Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/226/)
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.
Although they’ve still got some fundraising ahead of them, the people behind an “event-centric” movie theater and pub in downtown Billings will be getting down to business Saturday morning.
That’s when they’ll start demolishing portions of the old Center Lanes bowling alley at 109 N. 30th St., beginning its transformation into the Art House Cinema & Pub. Continue Reading →
Work on what is thought to be the largest house ever built in Yellowstone County is proceeding quickly.
Much of the framing on the 26,000-square-foot house appears to be done already. The house is being built just to the northeast of the developed portion of the Ironwood Subdivision, which itself is just east of the railroad overpass on Molt Road. Continue Reading →
We appear to be stumbling into another war in the Middle East. Pro football is buckling under the weight of its own violence. In Montana politics, the only issue appears to be whether Steve Daines wants to destroy the country overnight by gutting environmental laws or whether he is willing to wait a few decades for global warming to do the job.
So let’s talk about grammar. Continue Reading →
This story has been updated, in a postscript.
The power of social media was on display in Billings Monday, when users of a Facebook page quickly solved the mystery surrounding a tombstone found in the Yellowstone River.
The granite headstone was found Saturday during the eighth annual Yellowstone River Cleanup. A group of Rocky Mountain College students found the headstone near Duck Creek Bridge, on dry cobblestone near the water’s edge, and hauled it by boat to Norm’s Island, a few miles downstream. Continue Reading →
Gunter Rodrigues and Taylor Trowbridge are tucked into the recessed entryway of a vacant building at Montana Avenue and North 28th Street.
If you’re used to sleeping on the streets, this isn’t a bad place to be. The entryway is a long rectangle, maybe 15 feet long and 6 feet wide, with brick walls on two sides to stop the wind. Over the concrete there is a strip of well-worn outdoor carpet, a sliver of warmth and comfort. Continue Reading →
People often ask, how does the mind of a newspaper columnist — or that of a digital newspaper columnist — work?
The short answer is that it rarely does. Instead, it seeks diversion and distraction and asks to be plied with coffee, or, later in the day, alcohol. Ostensibly, these are stimulants that will help the mind do its work, but in fact they are merely different kinds of diversions and distractions. Continue Reading →
BRIDGER — A patio table in Shirley Smith’s backyard is covered with soot-blackened artifacts, including a set of antique handcuffs, an old fig syrup bottle and a partially melted saddle bronc trophy from a rodeo in Malta.
Smith has been trying to restore them, using a variety of cleansers and scrub brushes.
“It takes time and a lot of figuring out how to do it,” she says. Continue Reading →
Two Billings lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would eliminate or overhaul a state law that allows authorities to seize the assets of people involved in crimes.
Reps. Kelly McCarthy, a Democrat, and Daniel Zolnikov, a Republican, say that while widespread abuse of the law has not been reported in Montana, law enforcement authorities in other states have used similar laws to seize property — including houses — from law-abiding citizens. Continue Reading →
