Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/tom-hanel/page/2/)
Jennifer Lawrence is moving to Billings! It’s true. The “Hunger Games” star said she’s had it with Hollywood and she wants to live in a town where people know their neighbors, where a celebrity can go to the 7-Eleven in her pajamas at 1 a.m. for a pack of smokes without a gang of paparazzi dogging her every step of the way. (more…) Continue Reading →
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I went to the Donald J. Trump rally Thursday afternoon, but I wasn’t expecting anything quite so low key. There were probably 6,000 or 7,000 people on hand, and while they waved signs and cheered loudly enough, it seemed to me that they were mostly excited about the fact that they were finally able to attend a Trump rally, rather than passionate about Trump himself. What was even more surprising was that Trump seemed so much less menacing in person. All the comparisons with Hitler seemed ludicrous. He’s no Hitler and he’s no Mussolini. Continue Reading →
Billings voters in 2013 approved two new middle schools and renovations of two elementary schools in School District 2. Now, school supporters say, it’s time to add more staff. The Yes for Kids Ballot Initiative Committee kicked off its campaign for passage of a mill levy on Thursday at the Mansfield Health Education Center. Mail-in ballots for the May 3 election are expected to arrive in mailboxes on April 16. (more…) Continue Reading →
A former Billings City Council candidate who has inserted himself oafishly into this year’s council race has, purely by accident, exposed a general misunderstanding of how that legislative body conducts its business. Brian Kenat, a Tea Party Republican who unsuccessfully ran against Ward 3 Councilwoman Becky Bird in 2013, has been calling council candidates to sound them out on their beliefs—and to badger them if he didn’t like their views. (more…) Continue Reading →
As the New Year dawned a year ago this week, most people in Montana were already sick and tired of winter, of endless days of bitter cold and snowstorms that raged with Arctic intensity. Billings was hit particularly hard. At one point in mid-February the snow was so deep that only the top seven floors of the First Interstate Building were visible. (more…) Continue Reading →
Mark Kennedy says the new bison sculpture near the entrance to Billings Logan International Airport is a fitting monument to Bruce Putnam. “Bruce was larger than life, and that piece is larger than life,” Kennedy said. (more…) Continue Reading →
Is it possible that Mayor Tom Hanel was right? I don’t mean right to cast the deciding vote against a nondiscrimination ordinance in Billings last week. I mean right that this town just isn’t ready for such an ordinance. (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 →
A month after plans for a pedestrian bridge over the downtown railroad tracks were killed, the city-county Planning Department is pitching an idea for two such bridges, plus improvements to two existing underpasses. (more…) Continue Reading →
