Author: Steve Robinson

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…

Scientists working in the federal government warned officials from the Biden administration that a major Atlantic coast off-shore wind project would threaten sea life, but the Department of Interior approved the project anyways. The revelation emerged from reporting by Bloomberg, which obtained previously non-public communications between federal employees. “The warnings were delivered in unpublished correspondence weeks before Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management authorized the 12-turbine South Fork plan in November 2021,” Bloomberg wrote. “And they serve to underscore the potential ecological consequences and environmental tradeoff of a coming offshore wind boom along the US East Coast.” In this case,…

When Maine began allowing eligible residents to carry concealed firearms without a government license in 2015, gun control advocates warned that Wild West-style gun violence would erupt across the state. Instead, the opposite has happened. In fact, property crime and violent crime have fallen in Maine since the 2015 reform, according to crime data tracked by the FBI. The reform, introduced by State Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Auburn) and signed into law by Republican Gov. Paul LePage, ended a state-run gun control program that required individuals to obtain a permit before carrying a concealed firearm — effectively adopting a policy known…

Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director for N.I.H.’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, became the face of the U.S. government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As it happens, it’s a face Fauci is quite fond of. According to a revealing story in the New York Times about Fauci’s can’t-come-soon-enough retirement, Fauci, the highest paid federal employee, has decorated his house with portraits of himself. Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the NY Times, “The walls in Dr. Anthony S. Fauci’s home office are adorned with portraits of him, drawn and painted by some of his many fans.” So magnanimous is…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Laurel Duggan on December 28, 2022 Three high-profile Democratic governors are struggling to stabilize their states’ retirement programs due to a falling stock market and may have difficulties paying out benefits in the coming years, according to Politico. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, all of whom are considered potential candidates for the 2024 presidential race, have poured billions of dollars into their states’ pension funds, according to Politico. They may struggle to maintain their public images if they’re forced to raise taxes or make budget cuts to keep pension…

The Maine Legislature is set to pass Gov. Janet Mills’ massive $473 million spending bill after Senate Republicans forced the proposal into public hearings before the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. The bulk of the bill’s spending — $398 million — will go toward one-time checks for Maine residents. Although Mills’ communication staff have marketed the measure as a “winter heating aid package,” the money can be spent on everything from lobster to fentanyl. Mills asked the Legislature to pass the bill on an emergency basis. Doing so would allow the provisions to take effect immediately, but it also requires…

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a ban on many popular home and commercial appliances and plumbing fixtures takes effect Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023 thanks to a regulatory bill signed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker in March of 2021. The bill, “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” applies to both commercial and residential appliances and includes limits on the sale of everything from lights and plumbing fixtures to ovens and water coolers. The rules will govern what kind of appliances can be manufactured and installed in the state at a very granular level. For example, the law…

The latest disclosure Elon Musk has enabled since purchasing Twitter this year shows how the federal government directed Twitter and other social media companies to censor various opinions regarding COVID-19, according to documents posted to Twitter Monday. The records show federal bureaucrats under both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden communicated regularly with top level Twitter employees to censor individual accounts and sculpt public debate around public health policies. The latest batch of files, which were made available to journalist David Zweig of the Free Press, show that the federal government attempted to cover-up information that did not…

The Maine Department of Corrections now considers a Maine man who brutally murdered his parents in 2016 a female inmate. Andrew T. Balcer, 24, was originally listed on Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) documents as a male following his conviction on murder charges that could keep him behind bars until 2051. But in September, MDOC altered state records to describe Balcer as a female. MDOC also updated the booking photo associated with his incarceration. Andrew T. Balcer, who is now identified as Andrea (Source: MDOC) Records list Balcer, of Winthrop, as 6’1″ and 245 lbs. Balcer’s updated MDOC profile was…

Disgraced former Energy Department official Sam Brinton, who lost his job this month after a string of airport luggage thefts, helped craft a platform for school kids that is recommended by the Maine Department of Education. Brinton, who says he is “non-binary,” turned heads with his unique look and history-making appointment as deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Joe Biden administration. The appointment was celebrated by liberals as social progress, but it ended in embarrassment after he was arrested for stealing strangers’ luggage at two different airports within the…

A Massachusetts man who had eluded law enforcement for more than a month was arrested Monday in Waterville for alleged drug trafficking, kidnapping, and the illegal possession of firearms. Maine State Police found Diego Martinez, 31, hiding in an attic crawl space after several hours of negotiations couldn’t convince him to exit the house voluntarily. Law enforcement had been pursuing Martinez, who has an extensive criminal record, since Nov. 11 when he led Sabattus cops on a high speed chase. In May 2021, Martinez was extradited from Massachusetts to Maine to face firearm and drug charges after leading cops on…

The mother of a Damariscotta 13-year-old who public school officials encouraged to undertake a gender transition is filing a complaint against the school with the Maine Human Rights Commission. Amber Lavigne, of Newcastle, discovered that Great Salt Bay Community School employees had started to socially transition her daughter into a boy when she discovered a breast binder in the girl’s bedroom. Her daughter later told her the binder was provided to her by a social worker at the school. Lavigne went public with the shocking story Dec. 14 at a school meeting. The social worker who provided the binder to…

The school system in Maine’s largest city has been operating a résumé coaching program that is only available to people with the right color skin. Portland Schools System Superintendent Xavier E. Botana, who announced last week that he’s resigning earlier than he’d previously planned due to the school’s inability to pay hourly employees correctly, confirmed in an email that the school provides expert assistance to help employees advance in their careers — but only if they are not white. The existence of the race-based career advancement fund first came to light in a report from the Portland Phoenix on Botana’s…

President Joe Biden met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as Congress prepares to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package the will provide $47 billion to the country. The U.S. has already provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine totaling $50.47 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank that has been tracking foreign aid to the country since the beginning of the country’s war with Russia. In November, the Biden administration requested an additional $37 billion for Ukraine, and the new proposal exceeds that mark by $10 billion. [RELATED: How Much Money Has…

The fate of more than $86,000 in campaign cash left unspent during the 2022 election provides a glimpse of Augusta’s seedy underbelly and the supremely petty dysfunction of the House Republican caucus. The House Republican Fund (HRF), a committee formed in 2002 that has helped Republicans campaign for office for the past two decades, raised a little more than $1M this past election cycle. Much of that went toward electioneering materials, but on the day after the election, there was still $86,567.22 sitting in the account. The money sat in the fund untouched until Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor)…

Maine’s Congressional Delegation and Gov. Janet Mills gave themselves a hearty pat on the back Tuesday for convincing Members of Congress to temporarily halt an unscientific regulatory crusade on the Maine lobstering industry. “We have always said that we will pursue any and all policy solutions to protect our hardworking lobstermen and women along Maine’s coast,” they said in a joint statement emailed out by Mills. “Our provision, which relies upon the expertise of the professionals at the Maine Department of Marine Resources, was included in the government funding bill released this morning,” they said. [RELATED: Lobster Wars: Robinson Tells…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…