Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/155/)
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.
Nobody knows for sure who will be the Democratic and Republican candidates for U.S. president in November, but we know one thing for sure: Neither will be a military veteran.
The last time that happened was in 2012. Before that, you have to go back to World War II to find a presidential election without a veteran in the race. Continue Reading →
In case you hadn’t noticed, Montanans like their beer. Increasingly, they like their craft beer.
At last count, there were 60 craft breweries operating in Montana, with five more scheduled to open early this year. More and more often, Montanans order their beer not by the brand, but by the type: India pale ale, Pilsner, Scotch ale, stout, wheat and dozens more. Continue Reading →
People fall into two categories: A. Those who think that giving up civilization and going to live alone in the woods would be a rich, romantic and unforgettable adventure. B. Those who think that being in Category A would be at least slightly worse than prison. Readers of Julie Riddle’s “The Solace of Stones” (University of Nebraska Press) who already fall into Category B will find plenty of good reasons to stay there. And readers in Category A may sense themselves slowly slipping into Category B.
It’s not that the Montana life Riddle describes was all that horrible. When she was a toddler, her parents moved her and her 3-year-old brother from Tucson, Ariz., to the edge of the Cabinet Mountains near Troy. Continue Reading →
RED LODGE—When George Washington led troops into battle during the Revolutionary War, he communicated with his men at the same speed Julius Caesar had sent dispatches 2,000 years earlier.
But within 100 years after the Revolutionary War, communications had developed rapidly with the invention of the railroad, telegraph, telephone and steamship. A hundred years after that, the Internet was in its infancy, heralding a new era in which global communications could occur almost instantly—and posing new risks to privacy and national security. Continue Reading →
This is the second chapter of the 32-part video series “The Montana Ethic Project.” This chapter features Mike Gear, a nine-time state champion football coach, speaking on “The Value of Athletics.” You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it opens:
“I’ve been a teacher and coach for over 38 years now. In fact I’ve coached middle school athletics, high school athletics, been an assistant head coach, and for the last 34 years I’ve been a head football coach and even a sports official. So between playing and coaching sports, it’s been a significant part of my life for close to 50 years. Continue Reading →
In the midst of one of the strangest, most outlandish, stark-ravingly maddest election cycles in the history of the United States, a surprising number of voters have turned to me for guidance.
I was tempted to tell them all to take two aspirin and go to bed until the third week of November, but that seemed a trifle irresponsible. So, I will attempt to answer all the questions to the best of my limited abilities. Here goes. Continue Reading →
Rarely does a civil lawsuit garner as much statewide attention as the ongoing legal battle between Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl and Republican State Rep. Art Wittich.
The widespread interest in the high-profile showdown was highlighted this week by the many headlines that stemmed from pretrial legal wrangling in advance of a week-long jury trial scheduled for March 28 in Helena. Continue Reading →
A rare opportunity exists to enhance the attractiveness of Billings. The former Corette power plant has been torn down, and the land on which it stood is bounded on the north by the interstate highway, and adjoins the Yellowstone River across from Sacrifice Cliff.
How wonderful it would be if this land, or at least a significant portion of it, were available for public use? Continue Reading →
Hunger is not political discourse to Jeff Bridges.
When the actor discusses the inability of children to access food, reduced food quality, the importance of food banks or federal nutrition programs, he evaluates them as societal or communal problems as opposed to explicitly political ones. Continue Reading →
A reading of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning poets on Friday kicks off the All Spring Pulitzer Campfire, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize.
Anna Paige, a Billings poetry slam-winning poet who co-hosts Friday night’s event, said the celebration is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Montana. Continue Reading →
