Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/108/)
I was planning to ride off into the sunset today, but if I may appropriate an observation by Benjamin Franklin, it looks as though I might be heading in the direction of the rising sun.
In the week since I announced that Last Best News would cease publication today, I have heard so many expressions of interest in reviving it in some shape or form, with or without my continued involvement, that it appears likely that this independent online newspaper will live on.
Compared with the coal-fired power plant in Colstrip, the Huntley Generating Station in Tonawanda, N.Y., was not all that large.
At its height, when all six units of the Huntley plant were operating, the power station could generate up to 598 megawatts of electricity—compared to a capacity of 2,094 megawatts at Colstrip’s four units. Continue Reading →
They got their country back. And they are welcome to it. Colleagues in academia were commiserating last week after Donald Trump’s stunning presidential win. A couple of them stopped by my office for long talks as the results sank in. One wondered how she would explain to her kids that bullying and sexual predation are not OK, no matter what the president says. Continue Reading →
Kevin S. Giles, a Deer Lodge native, is the author of the new book “One Woman Against War: The Jeannette Rankin Story.” It tells of the pacifist convictions of the first woman elected to Congress. Her campaign came just two years after Montana legislators gave women the right to vote. Rankin, from Missoula, thought she had lost the 1916 election until strong returns came from farmers and ranchers (and their wives) across the great sweep of Eastern Montana voted her into office. Continue Reading →
Well, the election is over, the dust has sort of settled, and the most obvious post-mortem on it is that political pundits didn’t have a clue as to how it would turn out.
During the primaries Trump was dead meat. How could he win against all those qualified Republican candidates? OK, he won that primary, but if he continues to say outlandish things people will get wise to him and his support will plummet. OK, he won the nomination, but he can’t possibly win the election. OK, he won the election, but he can’t possibly… Continue Reading →
One Big Sky Center, a proposed development that would create the tallest building in Montana as the centerpiece of a $165 million project in downtown Billings, won the grudging support of the City Council Monday night.
On a 6-2 vote, with two absences and one abstention, the council approved a memorandum of understanding with the project developers, giving them until June 30 to work with city staff and the city’s legal and financial consultants to come up with a final development agreement. Continue Reading →
The owner of a new downtown coffee shop, facing threats of a boycott over his hate-filled racist and sexist rants on Facebook, apologized Sunday, calling his comments “the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.”
“I completely apologize,” Larry Heafner said. “It was the dumbest thing I ever did. … I’m not going to sit and try to excuse my derogatory or negative comments, because it was ridiculous. I do want to say, I’m not racist by no means, and I’m not a woman hater.” Continue Reading →
Three weeks ago in this space, I urged readers of Last Best News to vote for Gov. Steve Bullock and Montana Supreme Court candidate Dirk Sandefur, and in favor of Initiative 182, loosening restrictions on medical marijuana.
I won’t claim one iota of credit, but I will admit that on an otherwise dismal Election Day, I was buoyed by the victories of Bullock, Sandefur and the proponents of I-182. Continue Reading →
The dramatic footage from Amy Goodman’s Sept. 3 “Democracy Now!” show brought up images of 1963 Birmingham, Ala., when deputies under the orders of segregationist Sheriff “Bull” Connor attacked civil rights protesters with dogs and fire hoses.
“To many people, the military tactics being used in North Dakota are reminiscent of the tactics used against protesters during the civil rights movement some 50 years ago. And I believe that there are similarities there,” said Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II. Continue Reading →
Randy Sitzman is not one for bragging.
Left to his own devices, he probably wouldn’t have gone out looking for publicity when the big news broke last month—that he and two other managers for the First Financial Equity Corp. were buying out the founder of the corporation. Continue Reading →
An old newspaper joke says that the job of editorial writers is to go onto the field after the battle is over and shoot the survivors. The election is over; let the shooting begin.
♦ Cheapest shot: Democrats ran ad after ad pointing out that Greg Gianforte comes from New Jersey, as if failure to be born in Montana disqualifies candidates for public office. Continue Reading →
