Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/58/)
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.
Billings lawyer John Heenan has announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., in the 2018 election.
Heenan, 40, is the first Democrat to file as a candidate for Montana’s only House seat. Heenan, who registered his campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday, said he began thinking of running against Gianforte “after the special election and Gianforte’s assault on the reporter.” Continue Reading →
The struggle in American government today is one between hypothetical ideology and stark reality. The ideology lives in our national and state capitols and the reality is borne by the Americans our governments are supposed to serve. Continue Reading →
As justifiable fear gripped their guts, wounded Iraq veteran Charlie and his wife, Vionette, whispered about the wisdom of climbing on a horse for the first time in their lives and riding off into Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness.
Standing by the horse trailers, Vionette seemed quietly paralyzed. Then she found the grit to mount Dennis, who loomed above her. Continue Reading →
Who would have imagined that murder and mayhem could be so much fun?
In “Montana Noir,” a new collection of hardboiled short stories, 14 writers jump with evident joy into tales teeming with dead bodies, guns, strippers, booze, meth, weed and problematic stores of cash. And they take us to unexpected places, from the rough parts of Great Falls to a depressing corner of Billings Heights, from the loneliest stretches of the Hi-Line’s Highway 2 to the vomit-stained sidewalk in front of the Party Palace in Butte. Continue Reading →
Executive Chef Ian Anderson took the reins of the historic Northern Hotel kitchen more than a month ago, and already there is a new pulse.
Some time had passed since I’d stepped into Bernie’s Diner, the Northern’s breakfast-and-lunch cafe, and it was quieter back then. On this Wednesday morning, behind the counter, staff busily filled cups of coffee and gathered plates of food for the customers who filled the seating by the west-side windows. Continue Reading →
The Goodridge kids have grown up with the blues.
The Magic City Blues, to be precise.
Their parents, Tim and Pam Goodridge, have been putting on the annual music festival in downtown Billings since 2002. One way or another, their three children—Henry, 21, Will, 18, and Jane, 16—have part of the festival for most of their lives. Continue Reading →
Mayoral candidate Danny Sandefur emphasized attacking crime and public intoxication in remarks at the Democratic breakfast meeting on Wednesday.
Sandefur is a real estate agent who also operates CDS the Edge Performing Arts Center on Montana Avenue with his wife, Samantha. He is one of six candidates for Billings mayor and one of two who failed to appear at an earlier Democratic dinner. Continue Reading →
Montana Today added a third contributing news source to its team on Monday when we welcomed Jenn Rowell of The Electric in Great Falls to our daily e-news publication.
Rowell, a former reporter with the Great Falls Tribune, was laid off by Gannet—the paper’s owner—last October. As I did after leaving the Missoulian, she would spend her nights, perhaps sleeplessly, considering her next move, which led her to launch The Electric. Continue Reading →
Sometime soon, you may be asked to sign a petition to put the Montana Locker Room Privacy Act on the ballot in November 2018. Caution: Cogitate before signing. Continue Reading →
Steve Daines, Montana’s junior U.S. senator, has voted—again—to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He’d voted for repeal on three dozen earlier occasions so I presume that he’s against the ACA. Continue Reading →
