Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/page/89/)
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.
The Montana Legislature heard emotional testimony last week on a bill that would include gender identity and sexual orientation in the state’s non-discrimination laws.
Introduced by Rep. Kelly McCarthy, D-Billings, House Bill 417 would add LGBTQ-identifying individuals to a list of classes protected by the Montana Human Rights Act, meaning it would prevent them from being discriminated against when seeking housing and employment, and when using public accommodations. Continue Reading →
I just got robbed of thousands of dollars—and a friend got robbed of her self-respect—by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last year, my Mexican friend Abigail Cuellar Gallegos visited her cousins, and me, in the United States. She went back to Mexico according to the terms of her visa. I know. I bought the ticket, and took her to the airport. Continue Reading →
The Montana House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would shutter the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices, which some critics say could put the integrity of Montana elections in jeopardy.
The bill, introduced by a state lawmaker tied to one of the office’s most significant investigations, would place oversight and enforcement of campaign laws back into the hands of the secretary of state and attorney general, as it was before the office was created in 1975. Continue Reading →
I know my colleague David Crisp has already written about Sen. Steve Daines’ role in silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the floor of the Senate, but David’s piece was published on Wednesday.
That same day, state Rep. Jeff Essmann of Billings, chairman of the Montana Republican Party, also wrote about the Daines-Warren incident in an op-ed for the Billings Gazette. Essmann’s piece was so crowded with misstatements and misleading information that it demands a response. Continue Reading →
Eric Basye was expecting as many as 80 volunteers to come down to the old Labor Temple Hall on South 29th Street on Saturday for what he’s calling “our first official demo day.”
Basye is the director of Community Leadership and Development Inc., a Christian organization that works on the South Side of Billings under the slogan “Rebuilding Lives, Restoring Families, Re-Neighboring Communities.” Continue Reading →
The superintendent of schools in Reed Point, while not specifically denying claims of racism brought by a Native American couple last month, said he doesn’t believe that the staff member involved uttered a racial slur.
Mike Ehinger was reacting to claims made by Elsworth and Brandy GoesAhead, of Pryor, at a public forum in Billings last week during a visit by Meg Singer, the new indigenous justice outreach coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana. The claims were reported by Last Best News. Continue Reading →
