Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/193/)
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.
One of the most distinctive old houses in Billings is on the market for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The white stucco house with a red tile roof, at 2306 Virginia Lane, is being sold by two sisters, Carmen Forsman of Seattle and Lou Hegwer of Billings. Continue Reading →
By weekly newspaper standards, things slow down here a bit in the summer, so I thought I would take a few minutes to solve a pressing national concern. Seriously, no problem, I’m happy to do it.
Republicans and Fox News (or do I repeat myself?) are in a bit of a tizzy over how to handle upcoming presidential debates for GOP candidates. The problem is that there are too many candidates to fit on one stage. So Fox plans to let only the top 10 candidates debate, as reflected in current polling. Continue Reading →
When Tim Struck first saw the building that would become his commercial photography studio, it had recently been vacated by a radiator business.
The portion of the building he was shown, Struck said, “was right out of the movie ‘Saw.’” It was where radiators had been submerged in an acid bath, so besides being filthy with grime and grease, it stunk something awful. They were calling it “the death room.” Continue Reading →
First United Methodist Church, 2100 Fourth Ave. N.
Service: 3 p.m., Sunday, April 6, 2014
Length of service: 48 minutes. Length of sermon: None
I did something a little out of the ordinary for this church visit.
It was my intention from the start to avoid special days like Easter or Christmas, in order to witness “normal” services. That would seem to have ruled out attending and reviewing a special presentation of Robert Ray’s “Gospel Mass” at First United Methodist Church. Continue Reading →
I regret to inform you that there will be no Prairie Lights column today.
When I launched this basically one-man operation, I was warned to be on the alert for signs of burnout, things like neglecting to shave for several weeks, sacrificing small animals on the altar of Google Analytics and finding myself, unaccountably, in a closed casket. Continue Reading →
CODY, WYO. — Plenty of people will tell you that a visit to a national park like Yellowstone or Grand Teton is something you can’t put a price on. But entry fees for both parks went up June 1, and despite some initial concerns, early indications are that most visitors either haven’t noticed or don’t seem to mind. Continue Reading →
Off The Leaf, a popular coffeeshop that opened in 2008 on Grand Avenue, is getting ready to go big.
Besides making plans to open two new shops in Billings and four elsewhere in the country, the new owners of the business will send out a fleet of trucks and SUVs on Monday, bringing their mobile coffee bars to music festivals all across the country this summer. Continue Reading →
The saddest quotation in last week’s Billings Gazette came from Shonn Lehmann, a volunteer weighing names for a new West End middle school.
After fellow volunteer Dana Winchell suggested the district avoid naming the school after a human being because of the politics involved, Lehmann said, “I think that’s what we need to avoid, ticking people off.” Continue Reading →
Wind chills the bright May morning as we walk the grassy plateau of Gordon Butte, a 2-mile-wide plug of volcanic rock towering above the plains about three miles west of Martinsdale, in Meagher County. The snow-streaked Crazy Mountains pull our gaze south, but we’re heading north, to the butte’s sharp, timbered edge.
My tour guide, Eli Bailey, a project manager with Bozeman-based Absaroka Energy, stops to point out where an 18-foot-diameter water conduit will be drilled deep into the butte and diagonally out its base. This part of the plateau, he says, will become an 80-acre reservoir. Continue Reading →
