Montana

In Legislature’s aftermath, few answers for Colstrip

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When Montana’s 2017 Legislature adjourned on April 28, Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, found himself in much the same position as when the session began.

At the session’s beginning, he helped draw up several bills that would help his community, which is facing the impending closure of two out of four units at its massive coal-fired electrical plant. By the time lawmakers left the Capitol, many of the bills—aimed at easing impacts on jobs, tax revenues and real estate—were dead. Continue Reading →

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Diversions

‘Wilderness Walks’ unveil beauty of Eastern Montana

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A hike into Bitter Creek

Starting this Sunday and continuing through the end of September, a series of “Wilderness Walks” will be offered at 10 locations in Eastern Montana and northern Wyoming.

You could probably tell what part of Montana many of these walks are in just by glancing at their names: Bitter Creek, West Crooked Creek, Terry Badlands, Tongue River Breaks and Chain Buttes. A lot of the places are spectacular, but in subtler ways than places like Paradise Valley or Glacier National Park are spectacular. Continue Reading →

Culture

Refugees, settled in Montana, to tell their stories in film

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Joel

Much has been written about the African and Middle Eastern refugees who have resettled in Missoula in the past year, welcomed by many and looked at with fear and disdain by many others.

Now, some of those refugees will be using video cameras to tell their own stories of what it means to resettle so far from home, and to share with the rest of us their perceptions of their new surroundings. Continue Reading →

Opinion

Montana Viewpoint: Despite all, legislators deserve thanks

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Elliott

The 65th Montana legislative session is over and 150 citizen legislators will be returning to the life they had before the session began last January—sort of.

It is “sort of” because, whatever they do in real life, they will be constantly thinking of issues they considered in the legislative session, and, one hopes, also continuously acting in the best interests of the people they represent. Continue Reading →

Prairie Lights

Prairie Lights: Mother’s Day ordeal, take 2

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Ordeal

Editor’s note: I am not on vacation, traditionally the only reason for republishing an old piece. I am not embarrassed to admit that my excuse is that I’ve been having too much fun and find myself disinclined to ask my brain to do any work.

So I’m running this Mother’s Day piece from May 9, 1982, when we were living in Anaconda. Mother’s Day 2017 is just around the corner, and the little girl who is the star of the story is due to have her second child just a few days before then. Continue Reading →

Culture

Web-based radio a new outlet for musician’s passion

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Jimmy

RED LODGE — There was never much question that Jimmy Kujala’s life would revolve around music.

The native of Red Lodge played his first professional gig, at the Snag Bar, when he was 9. He and one of his sisters, Carolyn, started a band, The Lost Generation, a few years later. Kujala was only 15 or 16 when the band opened for Merle Haggard at the Shrine Auditorium in Billings in the late 1960s.  Continue Reading →