Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/173/)
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.
At the beginning of this mission, we knew one of the first stops had to be Buck’s Bar. We’d driven by this joint, located at 1511 Central Ave., for over five years and we frequently commented on it, but we’d never stopped in.
So, on a recent evening we found ourselves in a wood-paneled room, lined with gaming machines and smelling faintly of urinal cakes. Continue Reading →
Starting approximately three seconds after Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 presidential election, we were warned nonstop that the nation was unlikely to survive his four-year term.
It did survive, quite well, thank you, but the same warnings were issued, in even more heated tones, on the evening of the 2012 election. Those fears weren’t even based on fear, just partisan hatred of the slimiest kind. Continue Reading →
I recently saw a Gallup poll measuring trust and confidence in institutions. Second only to the U.S. military in terms of high confidence was “small business,” scoring a 67 percent rating in terms of trustworthiness. Continue Reading →
In a preview of what is sure to be a diverse range of events and promotions next year celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, the U.S. Mint on Thursday released designs for three new coins, including one featuring Yellowstone National Park. Continue Reading →
Dear Montana,
You stole my heart. You own my soul. Can you help me understand why I left your embrace, crossing over your borders to places far from the rhythm of your waters and the beckoning from your tallest peaks? To live apart from you for all these years? Like many before me, I moved away but never really left. Continue Reading →
At last week’s Republican presidential debate, Sen. Marco Rubio made a case for vocational education by attacking philosophy.
“I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education,” he said. “Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.” Continue Reading →
Kat Healy didn’t think her act of kindness of behalf of a group of stranded travelers last weekend was that big a deal.
“Honestly, my mom and I did not think it was a story,” she said.
A lot of other people apparently did. The tale of their efforts to provide kosher food for passengers on an El Al Airlines flight out of Israel that made an unplanned stop at Billings Logan International Airport on Sunday was reported by the Billings Gazette and then picked up by newspapers and websites around the world. Continue Reading →
The Montana Department of Justice has issued a sanction letter to the Billings Police Department in response to a police officer’s personal use of the state’s Criminal Justice Information Network.
The letter to Police Chief Rich St. John from Jennifer Viets, CJIN program manager, gives the department 30 days to document what steps have been taken to ensure that there are no further CJIN violations. Continue Reading →
“You know how much money came out of the Butte copper mines?” Shann Ray Ferch asked. “It’s 300 billion dollars! I can’t even imagine it because it’s so much.”
Such is the background of Ferch’s much heralded first work of historical fiction, “American Copper,” released this month. The Montana native, who writes under the pen name Shann Ray, launched his book at a release party last week in Spokane with Sherman Alexie as the keynote speaker. Continue Reading →
This is a busy week for Shametrius Long.
Long, who is in Billings with AmericCorps Volunteers in Service to America, was the main organizer of two events being held today to examine aspects of hunger and homelessness.
And working with another Vista, Sade Johnson, Long organized a food drive this week that will help Family Service Inc. prepare Thanksgiving boxes for needy families. Continue Reading →
