Majority Democrats in the Maine Legislature approved an $11.3 billion budget in the late hours of Thursday night after repeated and unsuccessful efforts by minority Republicans in both chambers to force spending curbs on the runaway costs of various programs, including Medicaid. The budget now being sent to Governor Janet Mills (D) for approval marks a near doubling of the 2016-17 $6.3 biennial budget of less than a decade ago. One contentious issue over the past two attempts to pass a supplemental spending bill in the last several weeks has been the $118 million shortfall in Medicaid spending which Democrats…
Author: Maine Wire Staff
Somali-American Abdullahi Ali has had a prolific life since arriving in Lewiston, Maine as a refugee in 2009. Ali has become a U.S. citizen, started a nonprofit to help fellow immigrants, started several businesses, including a multi-million dollar MaineCare-funded migrant services agency, and even — according to an interview he gave to Kenyan media — managed to raise money in the U.S. to buy weapons, munitions, and supplies for a paramilitary force he had hoped to lead as president of Jubaland, Somalia. But his knack for running a celebrated migrant agency out of Portland didn’t translate into electoral success last…
A French member of European Parliament made headlines on Sunday when he said it was time for the United States to return the Statue of Liberty to France because America no longer deserves it, drawing return fire from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who essentially said ‘no way!’ “We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’” Raphael Glucksmann said to a meeting of his relatively small, center-left Place Publique party in Paris. Ever since 1886,…
The Maine Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee considered a bill from State Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) to restrict the coyote hunting season in the state this week that pitted hunters and state wildlife officials against those seeking to save the animal that farmers and others consider a threat to their livestock. When presenting her bill on March 3, Rep. Milliken stated that it is her understanding that “deer don’t tend to go up north,” in Maine — drawing astonished and amused response from the public. Focus on that debatable statement drew more attention in subsequent days that the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a limited 30-day ceasefire in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine after a nearly two hour phone call with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the White House announced. The offer by the Russians refers only to attacks on energy and infrastructure targets, falling short of President Trump’s goal to broker a more comprehensive pause in the fighting, is nonetheless more than was expected after Trump’s special envoy Steven Witkoff visited Moscow last week. [RELATED: Russia Sends Mixed Signals as Talks Proceed for U.S.-Proposed Peace Gambit] Putin also said on the call with Trump that…
A 13-year-old Cassidy Carlisle got an unwelcome shock when she encountered a biological male in the girls’ locker room at her school in Presque Isle years ago. When she complained to the school administration, she was told that if she chose to change in a private bathroom instead, she might be late for class. Years later, Carlisle lost a Nordic skiing competition to a biological male who, because he identified as female, was able to compete as such. Recently back from a visit to Washington, D.C., where Carlisle relayed these experiences to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, she addressed a…
Terri Cooper, the superintendent of the RSU 21 district that includes the town of Kennebunk, ended her controversial five years at the helm of the York County school district on Wednesday by resigning to the local board, which quickly accepted her notice of departure. “I’m sobbing with relief,” said Kennebunk parent Melissa McCue-McGrath. “My child has suffered under the leadership of this administration,” she added. “We are hurting,” another long-time teacher said at a school board meeting last year. A school board member in charge of human resources resigned last year saying she felt her family’s safety was in danger,…
A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin threw cold water on a ceasefire overture that U.S. Special Envoy Steven Witkoff brought to Moscow on Thursday even before U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiator got out of his plane. “It seems to me that no one needs any steps that imitate peaceful actions in this situation,” Yuri Ushakov said, adding that this was his personal opinion. A former Russian ambassador to Washington from Putin’s first term, Ushakov has long been seen as a hard-liner with close ties to the Russian president. At the same time, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s ministry…
Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau in the U.S. District Court of Maine for violating her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by censuring her last month for posting a publicly-available photograph of a trans-sexual identifying high school athlete and stripping her of her ability to speak or vote on behalf of her constituents in the legislature. Rep. Libby’s suit seeks declaratory relief that her censure violated her rights, and injunctive relief against her silencing and the removal of her voting privileges. It also seeks legal expenses from the defendant for the…
Already reeling from recent bad news in rankings on national scales when it comes to educational performance and overall tax burden per citizen, Maine received more discouraging news this week when the Maine Jobs Council unveiled the results of a recent study: Maine now ranks among the least productive states in America. According the study conducted by the Washington, DC-based Porter Development Initiative, Maine ranks 46th in the nation for Gross Domestic Product per worker (and 41st for GDP per capita). While the average national annual salary in 2023 was $67,692, Maine trailed this by over $13,000 at $53,876, the…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)’s Office of Civil Rights has found Maine to be in violation of Title IX protections of girls in school sports, according to a letter it sent to Maine Governor Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey. Late last month, the federal office announced it was investigating the Maine Department of Education’s refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order barring transgender athletes from playing on girls’ teams. “It is shameful that Governor Mills refuses to stand with women and girls. Her rejection of the anti-discrimination obligations that Maine voluntarily accepted…
Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) outside Shusha, Nagorno-Kabarakh
Substantial tariff hikes for goods from Canada, Mexico and China went into effect at midnight on Tuesday, and China has already reciprocated, as the threats underpinning U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy reached their deadline on March 4. Canada and Mexico now have 25 percent tariffs imposed on their goods (though it’s only ten percent for Canadian energy), and the tariff on Chinese goods was increased on Monday from ten to 20 percent. Beijing has already retaliated with a 15 percent tariff on U.S. agricultural imports, early reports indicate. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged reciprocal tariffs on U.S.…
After his first full month in office, President Donald Trump can point to at least one key statistic to show he’s already delivering on a core campaign promise: attempted, illegal crossings of the United States’ southern border are down over 70 percent for the month of February, initial figures show. In light of such a dramatic drop — coming in tandem with substantially increased enforcement — if securing America’s borders has always been a priority, why hasn’t this happened sooner? Among the first executive orders President Trump signed on inauguration day, January 20, was a twelve-point policy directive stepping up…
With a turnout estimated at over 500 Mainers, demonstrators gathered outside the State House in Augusta on Saturday to show their support for protecting girls in school sports from transgender athletes unfairly impacting the playing field, protestors and speakers at the event said. “We will protect our girls and we will NOT back down!” Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) said, explaining “They are the ones who have pushed their agenda on us and we have struggled to be heard … they have belittled biological facts and they have declared war on our girls,” referring to Democrats in the…
Maine’s senior U.S. senator, Susan Collins (R), signed on to allocate a nominal amount of federal funds to a uniquely targeted program for domestic violence prevention training for cosmetologists. “No state, no community, and no family is immune to the horrors of domestic violence. In Maine, domestic violence has historically been involved in approximately half of annual homicides. That’s unacceptable,” said Sen. Collins. The bill, the Supporting the Abused by Learning Options to Navigate Survivor (SALONS) Stories Act sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), drew bipartisan support from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.),…