Author: Steve Robinson

The Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday reported that Anthony McRae, the gunman in a mass shooting at Michigan State Monday night, would have been prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm but for the decision of a progressive prosecutor to dismiss previous charges against him. McRae, who police say killed three people and wounded five others in a violent spree that ended when he took his own life, was charged in June 2019 with illegally carrying a concealed weapon, according to the Free Beacon. The Ingham County District Attorney at the time, Carol Siemon let McRae plead to a lesser…

A University of Southern Maine professor has filed a lawsuit against the UMaine system alleging that she was wrongfully fired after she criticized the system’s COVID-19 mask mandate. Dr. Patricia Griffin’s civil case against the University of Maine — Griffin v. University of Maine System, University of Southern Maine, Glenn Cummings — is still in its early stages, but the outcome will have major implications for the freedom of UMaine employees to criticize the system’s policies. While the university said they fired Griffin because she refused to obey the mandate that she wear a mask, Griffin says the allegation is…

A coalition of left-wing groups is lobbying lawmakers to kill LD 123, a bill that would repeal a provision of Maine law that allows pornographic materials to be given to minors so long as it happens in a school setting. Maine has had a law banning the provision of obscene materials to minors since the 1970s, but the law includes exemptions for certain educational situations, like museums and public schools. The exemptions were intended to protect legitimate educational materials, like great works of art that may include nudity. But in recent years, public school officials and teachers have taken advantage…

Amber Lavigne joined Fox & Friends this morning to talk about her discovery in December that the Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta had secretly provided her daughter with a breast binder. You can read more of the Maine Wire’s exclusive reporting on Lavigne’s story here and watch the segment below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxkIxJz3ogI

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added the controversial mRNA COVID-19 shots to the list of vaccines it recommends for children, a step which could bring Maine closer to mandating the treatment for children who attend public schools. The CDC now recommends the COVID-19 shots for children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years of age as part of the full schedule of vaccinations. In October, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted unanimously in favor of adding the shots to the adult immunization schedule. Former Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah is a…

You’re fed up. Maybe the local school is trying to brainwash your kids into little left-wing foot soldiers. Or the school board is full of purple-haired Gender and Women’s Studies Majors who don’t really care about education but are singularly dedicated to some ideological crusade they learned about at Simmons. Perhaps Little Johnny comes home from school crying about his white privilege and says his teacher spends more time talking about pansexualism than algebra. Whatever the case, you’ve decided it’s time to assert your constitutional right to control your child’s education. Well, good news. Because the Maine Wire is always…

New Hampshire residents overwhelmingly believe that parents — not school administrators — should have the final say when it comes to health and educational choices that affect their children, according to a poll released by NHjournal.com. 82 percent of respondents said parents ought to have the right to review curriculum, while 59 percent said parents should have the “final say” in the classroom — not teachers. The poll was conducted by Co/efficient in partnership with NH Journal using mobile and landline telephones. The sample included 1,058 general election voters and equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and unregistered voters. Self-identified liberals…

UPDATE: The IRS now claims it will not be taxing the $450 checks. The Internal Revenue Service, recently invigorated with 87,000 new employees, has announced a new program that will help employers monitor whether restaurant workers are paying taxes on tips. The IRS also announced, in a separate release last week, that it was undecided on whether Gov. Janet Mills’ latest round of stimulus checks created a federal tax obligation for Mainers. In guidance posted by the IRS, the agency is advertising a new system whereby restaurant owners and workers can facilitate more effective compliance with tax laws. Many restaurant…

A self-described queer former counselor from St. Louis is blowing the whistle on the gender clinic she worked at for nearly four years in a bombshell report from the Free Press published Thursday. In the Free Press report, 42-year-old Jamie Reed, a one-time Bernie Sanders supporter, pulls back the curtain on the controversial gender clinics — medical providers that facilitate so-called “gender affirming care.” Gender clinics, Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital gender clinic, are the primary way minors access treatments like irreversible cross-sex hormones and procedures like double mastectomies. [RELATED: Sex-change Surgeries, Paid for by Taxpayers, Rising Sharply in Maine…] According…

The state of Maine is extending a sole-source no bid contract with Ethos Marketing of Westbrook to promote COVID-19 mRNA injections to people over the age of 55 and children between the ages of 6 months and 17 years. “The purpose of this agreement is to develop and execute creative concepts and execute an expanded media buy to encourage parents/guardians of 6 mo. – 17-year-olds to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19,” according to notice posted by the Division of Procurement Services. The contract was originally supposed to end on Dec. 31, but for some reason the Maine CDC wants…

On Wednesday morning, tens of students briefly left school to protest the Maine Wire’s journalism. The real story here is that 97 percent of Falmouth High School students decided to skip the walkout and declined to join in baseless smears against a journalist. We applaud the vast majority of Falmouth students who decided to stage a sit in of their own rather than succumbing to peer pressure from left-wing activists. It seems the protest has been driven at least in part by a few adults, and it’s unfortunate that adults feel the need to use kids like political props. One…

Eighty year old President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union Address Tuesday evening — the first time someone that old has ever delivered the presidential address. The speech presented a challenge for the aging Biden as his first two years in office have been characterized by verbal gaffes, teleprompter flubs, and criticisms about his poor communication and lack of availability to media. The speech also comes at a challenging moment in his presidency, as Republicans have now taken control of the House of Representatives. The Commander-in-Chief kicked off the evening with a bizarre joke about needing a…

When the Pines Church wanted to rent the Hermon High School for their Sunday services last November, Hermon School Board member Chris McLaughlin asked questions about the church’s beliefs that reeked of anti-Christian discrimination. As the church and the school district were negotiating a potential rental agreement, McLaughlin sent a Nov. 8 email to Hermon Superintendent Micah Grant in which he said he wanted to get a better sense of the how the Bangor-area Evangelical church approaches issues of “diversity, equity and inclusion.” McLaughlin included in the email a series of questions which he wanted Grant to pose on his…

Republican lawmakers held a press conference Tuesday to tout several welfare reform proposals, including the restoration of welfare work requirements and changes to Maine’s unemployment benefits. Maine’s unemployment rate, like the unemployment rate nationally, has remained low since the COVID-era government restrictions lifted. But the state’s workforce participation rate, which is a measure of how many people who could be working are working, is 57.9 percent — lower than at any point since 1975. Republicans say that low workforce participation rate tells a fuller story about Maine’s economy than just looking at the unemployment figures, and they believe the state’s…

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering several proposals that would protect parent’s rights in education and ban controversial sex-change procedures for minors. On Monday, several hundred left-wing protesters inundated the capitol building to demonstrate against the bills. But despite the large protest, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and lawmakers weren’t cowed. “We must protect our most vulnerable, our children. After all, minors can’t vote, can’t purchase alcohol, can’t purchase cigarettes,” said Stitt. “We shouldn’t allow a minor to get a permanent gender altering surgery in Oklahoma,” he said. “That’s why I’m calling for the Legislature to send me a bill that bans all…

Maine’s prospects for adopting a voter identification law don’t look great for the current legislature. LD 34, “An Act to Require a Person to Show Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting,” drew opposition Monday from a host of left-wing organizations in the state, including Planned Parenthood of New England, the ACLU of Maine, and the Maine Education Association. Also weighing in against the bill were Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey, and without the governor’s support the bill is almost certainly going nowhere. “The bill, if enacted would disproportionately impact our senior citizens, working people, and those…

A Maine mom is calling on the school board of the Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta to investigate the school’s social worker for encouraging her 13-year-old daughter to transition into a boy — a gender transition the social worker asked the girl to keep secret from her parents. “This is unacceptable: a school employee secretly encouraged my daughter to change her gender and hide it from me,” said Amber Lavigne, the girl’s mother. “The school never stopped trying to keep me in the dark at every turn, repeatedly stonewalling me when I tried to find out what was…

Gov. Janet Mills is looking to hire a consultant who will study potential ways Maine can “decarbonize.” For the uninitiated, “decarbonization” is a term environmentalists use to refer to the radical goal of limiting carbon emissions to zero, a feat believers say is necessary to avoid a global climate apocalypse. According to a Request for Proposal (RFP) available at Maine.gov, the Governor’s Energy Office is looking for someone who will design, complete, and publicize an assessment on the various ways Maine can achieve not just decarbonization, but “deep decarbonization.” [RELATED: Maine Solar Power Project Linked to Chinese Forced Labor…] Mills…

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested two Lawrence, Mass., women Thursday night for trafficking and attempting to distribute a massive amount of fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that public health and law enforcement officials believe is fueling Maine’s opioid addiction and overdose crisis. Krismely Guzman, 24, and Eri Geilys Polanco Caceres, 22, both of Lawrence, are being held on $100,000 cash bail following a traffic stop that led to their arrests. The stop was the product of a year-long investigation into an organized criminal organization which the MDEA believes is headquartered in Massachusetts, the Maine State Police said. Bangor Police…

Have you heard how cold outside it is? Well, if you haven’t, it’s wicked cold. The National Weather Service out of Caribou posted an infographic showing its station at Mt. Katahdin measured a low of -90°F when considering windchill. https://twitter.com/NWSCaribou/status/1621196835720425472 It’s so cold outside television news reporters are holding wet pants and ice cube trays for their live shots. https://twitter.com/AdrianaWMTW/status/1621474767017484288 https://twitter.com/RobWayTV/status/1621468255113154560 Thankfully, Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah has sent out multiple reminders to wear warm clothes. https://twitter.com/nirav_mainecdc/status/1620837331468193794 https://twitter.com/nirav_mainecdc/status/1621236059240792064

The Judiciary Committee rejected a bill Thursday that would have allowed victims of malicious vandalism by minors to collect up to $6,000 in damages from the child’s parents. Under current Maine law, the parents or legal guardians of a minor between the ages of 7 and 18 may only face civil liability up to $800, a limit that was established in 1995. Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-Fairfield) proposed increasing the limit in response to repeated complaints from residents in her district about a gang of roaming youths committing numerous acts of vandalism. Democrats on the committee weren’t persuaded that parents ought…

The U.S. Treasury Department has released an insane chart projecting U.S. debt-GDP ratio out to 2090. https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1620447620987785216 The chart shows an almost linear increase projected ratio with debt-GDP reaching almost 700 percent by 2090. The chart was flagged on Twitter by economic analyst Lyn Alden. Alden didn’t link to the original publication, and we couldn’t find it, but we thought the chart was worth sharing with Maine Wire readers. Why does that matter? The debt-GDP ratio is a measure used by political scientists and economists to evaluate the severity of a country’s public debt and its economic health. The size…

Portland Press Herald music journalist Aimsel Ponti was so triggered by a sign she saw in Portland that she couldn’t help but share it with the world Wednesday. “It’s ok to be white,” reads the sign, to which Ponti appended the comment: “And then there are the racists who stand out in a public spot in the middle of the day broadcasting their message in downtown Portland, Maine.” https://twitter.com/Aimsel/status/1620861002442227714?s=20&t=7n2k_33opr6y2HhJFdUkLA Another Herald scribe, who has not one or two but three Ukrainian flags in her username, jokes: “Are you sure it’s not just that one guy? I only ask bc he…

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined WGAN’s Matt Gagnon Thursday morning to talk about the Maine Wire’s exclusive reporting on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion meeting held by the Falmouth Schools. You can read the report and listen to the undercover audio here. Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/newsradio-wgan/school-meeting-erupts-into-bullying

Maine’s top news outlets have been ignoring bombshell revelations from the so-called “Twitter Files.” For anyone familiar with Maine’s newspaper and TV reporters, that selective coverage won’t come as a surprise. The “Twitter Files” show how government operatives and corporate media companies conspired to scam the American people into believing an elaborate, made-up conspiracy about President Donald Trump for the purpose of undermining his presidency and preventing his re-election. [RELATED: Twitter Files: Musk Releases Internal Documents on Censorship of NY Post’s Hunter Scoop…] But the conspiracy against Trump isn’t the only Twitter Files story of which Maine media outlets are…

The Maine Department of Education makes certain data available through an online portal per the terms of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). All of the items below apply to the 2020-2021 school year, which is the most recent year for which data is available. Here are a few points of recent data related to Maine schools, teachers, and students: Maine spends $18,020 per 170,145 students, and Seventy percent of that cost is on personnel, and Maine has 12,672 teachers. Of those teachers, 41 percent have only a Bachelor’s Degree, while 34.3 percent have a Masters Degree. Maine has 6,339…

Maine’s top newspaper editors joined Maine Public Broadcasting’s Jennifer Rooks for a “month in review” segment last Friday in which they discussed Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ decision to end Maine’s 30-year ban on late-term abortions. Mills’ push to allow abortionists to terminate pregnancies well after the viability of the baby comes after she vowed multiple times during the campaign to leave Maine’s abortion laws untouched. After the Maine Wire drew attention to the slanted coverage of her flip flop in Maine’s top media outlets, the two major newspapers did address the abrupt change in her policy more fulsomely. Yet Maine’s…

Former Republican President Donald Trump, currently the top announced candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, released a video this week declaring a series of policies he would implement if he re-enters office to limit the impact of far-left gender theories on public policy and the American medical system. The far-ranging proposals include a limit on taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries and cross sex hormones, state-based laws to prevent sex-change surgeries from happening on minors, punishments for healthcare providers who perform such procedures on children, and providing victims of botched sex-change procedures the right to sue medical providers and pharmaceutical…

If you haven’t been following the Dead Whale Beat out of New Jersey and New York, then you might not have noticed that on Monday the 8th dead whale since December washed ashore, a humpback. Whales, of course, played a pivotal role in the drama that unfolded last year between federal regulators and Maine’s lobstering community. Federal regulators wanted to regulate lobstering into oblivion because they believed that lobster trap lines are whale-killers. Lobstermen responded by pointing to the scientific evidence that showed the scientists with the federal government are wrong. The affray ended in a stalemate of sorts when…

Have a tip for the Maine Wire? Drop us an email! A Falmouth parent was bullied and accused of being a racist after a Jan. 18 meeting organized by Falmouth school officials. The purpose of the meeting was to assuage parents’ concerns over the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, but rather than bringing the community together, the meeting seems to have further divided parents on a host of controversial issues. The chaos began near the end of the hours-long meeting when one attendee expressed concern that the school was teaching her children to believe that America is a racist…

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is expected to testify at the State House on Feb. 6 when the State Legislature considers a proposal from Sen. Matt Pouliot (R-Kennebec) to implement a photo identification requirement for voting in Maine’s elections. A total of 35 states have some form of voter identification law, though most don’t require a photo ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. If Pouliot’s bill passed, Maine would join states like Indiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, where a photo ID is required for all voters. In 2021, Bellows opposed similar legislation, telling the Veterans and Legal…

Federal employees in some ways got the easiest side of the pandemic: None of them missed a paycheck, they all kept their health insurance, and many federal offices were some of the last to return to normal work routines. But with all that spare time, some federal workers decided to get in on side hustle that was very common over the last two years: scamming taxpayers. The congressional Pandemic Response Accountability Committee has identified billions of dollars in fraudulently obtained pandemic dollars, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is calling attention to the more than ten thousand pandemic fraudsters who happen…

The number of people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally through Maine spiked in 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, but those increased numbers are still far lower than a surge in crossings seen at Vermont and New Hampshire’s borders with Canada. In fiscal years 2020 and 2021, a combined 143 single adults attempted to cross the Maine-Canada border illegally and were apprehended by federal officials. In fiscal year 2022, that number rose to 247. CBP encounters, Houlton Sector In the current fiscal year, 47 single adults have been apprehended seeking to cross the border by the…

The newest “Twitter Files” revelations show that a group of left-wing political operatives calling themselves “Hamilton 68” scammed millions of Americans into believing a secret network of Russian “bots” were manipulating Americans on social media and supporting right-wing messages. Even worse, high-level Twitter employees saw the scam unfolding in real time and said nothing publicly. And in every instance, Hamilton 68’s claims about its pseudoscientific system for tracking Russian bots impugned conservatives and promoted Democratic Party interests. The startling truth about Hamilton 68 was exposed this weekend thanks to reporting by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who is one of a…

City of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Thursday announced a special recognition for former Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory. January 26 will now be known in Boston as Brian McGrory Day, according to a tweet from Globe writer Lissandra Villa de Petrzelka. https://twitter.com/LissandraVilla/status/1618760044950204416 Whether the Tweet was a joke or not is up in the air — there has been no official comment from the Mayor’s office, nor has there been an official proclamation from the city. https://twitter.com/jessbidgood/status/1618743918379819008 But if Wu really did attempt to memorialize McGrory’s tenure at the Boston Globe with such a high honor, the news would…

A top official at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admitted in a presentation Thursday that the CDC is aware of some individuals suffering “debilitating illnesses” following receipt of the mRNA shots sometimes described as COVID-19 vaccinations. “We are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following COVID vaccination,” CDC Deputy Director Tom Shimabukuro said during a live meeting with various federal health officials. Federal health officials have previously downplayed the potential adverse reactions people may have to COVID-19 vaccinations as part of the effort to get as many people as possible to take…

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler to talk about the latest reporting on the scandal at Portland’s King Middle School. You can read the story here and listen to the segment below.

Images posted to Facebook by an art teacher at Brunswick Junior High show middle school students learning about 15 different genders and sexualities thanks to a “Sexualities & Gender Identities” quiz game posted in the cafeteria. “This display is in our cafeteria and was designed and hung by students in our Queer + Allies Club,” said the art teacher. The display includes flags representing such diverse genders as genderqueer, meaning a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but still identifies as neither, both, or a combination of male and female. Students in the middle school club also…

Democratic politicians and activists appear to have coordinated a nationwide campaign to mislead taxpayers about a proposal from Republican lawmakers that would transition the federal government to relying on sales tax rather than a host of other taxes. The so-called Fair Tax is an idea that has circulated for years in conservative communities, and the proposal is more wonkish than controversial. The idea is to eliminate federal income taxes, payroll taxes, estate and gift taxes, and replace all of them with a national sales tax. The plan also creates a credit system so that no one ends up paying taxes…

Undercover video released by Project Veritas on Wednesday showed a high-level employee at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer spilling company secrets. Now, a second video shows how that employee reacted when Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe confronted him about the content of the secret recording. In the video, Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer Director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations, freaking out on O’Keefe. You can almost see him fly through the stages of grief in the span on 10 minutes. He immediately claims that he was just lying to impress a date when he talked about Pfizer engaging in controversial, potentially illegal, virological…

Low-income Maine residents have begun receiving letters informing them that their Food Stamp benefits will be slashed in March. In April of 2020, the federal government allowed states to increase Food Stamp benefits distributed under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in response to the COVID-19 government lockdowns. But that emergency benefit increase is about to be taken away by the federal government and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, according to a copy of a letter obtained by the Maine Wire. Starting in March, Food Stamp beneficiaries can expect the monthly credit on their Electronic Benefit Transfer…

Undercover video released by Project Veritas on Wednesday shows a high-level employee at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer spilling company secrets about the company’s controversial — and potentially illegal — virological research, as well as other ethically questionable business practices. In the video, Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer Director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations, talks candidly about Pfizer’s work on COVID-19 and vaccines. Walker appears to believe he’s on a date, but the man he’s talking to is one of Project Veritas’s undercover journalists. At one point in the video, Walker describes research the company is conducting that seems to resemble the…

News Center Maine, the Portland-based NBC affiliate owned by Tegna Inc., cribbed the Maine Wire’s exclusive reporting on the abrupt dismissal of a King Middle School substitute teacher, but for some reason WCSH 6’s news website added an unsubstantiated headline and changed the story to remove salient details. In the story, the Maine Wire revealed King Middle School officials banned a substitute teacher from working at the school after parents complained that middle school students had been exposed to inappropriate content on the substitute teacher’s social media. One student said the substitute teacher wrote the TikTok handle on the classroom…

A woman with dual citizenship in Canada and France pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump with ricin. ascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 55, admitted to mailing a letter containing white powder to the White House in September 2020. The powder tested positive for ricin, and investigators learned she made the poison in her Quebec home. She sent eight other letters to Texas law enforcement officials, the Department of Justice said. The letter to Trump ordered him to abandon his 2020 reelection effort. Far-left Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have not apologized.

An explosive report from a government watchdog found several problems with a grant program that provided American taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the lab where COVID-19 may have originated. Over the last decade, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided $8 million to EcoHealth, a public health NGO, and EcoHealth passed at least $1.8 million of that funding along to WIV. Those grants “lacked proper oversight,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. “We conclude that NIH missed opportunities to more effectively monitor research,” the OIG said in a…

The South Portland City Council met Tuesday night to work on rules that might resolve the ongoing refugee and homelessness crisis the city is experiencing. “Our current zoning and license ordinances really are insufficient, or don’t deal with the issue of shelters, in particular homeless shelters,” said City Manager Scott Morelli. Morelli and the City Council have been debating since December a draft ordinance that would allow the city to effectively accommodate a large population of unhoused who have flocked to the city. Since early 2020, South Portland has operated as a de facto refugee camp thanks to a confluence…

Maine Sen. Susan Collins is backing legislation that would prevent the White House from selling further Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to the People’s Republic of China, but the U.S. Energy Secretary has said President Biden would veto a similar proposal from the House. “The purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is to limit supply disruptions and insulate our economy from energy shortages,” Collins said in a statement. “Given the significant price increases that U.S. consumers have endured over the past two years for gasoline and home heating oil, it is inexcusable that our emergency stockpile of crude oil is being…

State lawmakers heard Tuesday from a staffer on a new state commission who advised them to oppose “race neutral” policies if they want to make Maine fairer and more just, a position commonly supported by advocates of Critical Race Theory (CRT). “Structural racism floods institutions in Maine and across our country. It’s the driving force behind many of the disparities we see all around us,” said Morgan P. Urqhart, acting policy and communications director for the Permanent Commission on Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations (PCRITP). “Policies that are race neutral will ultimately maintain existing disparities,” she said. “Disparate impacts require…

A substitute teacher at the King Middle School in Portland was removed from the classroom last week and banned from teaching at the school after parents discovered the sub had shared inappropriate sexualized TikTok videos with students. “On Thursday I was made aware of concerns that students were accessing videos late Wednesday on TikTok,” King Middle School Principal Caitlin LeClair said in an email to parents Friday. “As a result of our investigation the employee will not return to King,” said LeClair. [RELATED: Public School Worker Who Began Secret Gender Transition on 13-Year-Old Maine Girl Has Conditional License…] The teacher…

A Democratic State Representative and a former Republican candidate were both indicted in December for fraud related to Maine’s so-called “clean elections” program. State Rep. Clinton Collamore (D-Waldoboro) was indicted on Dec. 15, on charges that he fraudulently obtained taxpayer funding for his campaign by forging petition signatures. Republican candidate Matthew Toth was indicted on Dec. 5, though his efforts to fraudulently obtain taxpayer funding were unsuccessful. The news broke Tuesday thanks to a public memo filed by Jonathan Wayne, longtime executive director of the non-partisan Commission of Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. “The [Office of Attorney General] sought and…

Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia filed a lawsuit Thursday in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court claiming journalist Aidan Kearney has libeled and defamed her during her tenure on the city council. Mejia alleges Kearney, who goes by the nom de guerre Turtleboy, published on Feb. 15, 2021, statements to his blog, TBDailyNews.com, that were malicious and defamatory. The lawsuit also claims statements and questions Kearney published on social media more recently were libelous. Mejia has been an at-large city councilor in Boston since 2019, and Kearney has reported on her frequently. The suit claims Kearney’s reporting on Mejia “held [Mejia] up…

Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) posted a video to social media on Saturday complaining about Citizens United v. FEC, a landmark Supreme Court decision regarding campaign finance and free speech. Critics of the decision, like Jackson, claim the decision has increased the amount of money flowing into political campaigns — money that is used to manipulate and control politicians. In Jackson’s most recent election, for example, outside groups poured more than $750,000 into his State Senate district to support his election over Republican Sue Bernard. Jackson obtained taxpayer funding to finance his campaign, a move that prevented him from fundraising…

The child of Democratic Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark was arrested Saturday night after allegedly assaulting a police officer and defacing a public monument. Jared “Riley” Dowell, 23, was detained by Boston police officers after they spotted them spray painting graffiti, including “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards), on Parkman Bandstand Monument in the Boston Common. Dowell – who identifies as “non-binary – goes by Riley but was identified by Boston Police as Jared. As police officers were attempting to detain Dowell, several of his fellow Antifa brothers surrounded the cops, with one striking a police officer. “An officer was hit…

Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether the propane industry has been secretly paying television personalities to promote the use of propane-based appliances. For Pingree, pro-propane content on channels like HGTV could convince Mainers to avoid transitioning to electric appliances, which could in turn pose a grave threat to the planet. Pingree’s dire concern over propane propaganda comes despite her own personal investment exposure to fossil fuel-based energy companies. In a letter to Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Pingree said last week a recent New York Times story had revealed “possible…

A Kennebunkport man was arrested for the second time in recent months Saturday in Atlanta following a terror campaign against police officers and local businesses. (Source: Atlanta PD) Francis M. Carroll, 22, was charged with Domestic Terrorism, 1st Degree Arson, Rioting, Obstructing Law Enforcement Officers by Use of Threats or Violence, among other charges, according to booking documents. Five other Antifa terrorists were arrested along with Carroll in a series of violent attacks that saw several businesses vandalized. https://twitter.com/AntifaWatch2/status/1617309906201370624 Earlier in the week, an Antifa terrorist who was part of Carroll’s camp outside Atlanta shot a Georgia State Trooper. Manuel…

The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) is considering ways to make traveling from Portland to Bangor easier. One option is spending $2 million to operate four coach buses on an expanded schedule. The other is to spend between $628 million and $900 million to expand Amtrack’s Downeaster trainline from Brunswick to Augusta, Waterville, and Bangor. According to data provided by MDOT, in 2019 the average daily ridership for the Downeaster north of Portland was 112 passengers. Modern railroad projects are often pitched as a convenient, cost-effective way to decrease traffic and build economic ties between cities. Environmentalists love rail-based public…

The Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will hold one of two annual meetings on Saturday and Sunday, and among the potential amendments to the organizations bylaws is a proposal to end “diversity requirements.” The Maine DSA bylaws currently dictate that its leadership committee include “at least three non-cisgender men” and “at least one minority with respect to race, sexual orientation, and/or country of origin.” But according to a document outlining the Maine DSA’s convention, the group has struggled to meet those diversity quotas, and that has led to some perverse outcomes that undermine the effectiveness of…

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that its investigation into the politically strategic leaking of a draft opinion on abortion last May has so far failed to determine who the culprit may be. “After examining the Court’s computer devices, networks, printers, and available call and text logs, investigators have found no forensic evidence indicating who disclosed the draft opinion,” the report states. The leak involved a draft of an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that ultimately resulted in the Supreme Court overturning the two landmark abortion cases, including Roe v. Wade.…

Are NPR listeners and readers living in a different reality than the rest of us? A news piece the taxpayer-funded organization ran yesterday suggests the answer is yes. In an article headlined “Is it time for a reality check on rapid COVID tests?”, NPR’s Sydney Lupkin examines how at-home COVID-19 tests are dealing with the latest iterations of the virus. But what really stands out from the article is the opening scene Lupkin paints: As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its fourth year, a negative result on a little plastic at-home test feels a bit less comforting than it once did.…

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was touted by Maine politicians, and especially Rep. Jared Golden (ME-2), as an economic boon for Maine. But it was actually about climate change, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the 2022 midterm elections, Golden promoted his vote in favor of the IRA, presenting the bill as a reform that would reduce inflation, rein in the national debt, lower the cost of prescription drugs, and decrease energy costs. Golden specifically said he supported the IRA’s plan to increase domestic oil and gas production. But…

Police in Paris, Maine, are investigating an Oxford Hills Middle School substitute teacher over allegations that he inappropriately touched a 12-year-old female student, the Maine Wire has learned. “The incident is under investigation,” Paris Police Chief Michael Dailey said in an email. “We are working with the school and the [School Resource Officer]SRO and piecing it all together,” he said. The investigation follows complaints submitted to the school by South Paris resident Amy Borland, the mother of an Oxford Hills Middle School student. Borland alleged last week in a public Facebook post that her daughter was the victim of unwanted…

Maine’s Republican lawmakers say the systemic — and sometimes deadly — failures of Maine’s child welfare agency require the state to expand oversight and drastically restructure the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Maine’s largest government agency. “We, as an entire caucus, look forward to working with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and frankly the Governor’s office to come up with real meaningful solutions that are going to get our number of child fatalities down to zero,” Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) said Tuesday. “Success is not more money in the budget or an…

Throughout last year, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills stated repeatedly in her debates with former Republican Gov. Paul LePage that she would not pursue changes to Maine’s abortion laws. That campaign promise went up in flames this week: Mills has totally reversed her position on Maine’s abortion law. [RELATED: Maine Democrats Want to Legalize Abortion At Anytime in Pregnancy Despite Mills’ Campaign Stance…] As the Maine House Republicans pointed out in a press release Tuesday, Mills said in the October 4, 2022, debate with LePage that she would not do what she just did. When asked, “Would you support removing the…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Democratic lawmakers, and abortion advocates announced Tuesday that they will seek fundamental changes to Maine’s abortion laws, including a proposal to legalize abortion at anytime in a pregnancy so long as a medical professional approves. Mills will support the drastic expansion of abortion in Maine despite stating multiple times during her recent gubernatorial campaign against former Republican Gov. Paul LePage that she would not support any changes to Maine’s abortion laws. In a joint statement and during a press conference, Mills, Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook), and House Speaker Rachel Ross (D-Portland) all said they would…

Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) has submitted a bill that would end the practice of cash bail, a longtime goal of progressive criminal justice reform advocates in Maine. The practice of cash bail is used by the U.S. criminal justice system to ensure that defendants in criminal cases will return for court hearings after they’ve been released from police custody. In a cash bail system, an individual who has been arrested and charged with a crime posts an amount of money, typically determined through negotiations between their attorney and a judge, and that money is held until the completion of hearings.…

A pair of bills submitted to the 131st Legislature this year would bring competitive kickboxing and other martial arts events to Maine. One proposal, submitted by Rep. Amanda Collamore (R-Pittsfield), would legalize competitive kickboxing and Muay Thai, a martial art that has been popularized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Another proposal, this one backed by Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook), would allow the Combat Sports Authority of Maine to sanction kick boxing matches. The Combat Sports Authority of Maine (CSAM) was established by the Legislature in June 2009. According to its website, the authority’s mission is “to ensure that…

Rep. Nathan Carlow (R-Buxton) has submitted a bill that would prohibit state employees from using state-owned devices to access TikTok, a controversial social media site linked to the People’s Republic of China’s Communist Party. TikTok is one of the most popular social media sites on the planet. The application serves up funny videos and, over time, it learns what a given user enjoys, serving them up more of that content. However, the app is also a potential security and public health problem. Security analysts have criticized the application for the amount of data it collects on users — data that…

UPDATE: On Jan. 27, Ahmed posted to Twitter an image of a letter from the Portland Housing Authority confirming that a subcontractor of the PHA admitted to making comments consistent with her tweets. According to the PHA, the employee will no longer work on PHA properties. A Portland area Black Lives Matter activist said two city of Portland employees screamed anti-Muslim obscenities so loudly outside her home on Monday morning that it woke her up. Activist Hamdia Ahmed posted several tweets Monday morning accusing two men she said were city employees of screaming obscene tirades anti-Muslim, and she included a…

The Bangor Daily News was raked over the coals Monday by social media users following the discovery that the paper has for more than a decade celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day by reprinting a sterilized, white-washed version of the civil rights leader’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Kevin Kruse, a Princeton historian who has become “Twitter famous,” was the first person to flag the heavily edited speech, which has been reprinted by the paper for at least the last 13 years. In 2010, the Bangor Daily News appears to have started copying and pasting the last year’s MLK…

Several Democratic members of the State Legislature have introduced a proposal that would extend Medicaid benefits to individuals who are in the country illegally. LD 199 – “An Act to Improve the Health of Maine Residents by Removing Exclusions to the MaineCare Program” – is backed by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) and several other Democratic lawmakers. If passed, the bill would expand Medicaid, known in Maine as MaineCare, to include asylum seekers, refugees, and illegal aliens. “[T]he State shall appropriate funds in the state budget to provide state funded medical assistance through the MaineCare program for noncitizen individuals…

The board of a Damariscotta school emailed a letter to parents Saturday asserting a legal right for school employees to secretly counsel minor students on sex changes without the knowledge or consent of parents. The letter comes in response to allegations made at a December school board meeting by Amber Lavigne, the mother of a former Great Salt Bay Community School student. In that meeting, Lavigne alleged that a social worker at the school had given her 13-year-old daughter a breast binder. Breast binders are devices that compress the appearance of breasts, and they are used as part of social…

The city of Boston unveiled a bronze statue on Friday that was supposed to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the chunk of bronze left more than a few observers wondering: Who thought this was a good idea? The statue is called “The Embrace,” and it was modeled after a famous photo of MLK Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, hugging in Boston. And that’s what it might look like, if you squint a little bit and have a good imagination and you’re viewing from one specific angle. But in all other cases, the statue looks…

I write today in defense of “Many Stitches Hold Up the Sky” — the controversial mural that will soon grace the Route One-facing side of Fort Andross in Brunswick. The $70,000 painting was commissioned by Brunswick Public Art, and ever since some pictures were released it has drawn a steady stream of criticism from left-wing writers and art critics. I covered the first wave of protests with interest, sort of in a bemused way, but a recent piece in the Portland newspaper has gone too far. My fellow Bowdoiner Daniel Kany, art critic for the Portland newspaper and a former…

Dr. Nirav Shah, former head of the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Thursday that he was resigning his post to pursue a bigger, better job as the “principal” deputy to the director of the federal CDC. Shah, who was Maine’s leading public health authority throughout the pandemic, became the smiling face of Gov. Janet Mills’ authoritarian economic lockdowns of Maine’s small businesses and schools. Throughout the pandemic, Shah cultivated a celebrity following that culminated with the former Chicago resident being profiled by Downeast Magazine and speculating about a future run for U.S. Senate. Shah came to Maine…

The news cycle is familiar: 1) A government bureaucracy proposes some ridiculous progressive idea based on equity, gender ideology, climate change, or whatever the current faddish thing is. 2) Conservative media reports on the outrageous proposal and mocks the idea. 3) Mainstream, left-wing media scolds conservatives for “pouncing” and “seizing” on something for the sake of the culture war, insisting that the original insane idea has been misconstrued or isn’t really happening. 3) Some government official doubles-down on the ridiculous idea. 5) Mainstream, left-wing media says the ridiculous thing they insisted was never happening is happening and actually that’s a…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Harold Hutchison on January 12, 2023 “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin questioned Thursday whether Republicans were behind the discovery of classified documents found in President Joe Biden’s garage. “Doesn’t it feel like oppo research to you? Does it feel like the Republicans are behind it?” Hostin asked co-host Whoopi Goldberg during a discussion. “It did originally but — I’m sorry, but not — not now,” Goldberg said. “Because one of the things — one of the things he’s saying is that, you know, some of these, some of the locations with the docs may have…

Parental rights advocates are urging Maine parents to opt out of a school survey that will be administered on Jan. 16 over concerns about the methodology of the survey, the nature of some questions, and the political purposes for which the data is used. In the past, the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey focused on students’ diets, exercise levels, sleep habits, alcohol and tobacco use, and whether they felt safe at home. The information was used to provide insight into public efforts aimed at keeping students healthy. But since 2017, the survey has also grown to accommodate left-wing ideas about…

Dr. Nirav Shah, who served Gov. Janet Mills as director of Maine’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Thursday that he’s resigning from the post to pursue a job with the federal CDC, a job he said would put him second in command to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=PzhMD2c7G8Y

A Damariscotta public school social worker who attempted to secretly transition a 13-year-old female student into a boy without her mother’s knowledge will remain an employee of the Great Salt Bay Community School. AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston confirmed to the Maine Wire at a school board meeting Wednesday night that the social worker, 26-year-old Samuel E. Roy, will continue to practice social work within the school, which serves kindergarten through grade eight. “He is still an employee, yes,” she said. Roy, who has a conditional license to practice social work, provided the young girl in question with a breast…

The Bureau of Labor Standards on Wednesday released inflation numbers for the month of December, and while some trumpeted the top line numbers — inflation only increased by 0.1 percent in December — decreases in gas prices hid increases in prices elsewhere in the economy. From BLS: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.1 percent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.1 percent in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 6.5 percent before seasonal adjustment. The index for gasoline was…

Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday proposed a $10.3 billion budget that will largely shape political negotiations in Augusta and state public policy for the next two years. “If we want to build a stronger, more prosperous state where opportunity is available to all, then we must invest in the infrastructure that supports our greatest asset: the people of Maine,” Mills said in a press release. Mills called the budget proposal “fiscally responsible” and said part of her aim in offering it was guarding against the possibility of a looming recession. The budget is a significant increase in spending over previous…

Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) and former Sen. Bill Diamond are once again calling for significant reforms to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) following a shocking report from an independent government watchdog. The Child Welfare Ombudsman’s report examines on an annual basis how the Office of Family and Child Services (OFCS) handles state interventions in child abuse cases and family reunifications, and this year’s report was a devastating indictment of the agency. The report found that state workers with the agency have struggled to assess when children were in danger, and it flagged several deficiencies with the agency’s…

Paris residents voted Tuesday night to recall a pair of school board officials who drew the community’s ire by pushing a radical “gender identity” policy for the Oxford Hills School District, the culmination of a parent revolt against a radical policy that first surfaced in October. Board members Sarah Otterson and Julia Lester, both of Paris, lost their recall elections decisively, with 333 Paris residents voting in favor of recall and 243 voting against. Paris officials held the election after local residents submitted a petition with nearly 700 signatures calling for a vote on whether the pair should remain on…

A Lewiston lawmaker has proposed a bill that would make it a crime for any adult to leave a child under the age of ten alone in a motor vehicle. LD 110 — “An Act to Prohibit Leaving a Child Under 10 Years of Age Alone in a Motor Vehicle” — was introduced by Rep. Margaret Craven (D-Lewiston). While the bill may seem self-explanatory based on the title, it is yet another example of ambiguous lawmaking that could lead to confusion for those tasked with enforcing it. According to the text of the proposed law, an adult would be prohibited…

Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday announced the hiring of two well-connected Maine Democratic Party operatives to her gubernatorial staff. In an email blast, Mills said she had hired former Democratic House Speaker Ryan Fecteau and Elizabeth Gattine, former Senior Policy Associate at the University of Maine’s Catherine Cutler Institute. Gattine also happens to be the wife of former Maine Democratic Party Chair Drew Gattine, who is also a state representative from Westbrook. Fecteau will serve as the Senior Advisor for Community Development and Strategic Initiatives in the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, a position that appears to…

A report published last week by the Maine Child Welfare Ombudsman, an independent government watchdog, revealed widespread failures at the state child welfare agency, including several deficiencies with investigations and an inability of state workers to recognize when children were in dangerous situations. What should have been a bombshell report, disrupting politics as usual in Maine and causing serious consternation on the part of Maine’s political leaders, has instead all but disappeared from news feeds just days after it was published. Gov. Janet Mills’ silence on the report’s devastating findings is understandable, in a cold political kind of way, considering…

Maine’s political reporters rung in the New Year — and the official start of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ second term — with a continuation of their 4-year-plus habit of avoiding any criticism of the governor whatsoever. Not even the devastating report from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) ombudsman has stirred them from their partisan torpor. In case you missed it, the report, published last week, said the DHHS Office of Child and Family Services under Mills and Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew has failed. Specifically, the child welfare agency under Mills and Lambrew has failed to recognize danger to…

A Maine child was born into a household with parents who neglected him, restrained him for long periods of time, and ignored him. Despite multiple investigations beginning with the child’s birth, reports of domestic violence and medical neglect, five months passed before the child was rescued into state custody. The foregoing is just one case of state workers at Maine’s child welfare agency struggling to protect Maine kids born into abusive or harmful situations. This situation and several others were summarized and analyzed in a heartbreaking report out this week from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare…

The foreign firm supplying solar power modules for a Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) project in Augusta has been linked by the Joe Biden administration to forced labor in the Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Maine Wire can report. Cenergy Power construction site, Augusta, ME (Photo Credit: Steve Robinson, All Rights Reserved) The solar project is part of Gov. Janet Mills “Lead By Example” initiative, which included a 2019 executive order directing state agencies to install “renewable energy generation and energy storage on state property.” Canadian Solar, a publicly traded company based in Guelph, Ontario,…

The school system in Maine’s largest city has is facing a civil rights complaint alleging the school has been discriminating against employees on the basis of skin color. Parents Defending Education (PDE), a 501(c)3 non-profit group that advocates against partisan indoctrination in schools, said Tuesday it had filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging that the Portland School System has discriminated against staff members on the basis of race, color, or national origin. According to the group, the Portland School System has regularly organized an activity — the “BIPOC Community Circle” — that…

A Maine man who murdered both of his parents in cold blood has been relocated to the women’s prison in Windham after identifying as a woman, a Maine Department of Corrections spokesperson confirmed Thursday. Andrew T. Balcer, 24, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he stabbed both of his parents and the family dog to death in 2017. At the time of his incarceration, he was listed in MDOC records as a male, but that changed in November. “Ms. Balcer was transferred to the Women’s Center on 11/29/2022,” MDOC Policy and PowerDMS Assistant Jenna Heald said in an…

State lawmakers returned to the State House Wednesday for the first session of 2023 to put the final rubberstamp on Gov. Janet Mills’ request for a $473 million spending bill. “I thank the Legislature for its strong, bipartisan vote, and I look forward to continuing to work with them to implement long-term solutions that will bring down energy costs, improve energy efficiency, and reduce Maine’s highest-in-the-nation dependence on expensive and harmful fossil fuels,” Mills said in a statement to press. Since the start of her first term in office, Mills has been an ardent critic of cheap, convenient fossil fuels…

[UPDATE: The Maine Wire has learned that all Maine lawmakers obtain stationary and business cards from the same New Jersey printer under a longstanding deal. It’s not immediately clear who negotiated that deal or why it wasn’t given to a Maine-based printer. But we’re updating the headline of the story to reflect the fact. We regret the error.] A top Maine Democrat posted a braggadocios picture to her social media Sunday, inadvertently revealing that she passed over several Maine print shops to have her stationary work done in New Jersey. House Majority Leader Maureen F. Terry (D-Gorham), the number two…

Voters in Paris will decide Tuesday whether to recall two members of the Oxford Hills School Board in a vote with big implications for the future of local rule and gender identity policies in Maine schools. Boardmembers Sarah Otterson and Julia Lester, both of Paris, are facing recall after they put their support behind a controversial policy that would have required district employees to keep information about student mental health secret from parents. Both Otterson and Lester backed a so-called “gender identity policy” that, if passed, would have prevented school employees from telling parents when a student expressed feelings of…

Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah on Monday tweeted out a list of recommended books and podcasts he planned to enjoy in 2023, and included among them was a podcast from prominent left-wing conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow. “I recently solicited ideas on books/podcasts that could potentially change the way I think about the world—a deliberate effort to counteract confirmation bias,” Shah tweeted. He then posted a link to a document containing some of his reading recommendations and also his listening recommendations. On the list was “Ultra,” a podcast from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. The nine-episode podcast, which focuses on how the…

From Maine to Washington, D.C., Republican Party officials, operatives, and activists are fighting a mild civil war to determine who will lead the party following mostly disastrous performances in the 2022 midterm elections. Whether it’s the messy fight over the next U.S. Speaker of the House, to campaigns for various committee leadership posts playing out on television broadcasts and social media, the Republican Party finds itself at a crossroads. In most cases, the choice seems to be between the status quo establishment and outside challengers from the right. In Washington, D.C., former House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)’s bid to…

A Maine State Senator has introduced a bill that would require an official declaration of war by the U.S. Congress before members of Maine’s National Guard can be deployed to foreign theaters. In practice, passing the bill would mean the recall of all Maine National Guardsmen currently deployed abroad. “Our Maine national guardsmen are supposed to be here to help our state in times of crisis — not sent abroad for decades on end to police the world,” said State Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin), the sponsor of the bill. “Over these last twenty years, the men and women of the…

The mother of a Hermon school system student is calling on school officials to adopt policies that will regulate whether students of a certain age can access sexually explicit and adult-themed books at the school library. “We are asking the Hermon School Department Committee to implement age-appropriate standards regarding sexual content for minors,” said Regina Leonard. “A review of the Hermon School Library System catalog conducted in December 2022, revealed more than 83 books that contain erotic content, explicit descriptions of sexual assault including child rape, sexual abuse, explicit sexual activities, prostitution involving minors, and/or bestiality commentary,” Leonard said in…

A new poll out from Rasmussen Reports Monday shows Americans are very skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccines. Almost half of Americans believe the vaccines may be causing unexplained deaths, and one quarter of respondents said they knew someone whose death could potentially be linked to receiving a vaccine. “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that (49%) of American Adults believe it is likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, including 28% who think it’s Very Likely,” the firm reported. “Thirty-seven percent (37%) don’t say a significant number of deaths…

Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, is the man accused of wielding a machete in a New Years Eve terror attack that wounded three New York City police officers Saturday night. The attack occurred around 10pm on Dec. 31 outside of the security zone around Times Square. Bickford allegedly struck three cops over the heads, with one officer receiving a skull fracture, according to NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell. One of the officers managed to shoot Bickford in the shoulder. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said all three officers were recovering. Bickford had been radicalized by Islam and expressed a desire…