Randy Billings

Portland Press Herald

Randy Billings is a government watchdog and political reporter who has been covering Portland City Hall for the Press Herald since 2012. His beat touches on a wide range of topics, including immigration, homelessness, education, tourism, real estate development and the economy in Maine’s largest city. He has been a Portland-based journalist since 2005. A life-long Mainer who loves the outdoors, Randy is also a bassist who brews his own beer at his North Yarmouth home, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Latest

Published
July 24, 2015

Tipped employees in Portland say wage hike could hurt

Many in the city’s small army of waitstaff believe a proposal that would triple their hourly base salary would just eat into their gratuities.
Published
July 22, 2015

Organizers appear to end insistence that Portland didn’t block medical pot fest

The group initially said the Aug. 9 event would go on despite denial of an amended permit amid concerns over an admission fee and public marijuana use.
Published
July 20, 2015

Portland voters will take up $15 an hour minimum wage in November

The City Council also votes to delay reconsideration of an ordinance approved earlier this month that inadvertently doubled the base wage for tipped workers.
Published
July 20, 2015

Portland council rejects permit for marijuana market in Deering Oaks

In a 5-4 vote, they reverse a previous decision after hearing an ad for the event that suggested pot would be available for use there.
Published
July 20, 2015

Portland City Council to revisit pot festival permit request

The New England Cannabis Farmers Market would run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 9 in Deering Oaks.
Published
July 14, 2015

Portland ready to cut assistance to 86 immigrants

Those affected may no longer have legal status because they failed to apply for asylum within a year of entering the United States.
Published
July 1, 2015

Maine Gov. LePage endorses ‘great friend’ Chris Christie for president

The Republican governors tout their no-nonsense styles and greet diners at Becky’s Diner in Portland.
Published
June 30, 2015

LePage to fight Portland over asylum seekers money

The governor says a $2.6 million plan to provide help to them is ‘a shell game with taxpayer’s money.’
Published
June 23, 2015

Portland poised to continue General Assistance to asylum-seeking immigrants

But councilors appear split over how much aid to provide, who would qualify and how long it might continue at local taxpayers’ expense.
Published
June 18, 2015

Portland faces decision on costly aid for asylum seekers

As a budget deal in Augusta eliminates public assistance for legal non-citizens who took refuge in Maine, the city must decide if its property taxpayers will foot the bill.