Daily Digest
Ty's Take Every now and then a judge uses language plain enough that it cuts through all the noise, and that happened this week when the bench essentially told Mineral County that their sheriff and deputies didn't have a case worth pursuing. Those kinds of rulings—
Daily Digest
Ty's Take The school levy didn't pass, and Big Timber voters made clear they want a new direction on the board—which is their right, and it stings the way these things do when you've got kids in the system. What matters now is
Daily Digest
Ty's Take The Special Olympics athletes running their hearts out at MetraPark this week remind you why a town like Billings matters—we're big enough to host something that draws families from across the state, small enough that neighbors still show up to cheer. Meanwhile, out
Daily Digest
Ty's Take There's something worth noticing in how a third-grade class in Helena turned a fairy tale inside out—Gold E. Locks walked free, the three bears' case fell apart, and a bunch of eight-year-olds learned that the law isn't
Daily Digest
Ty's Take Ted Turner didn't invent the mythology around himself—this country did, and he was smart enough to lean into it. The man bought land here, raised buffalo, and lived the way he wanted to live, which in southwest Montana means you become either a
Daily Digest
Ty's Take Montana's going to let people register and vote the same day come November, which is the kind of thing that sounds simple until you're actually running a polling place and trying to verify someone's residency while the line's
Daily Digest
Ty's Take Property taxes are climbing again in Billings, and if you haven't looked at your assessment lately, you're about to get a reminder that living in Montana's largest city doesn't come cheap anymore. The conversation around those numbers matters
Daily Digest
Ty's Take When a hospital team has to improvise to save two lives at once—a mother and her newborn both fighting in the ICU—you get a reminder of what keeps this city running underneath all the talk about energy markets and downtown development. Montana Tech'
Daily Digest
Ty's Take Quiet weeks like this one remind you why small-town papers matter—not because we're chasing headlines, but because we're keeping track of who's doing what and where. The briefs column is where you find out the county commission met,
Daily Digest
Ty's Take Two colleges sending graduates out into the world the same week, a couple of major intersections getting hard looks from accident investigators, and a couple thousand women running through downtown on a Saturday morning—that's May in Billings, when the season finally turns and
Daily Digest
Ty's Take When grant money starts moving in this county, you can usually trace it back to somebody sitting in a room saying "we've got a problem worth fixing." The Northwest Energy and Missouri-Madison River Fund just handed out half a million dollars
Daily Digest
Ty's Take When a water system at a major hotel can't keep guests safe from Legionnaires', when fuel costs start cutting into regional air service, and when a long-running conservation project loses its grazing permits all in the same news cycle, you're