Author: Steve Robinson

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

President Joe Biden’s administration boasted this year that American job growth in the second quarter of 2022 had surged, evidence, the White House claimed, that Biden’s economic policies were helping the U.S. thrive. Turns out, it was a bunch of malarkey. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Friday the U.S. economy only added 10,500 jobs in the second quarter of 2022 — 1 million fewer than the White House claimed. So what happened? For Republican lawmakers, the answer is clear: a politicized White House lied about the economy to shore up support for the Democratic Party heading into midterm…

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A new research report on American welfare programs found that Mainers who take advantage of the full suite of state and federal welfare programs currently available can get annual benefits worth $71,757. In Maine, the median income for a household is $71,139 — meaning Maine families can make more money by skipping work and enrolling in welfare programs instead. Casey Mulligan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, and E.J. Antony, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, authored the report. Median income in Maine for 2021 was $71,139 “The federal government and the states offer a wide array…

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Ric Tyler, host of WVOM Gorge Hale and Ric Tyler Show, questioned Maine’s legacy and corporate media outlets Tuesday morning over their decision to avoid covering the growing scandal in Damariscotta. Last week, parent Amber Lavigne revealed that the Great Salt Bay Community School (AOS 93) had secretly begun to transition her 13-year-old daughter into a boy without her knowledge or consent. The social transition the school started without her permission included school staff providing her with a chest binder and referring to her using masculine pronouns. As of Tuesday morning, more than a quarter of a million people have…

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The board of a Damariscotta school embroiled in controversy over an attempt by staffers to transition the gender of a 13-year-old student without her parents’ permission issued a vague statement on Monday concerning the issue. “The Board is aware that rumors and allegations have been published and republished on various social media platforms relating to this issue,” the statement from superintendent Lynsey Johnston and board chair Samuel Belknap II states. “While it is unfortunate that some individuals have sought to use this issue to try and divide our community, as a Board, we are committed not only to following Maine…

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Republican state lawmakers condemned the actions of school officials at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta after The Maine Wire revealed the school began a secret gender transition on a 13-year-old girl without her parents’ knowledge or consent. Amber Lavigne, the girl’s mother, went public with the shocking story during a school board meeting on Wednesday. She told the school board she discovered the school’s clandestine plan to place her daughter on the path to becoming a boy when she found a breast binder in her bedroom. [RELATED: Public School Worker Who Began Secret Gender Transition on 13-Year-Old Maine…

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Officials at a public school in Damariscotta won’t respond to The Maine Wire’s questions about a 26-year-old conditionally licensed social worker who secretly began a gender transition for a 13-year-old girl, but they’ve found time to scrub social media and the school’s website. [RELATED: Public School Worker Who Began Secret Gender Transition on 13-Year-Old Maine Girl Has Conditional License…] On Wednesday, parent Amber Lavigne revealed to the school board of the Great Salt Bay Community School that Sam Roy, a social worker at the school, had provided her daughter with a breast binder without her knowledge or consent. Breast binders…

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A public school worker at Great Salt Bay Community School who coached a 13-year-old girl into a gender transition without telling her parents has only a conditional license to practice social work in Maine, The Maine Wire has learned. Amber Lavigne, the mother of the young girl, revealed at a school board meeting Wednesday that she discovered a chest binder in her daughter’s bedroom several weeks ago. Her daughter told her the binder was provided by a social worker at the public school who encouraged her to keep it secret from her parents, she said. [RELATED: Secret audio reveals Maine…

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A Damariscotta mom demanded the resignation of several public school officials at a school board meeting Wednesday following her discovery that a school social worker had begun secretly transitioning her 13-year-old daughter’s gender. In an emotionally charged address to the school board, Amber Lavigne said a Central Lincoln County School System (CLCSS) social worker at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta provided a chest binder to her daughter — a gender transitioning device the employee encouraged the young girl to keep secret from her parents. Lavigne said she’d never met the social worker — Samuel Roy — and had…

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The Bangor Police Department said Thursday assault charges have been filed against a Bangor High School student who assaulted another student on school grounds in October and the attack is still under investigation. A Bangor PD spokesman declined to say whether the assault was being investigated as a hate crime or bias incident. In a separate statement, a Bangor High official declined to provide specifics about the case, but said the school follows national best practices for harm mitigation when students are in violent conflict. The fight came to light after video was posted to social media and reported exclusively…

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The public hearing for Democratic Gov. Janet Mills massive $447 million spending bill has been scheduled for next Wednesday. Mills originally pushed for lawmakers to adopt the spending package without public hearings on the first day new lawmakers were sworn in, an unprecedented move. However, Senate Republicans insisted on having public hearings to review various aspects of the spending proposal. Since Maine’s Constitution requires two-thirds support in both Houses of the Legislature to pass an “emergency bill” without public hearings, Senate Republicans were capable of forcing public hearings. The spending package, which Mills marketed as a “heating assistance bill,” provided…

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Posters displayed in Maine public schools explaining the various terms used by gender ideology advocates also smear heterosexual couples using the term “breeders.” An example of such a poster was discovered in the classroom of Gorham 7th grade health teacher Denis Albert, as reported Thursday by Breitbart News. According to the poster, “breeders” is a term used to refer to heterosexual couples, an inaccurate claim considering many heterosexual couples do not or cannot conceive children. The Urban Dictionary, which tracks definitions of slang terms and colloquialisms, suggests “breeder” is a derisive term of mockery members of the LGBTQ community or…

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Former President Donald Trump teased a major announcement on Thursday, leading to speculation that he was about to name a running mate for his 2024 bid for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Instead, he announced the sale of a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) series that includes pictures of him stylized as a super hero. NFTs are controversial crypto projects that involve using blockchains, like Ethereum or Solana, to create unique identifiers associated with a piece of digital art. Or, in this case, a Trump playing card. NFT proponents say owning an NFT is just like owning physical art, while critics click…

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UPDATE: Bangor Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Jason McAmbley said in an email that assault charges were filed against the attacker in the video. “It is still an active case,” he said. McAmbley declined to say whether the attack was being treated as a hate crime or a bias incident. A Bangor High School student was violently attacked on school property while dozens of students and several school staff watched helplessly. The entire assault was caught on a shocking video that has only recently been released on social media by a concerned parent. In the video, the attacker, who…

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Maine and New Hampshire police played hot potato this weak with a woman experiencing homelessness in yet another sad episode of Maine’s housing and homelessness crisis. The woman, who police have not provided details about, was driven from Sanford, ME to Manchester, NH after Sanford cops led her to believe a shelter bed was available for her there, according to a report in the Union Leader. But that wasn’t true — there was no bed for her at a Manchester shelter, but a Sanford police officer driving an unmarked cruiser left her there anyways. After spending the night at a…

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Bowdoin College professor Jean Yarbrough, renowned scholar of American political thought, joined British author and podcaster Douglas Murray to discuss the life and thought of Thomas Jefferson for his provocative series Uncancelled History. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOokvbTG7CA Yarbrough has written extensively about the life and political philosophy of Jefferson, including in “Thomas Jefferson and the Social Compact,” in The American Founding and the Social Compact and American Virtues: Thomas Jefferson on the Character of a Free People. She is also the editor of a collection of Jefferson’s most important written works, The Essential Jefferson. Douglas Murray is a British social critic whose recent…

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The town of Bucksport has pulled a Christmas nativity scene from public property after receiving a complaint from an atheist activist who lives in Litchfield. Tom E. Waddell, the local chapter president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, complained to Bucksport officials about the depiction of sweet baby Jesus and asked them to also accommodate his request for a poster showing the Bill of Rights. The affray was first reported on by Ethan Genter of the Bangor Daily News. When city officials received the complaint and request from Waddell, they quickly consulted with the town’s attorney, who advised them that…

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Hermon parent Regina Leonard told WVOM host Ric Tyler on Wednesday about her year-long struggle to get answers from the Hermon school system over pornographic books the schools are making available to young students. Leonard and other parents are asking the school to develop a transparent policy articulating what kind of content school kids can access at a given age, but so far school administrators in Hermon have been slow to offer solutions. Hermon Superintendent Micah Grant did not respond to a request for an interview. Nor did Hermon School Board Policy Chair Kristen Quinn Shorey. Grant, Shorey, Leonard, and…

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Prominent politicians who received heaps of money from Sam Bankman-Fried or his FTX associates are quietly trying to run the clock out on the media’s short attention span, hoping they can keep cash that came from the corrupt crypto firm’s alleged fraud. Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, was arrested Monday in the Bahama’s after U.S. prosecutors filed multiple criminal charges against him. Those charges, including wire fraud and securities fraud, stem from the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire, which included the exchange platform FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research. [RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Collapse Touches Ukraine, the World Economic…

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As America’s open border with Mexico continues to see unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data cited in a congressional report show fentanyl overdose has become the leading cause of death among American adults age 18-45. In 2021, nearly 108,000 people died of drug overdoses, and 71,000 of those deaths were attributed to fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances, according to a report from members of the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee. The dangerous drug is largely manufactured in Mexico, using precursor chemicals from China, before it is illegally trafficked across the southern border, according to…

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Actor John Travolta, superstar scientology cultist and sometime summer resident of Maine, is struggling to sell is gorgeous Maine mansion, located on 48 acres of Islesboro Island’s oceanfront. “This is a one of a kind property,” the listing agent says of the 20-bed, 8-bath lux manse measuring 10,830 square feet. According to the New York Post, the 68-year-old Grease star redesigned the home in 1991 along with his then-bride Kelly Preston, who died in 2020. He was convinced to buy the home by recently deceased fellow Scientology cult member Kirstie Alley. The listing doesn’t say whether the home comes with…

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The New York Times invented a new word on Wednesday as part of a growing call from health officials in major American cities to bring back widespread masking. “It’s Time to Wear a Mask Again, Health Experts Say,” reads the headline. “A high-quality, well-fitting mask is your best protection against infection from the coronavirus, influenza and R.S.V.,” says the subhed. Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have been around for a longtime, the former more than a century and the latter more than half a century. But only now are masks becoming the go-to trendy bandaid. COVID-19 mortality rates having…

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State Sens. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) and Nicole Grohoski (D-Hancock) on Tuesday pitched a somewhat slimmer version of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ $446 million spending package, which failed last week to pass as an emergency measure. “We offer, Sen. Grohosoki and I, offer our proposal in a constructive spirit,” said Bennett. Bennett said he continues to believe that a large spending package ought to go through the public hearing process, but that he hoped the bipartisan proposal could move the initiative along. “Spending our surplus accounts dry leaves no money to deal with other pressing issues such as our opioid epidemic,…

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The Washington Post has mostly refrained from covering the revelations contained in the “Twitter Files,” but a story the Jeff Bezos-owned media company posted last night contained a real whopper. The paper posted a story about the “Twitter Files” saga that accused Elon Musk of stoking violence against Yoel Roth, a former Twitter executive whose primary role seems to have been tweeting about porn and banning conservatives from the platform. In the story, the reporter mentions Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, two of the journalists who have been breaking stories based on internal documents provided to them by Musk. But…

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University of Chicago instructor Rebecca Journey has accused a student at the school of inciting white nationalist terrorism against her after he drew attention to a class she was going to teach entitled “The Problem of Whiteness.” The student, Daniel Schmidt, is sophomore at U-Chicago, where he has developed a reputation as a brash conservative student activist with a budding online persona. Part of his activism includes exposing left-wing bias at his own university, which he did quite exquisitely in November when he posted information about Journey’s proposed class on social media. In The Problem of Whiteness, Schmidt reported, Journey’s…

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night went to bat for the Maine lobster. He interviewed guest Rosie Moore, a geoscientist who explained how President Joe Biden’s major push for offshore wind power threatens the extinction of the right whale. Maine’s lobster industry is under threat from onerous federal regulation because of a fictitious belief on the part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regulators that lobster gear is a threat to whales. Yet the same federal government is pushing offshore wind turbine construction that will be far more likely to disturb right whale feeding and breeding grounds. https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1602486827767967744

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ABC News reported last week that federal law enforcement is investigating a series of deliberate attacks on the nation’s power grid following an act of sabotage in North Carolina that left more than ten thousand Duke Energy customers without power for several days. “According to multiple law enforcement sources, an individual opened fire near a Duke Energy facility at the Wateree Hydro Station in Ridgeway,” reported ABC. “The individual used what appeared to be a long gun and then sped away. No one was injured and there has been no reported damage to the station at this time. There is…

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Whether school bus drivers at several Maine public schools can celebrate the season by playing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman during bus rides is up for debate as the school district formulates a new “holiday” music policy. The Gorham School District imposed a total ban on all Christmas music in November after a parent, who does not celebrate Christmas, complained that their child had been victimized on a school bus by a Christmas tune. Gorham School District Facilities and Transportation Director Norm Justice formulated the first version of the policy after school staff alerted him to the…

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The Mexico-U.S. border is seeing massive waves of illegal immigration. It’s happening right in front of reporters, and border crossers more often than not seek out U.S. Border Patrol agents because they know that’s surest ticket to entering the country. Here’s a sample of the videos circulating on social media that show vast numbers of illegal aliens entering the country. (h/t to Bill Melugin who has been documenting illegal border crossings all year long.) https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1602301863822491650 https://twitter.com/i_p_a_1/status/1602309551625097217 https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1602095710559666177 https://twitter.com/JhovaniKFOX_CBS/status/1602134654299127809 https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1601621044846292992 https://twitter.com/mrtdogg_/status/1600883506443190272 https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1601375436160004096

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Independent journalist Bari Weiss on Monday released the fifth tranche of internal Twitter records provided to her by the company’s new owner Elon Musk. The latest batch of “Twitter Files” pulls the curtain back on the social media giant’s internal deliberations surrounding the decision to ban President Donald Trump from the platform following the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The gist: Twitter employees were apoplectic in the hours following Jan. 6, and, even though they all assessed that Trump had not violated any of the company’s policies, they decided to ban him anyways. Weiss notes that the ban on Trump…

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Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson filled in on WGAN’s Morning News for an hour this morning. He covered the “Twitter Files,” the Oxford Hills School Board drama, and a liberal civil war erupting in Brunswick over a mural. Listen here: Newsradio WGAN · Steve Robinson

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Former Portland Board of Education director Emily Figdor offered an apology to members of the Portland school community over the ongoing payroll debacle in a special letter to the Portland Press Herald over the weekend. “I want to offer my deepest apology to every Portland Public Schools staff member for the breakdown of our payroll system,” said Figdor. “I am writing today as an individual member of the Portland Board of Education, not on its behalf,” she said. Figdor, a long-time progressive activist in Portland, made her apology following a series of blunders that caused the Portland school system to…

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said in 2021 the current high levels of inflation in the American economy would be “transitory,” said Sunday she now believes inflation will be much lower by the end of the year. https://twitter.com/NewsNancy9/status/1602106179571929088 In an interview with 60 Minutes, the economist said there is a risk of a recession next year. “So I believe inflation will be lower,” said Yellen. “I am very hopeful that the labor market will– remain quite healthy– so that people can feel good about their finances and their personal economic situation,” she said. “I believe by the end of…

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Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey on Friday announced that he has joined a coalition of Attorneys General from across the country in support of a legal fight to have so-called “gender affirming care,” including voluntary orchiectomies and mastectomies, covered by Medicaid. “West Virgina’s refusal to provide transgender patients the care they need is not only illegal discrimination, it is unconscionable,” said Frey. “We cannot allow states to deny healthcare for political reasons when people’s lives are on the line,” he said. In 2019, Gov. Janet Mills changed Maine’s Medicaid rules to include various sex-change related procedures in the list of…

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Just three-quarters of employees with Northern Light Health, a major hospital operator in Maine, said they would use the company for health care, according to an internal company survey. “In an internal survey 75% percent of our employees systemwide said they would get care here,” said Suzanne R. Spruce, APR, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Northern Light Health, in response to an inquiry. “18% were neutral,” said Spruce. “This is from an employee engagement survey and not for public consumption.” Those survey results come amid a string of bad news for the hospital company. The…

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The second batch of the so-called “Twitter Files” released by Elon Musk to independent journalist Bari Weiss offers conclusive proof that the social media company has for years censored conservative voices using a technique dubbed “shadow banning.” If you’re like the majority of American adults, you don’t use Twitter. But you should still care about what’s happening on the site, because it functions like the nervous system of American media, especially political media. Because almost every American journalist or media producer uses Twitter on a daily basis to gather and spread information, the site has an outsized impact on the…

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Liberals in Brunswick are going to war with one another over a $70,000 painting that’s going to end up on the side of the Fort Andross Mill. Although the painting — “Many Stitches Hold Up the Sky,” by two Hallowell artists — is your standard left-wing virtue-signaling “art” that has replaced what we used to know as art, a Bowdoin College professor started a petition complaining about the mural because it’s not “inclusive” enough. The internecine conflict was front page news for the Portland newspaper on Friday, which found the conflict very serious and not at all hilarious. Bowdoin College professor…

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A top Twitter lawyer fired by Elon Musk was previously a high-level FBI official who played a key role in advancing the now-discredited conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump was a secret Russian agent. Former Twitter general counsel James Baker was fired on Tuesday after Musk learned that he was secretly conspiring to suppress and cover-up internal Twitter records that Musk planned to release to journalists. The first batch of records dubbed the “Twitter Files” were released last week to independent journalist Matt Taibbi. Taibbi’s early reporting showed that Twitter officials in 2020 coordinated with the FBI to censor…

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The Lewiston Sun Journal news coverage of a school policy fight in the Oxford Hills School District left some readers scratching their heads Thursday night over reporter Nicole Carter’s blithe accusations of intolerance. Earlier in the week, parents in the school district successfully stalled a proposed policy that would have required school officials to keep information about student mental health secret from parents. If passed, the policy would have effectively allowed school officials to coach students into gender transitions without the knowledge or consent of parents. [RELATED: Oxford Hills School Board Temporarily Blocks Gender Policy…] Parent opposition to the policy…

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Republican state lawmakers didn’t even show up for the fight to nominate Maine’s constitutional officers on Thursday. During the first day of the new State Legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted on candidates for State Treasurer, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. Although Democrats, with majorities in both houses, were in the driver’s seat for selections, Republicans didn’t even put forward viable alternatives. In statements after the fact, Republican leaders said they chose not to contest the elections because of an ideological belief that these offices ought to be selected by popular vote rather than according to…

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State lawmakers debated until late Thursday night over Democratic Gov. Janet Mills massive $447 million spending proposal, a proposal she wanted the State Legislature to rubber-stamp without public hearings. Forgoing the standard process and skipping public hearings would require two-thirds of the Legislature to support the package, which means minority Republicans have the power for force hearings for the bill. Ultimately, Republicans succeeded in forcing the package to go through the regular order of public hearings. “After a bipartisan vote in the Senate to send LD 1 to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee for a public hearing, Senate Republicans…

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Democratic Gov. Janet Mills wants state lawmakers to approve her plan to spend nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer money without first holding public hearings. But some Republican lawmakers say they won’t support Mills’ request to pass the spending package on an emergency basis, as she has requested. To pass as an emergency bill, Mills would need two-thirds of lawmakers to vote in favor. That means Senate Republicans have enough votes to force public hearings for the spending proposal before the legislature’s Appropriations Committee. As initially reported by The Maine Wire, the spending package includes more checks for Maine…

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Republican lawmakers introduced a plan Tuesday to change Maine tax law to punish any business that opts to boycott the sale of the Maine lobster based on 3rd party certifications. Although the proposal would apply to any seafood dealer in Maine, and any 3rd party, in reality it’s a bill that will target Whole Foods over the company’s decision to boycott Maine lobster based on the view of the London-based Marine Stewardship Council, which decertified the Maine lobster last month. The bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) and House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), would…

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UPDATE: Originally reported on Friday, Dec. 2, this story accurately predicted the nature and scope of the first major legislative initiative of Gov. Janet Mills 2nd term. On Tuesday, the Blaine House sent out an email touting the plan and confirming that she has asked the Legislature to pass the bill on an emergency basis on Wednesday. Mills is asking for $21 million, rather than the earlier reported $15 million, for housing assistance. In addition to the emergency bill provisions, Mills is taking executive action to distribute $500 heating aid payments to another 13,000 households. Maine Gov. Janet Mills has…

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The Oxford Hills School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to indefinitely postpone the adoption of a controversial policy that would require school employees to keep details of students’ mental health secret from parents. Under the proposed policy, a student experiencing gender dysphoria or gender confusion could ask a school employee to withhold that information from parents, and the school employee would be required to comply. [RELATED: Oxford Hills School Board Votes to Require Staff Keep Student “Gender Identity” Changes Secret from Parents…] The proposed policy would also require school staff to coach students on how to avoid changing official records…

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Maine’s needle exchange program requires users to turnover one used needle in order to get one clean needle. But at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Janet Mills issued an executive order ending the 1-to-1 redemption of needles, meaning the State was actually funding the introduction of new needles into drug-using communities without taking dirty needles off the streets. That order theoretically ended when the State of Emergency concluded at the end of June 2021, but at least one Bangor area needle exchange program is not enforcing the 1-to-1 redemption. Penobscot County has two non-profits that work with the…

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The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing yet another case that will determine whether LGBT activists can compel artists to produce creative works that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. The case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, involves Lorie Smith, a devout Christian who specializes in designing websites. Smith wants to expand her business to include the designing of websites; however, she does not want to design website for same-sex couples because doing so would violate her religious beliefs regarding marriage. She wants to post a message on her business’s website informing potential customers that she only creates websites for marriages that…

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Former Republican President Donald Trump said the revelation that high level Twitter employees, with involvement from the FBI, coordinated a campaign to censor NY Post reporting means it is permissible to terminate the U.S. Constitution. On Friday, Twitter owner Elon Musk provided thousands of files to journalist Matt Taibbi, and the first files released from those documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how Twitter censored NY Post reporting involving Hunter Biden. The reporting, which was accurate at the time, was based on a laptop computer President Biden’s son Hunter abandoned at the Delaware computer repair shop. Documents on the computer…

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Independent journalist Matt Taibbi set social media ablaze on Friday night with the release of internal Twitter documents provided to him by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk. Taibbi described the batch of records as just the first part of the “Twitter Files.” The first release exposed how the social media giant maneuvered behind the scenes in 2020 to justify censoring a New York Post story that would have been harmful to candidate Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. You can read Taibbi’s full thread here: https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598830911776251906 The gist: High-level Twitter employees blocked the New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop from…

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The number of Maine high school students who identify as transgender more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, according to the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey conducted by the Maine Department of Education. The survey also showed significant increases in Maine high schoolers reporting depression and suicide ideation. In 2019, 1.6 percent of students reported that they were transgender. In 2021, that number rose to 3.6 percent. The 2021 survey gleaned that information by asking the following question: “Some people describe themselves as transgender when their sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about their…

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An alarming 30.9 percent of Maine high school students are overweight or obese, according to the 2021 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey (MIYHS). The survey data, released by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, suggests a number of alarming trends for both the mental and physical health of Maine adolescents. The determination of “overweight” and “obese” was calculated using Body Mass Index (BMI) based on self-reported height and weight. Rates of consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, such as gatorade, energy drinks, and soda, increased since 2019. According to the survey, the number of students who said they drunk…

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U.S. Sen. Angus King on Sunday compared Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler as part of a public relations campaign to support continued American spending on the war in Ukraine. “Hitler could have been stopped,” King said on Fox News Sunday. “He wasn’t. 55 million people died.” King’s comments come as the newly elected majority in the House of Representatives pushes for a federal audit of the more than $90 billion in military and humanitarian aid the U.S. has provided to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February. The White House has been scrambling to prepare…

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Florida will be pulling $2 billion worth of pension funds previously under the management of financial mega firm BlackRock over concerns the firm’s infamous “Environmental, Social, and Governance standards” are prioritizing left-wing virtue signaling over returns. “As Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, it’s my responsibility to get the best returns possible for taxpayers,” Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis said in a press release announcing the move. “The more effective we are in investing dollars to generate a return, the more effective we’ll be in funding priorities like schools, hospitals and roads. As major banking institutions and economists predict a recession in the…

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Large financial technology firms “caused tremendous harm to taxpayers” by facilitating the flow of tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent and improper pandemic relief payments, according to a bombshell report released Thursday by the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. In the report, the select committee detailed how financial technology companies, which were charged with vetting hundreds of thousands of applications for government assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), enabled widespread fraud, waste, and abuse through lax standards and a lack of oversight. As they facilitated the fraudulent flow of taxpayer cash, these so-called FinTech firms clipped…

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Some of America’s wealthiest law firms and accounting firms reaped millions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic loan forgiveness from 2020 to 2022 despite posting record profits, according to a report from spending watchdog group Open The Books. In the last two years, high-powered law firms bagged $809 million under the Paycheck Protection Program loans, while big money accounting shops had $635 million in loans forgiven. The highest cash hauls nationally went to Boies Schiller Flexner LLP of Boca Raton, Florida, which landed $10.14 million. Prager Metis CPAs of New York, New York received $10.2 million. To put that all this…

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Previously unseen government documents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have revealed that the off-shore wind industry poses a severe threat to endangered right whales. The documents, obtained by Bloomberg via Freedom of Information Act request, will provide ammunition to lobstermen and elected officials as they fight burdensome federal regulations on Maine’s most prized fishery. Sean Hayes, the chief of the protected species branch at NOAA’s National Northeast Fisheries Science Center, explained the threat wind turbine construction and operation presents to the endangered mammals in a May 13 letter to to officials with the federal Interior Department. [RELATED:…

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Question are swirling among Maine Republican insiders following the transfer of more than $86,000 from a committee aimed at helping elect Republicans to the House of Representatives to the personal leadership PAC of a former House Minority Leader. The House Republican Fund transferred $86,567.22 to One Maine, a committee run by former Rep. Kathleen Dillingham (R-Oxford), on November 17, 2022. That big transfer raises two question. First, why wasn’t that money spent during an election season that saw Maine Republicans battered across the state and left with a minority in the House? And, second, why is money nominally reserve for…

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A school board recall fight in the Oxford Hills School District is the latest chapter in a growing divide over the role left-wing gender theories should play in Maine schools. Tuesday night, an effort to block a recall election for two school board members in the Oxford Hills School District failed during an emergency meeting of the school board. Nearly 700 Paris residents signed a petition calling for Julia Lester and Sarah Otterson to be removed from the school board over their support for a controversial school policy that requires school staff to keep information about student mental health secret…

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Maine’s economic forecasting committee revised estimates of several key economic indicators for 2022 in its latest report, with major upward revisions to inflation, corporate profits, and government surpluses. In a press release, the administration of Gov. Janet Mills attempted to draw attention to the $282 million surplus in taxpayer money held by the government. Mills said in a statement that she wanted to work with the Legislature to spend the surplus taxpayer cash to help Mainers deal with record high home heating prices. “I remain deeply concerned about the impact that high energy prices – from home heating oil to…

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The number of taxpayer-funded transsexual surgeries in Maine has nearly quadrupled since 2019, the year Democratic Gov. Janet Mills modified MaineCare policy to cover procedures advocates for gender ideology describe as “gender affirming care.” The number of “gender affirming” surgical procedures paid for by MaineCare almost doubled each year following the policy change, from 24 surgeries in 2019 to 44 in 2020 and then to 82 in 2021, according to records provided to The Maine Wire by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, is a government program that uses state and federal…

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The fleet of five rental cars President Joe Biden and his entourage used during their Thanksgiving vacation to Nantucket mysteriously exploded Tuesday night in a Hertz parking lot at the Nantucket Airport. https://twitter.com/ACKCurrent/status/1597751869438578688 No one was injured in the bizarre explosions, but the incident set the Internet wondering whether the immolations were accidents or something more suspicious. All of the vehicles were different makes and models, including a Chevy, a Ford, and a Jeep. They were parked at the small Nantucket airport. “At approximately 5:22 am Airport shift staff observed an active fire in the rental car overflow area through…

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Greetings Dear Reader,You may have noticed some changes around The Maine Wire lately. We’ve got a new look, an aggressive and handsome new Editor-in-Chief (me), and a new vision for disrupting Maine news media. Many of you already know who I am. After spending some time away with the Howie Carr Show and Barstool Sports’ Kirk Minihane Show, I’ve escaped from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts to come home and run the Wire. I’ve chosen to do this because I love Maine, and I truly believe the Wire has never been more important for Maine’s future. Since I took over…

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Maine’s churches and other religious non-profits could see their tax exempt status threatened by activist lawsuits if the Senate votes Tuesday to pass the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA). The RFMA, if passed, would codify the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that the 14th Amendment required states to recognize same-sex marriages. The bill would prevent the Supreme Court from overturning Obergefell at a future date, as some Democrats have feared would happen since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, joined every Democrat and a handful of Republicans in voting…

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A group of Democratic state lawmakers plans to pursue new gun control measures despite Democratic Gov. Janet Mills past refusal to support similar efforts, setting up a potential fight between the Party’s centrists and the far left. The lawmakers, including Rep. Vicki Doudera (D-Camden) and Rep. Rebecca Millett (D-Cape Elizabeth), told the Bangor paper they will introduce legislation to restrict the capacity of magazines and institute a stronger background check mechanism. Doudera told the paper that a series of hoax shooting threats targeting Maine schools justified the push for gun control. There’s no evidence that the party responsible for making…

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Four European news outlets joined the New York Times on Monday to call on U.S. authorities to drop criminal charges against Wikileaks founder and journalist Julian Assange. In a joint letter, The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and DER SPIEGEL said the indictment of Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917 was a threat to journalism. “This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” the letter states. Wikileaks, founded in 2006, serves as a public repository of leaked records ranging from diplomatic cables and former…

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Dr. Anthony Fauci sat last week for a seven-hour deposition taken by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana as part of a lawsuit the two states filed over claims of federal and corporate censorship. The lawsuit alleges that various government officials from multiple government agencies leaned on social media companies to enforce Beijing-style censorship on social media, limiting debate over COVID-19 policies and science. While billed as an effort to restrict the flow of “misinformation,” the effort wound up blocking the spread of accurate and true news reporting on COVID-19 and pandemic policies. Although a judge ordered Fauci’s deposition…

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Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of a now-bankrupt crypto empire that appears to have engaged in securities fraud, accounting fraud, and banking fraud, is enjoying life at his Bahamas manse and will soon participate in a New York Times conference. Bankman-Fried is slated to appear at NYT’s DealBook alongside other notable guests, such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and more. Social media users widely mocked the decision to go forward with Bankman-Fried’s speech, which was scheduled before the collapse of his companies revealed widespread mismanagement and the misappropriation of…

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In a bizarre Boston Globe story, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts expressed skepticism of a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Public Health — a lawsuit that alleges a vast breach of privacy and violation of human rights on the part of the state government. [RELATED: Massachusetts Secretly Installed COVID Spyware App on Smart Phones: Lawsuit…] The Mass. Department of Public Health (DPH) conspired with Google to install spyware on Android phones in Massachusetts — without the users’ knowledge or permission — in 2021 and 2022 as part of a COVID-19 contact tracing effort, according to a lawsuit…

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The Maine Republican Party is not to blame for Maine Republicans losing early and often on Election Day, according to Maine GOP Chair Demi Kouzounas and GOP Executive Director Jason Savage. That’s the conclusion Maine’s top Republican officials reached a full two weeks after Nov. 8. “In many areas, Republicans had great success, flipping some legislative seats and many county and local seats in our favor,” the Party officials said in a statement. “The top of our ticket appears to have been influenced by events beyond the control of a state political party,” it said. The email doesn’t specify which…

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It’s not a great time to be working the so-called “disinformation” beat. For the uninitiated, the “disinformation” reporter is a relative new creation of the mainstream media. The species came into existence about the same time the legacy corporate media realized they needed something a little more partisan and aggressive to combat President Donald Trump and the rise of successful right-wing social media content creators. For example, the most popular reporters in this genre were heavily involved in assuring the American people that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a Russian hoax. (Don’t bother pointing out to them the irony…

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There’s reaching for a headline and there’s … whatever the Wall Street Journal was trying to do with this gem of an opinion piece: “What Donald Trump and Sam Bankman-Fried Have in Common.” The column, by WSJ editorial board member Allysia Finley, attempts to connect former President Donald Trump to the disgraced former crypto king with thin gruel and a Hemingway quote. [RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Collapse Touches Ukraine, the World Economic Forum, Silicon Valley and Both Sides of D.C….] If you haven’t been following the SBF/FTX saga, you can check out The Maine Wire’s extensive coverage. The short version…

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The New England states are facing a looming crisis over how to pay for housing for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers now that federal funding for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program is drying up. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, has asked state lawmakers to approve $130 million in funding that would support existing shelters and pay to construct new housing to accommodate more than 10,000 illegal aliens. Most of them crossed into the U.S. over the southern border illegally, according to the Boston Globe. In Maine, a state commission has said they want $182…

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The Maine Wire revealed Monday that Gov. Janet Mills tried to lean on the Maine Press Association to establish a credentialing system for Maine media. Although the administration compared the system to Standing Committee of Correspondents, which vets and provides credentials to political reporters in Washington, D.C., Mills’ request was obviously an attempt blacklist The Maine Wire. The Mills administration received backlash when they attempted to ban The Maine Wire’s Katherine Revello outright from their COVID-19 briefings, so they were trying to get the MPA to give them a pretext for accomplishing their goal: banning critical, adversarial reporting on government…

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Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Dept. of Public Health Commissioner Margret R. Cooke are refusing to say who authorized the illegal installation of COVID-19 “Mass Notify” spyware on the smartphones of potentially millions of individuals who lived in or traveled through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The revelation that Massachusetts authorities partnered with Google to install contact tracing spyware on Android devices without the permission or knowledge of users came to light as the result of a class action lawsuit filed against DPH on Nov. 14 in U.S. District Court. Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula are suing the Mass. Department…

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The special counsel Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Friday to investigate former President Donald Trump, Jack Smith, formerly ran the Justice Department unit that worked with the IRS to target conservative non-profits during the 2010 Tea Party movement. Jack Smith, the new special counsel, is tasked with investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 protests as well as classified documents that were stored at Mar-a-Lago. But his connections to a well-known case of government actors targeting conservatives and suppressing conservative political activism raises questions about his neutrality. In 2014, the House Oversight Committee found that Smith was responsible for setting…

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The administration of Gov. Janet Mills sought the creation of a novel credentialing system for journalists last October in a bid to exclude certain media outlets from covering official state briefings and press conferences, according to a letter obtained by The Maine Wire. Mills’ Director of Communications Scott Ogden made the request in an October 13, 2021 letter to the Maine Press Association (MPA) and the Maine Broadcasters Association (MBA), two small non-profits comprised of various Maine media outlets. In that letter, Ogden called on the groups to create a credentialing system that would bestow privileges on certain reporters while…

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The American Bar Association (ABA) is ditching the infamous Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) in a bid to improve the diversity of those who are accepted into American law schools. The ABA’s accrediting council voted 15-1 in favor of making the LSAT optional for law school applicants, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The policy will take effect in 2025. Individual law schools will still be able to require the test of applicants. The move is based on the perception that ethnic minorities and women do not perform as well on the test, which in turn creates…

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Media executive Robert A. Chapek, who became CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 2020, is stepping down, the Disney executive board said Sunday. Robert A. Iger, the company’s previous CEO, will return to his old job. “We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board for Disney, said in a statement. “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal…

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The Maine Democratic Party received $100,000 in campaign cash that may be the product of ill gotten gains from Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Nishad Singh, the Director of Engineering at FTX and a member of Bankman-Fried’s core inner circle, gave the Maine Democratic Party $100,000 on August 20, 2022 — $90,000 of which was transferred to the Maine Democratic State Committee, according to state and federal campaign finance records. Executives at the failed cryptocurrency empire became prolific political donors at the same time the companies — FTX, FTX US, and Alameda Research — were co-mingling funds, misappropriating customer…

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[Editor’s Note: Readers are asking how to find out if this app is on their Android device. A tipster says you must search for “Mass Notify” to locate it. If you live in Maine and find this spyware on your phone, please send us a screenshot or picture.] The Massachusetts Health Department secretly installed surveillance software on New Englanders’ smart phones without their consent, a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court of Massachusetts alleges. The lawsuit alleges that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts worked with Google to develop a contact tracing application for residents’ smartphones near the end of the…

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The Maine House Democrats on Thursday selected the legislators who will lead the caucus in the upcoming session of the State Legislature, selecting for the top spot a former City of Portland employee who was investigated for misconduct and resigned amid controversy. Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) will serve as Speaker of the House, Rep. Maureen Terry (D-Gorham) will serve as Majority Leader, and Rep. Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston) will serve as Ass. Majority Leader. Ross previously served as the Director of Equal Opportunity and Multicultural Affairs for the city of Portland until city officials were made aware of an Aug.…

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Congressional Democrats are looking for a replacement for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-04), and they may be leaning toward one of the biggest election deniers in Washington, DC: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08). Following the election of President Donald Trump, Jeffries trafficked in dangerous conspiracy theories, stoking anti-Democratic fervor and casting doubt on the legitimacy of our elections. Jeffries’ rank election denialism was embraced by his part and soon blossomed into attacks on the judiciary branch and the U.S. Constitution. Jeffries alleged a grand international conspiracy to “steal” the 2016 election, but he provided no evidence whatsoever to support the claim. On…

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A member of the Maine’s “Right to Know” advisory committee, which advises the legislature on Freedom of Access Act and government transparency issues, said Thursday some requests for public records are actually acts of “hate speech.” Vicki Wallack, an official from the Maine School Management Association (MSMA) and a member of the committee, said public record requests directed at her and her organization were not requests for information, but were instead bigoted attacks on marginalized communities. “Our great concern with the Freedom of Access request our districts have been receiving is that they target gay, lesbian and transgender students,” she…

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Incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and incoming House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jorden (R-Ohio) said Thursday morning House Republicans will open an investigation into President Joe Biden’s involvement in his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings. “Was Joe Biden directly involved in Hunter Biden’s business deals, and was he compromised? That’s our investigation,” said Comer. Hunter Biden has been in the spotlight since even before his father won the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2020. At issue are a series of business deals with foreign entities in which Hunter is suspected of leveraging his father’s position…

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The fourth largest city in California — San Francisco — has announced it will begin offering $1,200 per month in welfare cash to low-income residents — but only if they identify as transgender. The Guaranteed Income For Trans People (GIFT) program will allow transgender individuals to collect the payments for up to 18 months, according to San Fran news outlet KRON 4. “Our Guaranteed Income Programs allow us to help our residents when they need it most as part of our city’s economic recovery and our commitment to creating a more just city for all,” Mayor London Breed told the…

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Gov. Janet Mills and Legislative Democrats met the statewide commitment to fund 55 percent of Maine’s public schools, but that funding isn’t trickling down to hourly employees in the school system of Maine’s biggest city like it should. Janitors, bus drivers, food service providers, and other hourly employees have not received their paychecks on time for the third week in a row, a screw up the district is blaming on the lack of payroll staff. The district is also experiencing a shortage of bus drivers — which may or may not be linked to the school’s inability to pay people…

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As far as Chapter 11 First Day Pleadings go, the FTX filing is an entertaining read. I know this story isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I know a lot of retail investors lost a ton of money… but it’s a massive scandal that touches some of the most powerful people on the planet, from Silicon Valley leftists to academia to the Washington, D.C. elite. As you read this document, remember that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was a D.C. darling. Regulators were poised to give FTX special status, an effective regulatory moat, that would have allowed FTX a virtual monopoly…

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A London-based international non-profit has suspended its “sustainability” certification for the Maine lobstering industry over concerns about whales getting tangled up in fishing gear. The Marine Stewardship Council’s decertification of the Maine lobster is yet another escalation of the regulatory battle Maine lobstermen have been fighting all year long, as the federal government seeks to impose harsh new regulations on the industry and left-wing non-profits level accusations over threats to whales. House Minority Leader Rep. Bill Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), a lobsterman, said MSC’s decision was an act of left-wing environmentalism that has no basis in science. “The decision by…

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Congress is back in Washington, D.C., and so it’s back to business as usual. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for legal amnesty for every illegal alien present in the United States, including a pathway to citizenship. “Now more than ever, we’re short of workers,” he said. “We have a population that’s not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants.” “The DREAMers and all of them. Because our ultimate goal is to help…

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Several Republican Members of Congress are escalating calls for a forensic audit of U.S. military and non-military aid to Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February. Those calls for transparency come as President Joe Biden’s White House just asked the U.S. Congress for another $37 billion for the war in Ukraine. But is an audit of all that aid, which includes not just cash transfers but loans, military equipment, and humanitarian supplies, even possible? To begin with, we need to answer a simpler question: how much money has the U.S. government sent to Ukraine? Try Googling the question to find…

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Samuel Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt and scandal-plagued cryptocurrency empire gave $18.25 million to early COVID-19 researchers whose findings cast doubt on the benefits of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19. The FTX Foundation provided initial funding worth $3.25 million and followed it with another $15 million grant, according to a press release issued May 16. “The FTX Foundation is excited to commit $15 million to funding additional trial arms in the TOGETHER Trial and its growing global network of sister trials,” said Ross Rheingans-Yoo, from the FTX Foundation. “Our initial $3.25 million grant to expand the trial network’s core infrastructure has helped bring the model from Brazil to…

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The National Education Association (NEA), America’s second largest teachers’ union, set off a firestorm over the weekend with a tweet that said unionized teachers at government-run schools are the best and final authority on what’s best for children. https://twitter.com/NEAToday/status/1591587398109929473?s=20&t=nn8KnYLN9WjzVpuvPaVgHg The tweet may be an innocent quip from some social media intern, but it points to a broader divide between supporters of government-run schools and parents who are increasingly concerned with what’s being taught in the classroom. The teachers unions are a powerful political force in Maine and across the nation. Every election cycle, the teachers’ unions spend tens of millions…

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The New York Federal Reserve Bank has entered a partnership with major global banks to test the concept of a digital dollar, according to a Reuters report Tuesday. The NY Fed’s “Innovation Center” will join Citigroup, Mastercard, Wells Fargo, HSBC, and other major financial players to run tests in a simulated environment. That might all sound like gobbledygook to you, but you should be paying attention. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) constitute the single greatest threat to the future of economic liberty in our lifetimes. These tools, which come dressed as fancy financial innovations, are inimical to the principles of…

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An authoritarian government that in recent years has cracked down on firearm ownership and cutoff political dissidents from the financial system is now pushing mentally ill citizens into physician assisted suicide. I’m not talking about some dystopian future government or a third-world dictatorship. I’m talking about Canada. More specifically, Justin Trudeau’s Canada. Next year, Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program will begin allowing citizens to be considered eligible for state-sanctioned euthanasia when their only underlying medical condition is mental illness. Under the law, a doctor or nurse practitioner is allowed to dispense lethal medication if the mentally ill patient…

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Former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap is making another run at the position of State Auditor after he was forced to resign the post in 2021 when he failed to acquire the credentials necessary to hold the position. When Dunlap was first sworn into the job in 2021, state law provided him 9 months to become a certified public accountant, which he needed to do in order to keep the position. Dunlap failed the CPA tests, so Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) appointed Jacob Norton to keep the seat warm while he took another stab at the exam. Now, Norton…

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At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray point blank whether the bureau had confidential sources or FBI employees (i.e. undercover agents) embedded with the crowd of Trump supporters during the January 6, 2021 riot at Capitol Hill. https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1592546346866823168 Wray refused to answer the question, instead saying he can’t comment on where FBI sources and employees might have been that day. He did, however, assure Higgins that FBI sources and agents had no role whatsoever in instigating the wide scale trespassing that occurred that day. President Donald Trump, whose actions…

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The New York Times managed to get what is right now the hottest interview in the world: Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled tech tycoon whose financial empire came crashing down last week amid allegations of fraud, misuse of customer funds, and widespread incompetence and treachery. Yet, after getting the man at the center of one of the greatest financial scandals in history on the phone, the New York Times reporter wrote story that made him seem like a down-on-his-luck entrepreneur who, through no fault of his own, had stumbled on hard times. It’s an embarrassing story to have written, but sadly…

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Sam Bankman-Fried is a name you’re going to hear a lot about over the next year – and rightly so. The implosion of his cryptocurrency empire is like if Enron and Bernie Madoff had a baby, and that baby became the 2nd largest Democratic Party donor on his 2nd birthday while partnering with the World Economic Forum and the Bank of Ukraine. Bankman-Fried – or SBF for short – saw his net worth collapse by 94 percent or more last week when his cryptocurrency firms (FTX and FTX US) and trading company (Alameda Research) turned out to be shambolic ponzi…

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The cost for a gallon of heating oil in Maine has hit a record high. Mainers should expect to pay an average of $5.71 per gallon for number two heating oil and $7.07 per gallon of kerosene, according to Gov. Janet Mills’ energy office. That’s the highest price in three decades for home heating fuel in Maine, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which keeps price records going back to 1990. Most Mainers will need about 1,000 gallons to get through the winter, which works out to $5,710 dollars. That’s an increase of more than $2550 over what the…

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The Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on Nov. 7 voted to dismiss a Woolwhich transgender student’s complaint of discrimination against the University of Southern Maine (USM). That complaint alleged that USM discriminated against Ann Casavant by offering an optional health insurance product to students that did not initially cover transgender health care services, including an Adam’s Apple reduction surgery and voice feminization treatments. At the Nov. 7 meeting, Casavant’s mother and attorney reiterated the case against USM. USM’s attorney, Deirdre Salsich, restated USM’s rationale for appealing MHRC investigator Courtney Burne’s original conclusion, which found that USM had discriminated against Casavant.…

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The former executive director of Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy left state government this year to start a new joint helping pot businesses navigate the same regulations he helped develop. Erik Gundersen, a native of Bangor, left his state job behind in October to form ERG Strategies LLC. He is also employed as a senior adviser to Cannabis Public Policy Consulting. Gundersen’s no greenhorn to the marijuana industry. He worked as senior policy advisor to former House Speaker Sara Gideon in 2017 and 2018, where he influenced the Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Marijuana Legalization and Implementation. From there, Gov.…

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