Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/167/)
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.
BUTTE—On a visit to Butte early last fall, I heard two things over and over again. One was that Danny Wong’s hot mustard at the Pekin Noodle Parlor would clear your sinuses.
The other was that the Chinese in early-day Butte had built tunnels under much of the Uptown and used them for a variety of nefarious purposes, including drug-running and kidnapping. Continue Reading →
Where is Fiddler’s Green? After hearing relentless media promotions singing this tavern’s praises, we assumed it would be easy to find.
We were wrong. Even with GPS, we spent some minutes circling the area where the bar was supposed to be, then finally arrived at Fiddler’s Green, located at 5104 Southgate Drive, hidden within a maze of hotels, warehouses and industrial buildings. Continue Reading →
It was a big year for news, all around the world and right here in Montana, where we did our best to remain in the very top ranks of Very Weird States. Let’s look back at the year that was:
It began with an occurrence that no one would have thought possible: a pipeline broke, spilling oil into the Yellowstone River. Continue Reading →
In honor of the new year, let me offer up what I consider the best of the Last Best News stories of 2015.
Early in the new year, in a Prairie Lights column, I wrote about a deeply religious overseas terrorist organization. The conclusions I drew from that slice of history would resonate throughout the coming year. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional information provided Thursday morning by Paul Collins, chairman of the Tumbleweed board.
Sheri Boelter, executive director of the Tumbleweed Runaway Program in Billings since 2011, has left the organization. Continue Reading →
I was delivering the Outpost and listening to Sean Hannity, between commercials for mail-order razors and Hoodie-Footies, responding to terror by spreading terror.
The president was weak, feckless and driven by ideological rigidity, Hannity was saying. Homeland Security was bedeviled, the military hamstrung, the FBI over its head, the borders bulging with potential terrorists. Continue Reading →
A long-dormant proposal to develop a bicycle and pedestrian trail on a railroad corridor through downtown Billings will be the subject of a study later this year.
The study, which will be commissioned by the Department of Planning and Community Services, will look at the possibility of making use of what is known as the Fifth Avenue North Corridor, stretching all the way from the YMCA at 402 N. 32nd St. to the entrance to MetraPark. Continue Reading →
This is the time of year when we start thinking about, well, time. If you are reading this, you are wondering why time passes so quickly.
Many of those who are not reading this—because they haven’t learned how to read yet—are wondering why it passes so slowly. There are students who wonder how a school year can be an eternity and a summer vacation gone in an eye-blink, and then there are some of us who must have too much time on our hands because we are actually spending some of it wondering about this. Continue Reading →
What do you do when you find yourself without tequila on Cinco de Mayo? Go to the liquor store of course—but wait, it’s Sunday. This was the predicament we found ourselves in one fateful afternoon in May 2013.
We set out on a mission to find a bottle, and a small bar a few blocks away came to the rescue. The Tap Inn intrigued us with its dim lighting and cinderblock walls, but alas we had margaritas to make and to consume and we didn’t stick around. Continue Reading →
If Tim Blixseth was released from jail in time for Christmas, it didn’t make the news. The last story I saw was dated Dec. 22 and said that lawyers for the “real estate mogul,” as he is usually described, had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency order that would allow him to spend Christmas with his family.
I’m assuming he wasn’t let out of the Great Falls jail where he has spent the past eight months. Is it a violation of the Christmas spirit to admit that it warmed my heart to think of him still stuck in the cooler? Continue Reading →
