Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/32/)
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.
Jessi Wetzel thought it was a pretty big deal when somebody shot up her parked car two days after Christmas.
She was amazed, and angry, when she called the Billings Police Department to report the incident and was told that an officer would not be coming by to investigate. Continue Reading →
HELENA — Montana’s two largest public-employee unions are moving closer to joining forces. On Jan. 20, members of MEA-MFT and the Montana Public Employees Association will gather in Helena’s Great Northern Hotel to ratify a proposed constitution and create the Montana Federation of Public Employees. The newly formed union will represent a great variety of public employees including teachers, state and county employees, health-care personnel and more. Amanda Curtis, a math teacher in Butte and MEA-MFT state officer, says the merger is a win for Montana communities and the middle class. Continue Reading →
One of the most difficult things about assembling a World War I exhibit at the Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena was deciding what to include and what to leave out.
The Great War, as it was also called, lasted four years and claimed the lives of 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians. It was fought, one way or or another, all over the globe. It destroyed empires and sparked revolutions, and its reverberations are still felt today. Continue Reading →
BOZEMAN – Dennis Aig had just been hired as a film professor at Montana State University when a friend of his from graduate school called in 1991 to ask if Aig and his students might be interested in making an electronic press kit for a tightly budgeted film that would be made the next summer in Montana. Continue Reading →
Katy Easton, now working for Big Sky Economic Development, will take over as the CEO of the Downtown Billings Alliance on Feb. 1.
Easton, 39, was chosen to replace Lisa Harmon, who was the DBA’s executive director for 12 years before leaving at the end of last year. Continue Reading →
When state Rep. Peggy Webb, R-Billings, claimed that state spending is increasing more than twice as fast as revenues, I thought she might be making up numbers. She wasn’t, but even though the numbers are accurate, they don’t quite add up. Continue Reading →
The six-way competition to win the Democratic nomination for the 2018 U.S. House race got a little smaller on Tuesday.
Tom Woods, a state House representative from Bozeman, announced his departure from the race in a press release Tuesday morning. Continue Reading →
Ordinarily, on this last Sunday of the year, I would post a tongue-in-cheek review of the past year, as I had done for more than 10 years at the Billings Gazette and for the past three years at Last Best News.
I was inspired to do so by Dave Barry, as were legions of fellow obscure laborers in the vineyards of backwater journalism. We had the temerity to follow the master’s lead by telling ourselves we could get away with it by writing about local events, leaving the national and international scene to Barry. Continue Reading →
Five years ago, a diverse group of business leaders from across the state met in Bozeman. While they represented many different industries, the common denominator was an understanding that our public lands play a critical role in our state’s economy. Continue Reading →
