Author: Steve Robinson

Steve Robinson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Maine Wire. ‪He can be reached by email at Robinson@TheMaineWire.com.

Washington, D.C. – Key U.S. intelligence officials have faced a series of probing questions from lawmakers this week, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R), concerning pressing national security threats related to foreign terrorism, the use of new and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Sen. Collins, a member of the Select Committee, has grilled top officials from the federal intelligence community, including Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines and FBI Director Christopher Wray, as part of the annual open hearings held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. [RELATED: Collins Grills FBI Director Wray…

Read More

Big Picture: A major bill that would overhaul Maine’s marijuana regulations is moving through the State House, with $100s of millions — if not billions of dollars — on the line The fight pits large businesses against small businesses, adult-use recreational operators against medicinal providers, and multi-state operators against local businesses Changes to age-restrictions around who can work in the industry may cause banks to reconsider working with marijuana businesses, which would cause huge logistical headaches and security vulnerabilities The changes to regulations now in place for adult-use cultivators, processors, and dispensaries could allow illicit Chinese-owned operations to further proliferate…

Read More

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department did not make any arrests as they raided a property on the Industry Road in New Sharon, WGME reported Tuesday evening. According to WGME, the property was raided on Friday after the Sheriff’s Office was able to get a search warrant based on the electrical capacity installed at the residence. The property, which was previously known to the Maine Wire as an illicit Chinese-owned marijuana growing operation, had commercial-grade power installed in April 2022. Electrical records tie the property to several other properties in Maine which also show the tell-tale signs of marijuana grows, including…

Read More

As the debate over transgender school policies and sex-change procedures for minors has played out nationwide and in Maine, a common refrain from far left advocates of gender ideology has been that the alternative to “gender affirming care” is higher rates of suicide among those experiencing gender dysphoria. However, a new study from the American Urological Association’s Journal of Urology suggests not only that this argument lacks scientific support, but that surgical interventions may in fact increase suicidality among individuals who receive feminization surgeries, i.e. vaginoplasty. In other words, the surgical interventions that transgender activists have pushed as a cure…

Read More

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday about what his agency is doing to help local and regional Maine law enforcement do to combat the proliferation of Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (ATCOs) throughout rural Maine. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1767278192480420242?s=20 “What we’re also seeing in Maine is a new phenomenon that was reported by some enterprising journalists, and that is that Chinese nationals are establishing illegal marijuana growing operations all over the state,” Sen. Collins said. “One public report estimates there are more than 200 of them, primarily in rural Maine. They’re unregulated. They’re illicit. They’re destroying homes because…

Read More

An effort by Democratic state lawmakers to establish Maine as a “sanctuary state” for child sex-change procedures and late-term abortions drew strong condemnation Monday from the attorneys general of 15 other U.S. states. In a letter spearheaded by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, the 15 AGs warned that Maine could face lawsuits from other states if it were to adopt the proposed statute, LD 227. “If Maine pursues LD 227’s constitutionally defective approach, we will vigorously avail ourselves of every recourse our Constitution provides,” the AGs wrote. [RELATED: Maine Transgender Activists Launch Offensive Against Conservative States with Unprecedented Legal Scheme…]…

Read More

Authorities in Piscataquis County have cracked down two more illegal marijuana operations, executing two search warrants on March 7 that resulted in significant seizures and an arrest. The Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from several law enforcement agencies, targeted properties suspected of housing illicit marijuana grows. The first raid took place on Glass Hill Road in Guilford, while the second occurred on Bates Road in Abbot. In total, officers seized 2,580 marijuana plants, 52 pounds of processed marijuana, $11,280 in cash, and a 2015 Audi SUV. Jing Kang Zhu of New York was arrested in connection with the operations.…

Read More

Maine’s legacy and corporate media — including the Bangor Daily News, the major television stations, and the collection of news websites now owned by a George Soros-controlled non-profit — utterly failed to cover the massive reaction to LD 227 on Tuesday. The bill in question would create new legal protections for late-term abortions as well as sex-change treatments, including sex-change drugs and surgeries for minors. In addition, the bill would create protections for adults who traffick children across state lines into Maine in order to receive these treatments — even adults who are not related to those children. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1765088122960806146?s=20 Hundreds…

Read More

HEARING – Tuesday @ 1:00 pm – Cross Building Room 220 Maine lawmakers will consider Tuesday a proposal to drastically expand legal protections for medical professionals and other individuals who conspire to mutilate children in the name of so-called “gender affirming” medical care. The unprecedented proposal, which also encompasses providers of late-term abortions, will also break new legal ground in attempting to impose Maine-based policy preferences on jurisdictions where laws regarding sex-change services for minors and abortions are different. Although the scientific consensus around surgical and drug-based interventions for individuals suffering gender dysphoria has shifted in recent years in favor…

Read More

Three more New Yorkers have been arrested in Somerset County for illegally growing and trafficking vast amounts of marijuana at a Skowhegan property connected to Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations. The Somerset County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release Friday that it executed a search warrant on a Waterville Road property in Skowhegan that resulted in the arrests of three individuals from Brooklyn, New York. Yao Bin Cheng, age 61, of Brooklyn, New York was arrested and charged with Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs (Class B) and Cultivation of Marijuana (Class B). Ying Xia Liao, age 59, of Brooklyn, New York…

Read More

The District Attorney of Maine’s most populous county will no longer charge individuals, including illegal aliens, who are caught driving without a license, driving with a suspended registration, or driving an unregistered motor vehicle. The new policy change, which will take effect on March 1, was announced in a memo distributed this week by Cumberland County District Attorney Jacqueline A. Sartoris. Although the new non-charging policy will apply to all drivers in Cumberland County, the traffic violations in question are commonly associated with individuals who are present in the U.S. illegally and therefore cannot obtain Driver’s Licenses or vehicle registrations.…

Read More

The U.K.’s Daily Mail, the largest newspaper in the western world, scorched the policies of Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) and Democratic lawmakers in a Thursday article exposing how far left policies have left Maine taxpayers, including military veterans, stranded in the cold, while recently arrived migrants receive lux digs at taxpayers’ expense. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1760271674253918286?s=20 From the DailyMail.com: Residents and GOP politicians are slamming Maine officials for lavishing millions of dollars on ‘Taj Mahal’ homes for asylum seekers while the state’s veterans and US-born homeless are struggling. Republicans say the Democrat-run state has spent $34 million on shelters, hotels, and ‘luxury apartments’ for migrants, even as Maine…

Read More

Three unidentified Chinese nationals were intercepted attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from Canada into Maine early Wednesday morning, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A fourth Chinese national operating a motor vehicle was also arrested on suspicion of attempting to assist with the three other Chinese nationals’ illegal entry into the U.S. CBP posted the following information to social media: “After noticing suspicious activity along the border, vigilant Fort Fairfield Border Patrol agents arrested three Chinese nationals attempting to use the cover of darkness to illegally enter the United States. A driver from New York, also a Chinese…

Read More

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has yet to drop out of the GOP presidential race, shared with Maine’s George Soros-funded media outlets Tuesday the impressive lineup of politicos backing her campaign. In a post to the websites controlled by the National Trust for Local News, Haley’s remaining campaign staff listed tens of endorsements from Maine residents. The list included former Republican State Sen. Mary Small, who last held office in 2002, former State Rep. Jayne Giles, who hasn’t won an election since 2008, and a former school board chairman. Also among Haley’s supporters was former House Republican Chief…

Read More

Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster put yet another illegal Chinese-run marijuana growing operation out of commission Monday morning on the Foss Road in Madison, his office said in a press release. “During the search, 449 live mature marijuana plants, 52 pounds of processed marijuana, harvested marijuana plants, and illicit drug related articles were located and seized,” Sheriff Lancaster said in a press release. “A dog at the residence was turned over to the Madison Animal Welfare Officials, as the dog was not properly cared for,” Lancaster said. A source in Madison confirmed that the property that was raided was at…

Read More

In a significant crackdown on international money laundering and drug trafficking, Qinliang Chen of Rosemead, Calif., admitted guilt to conspiracy charges Monday. The 34-year-old was implicated in a vast operation, allegedly spearheaded by Jin Hua Zhang, which spanned across the United States and several countries. Zhang pleaded guilty in Sept. to operating a $25 million money laundering ring that also distributed narcotics. Chen’s guilty plea to conspiracy to commit money laundering was accepted by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, who has set the sentencing for July 9, 2024. This development follows the May 2023 charges against Chen and 11 others,…

Read More

The first presidential polling published out of the Pine Tree State delivered some surprising news, showing former Republican President Donald J. Trump leading incumbent Democratic President Joseph R. Biden by six points. Although former President Trump won Maine’s more conservative Second Congressional District in both 2016 and 2020, he lost statewide in both elections. In 2020, President Biden beat Trump 53 percent (435,072 votes) to 44 percent (360,737 votes). The poll results suggest nearly a massive swing in Maine voters’ preferences between the two candidates as the head into a rematch this fall. Although 38 percent of respondents said they…

Read More

Maine’s public institutions, especially the government-run schools, have been consumed in recent years with crafting policies on the basis of left-wing gender ideology. Specifically, this ideology clings with religious fervor to the idea that biological sex is meaningless, that gender is purely a social construct, and that a man should be free to invade spaces previously protected for girls and women if he decides, at any given moment, to identify as something other than a man. The gender ideologues have found no better partner in this perversion of science, law, and reality than the Portland-based law firm Drummond Woodsum. That…

Read More

Nearly 1,500 illegally grown cannabis plants were seized Thursday after the the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant at a property on the East Madison Road in Madison. “The search warrant was obtained by the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Division, as it was believed that illegal marijuana plant cultivation activities were taking place at the residence,” Somerset Sheriff Dale Lancaster said in a press release. A source in Madison confirmed that the property in question is located at 1034 East Madison Road. (According to Google Maps, the property is about 4.7 miles down the road from the Somerset County…

Read More

Update: Several hours after the Maine Wire broke this story, the Penobscot Sheriff’s Department posted new information on their Facebook page. Three Chinese males were arrested at the site. Law enforcement also seized 40 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine, and $4,700 cash. The full Facebook post is appended at the bottom of this article. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department conducted yet another enforcement action against an illicit Chinese-controlled marijuana trafficking hub operating out of remote northern Maine on Thursday morning. According to multiple sources in Passadumkeag, a town of less than 400 people, Sheriff’s Deputies executed a search warrant on a…

Read More

Maine Wire Reporter Seamus Othot contributed to this report. A Maine Republican is looking to crackdown on the foreign organized crime networks that have spread throughout rural Maine since 2020, using the proceeds of illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking to build a lucrative blackmarket drug empire in the state. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] According to a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo, Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (ATCOs) control more than 270 properties throughout Maine, properties that are used to grow and trafficking marijuana illegally. But Mainers don’t need federal law enforcement’s confirmation to…

Read More

A high school in Maine has opted to ditch a plan to using biometric fingerprint scanners to help staff keep attendance following a Maine Wire report on the school district’s plans. As the Maine Wire reported exclusively on Feb. 2: Caribou High School in Aroostook County (RSU 39) has contracted with IdentiMetrics to implement a system that scans students’ fingerprints, stores the data, and creates a tracking system so that administrators can have an easier time keeping track of the roughly 460 students. According to a letter from school Principal Jamie Selfridge, the new biometric surveillance technology will be deployed…

Read More

Maine’s Second Congressional District is big — 27,326 square miles, encompassing what passes in Maine for cities, Lewiston-Auburn and Bangor, as well as the vast North Maine Woods, the mountainous riverlands of western Maine, and the rambling downeast coast. But even all that space is not enough for the ambitions and sharp elbows of the two first-term Republican state lawmakers now locked in a bitter primary fight over who will get a chance to knock off the incumbent Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden. Former Republican President Donald Trump carried the rural district by ten points against Hillary Clinton in 2016…

Read More

A New York man was arrested Wednesday morning in Norridgewock following a raid on a Betterment Road property that uncovered a large 1,310-pant marijuana growing operation, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster. Zunjie Wu (Source: Somerset County Sheriff) Zunjie Wu, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was arrested and charged with Cultivation of Marijuana (Class B, over 500 plants) and Trafficking Scheduled Drugs (Class B), Sheriff Lancaster said in a press release. Wu remains incarcerated in the Somerset County Jail. The search warrant for the raid was executed by Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Deputies, with the assistance of Waterville Police Department…

Read More

A Saturday night shooting near the University of Maine at Augusta’s Bangor campus stemmed from a dispute between residents of the needle-strewn, drug-infested homeless encampment that has festered for more than two years at the campus’s southeastern edge. The shooting occured Saturday night and resulted in one individual being hospitalized with gunshot wounds, according to the Bangor Police Department. No arrests have been made. The shooting was the culmination of an altercation between two individuals living at the homeless camp, the Bangor Police said. The camp, which has taken over much of what used to be a park between Cleveland…

Read More

Renowned conservative columnist Mark Steyn has been ordered by a Washington, D.C. jury to pay controversial global warming activist Michael Mann a whopping $1M to settle the Al Gore acolyte’s claim that he was defamed in one of Steyn’s National Review columns. Mann, the progenitor of the infamous “hockey stick” graph invoked to sell various climate change policies, sued Steyn referring to his climate change research as “fraudulent.” Competitive Enterprise Institute science writer Rand Simberg, whose blog post Steyn linked to, took the criticism a step further, comparing Mann’s approach to scholarly research to the way former Penn State University…

Read More

Multiple properties throughout northern Maine suspected of being part of the network of illegal Chinese marijuana growing operations were raided Friday morning by multiple Maine law enforcement agencies, including the Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Somerset County Sheriff’s Offices. The Maine Wire has learned of police responses at suspected blackmarket marijuana sites in Corinna, Sangerville, Mercer, and Guilford. A massive police response occurred Friday morning at 9 St. Albans Road in Corinna. We can also confirm that raids occurred in Guilford on Route 15 (Water Street), at 8 Manhanock Pond Rd in Sangerville, and at 204 Rome Road in Mercer. The U.S.…

Read More

U.S. President Joe Biden held a surprise press conference Thursday night to respond to allegations contained in a Special Counsel memorandum that the Commander-in-Chief is senile. President Biden, who has recently claimed to have conversed with two long-dead European leaders, denied Robert K. Hur’s assessment that Biden is forgetful elderly man who struggles to remember significant dates, like when he became Vice President. According to Hur, Biden’s mental incapacity, and his presentation as a genial old man, was the primary reason the Special Counsel avoided bringing charges against him for mishandling classified information. “We have also considered that, at trial,…

Read More

Maine law enforcement busted a massive illegal marijuana growing operation Thursday morning at 9 Riverside Drive in Norridgewock. Although no arrests were made, law enforcement seized more than 2,000 cannabis plants and 10 lbs of processed marijuana, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster. Read more of the Maine Wire’s “Triad Weed” How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine Triad Weed: One NYC Bank Financed More Than 50 Illicit Chinese Marijuana Grow Houses in Rural Maine… State Law Enforcement, Feds Struggle to Clamp Down on Illegal Chinese Drug Operations in Maine Maine Legislature Will Consider Proposal to Fight Chinese-owned…

Read More

Five Chinese nationals were arrested this week in California after border agents discovered thousands of gift cards, merchandise, and 23 fake Pennsylvania IDs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Thursday. Of the five, three had pending hearings for claims of asylum. CBP did not release any other details about the individuals. https://twitter.com/USBPChiefELC/status/1755679807382466913?s=20

Read More

Allagash Brewing Company has become the leading “Visionary Sponsor” for a Portland-based non-profit that is among Maine’s leading advocates for late-term abortion and increasing minors’ access to sex-change surgeries and drugs. Equality Maine, a nonprofit originally formed to advocate for legalizing same-sex marriage, updated their list of sponsors last year to include Allagash Brewing as their top financial supporter. Also listed as “champion sponsors” are Bangor Savings Bank and Hannaford. Equality Maine’s legislative priorities, as indicated by materials available on their website, include many of the more extreme left-wing proposals introduced in the State Legislature last year. Here are some…

Read More

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has arrested two more individuals in relation to a series of raids it carried out last month targeting several of the more than 270 illegal, Chinese-owned marijuana trafficking sites in Maine. Hongxia Kuang Xiangming Ye Xaingming Ye, a 62-year-old Asian male with previous addresses in Brooklyn, and Hongxia Kuang, a 51-year-old Asian female with a previous address in Brooklyn, were arrested, respectively, on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] Both have been charged with Class B felonies for unlawfully cultivating marijuana. Ye was on the…

Read More

President Joe Biden, who four years ago attack former President Donald Trump for sabre-rattling with the Islamic Republic of Iran, on Friday ordered more than 85 military strikes against Iranian targets throughout the Middle East. The strikes against Iranian assets follow an Iranian drone strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. Friday’s strikes targeted Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, according to reports from the Associated Press and NBC News. The operation, marking the first systemic retaliatory strikes by the U.S., targeted over 85 sites linked to these militias, according to the Department of Defense. https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1753535280923967851?s=20 The U.S. Central…

Read More

A public high school in Maine is among the first in the state to adopt biometric scanning technology to track student attendance. Caribou High School in Aroostook County (RSU 39) has contracted with IdentiMetrics to implement a system that scans students’ fingerprints, stores the data, and creates a tracking system so that administrators can have an easier time keeping track of the roughly 460 students. According to a letter from school Principal Jamie Selfridge, the new biometric surveillance technology will be deployed for students this year. “Starting next trimester, we will be introducing Identimetrics to assist with attendance and tardies…

Read More

From Oklahoma to Maine, a little known program operated by the U.S. Department of Treasury has been leveraged by foreign criminal organizations to acquire properties throughout rural America and transform them into drug manufacturing and trafficking hubs. The so-called Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) program, originally created by Congress in 1994, may have started as a way to help low-income immigrants access financing to purchase homes. However, since 2019, thanks in part to COVID-19 Era funding enhancements, the program has become a way for foreign criminal organizations to obtain taxpayer-funded benefits as they scoop up American land and American houses…

Read More

The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy is investigating a property in Turner after firefighters responding to a call at the residence came to believe that it was an illegal marijuana cultivation site. The farmhouse – located at 2509 Auburn Road – is one of the more than 200 sites the Maine Wire had previously identified as Chinese-owned illicit marijuana grows. The Lewiston newspaper reported Wednesday evening that firefighters responding to a call discovered that it wasn’t smoke coming from the building but steam. A subsequent investigation led them to suspect that the property was growing marijuana illegally. According to records…

Read More

The number of Chinese foreign nationals encountered attempting to illegally enter the United States reached an all-time high in December, according to recently released Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figures. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents reported encountering 8,622 Chinese foreign nationals in December, a shocking increase from the 1,882 Chinese foreign nationals they encountered in Dec. 2021. In October, November, and December, a combined 23,027 Chinese foreign nationals were encountered attempting to illegally enter the U.S. — almost as many as were encountered in all of FY 2021. The unprecedented wave of illegal immigration from the People’s Republic of…

Read More

Maine authorities have intensified their crackdown on illegal marijuana operations, conducting multiple raids across central Maine in January, including raids on Kennebec County and Lincoln County properties that resulted in six arrests Tuesday. According to a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo, there are more than 270 illicit marijuana cultivation sites operating throughout rural Maine at the behest of Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (ATCOs). In the latest action, police targeted three operations throughout Kennebec County and Lincoln County on Tuesday, bringing the total number of raids to seven over the past month. Wan Ting Xiao Ding Zhan Liao Zhen Chen…

Read More

Maine Gov. Janet Mills delivered her 2024 State of the State address Tuesday evening, offering few policy proposals that resonated with far left Democrats in control of the State Legislature. Mills’ communications team signaled last week that the address would ignore the typical structure of the annual address to instead focus on gun control and climate change. [RELATED: Maine After Five Years of Janet Mills, By the Numbers…] On both fronts, Mills seemed to signal that she would not support some of the more radical proposals from Democratic lawmakers, though she vigorously confirmed her seemingly-sincere belief that Maine can alter…

Read More

A federal jury in Oklahoma City has convicted two Chinese nationals, Jeff Weng and Tong Lin, of a major drug trafficking conspiracy involving black-market marijuana. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma announced the convictions on January 19, 2024, following a decisive two-day trial. Jeff Weng, 46, a resident of both China and Brooklyn, New York, and Tong Lin, 28, of China, were found guilty of conspiring to possess and distribute large quantities of marijuana. The duo’s operation involved trafficking nearly 28 tons of black-market marijuana from an Oklahoma grow facility, licensed by the Oklahoma Medical…

Read More

The Maine State Police caused an uproar on social media on Monday after video and images emerged showing law enforcement apparently disregarding disturbing evidence obtained by civilian sleuths — a.k.a. Predator Poachers — that appeared to show a Maine man soliciting sex from what he believed was a 13-year-old. According to Alex Rosen, the investigator and social media personality behind Predator Poachers, he provided evidence to Maine law enforcement that the Maine resident had also confessed to sexually abusing minors. Rosen’s Rumble show is a modern version of Chris Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator,” the popular primetime investigative drama that…

Read More

Gov. Janet Mills (D) is set to deliver her annual State of the State address Tuesday evening. The speech, her communications team advised the media beforehand, will focus on climate change and gun control. But here’s a look at a few numbers and trends that actually reveal the State of the State. Housing After five years, Maine’s housing situation is dire. A combination of legal and illegal immigration, both exacerbated by the government lockdowns, supercharged demand for residences in Maine. At the same time, the supply of new housing remained choked. LD 2003, the major bipartisan law that aimed to…

Read More

Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) has told Democratic activists that he will support gun control legislation he has previously voted against, a flip that comes only after the Maine Gun Safety Coalition hired his son and his former chief of staff to lobby for Second Amendment restrictions. The payments from Maine Gun Safety Coalition to the Resurgam Group were first reported this weekend by Billy Kobin of the Bangor Daily News. The Resurgam Group, a Portland-based lobbyist firm, was founded by Jackson’s former Chief of Staff B.J. McCollister, and Jackson’s son Chace is listed as a partner with the firm.…

Read More

The Boston Globe, a newspaper that belongs to yacht-lover and Red Sox owner John Henry, helped a woman kill herself on Jan. 4 in Vermont, according to an editor’s note appended to a column from serial fabulist Kevin Cullen. The column chronicled the government-assisted suicide of Lynda Bluestein, a Connecticut woman who travelled to Vermont to take part in the state’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” program. According to the Editor’s Note on the column, Cullen took the wild step of becoming one of two signed witnesses who affirmed that Bluestein was mentally competent enough to make the decision to kill…

Read More

Gov. Janet Mills (D) will not be reappointing Justice Joseph M. Jabar, a longtime Maine jurist who has served in the Maine judiciary under Govs. Angus King (I), John Baldacci (D), and Paul LePage (R), according to three sources familiar with the matter. Jabar has until Feb. 1 to be confirmed, but Mills has indicated that he will not get the chance to serve another term, creating a vacancy for Mills to appoint a more left-leaning ally with the State Legislature solidly under Democratic control. The sources, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak publicly…

Read More

Maine sportsmen had better fall in line with the Democratic Party’s upcoming push for gun control if they want to continue to enjoy sport shooting and hunting in Maine. That’s the message Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) shared with Democratic Party activists at a private event on Saturday hosted by Food and Medicine, according to an audio recording of his remarks obtained by the Maine Wire. “We need to do more, make sure that people like Robert Card doesn’t get, uh, you know, guns,” Jackson said at a meeting hosted by Food and Medicine, the dark money nonprofit that is…

Read More

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) endorsed a proposed amendment to Maine’s State Constitution on Monday that would enshrine the “right to abortion”, stating that the amendment would apply to “persons who have uteruses” because not all abortion patients are women. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1749469249939055091?s=20 “The ability to carry a child belongs to that person who has a womb. I understand that there are others who believe they know better than the person who has the womb as to how they should use it,” AG Frey told members of the Judiciary Committee, pointedly avoiding the terms like “woman” and “mother.” [RELATED: Maine OB/GYN…

Read More

Argentinian President Javier Milei, who was elected last month after promising a radical departure from the socialist policies that have dominated his country’s politics for decades, delivered a resounding defense of freedom and free market capitalism on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Here’s an English language translation produced by an X user: Milei's 2024 Davos talk, directly translated to English by AI (by heygen), in his own accent. Better than the dubbed version imo. pic.twitter.com/8OAGELuqxl— Aaron Slodov (@aphysicist) January 18, 2024 Here’s the official English language transcript: Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Today I’m…

Read More

Hancock County Jail Administrator Timothy Richardson announced Thursday that Eliot Cutler, the former Maine gubernatorial candidate who was arrested for possessing a vast collection of child pornography, has been released from incarceration early due to “good behavior.” Cutler began his sentence at Hancock County Jail on June 1, 2023 after pleading guilty to four counts involving the possession of child pornography. Judge Robert Murray gave Cutler a sentence of four years with only nine to be served. During his court proceedings, prosecutors said Cutler was in possession of more than 80,000 images showing children being sexually assaulted. Cutler is required…

Read More

U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) called on President Joe Biden to “enforce the immigration laws” after voting Wednesday in favor of a GOP resolution that accused the White House of “systematically” dismantling border enforcement and releasing criminal illegal aliens into the country. “Most of us understand that nations need borders, those borders should be secured, and we should enforce the immigration laws on the books,” Golden said. “Most of us also understand that those seeking entry to our country deserve an orderly and predictable immigration process. Right now we have problems on both fronts,” he said. The resolution, introduced by…

Read More

An adjunct professor at the University of Maine School of Law flubbed an elementary question about constitutional law and the U.S. Bill of Rights during a Wednesday hearing over a proposed gun control law. Margaret Groban, a retired federal prosecutor and law professor who specializes in gun control policies, was asked during a hearing of the Judiciary Committee whether the Bill of Rights limits the federal government or U.S. citizens. She couldn’t answer. “The bill of rights is a restriction upon government, not the people. That’s correct, right?” asked Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris). “That’s a soft ball,” Andrews said, after…

Read More

The Somerset County Sheriff’s Department led a raid on a property in Cornville on Wednesday that led to the discovery of an illegal marijuana growing facility operated two Asian males and an Asian female who spoke little or no English. Seventy-five-year-old Huansheng Mai, 63-year-old Yuling Mei, and 68-year-old Yiming Hu were arrested and charged with drug trafficking and cultivation of marijuana, according to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office. The raid resulted in the seizure of 750 plants from several cultivation rooms with plants at different stages of maturity, along with more than 90 pounds of processed marijuana. “We, on a…

Read More

The Maine Judiciary Committee faced intense scrutiny today as it postponed a Work Session on a controversial bill that would block cops from reuniting children from out-of-state with their parents if they had been brought to Maine to receive sex change drugs or surgeries. LD 1735, titled “An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care,” was introduced by Rep. Laurie Osher (D-Orono). Osher told the Maine Wire last year she was inspired to introduce the bill after talking with transgender activists who had gotten a similar measure passed in California. [RELATED: N.H. Residents Fear Maine “Trans Sanctuary” Bill Will Harm Granite…

Read More

Following the drowning deaths of three migrants, including two minors, Sun Journal writer Steve Majerus-Collins falsely reported on X that the deaths were caused by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent deployment of the Texas National Guard to gain control of the U.S.-Mexico border. “My X feed is full of MAGA folks defending a Texas policy that let a mother and two young children drown at the US border,” Majerus-Collins said in a Sunday post. “Even the children, they say, were lawbreakers who had it coming,” Majerus-Collins claimed. Majerus-Collins did not provide any examples of “MAGA folks” posting that the migrant…

Read More

Five months after telling its staff and readers that it planned to disclose “the funders” behind the purchase of five Maine daily newspapers, the nonprofit trust now controlling several of Maine’s oldest news brands hasn’t kept the promise. The sale of the Portland Press Herald, Lewiston Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal, and other Maine news brands to the “National Trust for Local News” was completed last summer. The National Trust said on Aug. 1, following the takeover, that it “looks forward to sharing more about the funders who support this acquisition when we constitute our local board in September,” according to…

Read More

Rental car giant Hertz is looking to offload 20,000 Electric Vehicles (EVs) and reinvest the proceeds of those sales into gas-powered vehicles, according to a report Thursday morning from Bloomberg. From Bloomberg: The decision to ditch EVs follows reports from major auto producers last year that demand for the electric vehicles has not lived up to the hype. General Motors, Honda, and Ford both paused development of EV production facilities last year, citing lackluster demand for the expensive, range-limited vehicles. Even Tesla, by far the most popular EV maker, warned of a slowdown in sales, while big battery makers expected…

Read More

Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) called on U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to be more forthcoming about the details of a secretive hospitalization on Tuesday, more than a week after the Pentagon chief was incapacitated without the White House’s knowledge. “Secretary of Defense Austin apparently has been hospitalized since January 1.  I am concerned about his health and shocked that the Pentagon and White House have not been more forthcoming about his condition or why he remains hospitalized,” Sen. Collins said in a written statement. “It appears that even the President, his national security advisor, and the Deputy Secretary of…

Read More

It’s a familiar phrase to any Mainer who followed the New England Patriots’ dynasty years under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick: “Do your job!” But it rubbed Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) the wrong way when an Aroostook County business owner sent him those words in a Facebook message. “I got nothing to do with your Trump god,” Jackson barked back. “Also, it isn’t in the Constitution that you decide who you want to vote for, it is that is your right to vote,” he explained. “Don’t bother me with your foolishness. I don’t even know you,” he said. The…

Read More

Town officials in northern Penobscot County suspect that out-of-state criminal organizations are illegally growing and trafficking marijuana in their towns, but they’re struggling to determine what exactly they are allowed to do under state laws and local ordinances. It’s also not entirely clear which law enforcement agency is responsible for cracking down on the illicit cannabis grows, as many small Maine towns don’t even have their own police forces. Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton acknowledged the “high degree” of the criminal activity operating in northern Maine when the Daily Caller first reported on the illicit cannabis cultivation network in August.…

Read More

When the Machias Police executed a search warrant at 414 East Kennebec Road in December, they suspected they find an illegal marijuana cultivation site operated by out-of-state criminals. But the scale — and sophistication — of the operation they uncovered left them gobsmacked. “We found three Asian males in the barn that were actively tending the grow. Three buildings and the main house… all contained pretty substantial grows inside,” said Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier. Ming Li, 52 Peng You Phang, 61 Dong Yang Li, 60 [RELATED: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] The Machias police confiscated 2,607…

Read More

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has found herself at the center of a national media firestorm following her decision last week to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 Maine GOP primary Ballot. But less than a decade ago, she found herself in a far more subdued role: Interim Executive Director for Learning Works, a non-profit founded by socialist activist Ethan Strimling. Strimling, the former mayor of Portland, was the ringleader behind the ballot eligibility challenge filed with the Secretary of State’s office that provided a pretext for Bellows’ ruling. Ethan Strimling Shenna Bellows, Democracy Defender The professional…

Read More

The Maine State Police announced on Tuesday that they had busted up two illegal cannabis growing operations in Belgrade. The investigations led to the arrest of two men, 44-year-old Yuequan Chen of Mass. and 66-year-old Lin Min Chan of Florida. Both were charged with Class B felonies. More than 2,300 live marijuana plants were seized. More Triad Weed Busts: Maine Law Enforcement Raids Machias Marijuana Grow, Arrests Three Suspected Non-Citizens Illegal Marijuana Grow in China, Maine Busted, 970 Plants Seized, Three Arrested Raid on Illegal Chinese Marijuana Operation in Western Maine Seizes Illicit Drugs Worth $1M+ Two Weeks After $1M…

Read More

The Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office arrested three Chinese adult males and seized 970 marijuana plants from an illegal commercial-scale cannabis operation Saturday morning following a report of a “person being held against their will.” An investigation by KCSO deputies uncovered the unlicensed drug cultivation operation and arrested in the arrest of Changgeng Chen, a 36-year-old male, Bing Xu, a 41-year-old male, and Aiqin Chen, a 43-year-old female. Changgeng Chen Bing Xu Aiqin Chen The KCSO did not say whether Chen, Xu, and Chen were lawful Maine residents or U.S. citizens. None of the arrested individuals were listed on the Kennebec…

Read More

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is not a victim and she is not oppressed, cry as she may on MSNBC, CNN, or whatever national TV show is the next stop on the Bellows 2026 media tour. Bellows is the oppressor and the aggressor in a conflict designed by progressive activists — and their billionaire financiers — to target not only former President Donald Trump’s constitutional rights, but also the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of Mainers. Reading from her talking points during her national press tour, Bellows has robotically repeated the laughable claim that she’s merely “doing her…

Read More

A New York judge is poised to release nearly 200 names linked to the vast child sex trafficking ring run by pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and his long-time fixer Ghislaine Maxwell. The release of new court documents, which may come as early as Tuesday, follows the passing of a deadline for filing objections at midnight Monday. The documents will reportedly reveal new details about high-profile political leaders and celebrities’ dealings with the enigmatic pervert. The reveal steams from a 2015 defamation lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell. Speculation began mounting in December about who might be named…

Read More

The Daily Mail, one of the biggest newspapers in western civilization, roasted Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Thursday for making false claims about warnings provided to her administration by the National Weather Service in advance of a devastating Dec. 18 wind storm. [RELATED: Bangor News Outlet Removes “False Criticism” from Headline to Make Storm Story Janet-Friendly…] “Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills is branded a LIAR by the National Weather Service after she claimed they didn’t warn her historic storm would bring up to six inches of rain,” screamed the Mail’s headline. “Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills has been branded a liar…

Read More

Republican lawmakers in Maine are preparing impeachment orders against Secretary of State Shenna Bellows following her decision to remove former President Donald J. Trump from the Maine GOP presidential primary ballot. “I wish to impeach her on the grounds that she is barring an American citizen and 45th President of the United States, who is convicted of no crime or impeachment, their right to appear on a Maine Republican Party ballot in March,” Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) said in a statement. “This is raw partisanship and has no place in the office of our state’s Constitutional Officers,” Andrews said. Bellows,…

Read More

Households led by illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children, often referred to as “anchor babies,” are more likely to utilize welfare programs compared to households headed by U.S.-born individuals, according to a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The report, dated Dec. 19, indicates that approximately 59.4 percent of these illegal immigrant-led households are on one or more welfare programs, in contrast to 39 percent of those led by native-born Americans. [RELATED: Jaw-Dropping Videos Show Illegal Aliens Streaming Over Unsecure U.S. Border By the Tens of Thousands…] “Our best estimate is that 59 percent of households headed by…

Read More

Former Republican President Donald Trump has called for Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to disqualify herself from rendering a decision on whether he should be allowed to stand as a candidate in Maine’s GOP primary election. “President Trump requests that the Secretary disqualify herself from this matter because she has already concluded that President Trump engaged in insurrection — a determination that she made well before the submission of evidence or argument in this current matter,” attorneys for Trump stated in a letter. Trump’s letter links to social media posts made by Bellows, a former left-wing legal activist and…

Read More

The media arm of the Bangor Publishing Company edited the headline of a story on Wednesday to make it less critical of Maine Gov. Janet Mills. “Janet Mills’ false criticism of wind storm forecast ‘surprised’ forecasters,” read the headline of reporter Michael Shepherd’s story in the outlet’s email newsletter. (emphasis added) [RELATED: National Weather Service Strongly Suggests Janet Mills Lied About Storm Warnings…] The story centered on Gov. Mills claim that the National Weather Service (NWS) failed to give her administration forewarning of the seriousness of the Dec. 18 storm. However, at some point after the email blast went out,…

Read More

The National Weather Service (NWS) on Friday released a stinging rebuke of Gov. Janet Mills claim that the service failed to warn her Administration about the devastating storm that wiped out power for nearly half the state. “The national weather service did not predict 5 or 6 inches of rain in any community in Maine,” Gov. Mills said at a press conference on Wednesday, her first public appearance after more than 36 hours of widespread power outages. “The National Weather Service did not predict 68, 70 mile per hour winds in any area of Maine,” said Mills. Mills’ attempt to…

Read More

Illegal immigration at the southern U.S. border, already on track in 2023 to break all previous annual records, has surged throughout the month of the December—and President Joe Biden appears unwilling, or unable, to do much about it. [RELATED: Catholic Charities Maine Touts Taxpayer-Funded Migrant Resettlement Plans…] According to the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), American border guards encountered 3.2 million illegal aliens attempting to cross into the U.S. from Oct. 2022 to Sept. 2023. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] That’s up from 2.8 million in 2022 and 1.9 million in…

Read More

Employees of the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), a left-wing nonprofit active in Maine politics, are seeking to unionize because of how the environmentalist organization’s new boss is running the operation. Last week, four NRCM employees joined a conference call with the Maine Service Employees Association – Service Employees International Association 1989 (MSEA-SEIU), the union that represents most of Maine’s state government employees. During the meeting, MSEA-SEIU Director of Organizing Angela MacWhinnie introduced the NRCM of employees to the meeting, stating that the staffers had reached out to the union seeking to join. Outreach Director Emmie Theberge, IT Manager…

Read More

Just two weeks after the Wilton Police Department and Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy confiscated more than $1,000,000 in illegally cultivated marijuana plants at a commercial-scale grow near the old Bass Shoe building, the site remains abuzz with activity — and not of the law enforcement variety. Individuals observed returning to the scene of the crime over the past 14 days wouldn’t have had to travel very far, either, considering how many other similar sites are operating in the vicinity. According to a leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo — first obtained by the Daily Caller — the Asian…

Read More

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief joined Steven K. Bannon’s The War Room Thursday night to discuss the latest breaking news in Maine’s ongoing fight against Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations that are operating illegal marijuana farms throughout rural Maine. WATCH: In case you missed it: Thursday morning, the Machias Police Department, following a month-long investigation into a Washington County property at 414 E. Kennebec Road, obtained a warrant to search the premises of that property. [RELATED: Triad Weed: One NYC Bank Financed More Than 50 Illicit Chinese Marijuana Grow Houses in Rural Maine…] The search turned up more than 2,600 live marijuana plants…

Read More

Maine law enforcement raided an illegal marijuana grow at 414 Kennebec Road in Machias Thursday, confiscating more than 2,600 live marijuana plants and more than 100 pounds of processed cannabis. “At 9:30 monday morning, the Machias Police Department executed a search warrant at 414 Kennebec Road in Machias. This was as the result of a very lengthy investigation we’ve been conducting for the last month or so into an illegal commercial marijuana grow operation located at that address,” said Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier. Mercier said that three individuals, all of Asian descent, were arrested in the course of the…

Read More

One of Maine’s largest healthcare providers threatened to terminate the employment of as many as 500 employees who had not received an influenza vaccination as of Wednesday. “We have approximately 500 team members who have yet to receive their vaccine,” Steven G. Littleson, President and CEO of Central Maine Healthcare (CMHC), wrote in an email. “Ouch,” wrote Littleson. “Tomorrow morning at 8am, badge and computer access will be disabled for anyone not in compliance,” he said. Littleson, who began with CMHC in July of 2021, earned more than $750,000 for that half a year of work, according to the non-profit…

Read More

Law enforcement raided an illegal, industrial-scale marijuana grow operation Tuesday morning in Wilton, ME at 128 Weld Road, the former location of the Bass Shoe Factory building. Multiple sources, including the owner of the property, confirmed police activity at the 10,000 square foot warehouse behind the old shoe factory main building, a site the Maine Wire visited in mid-November. The marijuana grow was operating in the brown detached building at the back of the facility. At the time, a man who identified himself as the general manager of the property confirmed that the site was a marijuana grow that paid…

Read More

Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage and former First Lady Ann LePage will host a Celebration of Life fundraising event for the families of the victims of the Mainers who were killed or wounded in the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston. LePage, who spent part of his childhood growing up in Lewiston on Lincoln Street, less than a half mile from Schemengees Bar and Grill, said he wants to get money to the 31 families before Christmas Day. “We’re doing this just for families, and we want to get the money into their hands before Christmas, so the kids that…

Read More

Asian transnational criminal organizations operate more than 270 illegal marijuana cultivation sites in Maine, according to a leaked U.S. Department of Homeland Security memo. An investigation by the Maine Wire has identified more than 100 of those sites, as previously reported here. Of those properties — almost all purchased within the last three years by single Chinese adults from New York or Massachusetts — 69 of the property transactions involved mortgages originated by Quontic Bank, according to a review of real estate records. TRIAD WEED How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine State Law Enforcement, Feds Struggle to Clamp…

Read More

Democratic leaders on the Legislative Council opted Thursday to kill a bill that would have prohibited the sale of fetal remains. Rep. Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) submitted the bill, which now will not be considered next year by the State Legislature. “By not allowing my bill into the second session the Democrats have once again proven that their only goal is to keep Planned Parenthood happy and profitable,” Smith told the Maine Wire. [RELATED: Maine Senate Blocks Ban on Trafficking in Aborted Baby Remains…] This is the second time this year that Maine Democrats have blocked legislation that would prohibit the…

Read More

The Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) has no authority to police or regulate illegal marijuana grows — whether operated by Mainers or Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (ATCOs) — according to OCP Director John Hudak. Hudak spoke in October at a “listening session” in Skowhegan alongside OCP Deputy Director of Operations Vern Malloch, and the Maine Wire was there to ask some questions. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] “It is clear in statute. It has been made clear to us by members of the committee that oversees us that they never want us to be…

Read More

The Maine Legislature will consider a bill next year that aims to address the proliferation of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations across rural Maine. The Legislative Council, which is comprised to top ranking state lawmakers, voted by a slim margin to allow a bill from Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) to be considered when the legislature reconvenes in January. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] Rep. Andrew’s bill — An Act to Combat Racketeering by Foreign Organizations in Maine Cannabis Markets — is intended to provide local, county, and state law enforcement agencies with the authority…

Read More

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are renewing their call for a federal investigation into illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations following a Maine Wire investigation that identified more than 100 foreign-owned drug houses in rural Maine. [READ: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] “This reporting reaffirms the severity of the potential harm these illegal Chinese marijuana growing operations pose to communities throughout Maine,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in a statement to the Maine Wire. “To help address the public health and national security risks, I, along with the entire Maine Delegation, called on the U.S.…

Read More

The number of Chinese nationals entering the U.S. illegally across the southern border has exploded this year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In September, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered 7,271 individuals from the People’s Republic of China attempting to enter the country illegally. That’s more than any previous month going back to January 2020. In all of 2020, less than 19,000 Chinese foreign nationals were caught entering the U.S. illegally. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] Those arriving illegally in the U.S. from China are almost all single adults. While…

Read More

State and federal law enforcement agencies have known about the existence of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned marijuana grows in Maine for at least two years. Yet the sites have continued to operate, for the most part, with apparent impunity. According to a leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo, there are nearly 800 Chinese-owned illegal marijuana growing operations in the U.S., and almost 300 of them are located in rural Maine. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] In September, DHS sent an unclassified memo to Maine law enforcement agencies asking for their help in collecting…

Read More

Illegal Chinese marijuana grows have taken over much of rural Maine. The government is either incapable — or unwilling — to do anything about it. The Maine Wire has identified more than 100 properties that are part of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned sites operating as unlicensed, illicit cannabis growing operations in rural Maine. According to an unclassified memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by the Maine Wire, the illicit grows are operated by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). The properties cover Somerset County, Penobscot County, Kennebec County, Franklin County, Androscoggin County, and Oxford County. The…

Read More

A new statewide organization has formed in Maine to support parents who choose to educate their children at home rather than send them to government-run schools. The Maine Home Education Alliance (MHEA) was founded in July of this year by homeschool parents throughout the state to support other parents and defend and preserve the legal right to homeschool.  “The right of parents to direct their children’s education is fundamental and has been confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court on several occasions. This is true whether they attend a government-run school or not,” said Becky Grant-Widen, MHEA President.. Grant is the…

Read More

The U.S. dollar has lost more than one-fifth of its purchasing power since 2019, according to an email sent Monday to Maine state employees concerning ongoing collective bargaining over contract negotiations. “Since 2019, these state employees have seen a 20.5% increase in wages; inflation through that same time frame has been 22.0%,” said Kirsten Figueroa, Commissioner for the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. [RELATED: Buyer’s Remorse: MSEA-SEIU Local 1989, Maine’s 2nd Largest Union, Files Complaint After Mills Blows Off Talks…] Figueroa told state employees that the Mills Administration’s goal is to “increase wages to the greatest extent possible within…

Read More

Five members of the Maine Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America were arrested Friday for criminal trespassing after they staged a pro-Palestine protest at the Portland office of Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). Socialists Leo Hilton, 26, Elinor Hilton, 23, Christopher Cushing, 26, Jamie Clark, 22, and Ella D. Tabasky, 42, were lugged just after 4pm Friday at Rep. Pingree’s office on the Portland Fishing Pier, according to the Portland Police Department’s arrest logs. In a video posted on X, Hilton said the protesters wanted to speak with Pingree’s staff about a resolution to halt aid to Israel until the…

Read More

An Auburn law firm took out a full-page ad in the Lewiston Sun Journal last week advertising a roundtable discussion to explore whether the victims of the Oct. 25 mass shooting can obtain a financial settlement through a civil lawsuit. “As these tragic events become commonplace and elected officials fail to make significant policy reform in their wake, legal recourse has become one strategy in the fight for justice,” a press release from Gideon Asen LLC states. The event is free of charge and everyone is welcome to attend or watch by Zoom. According to the press release, the discussion…

Read More

A marijuana dispensary in Portland that is owned by an Israeli immigrant was targeted last week with “Free Palestine” posters, the second instance of a Jewish-owned business in Portland getting vandalized in recent weeks. “I guess it’s somebody that knows that I’m Israeli,” said East Coast Gold owner Avi Ruimy. “We did not put up any Israeli flag or anything like that. I’ve been living in the United States for 22 years,” said Ruimy. “I’m an American citizen for 15 years.” A search of the area was not able to discover any other businesses with similar signs plastered next to…

Read More

The Maine Democratic Party was the recipient of $100,000 in donations stemming from notorious fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s corrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and they have no plans to give it back. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which on Thursday won seven guilty verdicts against Bankman-Fried, has called on political committees that received donations from FTX to return that money. Maine Democrats have refused. “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York,…

Read More

Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday said she would be forming an independent commission to examine the failures and oversights that led up to Robert R. Card Jr.’s Oct. 25 murder spree. “It is important to recognize that, from what we know thus far, on multiple occasions over the last ten months, concerns about Mr. Card’s mental health and his behavior were brought to the attention of his Army National Reserve Unit, as well as law enforcement agencies here in Maine and in New York,” Mills said in a statement. “This raises crucial questions about actions taken and what more…

Read More

The systemic failures that led to Robert R. Card Jr.’s mass murder spree on Oct. 25 in Lewiston demand multiple investigations at multiple levels of government. Based on public records reported by the Maine Wire and other media outlets, it appears clear that Maine law enforcement knew for months that Card was a ticking time bomb. We’re not just talking about a random tip to an FBI hotline; we’re talking about up to a dozen Maine law enforcement officers at multiple agencies who had detailed knowledge of Card’s deteriorating mental health and the specific threats he had made, including against…

Read More

An international wind power company is pulling the plug on a major offshore wind development favored by the Biden Administration, the most recent in a series of offshore wind deals that have soured off the Atlantic Coast. Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind power developer, announced the following this week: “US offshore wind projects have experienced further negative developments from adverse impacts relating to supply chains, increased interest rates, and the lack of an OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Certificate) adjustment on Sunrise Wind…” That combination of headwinds means the Danish energy company will be forced to scrap development on two…

Read More

The Army Reserve unit that mass murderer Robert R. Card Jr. served in since 2002 also contains several members of Maine law enforcement. All of them were aware of Card’s deteriorating mental health and threats of violence several weeks before he went to murder 18 people in Maine’s worst mass shooting. Card was a member of the Army Reserve’s Bravo Company 3-304th Infantry Regiment stationed in Saco, a unit that includes the Sheriff of Oxford County, an Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Deputy, and an Ellsworth Police Officer. According to documents provided to media by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), Card…

Read More

A Jewish lawyer who has been practicing law in southern Maine since 1979 had his Portland office targeted this weekend with pro-Palestine graffiti. “We have the American flag and then in the other window we have the Israeli flag hanging there, which we put up immediately following October 7, because we are a Jewish family and we wanted to show our alignment with Israel,” said Roberta Cope, the wife of attorney Steven Cope. Cope, a bankruptcy attorney, has lived in Maine for his entire life. On October 7, Islamic terrorists, operating under the banner of Gaza-based Hamas, launched a flurry…

Read More

The Army Reservist who brutally murdered 18 Mainers in Lewiston on Wednesday evening has been found dead, multiple Maine officials have confirmed. The late Robert R. Card Jr., the primary suspect in an act of domestic terrorism that targeted a popular bowling alley and a bar in Maine’s largest city, was found dead shortly before 9:00 pm in Lisbon. Initial reports suggest Card was found dead in the area near the recycling and waste management facilities of Lisbon, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Hours earlier at a press conference, the names of his victims had finally…

Read More

The Army Reservist who brutally murdered 18 Mainers in Lewiston on Wednesday evening has been found dead, multiple Maine officials have confirmed. The late Robert R. Card Jr., the primary suspect in an act of domestic terrorism that targeted a popular bowling alley and a bar in Maine’s largest city, was found dead shortly before 9:00 pm in Lisbon. Initial reports suggest Card was found dead in the area near the recycling and waste management facilities of Lisbon, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Hours earlier at a press conference, the names of his victims had finally…

Read More