines were published in the previous 18 months or so, but recently I bought a New Yorker magazine dated Feb. 8, 1969. I took it to the Y, climbed up on the machine and started reading, beginning with a couple of shorter articles before turning to a piece titled simply, “The Whitmore Confessions.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Many people have been asking why those of us in the news business want the names of the three Billings police officers disciplined for on-the-job sex (or on-city-property sex) with a Police Department clerk. (more…) Continue Reading →
I’m still pretty sure I couldn’t live in a big city, but a recent 10-day visit to Philadelphia did me a world of good — and not just because my oldest daughter and her family happen to live there. (more…) Continue Reading →
I’ve spent the past 10 days or so immersed in Montana history, working on a project that I hope will bear fruit soon. As part of that immersion, I’ve done interviews with people who’ve had front-row seats — when they weren’t down on the floor, in the thick of things — on some of the most momentous events in Montana’s history over the past 50 years. (more…) Continue Reading →
Nathalie Wagler was born a few months after the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999. Clara Bentler was born the next year. “We’ve lived through school shootings our whole life,” Clara said. (more…) Continue Reading →
I met Marion Dozier in 1996 or 1997, when I was working as a reporter and wanted to do a story about efforts to clean up some of the most blighted properties in Billings. Marion, who was a city code enforcement officer at the time, filled me in on some of their efforts, but then she had a better idea. We hopped in a city vehicle and she gave me a guided tour of a handful of the worst eyesores in the city, complete with a running commentary on the city’s history with each property, and some pointed comments on the property owners in question. (more…) Continue Reading →
When I read the Billings Gazette’s editorial about former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, who will be the featured speaker at the Yellowstone County Republicans’ Lincoln Reagan Day Dinner next month, I almost sympathized with him. (more…) Continue Reading →
I might be singing a different tune by late March, but it sure feels good right now to be experiencing a bit of real winter weather. After living in Montana for four decades, I still can’t quite get used to the regular, rapid disappearance of huge quantities of snow. The first big snowfall I saw in Montana was in Missoula in the mid-1970s. (more…) Continue Reading →
