Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/125/)
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.
When Craig Lancaster was still working on his first novel, which would eventually bear the title “600 Hours of Edward,” I went to hear him do a reading at Off the Leaf coffee shop.
He was there as part of a writers group, with each of the writers taking a turn to read from his or her work. It was a tough setting. The place was crowded, mostly with teenage girls, and the din of conversation nearly drowned out the readings. Continue Reading →
Ted Kim thinks his web-based comedy series has two big things going for it.
One is a strong concept, which he describes as “a love story about two sisters who can never get in synch,” and in fact are constantly at war.
The other is that it is being filmed in Billings and Roundup, tapping into a national and even an international fascination with Montana. Continue Reading →
When Matthew Danzico heard an interview on Public Radio International regarding the debate over refugees in Western Montana, he opted to take a closer look on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corp.
Weeks later, he landed in Missoula and set out to interview several Montanans central to the debate, including Mary Poole of Soft Landing Missoula, Missoula Mayor John Engen and Ravalli County Commissioner Jeff Burrows. Continue Reading →
Steve Loken was standing on a hill looking down over the Kootenai River in the 1970s when he had an epiphany. A new Libby Dam had risen to block the river, and Loken watched as Lake Koocanusa grew deeper, wider and longer.
“Everything in the reservoir was clear-cut up to the high-water mark,” said Loken. “I’ve never seen that much ecological destruction in my life. I saw this little silver-thread-of-a-river slowly disappear below and I knew we had to do things a different way.”
Loken made good on his word. Continue Reading →
The title of Aaron Parrett’s new book, “Montana Americana Music: Boot Stomping in Big Sky Country,” published this summer by The History Press, was more than enough to draw me in.
What made it irresistible was to see that the foreword was written by Smith Henderson, the Montana native whose first novel, “Fourth of July Creek,” published in 2014, was so uncommonly good. Continue Reading →
Tick, tick, tick. Today we are counting down on the Republican Senate’s days of shame.
The GOP-led U.S. Senate is on a summer break. Count them: For 54 days, from July 14 to Sept. 6, both the House and Senate are on the longest summer break since those breaks were first established in the 1960s. Continue Reading →
RiverStone Health and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services say they have identified the first case of Zika virus infection in Yellowstone County. Here is the whole story, via a press release from RiverStone Health:
This is the fourth reported case in Montana and was found in an adult male who had traveled to an affected area. In February, Missoula County reported the first travel-related case of Zika in Montana. As of July 27, there have been 1,658 confirmed cases of Zika in the United States. Nearly all cases were travel-related. Continue Reading →
