Author: Steve Robinson

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are renewing their call for a federal investigation into illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations following a Maine Wire investigation that identified more than 100 foreign-owned drug houses in rural Maine. [READ: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] “This reporting reaffirms the severity of the potential harm these illegal Chinese marijuana growing operations pose to communities throughout Maine,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in a statement to the Maine Wire. “To help address the public health and national security risks, I, along with the entire Maine Delegation, called on the U.S.…

The number of Chinese nationals entering the U.S. illegally across the southern border has exploded this year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In September, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered 7,271 individuals from the People’s Republic of China attempting to enter the country illegally. That’s more than any previous month going back to January 2020. In all of 2020, less than 19,000 Chinese foreign nationals were caught entering the U.S. illegally. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] Those arriving illegally in the U.S. from China are almost all single adults. While…

State and federal law enforcement agencies have known about the existence of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned marijuana grows in Maine for at least two years. Yet the sites have continued to operate, for the most part, with apparent impunity. According to a leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo, there are nearly 800 Chinese-owned illegal marijuana growing operations in the U.S., and almost 300 of them are located in rural Maine. [RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…] In September, DHS sent an unclassified memo to Maine law enforcement agencies asking for their help in collecting…

Illegal Chinese marijuana grows have taken over much of rural Maine. The government is either incapable — or unwilling — to do anything about it. The Maine Wire has identified more than 100 properties that are part of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned sites operating as unlicensed, illicit cannabis growing operations in rural Maine. According to an unclassified memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by the Maine Wire, the illicit grows are operated by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). The properties cover Somerset County, Penobscot County, Kennebec County, Franklin County, Androscoggin County, and Oxford County. The…

A new statewide organization has formed in Maine to support parents who choose to educate their children at home rather than send them to government-run schools. The Maine Home Education Alliance (MHEA) was founded in July of this year by homeschool parents throughout the state to support other parents and defend and preserve the legal right to homeschool.  “The right of parents to direct their children’s education is fundamental and has been confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court on several occasions. This is true whether they attend a government-run school or not,” said Becky Grant-Widen, MHEA President.. Grant is the…

The U.S. dollar has lost more than one-fifth of its purchasing power since 2019, according to an email sent Monday to Maine state employees concerning ongoing collective bargaining over contract negotiations. “Since 2019, these state employees have seen a 20.5% increase in wages; inflation through that same time frame has been 22.0%,” said Kirsten Figueroa, Commissioner for the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. [RELATED: Buyer’s Remorse: MSEA-SEIU Local 1989, Maine’s 2nd Largest Union, Files Complaint After Mills Blows Off Talks…] Figueroa told state employees that the Mills Administration’s goal is to “increase wages to the greatest extent possible within…

Five members of the Maine Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America were arrested Friday for criminal trespassing after they staged a pro-Palestine protest at the Portland office of Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). Socialists Leo Hilton, 26, Elinor Hilton, 23, Christopher Cushing, 26, Jamie Clark, 22, and Ella D. Tabasky, 42, were lugged just after 4pm Friday at Rep. Pingree’s office on the Portland Fishing Pier, according to the Portland Police Department’s arrest logs. In a video posted on X, Hilton said the protesters wanted to speak with Pingree’s staff about a resolution to halt aid to Israel until the…

An Auburn law firm took out a full-page ad in the Lewiston Sun Journal last week advertising a roundtable discussion to explore whether the victims of the Oct. 25 mass shooting can obtain a financial settlement through a civil lawsuit. “As these tragic events become commonplace and elected officials fail to make significant policy reform in their wake, legal recourse has become one strategy in the fight for justice,” a press release from Gideon Asen LLC states. The event is free of charge and everyone is welcome to attend or watch by Zoom. According to the press release, the discussion…

A marijuana dispensary in Portland that is owned by an Israeli immigrant was targeted last week with “Free Palestine” posters, the second instance of a Jewish-owned business in Portland getting vandalized in recent weeks. “I guess it’s somebody that knows that I’m Israeli,” said East Coast Gold owner Avi Ruimy. “We did not put up any Israeli flag or anything like that. I’ve been living in the United States for 22 years,” said Ruimy. “I’m an American citizen for 15 years.” A search of the area was not able to discover any other businesses with similar signs plastered next to…

The Maine Democratic Party was the recipient of $100,000 in donations stemming from notorious fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s corrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and they have no plans to give it back. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which on Thursday won seven guilty verdicts against Bankman-Fried, has called on political committees that received donations from FTX to return that money. Maine Democrats have refused. “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York,…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday said she would be forming an independent commission to examine the failures and oversights that led up to Robert R. Card Jr.’s Oct. 25 murder spree. “It is important to recognize that, from what we know thus far, on multiple occasions over the last ten months, concerns about Mr. Card’s mental health and his behavior were brought to the attention of his Army National Reserve Unit, as well as law enforcement agencies here in Maine and in New York,” Mills said in a statement. “This raises crucial questions about actions taken and what more…

The systemic failures that led to Robert R. Card Jr.’s mass murder spree on Oct. 25 in Lewiston demand multiple investigations at multiple levels of government. Based on public records reported by the Maine Wire and other media outlets, it appears clear that Maine law enforcement knew for months that Card was a ticking time bomb. We’re not just talking about a random tip to an FBI hotline; we’re talking about up to a dozen Maine law enforcement officers at multiple agencies who had detailed knowledge of Card’s deteriorating mental health and the specific threats he had made, including against…

An international wind power company is pulling the plug on a major offshore wind development favored by the Biden Administration, the most recent in a series of offshore wind deals that have soured off the Atlantic Coast. Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind power developer, announced the following this week: “US offshore wind projects have experienced further negative developments from adverse impacts relating to supply chains, increased interest rates, and the lack of an OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Certificate) adjustment on Sunrise Wind…” That combination of headwinds means the Danish energy company will be forced to scrap development on two…

The Army Reserve unit that mass murderer Robert R. Card Jr. served in since 2002 also contains several members of Maine law enforcement. All of them were aware of Card’s deteriorating mental health and threats of violence several weeks before he went to murder 18 people in Maine’s worst mass shooting. Card was a member of the Army Reserve’s Bravo Company 3-304th Infantry Regiment stationed in Saco, a unit that includes the Sheriff of Oxford County, an Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Deputy, and an Ellsworth Police Officer. According to documents provided to media by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), Card…

A Jewish lawyer who has been practicing law in southern Maine since 1979 had his Portland office targeted this weekend with pro-Palestine graffiti. “We have the American flag and then in the other window we have the Israeli flag hanging there, which we put up immediately following October 7, because we are a Jewish family and we wanted to show our alignment with Israel,” said Roberta Cope, the wife of attorney Steven Cope. Cope, a bankruptcy attorney, has lived in Maine for his entire life. On October 7, Islamic terrorists, operating under the banner of Gaza-based Hamas, launched a flurry…

The Army Reservist who brutally murdered 18 Mainers in Lewiston on Wednesday evening has been found dead, multiple Maine officials have confirmed. The late Robert R. Card Jr., the primary suspect in an act of domestic terrorism that targeted a popular bowling alley and a bar in Maine’s largest city, was found dead shortly before 9:00 pm in Lisbon. Initial reports suggest Card was found dead in the area near the recycling and waste management facilities of Lisbon, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Hours earlier at a press conference, the names of his victims had finally…

The Army Reservist who brutally murdered 18 Mainers in Lewiston on Wednesday evening has been found dead, multiple Maine officials have confirmed. The late Robert R. Card Jr., the primary suspect in an act of domestic terrorism that targeted a popular bowling alley and a bar in Maine’s largest city, was found dead shortly before 9:00 pm in Lisbon. Initial reports suggest Card was found dead in the area near the recycling and waste management facilities of Lisbon, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Hours earlier at a press conference, the names of his victims had finally…

The invisible shield that has always protected the people of Maine from the insanity of modern American life has been pierced by the semi-automatic gunfire of a schizophrenic, military-trained monster. One of our own, a man who for two decades was a protector in the U.S. Army Reserves, has visited incomprehensible and inhuman violence upon places known for joy, and people known for love. For years, Mainers have looked aghast at acts of domestic terrorism elsewhere and comforted ourselves with the thought that Maine is different, safer, that kind of thing doesn’t happen here. But now, sadly, our eighteen murdered…

Correction: This article originally misstated the boat launch where police found Robert Card’s abandoned vehicle. It has been edited for accuracy. More than 40 hours after shots rang out at two popular nightlife locations in Lewiston Wednesday night, Maine’s largest manhunt continues to scour the state in search of a Bowdoin man accused of murdering 18 in cold blood. The ongoing search for Robert R. Card Jr., which initially involved searching the area around his abandoned white Subaru in Lisbon, has grown to include aerial surveillance of a site in Monmouth, ground searches in Orono, Belgrade, and other towns, and…

A city councilor from Maine’s largest city has blamed the single largest shooting of white people in Maine’s modern history on “white nationalism.” “As the statements begin to roll out,” City Councilor Victoria Pelletier said in a Friday Instagram post, “make sure you peep which one of your representatives actually calls this what it is: an act of violent, white nationalism and domestic terrorism.” As of Friday morning, every publicly known victim of Robert R. Card’s Wednesday night shooting spree has been white. Law enforcement has refrained from commenting on Card’s motivations, but they have revealed that Card was sectioned…

The alleged shooter in Wednesday’s attack in Lewiston that left 18 dead and 13 injured was evaluated by police and an Army hospital after military officials flagged concerns about his erratic behavior. The Maine Information & Analysis Center, an intelligence arm of the Maine State Police, released information Wednesday night showing that Robert R. Card II was previously investigated for erratic and potentially violent behavior. “According to local law enforcement, Card recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up a National Guard base in Saco, ME,” the MIAC memo said. Maine Commissioner for the…

As hundreds of law enforcement officers scour Maine in search of alleged Lewiston shooter Robert R. Card II, 40, of Bowdoin, President Joe Biden called for new federal gun control laws. Card is facing 8 counts of murder and will face 10 more when all of the victims are identified. Another 13 were injured. The two chosen sites of violence, Schemengees Bar and Grille and the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, are just four miles apart. In response to the shocking mass shooting, the worst in Maine’s history, President Joe Biden called on Congress to ban “assault weapons and high-capacity magazines”.…

Mills:"I have spoken twice with President Biden, I've spoken with VP Harris, secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, and Secretary of HHS Becerra… All have expressed the Biden administration's full and unwavering support." pic.twitter.com/mWdQQVvBXB— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 26, 2023 Maine State Police Colonel William Ross:"Approximately 8 people (the deceased) at this point have been identified, 10 of these victims still need to be identified." pic.twitter.com/GWqPxjst8d— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) October 26, 2023 "Currently, there is an arrest warrant for 8 counts of murder for Mr. Card… Those counts will probably go to a total of 18." https://t.co/K42LqDlEKV— The Maine…

The leader of a Democratic Socialists of America rally in Maine that called Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel a “morally and legally legitimate response” is a social studies teacher at the Maine Virtual Academy (MEVA), an Augusta-based public charter school. Zachary Campbell, 29, of Waterville, joined MEVA in 2019 to teach civics, modern world history, Maine history, and U.S. history, according to a profile that appeared in a MEVA newsletter. The public high school teacher was among the most vocal of Maine DSA members who took to Monument Square last week to denounce Israel and advocate Hamas just days after…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills committed an apparent social media blunder on Monday evening, posting images of Portland, Maine’s notorious Marginal Way homeless encampment along side images of Maine lakes and mountains. “Some local travel these last few weeks,” she wrote from her personal Facebook account, adding a challenge for her followers to identify where those locations were in Maine. Screen captures of the images circulated quickly among Maine politicos, with many wondering if the images of bedraggled tents on public land wound up in the post accidentally. But Mills appeared to confirm that she had posted the images on purpose…

Sam Patten had to survive getting nearly stabbed to death, twice, in order to live long enough to write the memoir he will publish on Oct. 3. Fans of Maine politics and international political intrigue should be glad he did, because “Dangerous Company: The Misadventures of a ‘Foreign Agent'” is a captivating tale of Patten’s path from Maine Republican hand to globe-trotting political operative. Patten’s story reads a bit like Forrest Gump, only with more sex, booze, and sketchy Russians, with Patten often at the center of some of the biggest triumphs and most embarrassing scandals in American foreign policy.…

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered more Chinese foreign nationals attempting to enter the country illegally in fiscal year 2023 then in the previous three years, with nearly 40,000 single adults crossing since October. In fiscal years 2022 and 2021, CBP reported encountering, respectively, 26,447 and 23,172 illegal border crossers who were determined to have come from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In July, 5,133 Chinese foreign nationals attempted to enter the U.S. illegally, the highest number for a single month in all of CBP’s publicly available data. https://x.com/BenBergquam/status/1703820305825951918?s=20 The surge in illegal immigration from the PRC comes…

A school teacher at private school in Maine was fired after he vocally criticized so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programming that the school adopted after a Spanish teacher alleged the school was rife with racism. Jonathan McBrine, 51, of Machiasport, was placed on leave from Washington Academy, a private school in eastern Maine, in 2021 and eventually fired. The firing derailed the longtime teacher’s career in education. He’s now written, but has yet to publish, a book chronicling his ouster from the school. At the time, the country was in an uproar over the May 25, 2020 killing of George…

Democratic lawmakers from southern Maine are crying foul over public meetings concerning the proposed Pickett Mountain mining project. The Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is discriminating against Democrats from southern Maine, the Democrats claimed in a letter last week, by holding the meetings in Millinocket, about a hour’s drive south of the proposed mining operation. In a letter last week to the LUPC’s Tim Carr, almost every Democrat with a district south of Orono bemoaned the location of the two meetings, which will help determine whether Wolfden Mt. Chase, LLC gets to mine private land it already owns. “[The commissions]…

The senior House Republican on the legislative committee that oversees insurance in Maine joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Friday morning to discuss a letter he sent to Maine’s insurance regulator calling on him to investigate whether Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) supplied false information to an insurance company. “I think that the the superintendent of insurance ought to have some interest in some of the actions that Troy Jackson may have made,” said Rep. Josh Morris (R-Turner). Morris said Jackson is suing the couple that sold him an Augusta home in 2019 over damage present in the house…

A Fairfield father says that a federally funded health clinic operating within Lawrence High School provided his minor daughter with a baggy of prescription anti-depressants without his knowledge or consent. When the girl’s father, Eric Sack, discovered the baggy of pills over the weekend, his daughter told him that it was provided to her by the Bulldog Health Center, a School Based Health Center (SBHC) at Lawrence High School. Sack saw the the pills as an infringement on his parental rights, but he was also concerned that the school’s clinic sent unlabeled drugs with no child-resistant container into his home,…

Mainers learned this week that left-wing mega donor Johann Georg Wyss, known as Hansjörg Wyss, bankrolled a national nonprofit’s purchase of five daily news papers in Maine, including the Portland Press Herald. At the same time, a Wyss-funded nonprofit, States Newsroom, has launched a new online outlet in Maine, the Maine Morning Star. Wyss is hardly a newcomer to influencing Maine politics — even if he is, as a Swiss foreign national, prohibited under federal law from voting in America or donating to American political campaigns. [RELATED: Major Progressive Donors, Including Swiss Foreign National Hansjörg Wyss, Funded Press Herald Purchase…

The majority of daily news outlets in Maine are now bankrolled by some of the country’s largest donors to the Democratic Party and left-wing interest groups. Mega donors George Soros and Swiss foreign national Hansjörg Wyss are among the uber wealthy progressives that are bankrolling a new “non-partisan” news outlet in Maine, the Maine Morning Star, through the left-wing nonprofit States Newsroom. That news comes as a national news website reported Sunday that Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Wyss Foundation reportedly made large financial contributions to the National Trust for Local News, the nonprofit that recently acquired five of Maine’s…

The sole study purporting to show that a massive $4.9 billion Aroostook County wind power project will benefit Maine ratepayers was paid for by the developers of that project and conducted by the former employer of Maine Public Utilities Commissioner Carolyn “Carrie” Gilbert. In June, Daymark Energy Advisors, a Worcester, Mass.-based consulting firm, released a 22-page document claiming that the 1,000 megawatt King Pine Wind project and the Aroostook Corridor transmission line would, together, reduce electricity costs in Maine over the projects’ 25-30 year lifespans. Boston-based Longroad Energy, the wind tower developer, and New York-based LS Power, the developer of…

The city of Portland has finally discovered who is responsible for the thousands of homeless migrants that have inundated the city since 2019 and caused an ongoing humanitarian crisis: God. In response to a civil lawsuit brought by a local healthcare executive and former Democratic candidate for State Senate, the city’s attorneys have argued that the arrival of the migrants and the resulting need for emergency was not their fault. Instead, the migrant influx was an unforeseeable “Act of God” for which no human is responsible. Also known as force majeure, the “God clause” is commonly included in contracts as…

When the 170-turbine 1,000 megawatt King Pine Wind Farm in Aroostook County becomes operational near the end of the decade, the majority of the profits from the sale of electricity to New England ratepayers will head to the other side of the planet. That’s because Longroad Energy, the Boston-based developer that will manage the wind farm, is 92 percent owned by large foreign investment funds, including one controlled by a foreign government, according to financial records reviewed by the Maine Wire. The NZ Super Fund – a.k.a. the New Zealand Superannuation Fund — reported owning 40 percent of Longroad Energy…

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) unveiled the names of over 16,000 semifinalists in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program this week, including 56 students from Maine. NMSC semifinalists come from all over the state of Maine, but Cape Elizabeth High School boasts the largest number, with seven seniors competing for the prestigious scholarship. Tied for second with five semifinalists are the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and Camden Hills Regional High School. These top-tier high school seniors, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, are now eligible to vie for around 7,140 scholarships, worth…

The State Legislature’s payments for travel and lodging to Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) surged drastically after he and his longtime girlfriend purchased a home in Augusta — 283 miles closer to the State House. The State Legislature paid Senate President Jackson reimbursements and allowances in 2019 worth just $17,128.11. In 2020, after he purchased a home in Augusta using a Federal House Authority (FHA)-backed mortgage, those payments nearly doubled to $33,876.78. In 2021, when Jackson was obligated by the FHA loan to make Augusta his principal residence, the top Democrat again received a far higher level of reimbursement…

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s personal wealth has swelled over her decade in a half as a Member of Congress, according to her latest financial disclosure. In 2008, Pingree reported a total networth of between $316,000 and $568,000. Most of her assets were real estate, against which she owed significant liabilities. In 2022, however, Pingree reported annual income on her investments and business partnerships of between $113,505 and $1,035,000 — that’s in addition to her annual House salary of $174,000, which she has collected for nearly 15 years. On the asset side, Pingree reported owning stocks, real estate, and business shares…

Despite some economists’ predictions that inflation in the U.S. economy had been tamed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced Wednesday that inflation continued to rise in August. At the same time, BLS reported that real average hourly earnings for American workers fell last month. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) continued its upward trajectory in August, reporting an increase of 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This surge comes on the heels of a 0.2 percent rise in July that gave some cause…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday that every American older than six months should go get another round of the COVID-19 shots produced by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna. “Updated COVID-19 vaccines are recommended for everyone 6 months and older and will be available by the end of this week at most places you would normally go to get your vaccines,” the CDC said in a statement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday approved the new round of shots, stating that it was confident in the safety and effectiveness of the “updated” “booster”…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Lillian Tweten on September 11, 2023 A sheriff said in a press conference Monday he will not enforce Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order to suspend open and concealed gun carry for 30 days in Bernalillo County and Albuquerque. Grisham issued the order Friday through the New Mexico Department of Health after several shootings occurred in the state this year, including one which killed an 11-year-old boy on Sept. 6. John Allen, the sheriff for the county, argued that the order violates the second amendment and would be dangerous to enforce because of potential “political violence,” according to…

The Second Baptist Church in Palermo was vandalized Saturday night with pro-abortion slogans and red paint. The vandals painted “abortion is a human right” on the rear of the church and defaced the church’s Christmas nativity scene with the phrase “queer love 4 eva”. Pastor Joshua Barnes addressed the crime Sunday morning during his service, but he wasn’t optimistic that law enforcement would be able to hold the culprit accountable. [RELATED: Maine OB/GYN Backing Janet Mills’ Abortion Plan Was Deposed in $1.26M Wrongful Death Suit After Late-Term Abortion Patient Died…] “They parked out of camera range and walked in in…

In an interview with Maine’s taxpayer-funded radio network Thursday, Gov. Janet Mills denied a suggestion from a listener that her administration has walked away from negotiations with the state workers’ union. “We are at the table. We’ve been at the table for a couple of months now negotiating over a new state employee contract with several different unions and we intend to stay at the table. We’ve never left the table,” Gov. Mills told Maine Calling host Jennifer Rooks. The Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA), the 2nd largest labor union in Maine, begs to differ. On Wednesday, the MSEA sent…

The Falmouth-based mortgage broker accused of abetting an apparent mortgage fraud by Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) denied any wrongdoing on Thursday in a phone interview with the Maine Wire. In a story published Thursday morning by the Portland Press Herald, Jackson appeared to blame his mortgage broker for allowing him to sign a 2019 Federal Housing Authority (FHA)-insured mortgage agreement which he now admits to violating. “I paid him a lot of money,” Jackson said of his broker. “He filled out the forms and me and my wife signed them.” “This is unfortunate, but I never really read the forms,” he…

Gov. Janet Mills commented briefly Thursday on the growing scandal that has surrounded Senate President Troy Jackson after an investigative report from the Maine Wire raised questions about the number two Democrat’s residency and whether he has violated federal law. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1699815519510012220?s=20 “I’ve only read the news story today about it,” said Gov. Mills, during an radio interview with Maine Calling host Jennifer Rooks. “And I understand there is an ethics complaint pending by one of the Republican leaders against Senate President Jackson, and that’s in the Ethics Commission,” Mills said, referring to the complaint filed by Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris).…

Liberty Safe, a company that markets itself to conservative Americans as the patriotic way to safely store firearms, admitted Wednesday that it voluntarily handed over a customer’s safe combination to the FBI. In a statement posted to X/Twitter, Liberty Safe said they provided the combination to the safe after the FBI produced a warrant. “First and foremost, Liberty Safe is committed to preserving our customers’ rights, and we will remain unwavering in those values,” the company said. Rather than wait for a court order to compel them to turn over the access codes, the company reviewed the warrant and voluntarily…

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) claimed Thursday morning that he never read the Federal Housing Authority (FHA)-backed loan agreement he signed that required him to make a second house in Augusta his primary residence — a requirement the top Democratic lawmaker now says he never satisfied. “This is unfortunate, but I never really read the forms,” Jackson told the liberal Portland Press Herald. Jackson said that he paid his mortgage broker “a lot of money” and then trusted that the broker was properly advising him on the legality of using an FHA loan to purchase the North Belfast Avenue…

In 2020, 2021, and 2022, Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) received more reimbursement via the State Legislature for travel, meals, and lodging than any other lawmaker in Maine — despite the fact that he maintained a residence less than three miles from the State House during that time. According to legislative rules approved by Senate President Jackson and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), the only person who needed to approve Jackson’s reimbursement requests, which totaled $82,454 in those three years, was Jackson himself. Jackson’s travel reimbursements have come under scrutiny following a Maine Wire investigative report that found Jackson…

Maine state workers have struggled all year long to get the Mills Administration to bring an acceptable pay increase to the bargaining table, and those struggles continued as Mainers prepared for Labor Day weekend. Thursday evening talks between the Mills Admin and the Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA) failed yet again to reach an agreement, according to an email delivered to MSEA members by the union bargaining team. According to the email, the state has now offered a five percent pay increase for executive branch workers in October 2023, three percent in October 2024, and four percent in 2025. [RELATED:…

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) has remained silent this week in the face of mortgage records, insurance records, and court documents unearthed by the Maine Wire that suggest the top Democrat may have supplied false information to mortgage companies, insurance companies, the State Legislature, and the Maine Ethics Commission. [RELATED: Maine Senate President Troy Jackson Locked in Bitter Legal Fight Over Augusta Home He Bought – and Moved Into – in 2019…] Joining him in this radio silence? The panoply of left-wing newspapers recently acquired by a national non-profit that has as its mission the preservation of quality non-partisan…

Photographs captured Wednesday morning outside an Augusta apartment complex add yet more evidence to the claim that Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat, doesn’t actually live full-time in his Aroostook County Senate District, as is required by the Maine Constitution. Wednesday around 6:00 am, Jackson’s storied white minivan — complete with legislative plates that say “Maine Senate President” — could be seen outside of the apartment complex. In addition, a buzzer panel in the entryway lists “Jackson / Pelletier”. Jackson lives with his longtime girlfriend Lana Pelletier. The question of where Jackson lives became the subject of controversy this…

A top official in the Mills Administration told state employees at the Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) Wednesday that they may be feeling a little out-of-sorts due to the supermoon tugging on the water in their bodies and Mercury being in retrograde. “Being approximately 70% water ourselves, the impact of the moon’s tidal pull on us is real. With the moon being so close to us and Mercury being in retrograde, well, that’s a pretty big one-two punch that may result in us feeling out of sorts,” DAFS Commissioner Kirsten Figueroa wrote in a bizarre agency-wide email Wednesday.…

Maine Republicans called for investigations on Wednesday into Maine Senate President Troy Jackson following a Maine Wire exclusive report that revealed the top Democratic lawmaker misrepresented the location of his primary residence in campaign filings. The report also included bank and court documents that show Jackson and his longtime girlfriend, Lana Pelletier, may have placed themselves in legal jeopardy by making false statements to an insurance company. [RELATED: Maine Senate President Troy Jackson Locked in Bitter Legal Fight Over Augusta Home He Bought – and Moved Into – in 2019…] “Troy Jackson appears to be lying about his residency, and…

If you’re looking for a funny and educational review of how disastrous Marxist-inspired communism has been for mankind, you can do no better than a series of videos produced by the comedy website Flappr.net. In a provocative and refreshingly audacious three-part documentary series, Professor James O’Flannery collaborates with the team at Flappr, a conservative satirical blog, to take viewers on a sweeping journey through Chinese history, leading up to its modern incarnation. The title is “The Chinese Revolution: Good Thing or Bad Thing?”, and the ensuing series thoroughly answers that question. With communism on the rise, especially in places like…

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat, agreed in a federally insured mortgage contract to make an Augusta house his primary residence in Sept. 2019 After moving into the house, Jackson filed a lawsuit against the sellers alleging that they concealed damage to the house, including carpenter ant damage Paul and Jane Godbout, 65, say they’ve spent more than $30,000 trying to defend themselves from Jackson’s lawsuit Despite owning the Augusta home and agreeing to live there, Jackson received tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements through the State Legislature for travel between Augusta and Allagash — more than any…

In a less than 24-hour span this weekend, two more dead whales have been discovered off the northern Atlantic coast of the U.S., and pro-cetacean activists are blaming President Joe Biden’s offshore wind initiative. One whale washed up on Rockaway Beach in New York, while the other was filmed floating off of Chatham, Mass. While the connection between whale fatalities and offshore wind power development hasn’t been rigorously studied, some environmentalists believe that loud sonar mapping, high boat traffic, and other disturbances to whales’ natural habitat are contributing to the surge in deaths. In a Facebook post with the video,…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Lillian Tweten on August 28, 2023 Nordstrom permanently closed its San Francisco location after 35 years on Sunday because of increased crime, ABC7 News reported. A Nordstrom employee at the San Francisco location partially attributed the closure to the rampant crime in the area, according to ABC7 News. Property crime, which includes shoplifting, rose by 57% in downtown San Francisco between 2019 and 2022, according to USA Today. “It is definitely partially due to the crime in the area. COVID had a big impact,” a Nordstrom employee told ABC7. End of an era: Nordstrom at Westfield officially closed at 5 pm…

Maine’s liberals spent Friday bellyaching online because U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-CD2), a Democrat, had the audacity to oppose President Joe Biden’s unconstitutional plan to transfer $430 billion of student loan debt from debtors and saddle it on taxpayers. In response to a blog post from an Arabella Advisors-funded nonprofit, Golden posted a searing statement attacking “radical leftist elites.” “Sadly, this is what radical leftist elites are learning about ‘democracy’ these days — silence and destroy anyone who disagrees with your views or goals,” Golden said on X, formerly know as Twitter. “I stand by my vote and my opposition…

Maine Policy Institute’s Director of Legislative Affairs Jacob Posik joined the Maine Wire podcast to review everything that has happened in the 131st Maine State Legislature — the good, the bad, and the ugly. The 2023 legislative session is, blessedly, finished. For a precious few months, the free citizens of Maine can rest knowing that those men and women of unsleeping malevolence who seasonally inhabit the State House — er, I mean, our laudable public servants — will be unable to impose new burdens and taxes on our productive liberty. What follows is a summary of the significant legal and…

The Portland Press Herald collaborated with Gov. Janet Mills’ sister Dora Mills on Friday to hype a new COVID-19 variant in a bid to encourage Mainers to go out and get more mRNA injections. “COVID is a fire that is circulating the globe, and we have to keep putting water on it,” said Dora Mills, the “chief improvement officer” for MaineHealth. Mills added that pharmaceutical products from Pfizer and Moderna “should be highly effective” against the variant, though she did elaborate on what that meant. According to CDC data, there are currently 42 people in Maine hospitals who have tested…

The co-owner of the neo-Nazi compound in northern Maine may be prohibited from possessing firearms due to prior felony convictions, a significant obstacle to any plans to build an illegal racist militia in Penobscot County. Christopher A. Pohlhaus, 36, the public-facing leader of the neo-Nazi camp and related white supremacist Telegram channels, has drawn most of the attention from politicians and the news media for his racist public demonstrations, including a demonstration last week in Augusta. But Pohlhaus’s isn’t the only name that appears on the mortgage deed for the 10.6 acre Springfield property that was purchased in 2022 to…

Maine’s Community College System (MCCS) is still mandating COVID-19 shots for students enrolled in programs that require visiting third-party locations, like health care clinics. Although various governments and government agencies, including in Maine, mandated the COVID-19 shots in 2021 based on the theory that it would prevent transmission, it’s now broadly understood that the injections never prevented transmission. The lingering mandate is in place despite the MCCS Board of Trustees’ unanimous vote in February to lift the requirement for students at all of Maine’s many community college campuses. At the time, MCCS President David Daigler recommended the move to the…

The Mills Administration has made it a top priority to get Mainers driving electric vehicles (EVs) as part of its mission to lower carbon emissions and global temperatures. The latest effort on the EV front is a campaign to enact new limits on internal combustion engines that will phase in overtime. [RELATED: Maine Considering California-style Rules to Limit Sales of Gas-Powered Cars and Trucks…] That rule was drafted by the left-wing Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), which submitted a petition to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and it is based upon California’s similar regulations. Whether the rule comes…

On Saturday, New Jersey lifeguards discovered a dead humpback whale washed ashore, the latest in a string of unexplained deaths of various whale species on the East Coast. https://twitter.com/mikerdean22/status/1690598904604037120?s=20 Journalist Michael Shellenberger said the whale death was the 60th known death of the large mammals along the East Coast since Dec. 1, 2022. https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1690719087125753856?s=20 Although no official conclusions have been reached about why the whales are dying at an increasing rate, the spate of deaths does coincide with offshore wind development off the coasts of Rhode Island and New Jersey, where several of the whales have been discovered. [RELATED: Biden…

Maine’s municipal welfare spending, known as General Assistance, has been dominated by the city of Portland over the last four and a half years, according to records from the Department of Health and Human Services obtained via the Freedom of Access Act. The city of Portland accounted for $79.6 million of all General Assistance welfare spending in the state of Maine from Jan. 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023 — and 70 percent, or $55.7 million, came from taxpayers throughout the state. During that time period, Portland’s welfare spending consumed 72.8 percent of all General Assistance spending in the state,…

Nurses and other health care workers at MaineGeneral Health, one of Maine’s largest healthcare providers, were unceremoniously fired two years ago if they refused to take the experimental mRNA injections touted as COVID-19 preventatives. Some of those workers were even slapped with misconduct charges for refusing to comply with the mandate, many were later denied unemployment benefits, and no requests for religious exemptions were honored. Now, one of the nonprofit hospitals that left some employees jobless and without recourse to Maine’s unemployment insurance benefits is sending text messages to the same employees it cast aside practically begging them to come…

Maine’s second largest labor union is considering illegal tactics, including tactics that could temporarily shut down state government, to gain leverage in its so far unsuccessful negotiations for pay increases with Gov. Janet Mills’ bargaining representative, the Maine Wire has learned. The Maine Service Employees Association – Service Employees International Union 1989 (MSEA-SEIU 1989), the union that represents state employees, offered a proposal that included steep pay increases and several additional benefits in April. But the Mills Administration’s head negotiator, Director of the Bureau of Human Resources Breena Bissell, countered with a lowball offer from the Mills Administration last month…

An alliance of groups representing New England’s fishermen is highlighting scientific research that suggests offshore wind development could have “population-scale effects” on key fish and crustacean species in the Gulf of Maine, including electromagnetism-induced deformities in lobsters. The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) on Monday released an “Offshore Wind Research Summary” summarizing the existing scientific research on the environmental impact of offshore wind power development. [RELATED: Wind Power Port Bill Hands Lucrative “Home Run” to Politically Connected Unions…] The scientific evidence, they believe, shows that offshore wind development would have unpredictable and potentially harmful consequences for key marine species,…

The Maine State Government’s “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Specialist” told the Chronicle of Higher Education last year that libraries were designed to advance white supremacy. “Modern American libraries are rooted in a history of white supremacy and exclusion; the lack of diversity in the field today is a consequence of that design,” said DEIB Specialist Shiva Darabandi, an employee of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. “True change will only take place when leaders are willing to make sacrifices, relinquish power in pursuit of equity, and center Bipoc [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] voices,” Darabandi said. “This…

In an interview this weekend with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, NBC Reporter Dasha Burns falsely characterized efforts by state-level Democrats to legalize elective late-term abortions up until birth. DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, responded to an inquiry about abortion, stating that he would not support broad late-term abortion bills, such as the bill Gov. Janet Mills just signed into law. [RELATED: Gov. Mills Expands Access to Late-Term Abortion by Signing One of the Nation’s Least Restrictive Abortion Policies Into Law…] That bill will allow for healthy women to abort healthy babies for any reason and at…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed an executive order Wednesday intended to establish a new migrant resettlement office, telling the Portland newspaper the administration’s goal is to attract 75,000 new workers to Maine. The governor announced the goal as part of the press strategy for rolling out an executive order that will eventually create the “Office of New Americans,” a state office that will assist with migrant resettlement and integration throughout the state. PressHerald.com Mills told the liberal Portland Press Herald newspaper that the goal of attracting 75,000 migrant workers to Maine is part of her plan to supply businesses in…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed an executive order Wednesday that will lead to the creation of a new state office intended to facilitate the resettlement of migrants in Maine. The order directs the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future to present a plan as to how it will develop an “Office of New Americans” that will work to ensure migrants are properly integrated into Maine’s economic and civic life. Throughout Gov. Mills’ tenure in office, the state and large municipalities in southern Maine have struggled with the influx of thousands of migrants, mostly from Angola, the Democratic Republic…

Advocates for a ballot question this fall that would lead the state to take control of Maine’s power grid have said the campaign is about lowering electricity prices and having fewer power outages. But on Monday night, one of the lead organizers for the campaign, a former co-chair of the Portland Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, offered a different motivation behind the effort to seize Maine’s powergrid. “So I’ve been one of the organizers involved in [Pine Tree Power] for a while. And basically we’re part of a coalition to pass a statewide public electric utility, which is…

The FBI announced Tuesday that its “Operation Cross Country” identified and rescued 200 victims of sex trafficking. The operation, which spanned across two weeks in July, also resulted in the identification or arrest of 126 suspects involved in child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses, with an additional 68 suspects of trafficking identified or arrested. The operation succeeded in locating 59 minor victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation offenses. Simultaneously, it led to the discovery of 59 actively missing children. Addressing the issue, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, “Sex traffickers exploit and endanger some of the…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills approved on Thursday a bill to authorize and fund the construction of a port on the coast of Maine that will eventually serve as the onshore construction site for multi-billion dollar plans to erect wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. Supporters of the wind port project hope that it will facilitate the construction of gigantic floating wind turbines that will produce 3,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The new law will create the “Maine Offshore Wind Renewable Energy and Economic Development Program,” the “Offshore Wind Research Consortium,” and the “Offshore Wind Research Consortium Fund.” It will…

Several of Maine’s largest newspapers – formerly owned by Masthead Media Company – will now fall under the ownership of a nonprofit trust funded by left-wing billionaires George Soros, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and a collection of like-minded progressives foundations and nonprofits. The Portland Press Herald and its related daily papers were sold to the National Trust for Local News several months after former owner Reade Brower announced his intention to offload parts of his sprawling newspaper business. Neither Brower nor leadership of the Trust disclosed the purchase price. According to the Press Herald, the paper will be run under…

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that President Donald Trump has been indicted for his role in encouraging his supporters to protest at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021. The long-running investigation was led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who examined President Trump’s effort to delay the certification of the 2020 presidential elections and eventually overturn the results. “Despite having lost, [Trump] was determined to remain in power,” the Smith said in the indictment. “So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud…

A state commission created to address “structural racism” in Maine prohibited Mainers of “dominant racial groups” from speaking or asking questions during a July 23 public meeting at the Agora Grand Event Center in Lewiston. Ariel Ricci, the executive director of the Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous & Tribal Populations (PCRITP), initially denied that the commission imposed a race-based requirement for talking during the hours-long public meeting. Then the Maine Wire informed Ricci, who appears to be white and uses she/they pronouns, that we had a recording of her imposing it. “Our goal here really is to center…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills sent an email Friday letting subscribers know that she signed a bill that will allow 16-year-olds to obtain puberty blocking drugs and cross sex hormones without their parents knowledge and even in cases when their parents object. [RELATED: Maine Lawmakers Approve Puberty Blockers, Cross-Sex Hormones for 16- and 17-Year-Olds — Without Parental Consent…] The new law will allow a “health care professional” to provide hormones to minors for the purpose of altering their physical sex characteristics if the minor has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and their parents have refused to support hormonal interventions. The law…

Maine State Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin), one of a select few Republican state officials invited to President Joe Biden’s event in Auburn, used the opportunity to urge the Commander-in-Chief to grant clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the infamous Silk Road who is serving life in prison. “Welcome to Auburn, ME!” Sen. Brakey wrote in a letter provided to Biden’s team. “Please consider clemency for Ross Ulbricht. Life in prison for building a website is cruel and unusual punishment,” Brakey wrote. [RELATED: Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty As Plea Deal Falls Through, Facing Possible Foreign Agent Charge…] Ulbricht launched…

In her most recent public speaking opportunity since she told her supporters to “storm the capitol” on Juneteenth, Maine House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) blasted “liberal Democrat white women” for prioritizing niche LGBT issues over her preferred race-related issues. In racially charged remarks at Bates College in Lewiston on Thursday, Talbot Ross complained that Maine Democrats and the media “demonize” her for fighting for racial justice and use racial minorities as “talking points” to advance a white liberal agenda. “I applaud and I admire, and think it serves as a model, that the state legislature made extraordinary advances in…

Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday endorsed a ballot question campaign that would in theory force the owners of Maine’s largest electrical utilities to sell their Maine-based assets to the state. “Power belongs in the hands of the people, not greedy corporations,” Sanders said in a statement. “Fortunately, Mainers have a rare chance to take control of an important part of their daily lives,” he said. “I’m proud to support the Pine Tree Power campaign, and I urge Mainers to support it as well.” The Pine Tree Power campaign would require the state to come up with a plan…

President Joe Biden will visit Maine on Friday to tout his economic policies, which the White House is trying to brand as “Bidenomics.” The visit, which will take him to the Lewiston-Auburn area, is intended to take credit for growth in Maine’s manufacturing sector. More than a few Mainers have reacted to this news with some version of “huh?” If there’s a sparkling success story to tell about the revival of American manufacturing, Maine’s probably not the first place you’d look. American manufacturing has declined over the past three decades, but the impact of that trend has been particularly acute…

Activists targeting Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, including one dressed up in an elaborate ‘angry uterus’ costume, gathered again on Saturday at his home in Northeast Harbor to protest recent Supreme Court decisions and to air a hodgepodge of left-wing political grievances. More than 40 protesters turned up for the gathering, with many carrying signs that referred disparagingly to Leo’s religious faith and spoke to protesters’ desire to see him run out of Northeast Harbor. Several messages contained thinly veiled attacks on Leo’s Catholic faith and his affiliation with well-known Catholic organizations. One instance of sidewalk chalk graffiti called Leo…

Liberal groups and some lawmakers in Maine are upset with Gov. Janet Mills after she vetoed a bill that would prohibit companies with more than 5 percent foreign ownership from spending money to influence political campaigns in the state. In her veto message, Mills said she blocked the bill because it contained several provisions that would have limited Freedom of Speech, imposed an undue burden on media outlets, and hampered businesses majority owned by Mainers. Mills also noted a glaring loophole in the law: “the same business that is barred from influencing the electorate as they consider a statute at…

Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, agreed this month to pay $48 million to terminate a power purchase agreement it signed with offshore wind developer Commonwealth Wind. From Commonwealth Magazine: “The $48 million termination payment will be paid in three installments to the utilities — $25,900,800 to Eversource, $21,619,200 to National Grid, and $480,000 to Unitil – and the money will be reimbursed to ratepayers, according to filings with the Department of Public Utilities, which approved the power purchase agreement at the end of last year and must now approve the termination agreement.” … The deals will allow the offshore…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that the city is going to distribute fliers at the southern border that it hopes will convince the thousands of migrants crossing the border every day to pick a different destination. “We have no more room in the city,” Mayor Adams said at a press conference. According to the New York Times, more than 90,000 migrants have arrived in the city since 2022, with nearly 55,000 remaining in the city’s care. The Times reported that the fliers, available in Spanish and English, describe the high cost of housing and food in New…

This story has been updated to include details from a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, first reported on by the Bangor Daily News, as well as interviews obtained by the New Yorker. The town of Bar Harbor is likely to agree to a massive settlement with a left-wing protester who was arrested last year for harassing and threatening a prominent conservative legal activist, his wife, and their 11-year-old daughter. Two sources familiar with the town leadership’s thinking said Bar Harbor was planning to settle with Eli Durand-McDonnell, 24, even before he officially filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that he was wrongfully…

Four of Maine’s largest companies are no longer listed as financial sponsors of Equality Maine, a non-profit that has advocated for legalizing elective late-term abortions and sex changes for minors. The changes to Equality Maine’s list of sponsors follow a June 2 report from the Maine Wire showing how several of Maine’s largest companies donate money to the radical left-wing group. [RELATED: Top Maine Businesses Are Funding Push for Late-Term Abortion and Far Left “Trans” Policies…] At the time, Hannaford, LL Bean, Central Maine Power, and General Dynamics, parent company of Bath Iron Works, were listed as sponsors. However, as…

The Mayor of Waterville has drawn statewide attention for twerking on TikTok, but his penchant for posting spicy content on the Chinese video app may have crossed the line last month. In a June 2 video, Mayor Jay Coelho attacked right-wing activist Nick Blanchard, 33, of Augusta, for criticizing a so-called drag queen story hour event that had been scheduled for a Waterville book store. “Tomorrow, [Blanchard is] going to protest the Book Cellar as part of a group called ‘Patriots With Attitude’ — although he’s never served. I mean, other than time. Did he stab a kid? That’s kind…

Republican members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee looked on, with some of them even clapping, as Gov. Janet Mills signed a spending package Tuesday that includes a one-percent payroll tax on Maine workers. The payroll tax, which will be used to fund a paid leave program, is the largest tax increase on Maine workers in decades. According to the fiscal note for the paid leave component, the new payroll tax is expected to collect more than $350 million from Maine workers. Gov. Mills signed the $800 million spending package and tax increase, as Republican members of the Appropriations and Financial…

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommended lifting the statewide mandate that healthcare workers receive injections related to Covid-19 as a pre-condition of working in Maine. DHHS filed a proposed rule change Tuesday that would lift the mandate, and the Department of Public Safety filed a similar rule change that would life the mandate for EMS workers. Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn), who has been a top critic of the mandate, said late Tuesday in a Facebook post that DHHS has told lawmakers it will immediately stop enforcing the mandate. “From the Department: ‘The rule was filed today, will…

As political observers question whether California Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering a presidential bid, the Democrat from the U.S.’s largest state is pitching a 28th amendment to curtail the right to bear arms. On Monday, Newsom’s political action committee began running ads to drum up support for the idea. https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1667208030671491073?s=20 Social media posts indicated that the proposed constitutional amendment would raise the minimum age to buy a firearm, mandate universal background checks, institute a “reasonable waiting period of gun purchases,” and ban civilians from purchasing what he calls “assault weapons.” Specific details of the proposal are not currently posted to…

Documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon shed new light on the billion dollar D.C.-based operation that finances and controls many of the left-wing groups that influence politics throughout Maine. Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consulting firm, manages five non-profits, and those funds have given millions of dollars to organizations and activists in Maine who back progressive political projects. The structural organization of the firm and its various legal entities facilitates the flow of anonymous political spending, often called dark money. Although Arabella Advisors originally positioned itself as an HR consultant helping the non-profits during a start up phase, the novel…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Jake Smith on July 10, 2023 Behind closed doors, President Joe Biden routinely yells and curses at White House staff, provoking so much discomfort that many are reluctant to meet with him alone, Axios reported Monday. Biden, who turns 81 later this year, will often have intense outbursts of anger and yell obscenities at his staff during meetings at the White House, according to Axios. This includes so-called “stump the chump” interrogations designed to reveal staffers’ ignorance and often results in staff feeling wary of meeting with the president one-on-one. “No one is safe,”…

The White House addressed reports Friday that it was planning to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs, a controversial munition that has been banned by more than 100 countries because of its potential to kill indiscriminately. https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1677387119352840192?s=20 “Ukraine has provided written assurances that it’s going to use these in a very careful way that is aimed at minimizing any risks to civilians,” said White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, during the White House press briefing. Sullivan said the Ukrainian military would have no incentive to abuse the cluster munitions because the civilian casualties they are trying to minimize are their…

The Daily Caller News Foundation – Jason Cohen on July 7, 2023 Media outlets are giving positive coverage to tech giant Meta’s new text-based app Threads, which has been described as a “copycat” to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, according to Axios. Media outlets and journalists have characterized Musk’s Twitter as harmful, poorly managed and plagued with white supremacy, according to reports. CNN Business has labeled Threads as a possible “Twitter killer” and Axios suggested that Musk’s tumultuous approach to running Twitter has helped Meta, which reportedly hurried to release Threads in response to Twitter’s recent difficulties. “I think people have been looking for an alternative that…

Thursday night, in one of the last floor speeches of the year, Sen. Cameron Reny (D-Lincoln) became the first supporter of Gov. Janet Mills’ late-term abortion bill to acknowledge the Maine Wire’s reporting on Dr. Shannon Carr. As the Maine Wire has reported, Dr. Carr is a late-term abortion provider who was tapped by Democrats to serve as an expert medical witness in favor of the late-term abortion bill, LD 1619. What those Democrats might not have known, however, was that Dr. Carr was named in a 2017 wrongful death suit filed by the family of Keisha Atkins, a 23-year-old…

Solar power diehards in the Democratic Party have won their fight to protect a program that subsidizes large solar facilities through electric rate increases on Maine residents and businesses. The fate of that program, known as “community solar,” along with its funding mechanism, Net Energy Billing (NEB), was one of the last major pieces of business before the State Legislature this year. Community solar and NEB had become increasingly controversial after the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) released estimates showing the arrangement would cost Maine ratepayers $220 million by 2025. Those increased electricity rates, though collected by Maine’s power…