Montanans have a fundamental choice right now that will dictate how competitive our energy economy will be for decades to come. Do we take charge of our energy future, or do we bury our heads in the sand and wait to see what happens? Continue Reading →
Last words, maybe, and a few thanks from Last Best News
|
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.
Diversions
Blue language on the greens, and a very odd coincidence
|
I hold a world record at golf and it’s one I’m rather proud of.
It happened at the fourth hole of my local course, here on the east coast of Scotland. In the five seconds between my ball leaving the clubface and splashing into a pond 100 yards right of the fairway, I managed to swear 17 times. Apparently, this beat the previous record of 14, held by someone called Frankie “Foul-Mouth” McFadden at a course in northern Idaho. Continue Reading →
Canyon Visitor Center
Crowds at park’s East Entrance portend busy year
|
CODY, WYO. — For the past decade, at 8 a.m. on the first Friday in May, Yellowstone National Park ranger Dennis Lenzendorf has pulled aside a locked barricade to open the park’s East Entrance to the season’s first visitors. But this year was a little different. Continue Reading →
Montana
Montana Ethic Project: On technological development
|
This is the 10th chapter of the 32-part video series “The Montana Ethic Project.” This chapter features Bob Rowe, president and CEO of NorthWestern Energy, speaking on the subject of “Towards Technological Development.” You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it begins:
“To really understand Montana you have to understand the physical geography, the diversity of the place we live and our spirit of idealism. “But you also have to understand the people who founded Montana, who created its communities, its culture, and its economy. Obviously starting with the First Nations people from whom we still benefit so much today. Continue Reading →
Culture
Art exhibition chronicles pain of prescription drug abuse
|
At least one of the artists featured in the “Bitter Pill” exhibition at the Billings Public Library deals with the problems of prescription drug abuse practically every day.
Vanessa Ready is a nurse who works for RiverStone Health at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Many of the medical cases she deals with involve drug abuse in some way.
“Sometimes when I work too much,” she said, “I wonder, is there any good left in the world?” Continue Reading →
Prairie Lights
Prairie Lights: The dis-United States of Facebook
|
I saw on Facebook the other day that a Trump-loving tow-truck operator in North Carolina refused to help a disabled woman whose car was inoperable, saying it was the Bernie Sanders sign in her window that prompted his decision.
This gentleman, who calls himself a Christian, told local reporters, “Something came over me, I think the Lord came to me, and he just said get in the truck and leave. And when I got in my truck, you know, I was so proud, because I felt like I finally drew a line in the sand and stood up for what I believed.” Continue Reading →
Diversions
NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ tours state, airs from Bozeman
|
BOZEMAN — Brian Leland didn’t care that he had to wake up around 2 a.m. Friday in order to watch a live broadcast of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” at Feed Café.
Wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed he was a part of “The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus” and brown Carhartt jeans, Leland said he attended to represent a cross-section of Bozeman. Continue Reading →
Culture
Ben Steele going back to his roots for ArtWalk opening
|
Ben Steele was a 19-year-old ranch kid when he went to work for the Snook Art Co. in downtown Billings in 1937.
“I did all the flunky work,” he said, including filling bottles of turpentine for the art-supply and framing business. The artist and writer Will James spent a lot of time at the store, and since he didn’t drive, another of Steele’s jobs was to drive James to his house on Smokey Lane on many an evening. Continue Reading →
Opinion
Faith leaders urge support for clean-power initiative
|
Many denominations advocate for care of God’s creation. Our plea urges not only an observance of ethics, but recognition of scientific proof. We agree with the overwhelming majority of climate scientists (97 percent). As climate scientist Katherine Heyhoe, wife of an evangelical pastor, explains: “The earth is warming and we are causing it.”
Is your denomination one of those faiths? Find out by scrolling down at: https://www.mtcares.org/welcome-to-mtcares/
You’ll see links to: the pope and many Catholics; the 345-member World Council of Churches; Rick Warren, author of “A Purpose Driven Life,” and hundreds of other Evangelical leaders; Episcopalians; Jews; Lutherans and their LWF; Methodists; Presbyterians; Southern Baptists; the United Church of Christ; and 10 other individual denominations or churches. Continue Reading →
News
Billings churches prepare ‘welcome kits’ for refugees
|
In January, between semesters at Montana State University Billings, sophomore Carter Knight spent two weeks in Memphis, helping the World Relief organization in its efforts to resettle foreign refugees.
This summer, the Billings native will spend three months in Africa, part of the time in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, helping people with disabilities and then working with refugees in several other countries. Continue Reading →
