Author: Steve Robinson

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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:…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

[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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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.…

Maine Republicans have already decided on who will lead the 13-member Republican caucus in the State Senate, but the contest to decide who will become Minority Leader in the House of Representatives is going to be a bit messier. Right now, four Reps have thrown their hats in the ring: Billy Bob Faulkingham, Laurel Libby, Mike Lemelin, and Josh Morris. Faulkingham, a lobsterman from Winter Harbor, has spent much of the last year in the spotlight thanks to the ongoing federal assault on the lobstering industry. He’s a portrait of the Downeast blue-collar guy, a 6th generation lobsterman who got…

President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which many viewed as an illegal ploy to court millennial voters, has gone up in flames after a federal judge ruled that the program was an unlawful encroachment on Congress’ authority. US District Judge Mark Pittman said the program, which was done without the consent of Congress, was unconstitutional. “In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” Pittman wrote. “Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government.” The Biden administration had been sending out emails…

Sam Bankman-Fried, known in the cryptocurrency community simply as SBF, became a poster child for the industry after he cozied up to Washington, D.C. regulators and spent a whopping $39.8 million on Democratic political campaigns. The doughy geek even said on a podcast earlier this year his “soft ceiling” for spending cash to help Democrats get elected was $1 billion. Now, instead of help liberals fight for office, he’s fighting to stay solvent — and perhaps out of a jail cell. SBF’s crypto firm filed for bankruptcy Friday after he resigned as CEO following a whirlwind week that saw his…

Senators-elect Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) and Lisa Keim (R-Oxford) have been elected to leadership positions in the 13-member Republican Senate caucus. Both are wildly popular within their districts and won the leadership spots unopposed. Keim won re-election Tuesday with 62 percent of the vote in her district, while Stewart won with 70 percent. Keim has been in the Maine Senate since 2016 and this is Stewart’s second term. Outgoing Senate Minority Leaders Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) and Sen. Matt Pouliot (R-Kennebec) both supported the new leaders. The pair will have their work cut out for them as they lead a small…

Less than two days after the 2022 midterm elections, the paper of record for the American left is already signaling the start of a push to bring child masking back into public schools. The story published Thursday morning looks at an experiment in the Boston school system where one school imposed masks on children while another did not. “The bottom line: Masking mandates were linked with significantly reduced numbers of Covid cases in schools,” reporter Roni Caryn Rabin writes. The study appeared on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. In Maine, only four people under the age of…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills was ecstatic Tuesday night after it appeared she’d sailed to victory over former Republican Gov. Paul LePage to win a second term in the Blaine House. Amid her victory speech, something odd happened: a phone call from U.S. Sen. Angus King, who is unenrolled but who caucuses with and endorses Democrats, including Mills. Political watchers immediately flagged video of Mills taking the call on stage for The Maine Wire. Curiously, Mills never looks down at her phone before announcing to the crowd that it is “Angus” calling. Mills sister immediately steps in to say, “Oh, is…

The Lewiston Sun Journal’s Steve Collins wrote a gushing profile about a young Lewiston community organizer, Mana Hared Abdi, who won an unopposed election for the State House of Representatives. Collins, who last year won the prestigious Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year award, failed to mention that his son Kiernan Innes Majerus-Collins, was Abdi’s campaign treasurer. https://twitter.com/thekiernanmc/status/1552307416745795588 “One of the stars of Lewiston’s immigrant community, 26-year-old community organizer Mana Abdi, won election Tuesday to a state House seat that will make her the first Somali-American lawmaker in Augusta,” said Collins. Collins describes another member of the immigrant community…

President Joe Biden gave the green light Wednesday to federal authorities to begin investigating Elon Musk following his acquisition of Twitter, a social media platform that is influential due to its use by almost every member of the news media. “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that — I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at. And that’s all I’ll say,” he continued. Biden’s comments lend the Commander-in-Chief’s stamp of…

Less than 24 hours after the polls closed on Election Day, the surviving House Republicans have already begun throwing their hats in the ring for minority leadership positions. First in: Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) and Rep. Josh Morris (R-Turner). [RELATED: 2022 Autopsy: Maine Republicans Need Fundamental Transformation and New Leaders…]See their announcement emails below:

The Maine State Police arrested 56-year-old Jason Follette on Wednesday in connection with the sexual assault of a now 47-year-old woman in Hancock that has gone unsolved for more than 25 years ago. The arrest was made possible by genetic testing equipment that was not available to law enforcement in 1996 at the time of the assault. The then-21-year-old victim was sexually assaulted in her Hancock apartment on August 11, 1996. According to MSP, evidence collected at the scene of the crime that day allowed them to obtain a warrant for an unidentified male in 2002. More recently, the DNA…

It’s difficult to overstate just how horrible last night went for Maine Republicans. Truly, the 2022 Maine elections will go down in history as one of the most humiliating defeats ever suffered by the Maine Republicans. For the next two years, Republicans in Augusta will be mere spectators to one-party rule. A few days ago, they were plotting which of them would ascend to Speaker of the House, but now the few GOPers who remain are an endangered species, operating an insurgency from remote outposts in the Great North Woods and Aroostook County. At times like these, it’s traditional and…

The Maine Republican Party lost early, often, and everywhere Tuesday despite predictions of nationwide backlash against an unpopular president and the Democrat Party. Republican Gov. Paul LePage fell to incumbent Democrat Janet Mills, 42.9 to 55. Former Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin lost outright to incumbent Democrat Jared Golden (ME-CD2), 48.7 to 44.5, and Republican long shot Ed Thelander lost to Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-CD1), 62.6 to 37.4. Republicans in Augusta suffered similar defeats, flipping a few seats but failing to retake either House. When the dust settles, Maine Democrats may even gain a seat in the Senate. The implications of…

The Maine Democratic Socialists of America viewed Portland as a proving ground for progressive city reforms, but even the overwhelmingly Democrat city rejected most of the socialist proposals. City voters rejected an $18 per hour minimum wage increase that also eliminated the tip credit for restaurant workers. And the city blocked new limits on short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO. The one socialist victory came by way of rent control. Billed as “tenant protection,” the initiative will impose strict rent controls pegged to the Consumer Price Index. Annual rental increases will now be limited to 70 percent of CPI rather…

UPDATE 10:26 pm: A disappointing night for Republicans across the state of Maine. State Senate and House races will be some of the last ones called this evening, and those races will determine the next two years of Maine politics. Mills enters a second term with a commanding victory of LePage, but if Republicans came manage to win a majority in the House, Mills could face for the first time a legislature that isn’t eager to do her bidding. A Republican House could also upend the elections for constitutional officers. UPDATE 10:20 pm: Gov. Janet Mills will win a second…

UPDATE: Republicans Blake Masters and Kari Lake have filed suit against Maricopa County to keep the polls open following ballot machine errors this morning which slowed voting. An Election Day disaster is unfolding for election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, where voters are casting ballots in a widely watched gubernatorial race and a pivotal Senate race that may decided the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, began seeing issues early this morning as ballot tabulating machines started malfunctioning. Voters reported an inability to cast their ballots and confusion on the part of…

The national Democratic Party is staring down a wave election that could see its majorities in the House and Senate swept away. An unpopular president, beset by economic malaise and high inflation, is unlikely to run for re-election. The all-powerful House Speaker is signaling readiness for retirement. The vaunted rise of the post-Dobbs abortion voter may not materialize. In former Democratic strongholds, like New York, Republicans are on the offensive. So what’s the communications strategy on the eve of Election Day? Enter: The Red Mirage. The late radio host Rush Limbuagh used to be an expert at noticing when talking…

One of the most watched U.S. Senate contests is playing out in Pennsylvania, where Democratic candidate and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman faces Republican celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. On the eve of Election Day, Fetterman’s campaign joined a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Secretary of State arguing that mail-in ballots with no date or incorrect dates should be counted just like any other ballot. The campaign is asking a federal judge to quickly rule that election officials count tens of thousands of so-called spoiled ballots. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week such ballots should not be counted and should instead be…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, in response to increasing home heating prices and dropping temperatures, has eased air pollution rules concerning the importation of non-low sulfur kerosene. However, Mills is hedging her bets on whether she’ll also bend the rules for the import of non-low sulfur No. 2 heating oil. According to an Oct. 31 guidance memo issued to Maine kerosene importers and distributors, the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection has re-interpreted laws regulating air pollution to allow for kerosene with a higher sulfur content than previously allowed to be imported into the state. Jeffrey S. Crawford, director of the Bureau…

The New York Times, just a few days before Florida’s gubernatorial election, dug deep into incumbent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ background for some titillating hearsay from people who knew him when he was a schoolteacher at a private school. “At a private school 20 years ago, the future Florida governor was a popular history teacher and coach,” reads the report. “But some students were taken aback by his comments on the Civil War and abortion.” Yikes! You hear that? Some students were… taken aback. In more than 1,500 words, NYT crack scribes Frances Robles and Patricia Mazzei plow deep into…

A major national think tank that promotes left-wing policies is warning Democrats that the Democratic Party is out of touch with voters on key issues, unpopular, and far too extreme. Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank created in 2015, published a clarion call Monday warning Democrat voters and party insiders that the groups research shows Democratic politicians are failing to tap into voter angst over the economy, inflation, and immigration. Further, the group suggests that the issues that have dominated Democratic party messaging heading into the 2022 election. On issues like the economy, Third Way’s polling finds voters trust…

Taxpayer funding for Out Maine, a far left nonprofit group, increased significantly during Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ first term as governor, tax documents show.  Out Maine, a Rockland-based organization, reported receiving more than $215,000 in taxpayer money in 2020, according to the organization’s most recent Form 990. The group also reported income worth more than $37,000 on “training and youth registration fees” as well as $485,000 in private contributions. Taxpayer dollars flowing to Out Maine have increased every year since 2016, the first year it reported receiving government funding. In 2019, the group got $112,690 in government grants. In 2018,…

Maine school kids have been receiving their very own Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards as the result of Pandemic Era programs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at ameliorating child hunger. Although the final benefits for 2022 were supposed to have been issued in September, at least one parent says their 9 and 12 years olds came home with fresh EBT cards this week. According to the State website, Maine has been authorized to issue the P-EBT cards to children under the age of 6. Eligibility for the EBT cards is determined by enrollment in the Supplement Nutritional Assistance…

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills doubled down Thursday on her mandate that healthcare workers in Maine get the COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of working the state. In August of 2021, the Mills Administration declared that all healthcare workers would have to get the experimental mRNA injections or else be fired from their jobs by Oct. 1, 2021. Unlike mandates in other states and municipalities, Mills rejected exemptions for religious reasons. [RELATED: Fight Over Mills’ Vax Mandate for Health Care Workers Lingers…] At the time, there was little evidence that the vaccine limited transmission of the virus, yet stopping the spread…

Moderators in Thursday’s gubernatorial debate for some reason spent 4.5 minutes on the subject of the “gender pay gap” but failed to mention that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills pays her female staffers less than her male staffers. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1588531667425116160 The Maine Wire’s analysis of state payroll data revealed a glaring gap between the pay men and women working for Mills receive. “We’re doing a lot to try and equalize the pay,” Mills said. As Governor, she has control over the salaries paid to employees working in her office. Although progressives use the gender pay gap as a rhetorical device to attack…

Gov. Janet Mills said in a debate Thursday Maine needs more asylum seekers and refugees in order to provide businesses with labor. “Do I encourage them to come? Interesting question. I haven’t done anything to encourage or discourage them. But we have tried to make Maine a welcoming place,” said Mills. “Because, look, I go around the state of Maine and business tell me what they need is more workers. These people have work credentials, they have experience, we need them to be here to work,” she said. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1588562577743052800 Under federal law, only those granted asylum status and permanent residency…

The Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest newspaper, filed an op-ed Sunday advocating the curious position that politicians have no control over monetary inflation, so voters shouldn’t concern themselves with complicated ideas like the destruction of the U.S. dollar’s value. “When we act as if elected officials have responsibility for the host of economic variables that got us here,” the Herald’s editorial writers inveigh, assumably with their eyes closed, noses in the air, “we let the ungovernable distract us from the governable.” Inflation, in the distinguished editorial board’s view, is something like an earthquake or a lightning strike, a natural phenomenon…

Opponents of Gov. Janet Mills’ COVID-19 vaccination mandate for Maine health care workers are vowing to continue fighting the policy, even if it means arguing the case before the Supreme Court, the same court that has twice thwarted attempts to halt or challenge the mandate. Liberty Counsel, a non-profit that litigates in defense of religious liberty and is representing several plaintiffs in Maine, thinks the tide is turning against mandates as governments and other organizations increasingly back away from mandates and restore fired employees. “Those who enforced vaccination mandates in Maine or in any place should be very concerned,” said…

Mainers will find the State’s heating assistance program difficult to navigate this heating season because long waitlists, bureaucratic handwringing, and delays in the creation of an online application portal. The Maine Wire’s investigation of the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program found that the non-profit agencies administering the program in partnership with the Maine House Authority rarely answer the phones, often don’t return phone calls, and, when they do, appointments to determine eligibility for the program can’t happen for three months or more. The application process was supposed to be an easy online experience following an emergency bill passed in…

Parents read from a sexually explicit LGBT-themed book found in Maine’s schools in a new ad from Maine Families First PAC airing online and on TV stations in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. The ad began airing last night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5-Sb9QooKBE&feature=youtu.be “I’m actually horrified that this is in our schools,” says one parent. “It’s not the schools’ job to introduce pornography to our children,” says another. In the finally days of the gubernatorial contest between former Gov. Paul LePage and Gov. Janet Mills, the ad draws a direct line between the graphic books popping up in Maine schools in recent years and…

Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said Wednesday that “woke” doctors who are “mutilating” minors should lose their medical licenses, be cut off from federal funding, and sent to prison. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1587763851314929666 Although Gabbard doesn’t specify which procedures she’s talking about, it’s pretty clear the tweet is aimed at doctors who perform surgeries related to gender transitions. Such surgeries have exploded in popularity in the last decade, with many cosmetic surgeons in the country specializing in so-called “gender affirming care.” Gabbard, a former Democrat from Hawaii and a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has regularly drawn attention for opinions that…

Former Republican President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his 2024 campaign for president after next week’s midterm elections, according to a report from the Associated Press. “Aides to the former president are making quiet preparations for a 2024 presidential campaign that could be launched soon after next week’s midterm elections as Trump tries to capitalize on expected Republican wins to propel himself toward becoming the front-runner for his party’s nomination,” wrote AP. Whether Trump will pull the trigger on another run for the White House has been the subject of intense speculation by Republican voters and conservative media. Florida Gov. Ron…

Members of a commission in Augusta are proposing the creation of a new rental assistance welfare program that would cost Maine taxpayers more than $182 million per year — or $500,000 per day. The push for a new state welfare program comes as funding for the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program expires at the end of November. The program, which began under former President Donald Trump and was funded again under President Joe Biden, sent more than $270 million to landlords and hotel operators to help renters remain sheltered during the government lockdowns. Now that ERA recipients are…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills spent more than $500,000 to mail physical checks, rather than make $850 instant electronic deposits, so she could also include a signed letter taking credit for the payments days before Election Day. “You — the people of Maine — are our greatest asset, and I will always fight for you,” Mills wrote in the letter. The campaign-style mailer on official letterhead also touts what the governor claims are indications Maine’s economy is recovering from the government lockdowns and encourages recipients of the letter to find out whether they qualify for other forms of government assistance. Republicans…

If it’s brown, it’s down! Maine’s 2021 hunting season resulted in plenty of overstuffed deep freezers, according to the new report from Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW). Maine hunters bagged 21,697 whitetail bucks and 11,066 whitetail does in 2021, according to MDIFW. Another 3,313 adolescent males and 2,871 adolescent females were tagged. Archers accounted for 3,124 adult deer and muzzleloaders took down 1,595, while the vast majority were dropped with regular firearms: 33,177. According to the results of a survey MDIFW sends out to hunting license holders, Maine hunters reported spending more than 7 days hunting for…

The Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, a short-term program designed to protect Maine renters from the economic harm caused by government lockdowns, will run out of funding in November. “Based on our current estimates we believe program funding will expire by the end of November 2022,” MaineHousing Communications Director Scott Thistle said in an email Thursday. Under the ERA, Mainers could apply to receive government support to pay unpaid rent and ongoing support keeping current with payments. More than 33,000 people in Maine took advantage of the program, which ensured that landlords didn’t have to deal with widespread evictions in…

The Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) had employees take an hour off of work on Thursday for a lecture from a little-known left-wing activist, and they’re refusing to answer questions about whether the event was mandatory and how much it cost the taxpayers. Roy King, a diversity equity and inclusion manager for the DOC, last Monday said he would talk with The Maine Wire by phone about the jail system inviting activist Nick Wagner to speak with employees. The phone didn’t ring. Instead, King later referred us to Anna Black. Questions submitted to Black about whether attendance for the left-wing…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, told college students Sunday widespread and increasing inflation of the U.S. dollar was a distraction and a Republican talking point, according to audio obtained and circulated by the Maine Republican Party. “I watched Meet the Press this morning, and more talk about: ‘Well now Republicans have this inflation issue’ — people, it’s a distraction,” Mills told an audience at Bates College in Lewiston. “They’re distracting people from the issues they really want to vote on when they get in office,” she said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJsLhCODrFI The audio appears to be edited, but Mills’ statement is easily…

Former Gov. Paul LePage and State Sen. Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) are calling for an investigation into whether a phone call from former State Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) played a role in potato mogul Sue McCrum’s decision to drop out of a State Senate race in March 2020. McCrum, whose husband Jay is the owner of Penobscot McCrum, a major potato processor in Aroostook County, has never publicly said why she left that race on March 6, 2020 less than 24 hours after filing to run. But the move has kindled rumor, speculation, and whispered conversations from The County to…

Hillary R. Clinton, former U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and candidate for President of the United States, cut a video promoting the Maine Democratic Socialists of America’s Portland minimum wage ballot initiative for a Twitter account with 57 followers. The 45 second Twitter video featuring Clinton was posted to social media on Thursday and has received less than 4,000 views. The video was also posted to a Maine DSA “Youtube Shorts” account. Although users can’t see how many views the short got on the 27-subscriber YouTube channel, the endorsement did get six “likes.” https://twitter.com/onefairwageme/status/1585754144819728386 On Election Day, residents of…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills reversed her position on mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for school children Thursday night during her third debate with former Republican Gov. Paul LePage. On Monday night, when asked whether she supported mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for school children, Mills left open the possibility that she would impose mandates after the elections. “No, not at this time,” she said, in response to a question about imposing the mandates. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1584701370980237313 During Thursday night’s debate, Mills struck a markedly different message, in substance and tone. “No, because it’s still emergency use authorization,” she said, when asked a similar question. She did…