Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/brent-cromley/)
Just three months ago, the Billings City Council voted down a nondiscrimination ordinance that would have expanded civil rights protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The vote came at 3 a.m., following a very long meeting. Later that day, Councilman Brent Cromley, who supported the NDO, said the setback would not halt the steady progress being made on LGBT rights. (more…) Continue Reading →
Barely 48 hours after being chosen as the new Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat from Montana, Amanda Curtis stopped in Billings briefly to cheer on supporters of a nondiscrimination ordinance. Curtis, a Billings native and Butte schoolteacher serving her first term in the Montana House, spoke Monday evening on the steps of the First Congregational United Church of Christ. (more…) Continue Reading →
Jani McCall didn’t sleep much Tuesday. She is the Billings City Council member who first suggested, in December, that the city consider a nondiscrimination ordinance. Tuesday morning, the NDO went down on a 6-5 vote, with Mayor Tom Hanel casting the deciding vote shortly after 3 a.m. (more…) Continue Reading →
A few minutes after 3 a.m. Tuesday, Billings Mayor Tom Hanel cast the deciding vote against a proposed nondiscrimination ordinance, sending it to a 6-5 defeat by the City Council. Voting with the mayor to kill the NDO were Mike Yakawich, Denis Pitman, Angela Cimmino, Rich McFadden and Shaun Brown. Those in favor of the NDO were Brent Cromley, Becky Bird, Jani McCall, Al Swanson and Ken Crouch. (more…) Continue Reading →
During the first 12 years of my life, growing up in Montana, it was against the law for a person of my race to marry an African American or an Asian American. Montana’s anti-miscegenation law was not repealed until 1953. It was not until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court declared these laws, still existing in sixteen other states, unconstitutional. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Last Good Halloween, by Giano Cromley, Tortoise Books, 2013. 235 pages, $12. Editor’s note: An interview with the author, a native of Billings whose first book this is, may be found under the review. High school sophomore Kirby Russo can be an irritating narrator. (more…) Continue Reading →
It was amazing to watch the Billings City Council come within a whisker last night of undoing 13 years’ worth of work on a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. Mike Ferguson does a good job of explaining what happened in his Gazette story this morning. But for the benefit of people — particularly people sitting on the City Council — who don’t know some of the history behind this project, bear with me. (more…) Continue Reading →
Nearly 13 years after it was proposed, a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks in downtown Billings might finally be built this summer. Chris Hertz, an engineer with the city’s Public Works Department, expects to call for construction bids by mid-May, which would mean beginning construction in mid-June. (more…) Continue Reading →
