Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/248/)
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.
LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD — Denice Swanke has a lot on her plate as superintendent of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, but she said there is no question what is most important to her superiors in the National Park Service. Continue Reading →
When I saw last week that another Billings motorist had plowed into a house, and that “speed and alcohol were factors in the crash,” I felt it was time to call it a trend. Continue Reading →
HARLOWTON — Tina Barnhart has learned a few important lessons about helping people sign up for subsidized private health insurance.
The trick is to be specific about insurance plans, and how much they cost, thanks to the federal subsidies. Just don’t mention Obamacare, or even refer to it by its less familiar but official title, the Affordable Care Act. Continue Reading →
I had to go to Harlowton to work on a story Thursday morning, on what turned out to be a glorious day for a drive.
As everyone in this part of the world knows, it has been a very long winter, so long that I probably shouldn’t refer to it as if it were over. So to finally get a chance to drive on dry roads under blue skies and on one of my favorite Montana roads was an opportunity I was inclined to savor. Continue Reading →
Brown Dog, by Jim Harrison, Grove Press, 2013. 525 pages, $27.
My slight acquaintance with the works of Jim Harrison — I’ve read maybe 10 percent of his many books — leads me to believe that Brown Dog, the character, is the truest expression of his inner self. Continue Reading →
ROUNDUP — Doug Bell, a readjustment counselor with the Billings Vet Center, said it’s typical of military veterans to insist that they don’t need help.
“There’s that mentality of, there’s always someone worse than them, so they don’t want to take away from them,” he said. Continue Reading →
I have publicly shamed myself over the years by apologizing for errors that have crept into my news stories and columns.
Twenty-five years ago, I wrote a very long profile of a doctor in St. Paul who still made house calls. The person who suggested I write about the good doctor gave me his first name wrong and I never checked that cardinal fact, since I kept referring to him in conversation as “Doctor.” Continue Reading →
BIG TIMBER — Jim Baldwin is standing in a rickety shed so old and fragile that it looks like it might not survive another day of the fierce winds blowing outside.
He’s looking down at a large cardboard box brimful of dirt- and manure-encrusted books, letters and other documents. It doesn’t look very promising, but he’s learned not to trust appearances. Continue Reading →
General back-country elk rifle season opened Sept. 15 last fall in Montana, the same day Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack Shanstrom worked as a judge for the last time. If you don’t know where he’d rather have been — then you don’t know Jack. On that day, we called Jack Shanstrom “Judge” because we had to. On Sept. Continue Reading →
When the CEO of a Denver energy company announced last fall that he’d like to “bring something like the Bakken, maybe something a little more orderly” to the Beartooths, many residents scrambled to head off what they feared would forever change their scenic landscape. Continue Reading →
