Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/211/)
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.
How incredibly sharp have become the edges of the two-sided sword we call freedom of speech. Like most of the world, I received the news of what happened at the offices of Charlie Hebdo with a sense of extreme shock and sadness. But this was different. Because it was also coupled with something that I have not fallen prey to much when it comes to world events. I felt a profound sense of fear. Continue Reading →
I’ve covered some clueless public officials in my 35-year newspaper career, but I never had the pleasure of covering anyone so wonderfully out of touch as Kirby Delauter.
If you haven’t heard of him, that shouldn’t be too surprising. He is a councilman for Frederick County, Maryland, a position that is not normally a springboard to national recognition. Continue Reading →
I am of course aware of Billings Gazette editor Darrell Ehrlick’s column and some of the conversation downtown. Ehrlick’s description of downtown Billings on Black Friday, Nov. 28, was unfortunately true. One of my associates and I also noticed most of the problems Ehrlick mentioned around our office that day. Continue Reading →
(This is the first story in a three-part series investigating police officer-involved deaths in Montana.)
In the past two weeks, police officers in Montana have shot four men, killing three and hospitalizing a fourth. As state media outlets release more details about the individual incidents and aftermath, this reporter set out to determine just how many people have died in police custody across the state in recent years. Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: The editors of Noise & Color, Billings’ independent monthly magazine of culture and entertainment, asked me to write them a piece expanding on my recent column about downtown Billings, and the intense reaction to a certain column about the downtown that appeared in the Billings Gazette. Continue Reading →
The headline in The Billings Gazette read: “New Mustang owners see Dehler as blank canvas.” Allow me to fill in some of the blanks.
Why me? Because this spring will mark exactly 50 years that I have been a baseball fan. And because I have faithfully attended Mustang games for more than two decades.
Editor’s note: When this Lay of the Land series started, I explained how it came into being by accident, after several people sent me unsolicited essays. Now, having published 16 of these pieces, all of them looking at life in Montana, we have come to the end of the twice-a-month series. Continue Reading →
There was not much travel involved in this latest gallery of photos. A few of us did drive over to Paradise Valley on the weekend after Christmas, but most of the photographs were taken pretty close to home—in the case of the old Arcade Bar building, just half a block from home. Continue Reading →
