Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/159/)
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.
“Makoshika,” a documentary about boom-and-bust times in the Bakken oil field, will have its Billings premiere this Sunday.
The 50-minute documentary made its Montana premiere on Monday at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. It will be shown at 7 p.m. this Sunday at the Babcock Theater in Billings and then from March 4-10 at the Art House Cinema & Pub, also in downtown Billings. Continue Reading →
After weeks of strong cocktails, mediocre wine and lots of draft beer, we’ve decided to give our livers a break.
This strange journey has given us a glimpse into many of Billings’ finest watering holes and we’ve enjoyed the escape. As we return to our normal, boring, professional routine, we thought it would be appropriate to leave you with a few recommendations. So without further ado, here are a few of our favorites in the Magic City: Continue Reading →
This has to be the most entertaining primary election that I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
My particular favorite among the Republican candidates, Jeb Bush, just dropped out and I suspect it was because he was not as big a charlatan as the others. Kasich will be next for the same reason. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: In light of the many questions that have come in regarding the expansion of Last Best News, we asked the renowned but obscure one-time journalist Walter Ego to interview Ed Kemmick, the founder of Last Best News. Here, in place of Kemmick’s usual Prairie Lights column, we offer an edited transcript of the interview. Continue Reading →
Why are some places crackling with energy and economic vitality, while other places seem lifeless? What qualities give long-term resilience and stability to a local economy instead of a boom-and-bust roller coaster economy?
And, looking closer to home, what can we as citizens individually do to make sure Billings is a vibrant, economically vital place? Continue Reading →
The downtown Billings coffee boom just keeps rolling along.
Lenny and Jaxi Howes are busy remodeling a space at 2712 Second Ave. N. into Ebon Coffee Collective, a coffee shop and bakery that they hope to have open early in March. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: Robert Struckman, a Billings native who previously worked as a reporter in Missoula and Billings, now lives in Maryland with his wife and two children and is the speech and editorial writer at the AFL-CIO. He recently interviewed filmmaker Michael Moore and is allowing Last Best News to reprint the email exchange here:
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore had visited people at the AFL-CIO office in Washington, D.C., but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him. Everyone who did talk to him said he was “surprisingly nice,” which I thought was kind of funny. He does have an “angry liberal” persona in his films, but isn’t the criticism of him just another tool of those who want to discredit humanism? Anyway, when I reached Moore, he was recovering from a bout of pneumonia. Continue Reading →
For entrepreneurs looking for capital, Montana can be a tough place to do business. Bankers, by their own account, can be “very stingy.” Montana attracts only a tiny fraction of the venture capital that goes to nearby states. And people who can’t qualify for conventional lending often can’t get federally backed loans either.
For Indians, the odds are even longer. Much of the land on reservations is held in trust, and home ownership rates are low, making it hard to find the collateral to secure a loan. Continue Reading →
