Author: The Maine Wire

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or using a CBDC to control monetary policy. https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1628397390024638466 Emmer’s bill would also require the Federal Reserve to be transparent with Congress about any attempts it makes to study the implementation of digital currency systems in the U.S. Centralized governments are increasingly exploring the possibility of using crypto-currency inspired digital currency technology to digitize money and financial systems, but freedom and privacy advocates warn that such CBDCs would give unprecedented power and control to the Fed and…

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler morning show Tuesday to cover the revelation — first reported by independent journalist Matt Taibbi — that Maine Sen. Angus King provided an “enemies list” to Twitter and Facebook during his 2018 campaign. Several of the accounts on that list were later suspended from the social media platforms, but King’s office is now claiming it was never their intention to have those accounts censored. Listen here:

Hundreds of students in Milford, N.H., staged a walkout Friday over school officials’ decision to ban urinals for the purpose of achieving gender equity. School Board member Noah Boudreault told the Associated Press he proposed new restrictions on bathroom use as part of a compromise. “I want to be clear, it was a compromise to both sides of this issue,” he told AP. “It was out into effect last week.” Video captured by local TV media showed students holding signs that said, “We Want Urinals.” One student interviewed said just a few parents who complained were behind the policy. https://twitter.com/1776projectpac/status/1625265304640057346?s=43&t=nHBPw7PYmIq96Y3jTvUsxw…

Gov. Janet Mills has thrown her support behind a bill from Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) that would eliminate the long-standing requirement that governors appoint district court judges who live in the districts over which they will preside. Under current law, Maine has 39 District Court judges, and the governor is required to appoint them to seven year terms. At least one judge must be appointed from each district who is a resident of a county where the district is, with a few other stipulations for specific districts. The Governor’s Office says the residency requirement is preventing her from finding qualified…

As temperatures plummeted on Friday, Maine residents and businesses relied mostly on nuclear energy, natural gas, and oil for their electricity. Friday afternoon, ISO New England reported that 24 percent of Maine’s electricity came from nuclear power generation, while 20 percent came from oil and another 21 percent came from natural gas. Thanks to the blustery weather, wind power was able to account for a higher-than-average 7 percent of Maine’s electricity supply, while solar supplied less than 3 percent. UPDATE: By 4pm, the blend had increased to 25 percent natural gas, 25 percent oil, and 21 percent nuclear. Must have…

Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) said Thursday he will continue to serve on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Golden said in press release that he planned to use the position, in part, to secure lucrative contracts for General Dynamics, the international defense contractor that owns Bath Iron Works. In a press release published by Golden’s congressional office, a top BIW union official praised the appointment. “Jared Golden’s appointment to the House Armed Services Committee has been crucial for the men and women of Local S6 at Bath Iron Works building ships for the U.S. Navy,” said Chris Williams, president…

A New Jersey city councilwoman was shot dead in New Jersey Wednesday evening in what appears to be a targeted killing. Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, a 30-year-old Republican serving her first term in elected office, was found dead in her vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds, according to news reports. Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick called the incident “horrifying.” Law enforcement officials have not said whether they have a suspect in the killing. https://twitter.com/Charlie4Change/status/1621060244666486784

It was nine years ago today that New York City Mayor Warren Wilhelm, Jr. (pseudonym: “Bill of Blasio”) strode to the front of TV cameras with murder on his mind. Under the guise of celebrating Groundhog Day, he grabbed — without affirmative consent — a female groundhog named Charlotte, a brutal act that would result in Charlotte’s untimely demise days later. Charlotte, a beloved member of the Staten Island Zoo family, drew the unlucky role of standing in for Chuck, her meteorological colleague. Some witnesses have said Wilhelm simply dropped Charlotte, but others say he threw her. In the photographic…

State lawmakers in Virginia are debating a proposed law that would prevent schools from secretly transitioning the genders of students without informing parents. The law would require any school employee to notify a parent if they became a aware that a minor student was identifying as something other than their biological sex at school. The law has been dubbed Sage’s Law, named after a young girl who was the victim of human trafficking. According to the girl’s parents, the school system withheld information from them about Sage’s mental health, which included expressions of gender dysphoria. The parents, whose names have…

I have hesitated for months to write this. I know the hate and threats that will come my way. Even worse, I doubt anyone in our city leadership will do anything to stop it. But with anti-Semitism becoming mainstream in this country with a former president dining with a rapper who praises Hitler and professional sports leagues harboring bigots, I cannot stay silent any longer, particularly this week as the world commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It started two years ago when I asked the South Portland City Council to not hold voting meetings on the Jewish High Holidays – Rosh Hashanah…

After surging briefly thanks to all the scared flatlanders fleeing the pandemic, Maine has once again dropped in U-Haul’s annual ranking of the top growth states. In 2021, Maine ranked 8th. But in the 2022 report, released this month, Maine has fallen to 29th. Based on moving equipment rental data, U-Haul publishes a report every January that shows which states are the most frequent end destination for movers. The report doesn’t show all net in-migration. For example, it doesn’t show migration by those who arrive in Maine without any belongings for a moving truck to carry. But it’s a pretty…

A Maine business owner who used a fake email to threaten people who left him negative reviews on the Internet has now settled with the Maine Attorney General’s office, the AG’s office said Tuesday. The AG’s office has entered into an agreement with Liberty Bell Moving and Storage Inc., and its owner, Kevin Finkenaur in which Finkenaur agreed to pay $125,000. The AG’s investigation found the company had violated federal and state laws, including the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act, the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act, and other regulations. The settlement stems from a July 2022 lawsuit filed by the…

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that the U.S. Justice Department does not have different sets of rules based on political party, political connections or wealth. https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1617638549687525378?s=20&t=Cab5ETNoReEfPtA7NzY28g “We do not have different rules for Democrats or Republicans, different rules for the powerful or the powerless, different rules for the rich or the poor,” Garland said at a press conference Monday. “We apply the facts and the law in each case in a neutral, non-partisan manner,” he said. Garland made those comments at a press availability on the topic of the dueling investigations into how former President Donald Trump and current…

Famed anti-capitalist and environmentalist superstar Greta Thunberg refused to condemn oil producing nations in the Middle East or Russian President Vladimir Putin when reporters caught up with her at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Rebel News reporters asked her about her supposedly rehearsed arrest at a coal mine in Germany, how often she flies on private jets, and whether she believes she’s a child actor. Thunberg, perhaps wisely, refused to answer any of the questions, apart from the occasional snide remark or giggle. https://twitter.com/KatieDaviscourt/status/1616488713705652224?s=20&t=Xq2EgGlMV1RuuQvyBOiCag

Americans are pessimistic about what the economy will bring in 2023, with large numbers fearing inflation and a looming recession will undermine their financial security and ability to save. That’s the topline message of Primerica’s U.S. Middle Income Financial Security Monitor’s Jan. 2022 report. The information about American financial thinking comes from an online poll measures economic attitudes of Americans with incomes between $30,000 and $100,000. Just 53 percent of American adults say their personal finances are in “good” or “excellent” condition, while 72 percent said the income is falling behind the rising cost of living. Four in ten Americans…

Federal health officials said Friday COVID-19 injections prepared by Pfizer Inc and its European partner BioNTech may increase the risk of stroke in older adults, according to a preliminary investigation by the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a statement released Friday, federal health officials said the potential risk was flagged by a system that analyzes public health data. The FDA posted the following statement: Following the availability and use of the updated (bivalent) COVID-19 vaccines, CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical…

Attorney General Merrick Garland, once a hero of the left-wing media for his investigations of former President Donald Trump, has seen his favor turn on MSNBC following his appointment of a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Garland said this week he had tapped Special Counsel Robert Hur to investigate the allegations, which Biden has already admitted to, that Biden improperly stored classified records from his time as Vice President. Right now, Biden’s attorneys have come forward with evidence Biden had classified documents in two separate locations. MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace led the speculative attacks on…

Disclosure: The Maine Wire is a project of the the Maine Policy Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to advancing free market principles, liberty, and limited government. The Maine Policy Institute on Tuesday released a comprehensive budget analysis for the state of Maine that includes a proposal to cut all state income taxes for individuals making less than $50,000 per year. If enacted, the proposal would amount to a nearly 6 percent increase in take home pay for the poorest Mainers. MPI hopes the plan, which includes several other tax and spending reform proposals, will inform conversations around Maine’s biennial budget…

While overwhelming numbers of homeless Americans in every major city across our nation live on the street, in their cars, under bridges, and tents, our government has no plan to manage the thousands of migrants flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border from all over the world. We don’t know who is coming into our country, and the drug cartels are in charge. Has the leadership in Washington, D.C., lost its way? Is the acquisition of wealth and the lust for political power, at any cost, more important to politicians in Washington, D.C., than the safety and well-being of American citizens? People…

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Monday morning to tell listeners about his exclusive investigative report on the ties between Gov. Janet Mills’ push for solar panels and human rights violations in the People’s Republic of China. As Robinson reports, the solar industry in America has been criticized by the Biden administration and non-governmental organizations for doing little to ensure that its supply chains don’t connect to forced labor operations in the Xinjiang region of Western China. In fact, the Biden administration has even blacklisted several major solar panel producers for suspected ties to…

A bill proposed in the Maine State Legislature would grant in-state tuition to any student registered to vote in the state of Maine. LD 64, “An Act to Ensure In-state Tuition for Postsecondary Students Who Are Registered to Vote in the State,” doesn’t have a fiscal note just yet, but when it does, the number could threaten to blow a hole in the UMaine system’s budget. “If a student is going to be allowed to vote in Maine and therefore a citizen of Maine, they should qualify for in-state tuition,” said Rep. Shelly Rudnicki (R-Fairfield), the sponsor of the bill.…

Overdose deaths from Fentanyl poisoning have created a lot of pain and suffering for Mainers, their families, and our entire nation. So why hasn’t our government done anything about the trafficking of Fentanyl into our country? The U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) reported that Fentanyl is now the #1 cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. And that overdose deaths in the United States exceeded 100,000 in a 12 month-period for the first time. The leadership in Washington, D.C., knows Fentanyl is manufactured in China and that the Mexican cartels are making billions and billions…

ABC’s Martha Raddatz said Sunday that President Joe Biden is not responsible for the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border because he’s never publicly said “open borders.” For Raddatz, the people responsible for the unprecedented waves of illegal aliens crossing the border are Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump. Raddatz says they are responsible for the surge in border crossings because they’ve publicly pointed out that the U.S. has an open border with Mexico. https://twitter.com/kevintober94/status/1604481176457973760?s=43&t=aPI0MwUJK5XgB9Pgo-kXRg

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined Newsmax host Eric Bolling Wednesday night to explain the ongoing federal crusade against the Maine lobstering industry. Robinson talked about what’s really driving a federal agency’s push for onerous regulations that threaten the existence of the industry. Bolling was also joined by Bonnie Brady, head of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in New York, who explained regulatory challenges facing commercial fishermen on the east coast. Watch here:

Hackers affiliated with the communist government of the People’s Republic of China stole millions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic benefits, according to U.S. Secret Service sources cited by NBC News. “The theft of taxpayer funds by the Chengdu-based hacking group known as APT41 is the first instance of pandemic fraud tied to foreign, state-sponsored cybercriminals that the U.S. government has acknowledged publicly, but may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts,” NBC News reported. Funds purloined by the Chinese cyber spies amount to nearly $20 million, per the report. Previously, the Secret Service…

Canada has embraced government-assisted suicide with an uncommon vigor, and now at least one private company has joined the pro-euthanasia movement. Canadian retailer Simons produced and published a disturbing video glamorizing assisted suicide. The ad features a woman named Jennyfer Hatch who killed herself in October. According to CBC reporting, the 37-year-old ended her life after struggling with Ehlers Danlos syndrome. Next year, Canada will allow individuals suffering only from mental illness, like depression, to undergo medically assisted suicide. Watch the ad yourself: https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1596866746442747904 The Canadian government is also exploring expanding it’s medically assisted suicide to include babies up to…

The city of Boston has paid Liberty Counsel, a non-profit organization that litigates in defense of religious freedom, more than $2.1 million following a five-year legal fight over a flag the city refused to fly. In 2017, Hal Shurtleff, leader of the Christian group Camp Constitution, asked the city to fly his group’s flag outside of City Hall to commemorate Constitution Day. Boston city officials refused the request despite approving similar requests from other secular organizations. Starting in 2005, the city began flying flags of any groups that submitted a request. All told, the city displayed 284 flags from private…

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson joined Newsmax’s National Report to talk about The Maine Wire’s coverage of a lawsuit against the Mass. Department of Public Health and Commissioner Margret Clarke.Watch here: https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1595465014667796481

Maine Policy Institute Communications Director Jacob Posik joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler radio program Monday morning to talk about stunning revelations that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and her staff conspired to block The Maine Wire from covering official government business. New facts emerged this week that showed Mills’ staffer Scott Ogden scheming behind the scenes with newspaper reporters to execute the plan after a move to block Maine Wire Reporter Katherine Revello from COVID-19 briefing calls backfired. Ogden sought the Maine Press Association’s help in creating a credentialing system that would have given Mills a pretext to deny…

Beyond Meat was a viral sensation that’s now viral in a whole different way. The company sells artificial “meat” made from plant proteins, but a whistleblower who shared information with Bloomberg News suggests that’s not the only organic material in the fake burgers. According to the whistleblower, the firm’s Pennsylvania factory has some serious sanitation issues, including potentially dangerous fungi and bacteria on the production line. Pictures from the factory show storage rooms with mold growing on ingredient containers, and Bloomberg reported that multiple samples of the alleged food product tested positive for Listeria in 2022. Internal company documents shared…

When the New York Post first broke the story that an abandoned laptop contained a treasure trove of incriminating evidence related to then-candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter, the mainstream media widely derided the report as Russian disinformation without any evidence for the claim. Twitter and Facebook both censored the spread of the story in the weeks leading up to the presidential election. A host of former U.S. intelligence officials all signed a letter supporting the move. Yet no element of the New York Post’s original reporting has ever been proven false. And now, legacy media are suddenly willing to report…

Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, a critical tool journalists and citizens can use to hold state and local governments accountable, is under attack. The “Right to Know” Advisory committee, a legislative body that deliberates on matters concerning access to government records, heard testimony Thursday regarding alleged abuses by citizens of the law. Neal Goldberg, spokesperson for the Maine Municipal Association, told the committee “bad actors” were abusing FOA because they just wanted to stress out town officials. He didn’t offer any evidence to support the malevolent intentions he imputed to requesters’ motives. But let’s cede for a moment that mysterious…

U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat who became a centimillionaire through shrewd stock market trading during her career as a Democratic leader, announced Thursday that she will not seek a leadership role in the House Democratic caucus next Congress. The decision brings to a close an era of American politics that saw Pelosi rule the House of Representatives with an iron fist, shepherding through major items of legislation and raising hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending. She has been a Democratic congressional leader since 2002 when she became the House Minority Whip. As a Democratic leader,…

New England Sports legends Tom Brady and David Ortiz are among the high-profile celebrities who endorsed failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and now find themselves named in a class-action lawsuit. A lawsuit filed late Tuesday argues that Brady, Ortiz, and other celebrities used their star power to lend instant credibility to the now-insolvent crypto firm operated out of the Bahamas by disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. As a result, the suit holds that these celeb endorsers are just as culpable as Bankman-Fried himself. Florida-based attorney Adam M. Moskowitz filed the suit. Other high profile stars who backed FTX include Seinfeld creator Larry…

The White House asked Congress on Tuesday to send another $37 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Ukraine as it continues its fight against Russian aggression. That request for funding includes $21.7 billion in defense aid, $14.5 billion in direct cash transfers, $626 million to secure Ukrainian nuclear facilities, and $900 million to support the healthcare industry in Ukraine. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda D. Young said the funding request was part of a multi-pronged emergency funding request that also included more $10 billion for COVID-19 and additional funding…

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday the GOP should fight tooth-and-nail against a Democrat-backed proposal that would expand the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by 87,000 agents. “I think we oughta fight an epic, knock-down, drag-out fight over stopping the Democrats from funding 87,000 new IRS agents to harass and intimidate and persecute Americans and their political enemies,” Cruz said on his podcast. “Now, to do that, we will have to draw a line in the sand and saw, we will not fund them. Here’s what will happen next… The Democrats and the media will say, Republicans are shutting down the…

Mystery still surrounds the horrific attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi at the couple’s home in San Francisco. Namely, who opened the door when police showed up? The initial police account of the attack indicated that an unnamed third person opened the door when police arrived. Later, the DOJ’s narrative of events said police officers opened the door. Now, NBC is reporting that a source who has seen the bodycam footage said the footage clearly shows Paul Pelosi opening the door. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toBEGv2pMkU So far, there has been no public statement from local SF law enforcement or the…

State Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) will once again lead the Democratic caucus in the Maine Senate following leadership elections Thursday night. [RELATED: LePage, Stewart Call for Investigation into Troy Jackson’s Alleged Threat to Penobscot McCrum Owner…] Jackson emerged victorious from his race against former Rep. Susan Bernard (R-Caribou), a race that broke records for campaign spending. He won that race with 52 percent of the vote. [RELATED: Mystery Surrounds Maine Potato Matriarch’s Stillborn Senate Bid…] Serving under Senate President Jackson will be Majority Leader Sen. Eloise Vitelli (D-Arrowsic) and Assistant Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick).

In Colorado’s Third Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert has pulled ahead of Democrat Adam Frisch with 98 percent of precincts reporting. Boebert’s race has drawn attention not only because the Republican margin in the House of Representatives is smaller than Republicans envisioned prior to Election Day, but also because Boebert has become a lightning rod for left-wing criticism due to her outspoken personality and brash social media presence. As of this writing, Boebert has 157,743 votes and Frisch has 157,357 votes — a gap of 386 votes. Boebert, a former Democrat and small business owner who advocates for…

An environmental activist and attorney who won the Democratic Party primary with the help of more than $300,000 from far-left mega donor George Soros is now the District Attorney in Cumberland County after winning her uncontested general election. Jacqueline Sartoris, whose platform included not charging or dismissing many criminal cases against individuals under the age of 25, will now be the top prosecutor for Maine’s largest city, Portland. Sartoris is just one of many progressive attorneys Soros and ideologically aligned groups have supported in a bid to transform criminal prosecutions at the state and local level. Rachael Rollins, the current…

Total taxes collected from state and local government in 2022 in Maine are headed for the highest level ever recorded. The state of Maine and its various municipalities collected nearly $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2022, according to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. That’s the most revenue collected by governments in the state in history. The next closest quarter was the fourth quarter of 2021, in which governments collected more than $1.8 billion.

Support for Republican Party candidates among African-American and Latino voters is growing, according to a polling analysis released Monday by the Wall Street Journal. “About 17% of Black voters said they would pick a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democrat in Journal polls both in late October and in August. That is a substantially larger share than the 8% of Black voters who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and the 8% who backed GOP candidates in 2018 House races, as recorded by AP VoteCast, a large survey of voters who participated in those elections. “Among Latino voters, Democrats held a lead of…

Former Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin has a 63.8 percent chance to retake Maine’s 2nd congressional seat from incumbent Democrat Rep. Jared Golden, according to Decision Desk HQ’s forecasting model. The number is lower than the 86 percent odds of victory the firm gave Poliquin back in July, but higher than the 56 percent odds they forecasted in mid-October, when Golden appeared to be gaining ground. The Decision Desk forecasting model takes in to account more than 100 variables, including polling, the districts historical voting patterns, fundraising and more. Other models that rely more on opinion pollsters, like Nate Silver’s 538…

NY Post columnist Stephen Hayward’s Sunday column suggests disaffected suburban women may form a big part of the Red Wave many are expecting to wash a significant number of Republicans into office on Tuesday. Hayward notes recent Wall Street Journal nationwide polling, which suggests suburban women have swung 27 points toward the GOP since August. While the WSJ attributes the shift to the pain from inflation and fear over crime, Hayward theorizes that mothers more likely are reacting to government lockdowns, failures of the public education system, as well as the influx of radical content into schools regarding race and…

Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham has cut parents out of the equation when it comes to students opting to change their names or their gender, according to a document provided by a concerned parent. The “Name Change Form” offers high school students the opportunity to change their name and gender as they will appear on school records without filing the paperwork for a legal change. Next to the line for the parents to sign off on the change, the school helpfully instructs children that parental permission is not required. Similar policies have cropped up at schools throughout Maine. [RELATED:…

National Public Radio, the partially state funded media company located in Washington, D.C., on Thursday played audio of abortion clinic workers performing an abortion. According to the NPR employee narrating the abortion, the woman was 11-weeks pregnant. “It actually feels a lot like a childbirth,” the narrator says. “Whether it’s a birth or an abortion, it’s often women guiding women,” she says, as the sound of a vacuum roars. The audio is graphic and some listeners may find it disturbing. https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1588223254799548416

We’ve reached the point in the election cycle where people who know they’re going to lose get really desperate. Case in point: President Joe Biden going to Union Station in Washington, D.C., which in recent years has become a ghost town and bum camp, to give an underwhelming Hail Mary speech filled with anti-MAGA calumny. The speech didn’t create much buzz and left many political commentators wondering why the White House would wheel out Biden for the event. But over at MSNBC, Biden’s speech sent a tingling down multiple legs. “Joe Biden is saying the same thing tonight, and a…

The White House on Wednesday deleted a tweet that misleadingly credited President Joe Biden with increasing social security payments. Social security payments are increasing, but only because of automatic cost of living adjustments that are tied to inflation. After Twitter posted a fact check on the misleading tweet, someone on the White House comms team decided to delete it altogether. The affray follows billionaire Elon Musk’s long-awaited acquisition of Twitter. Here’s the White House spox answering questions about the deleted tweet. https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1587870759963295745

“Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty,” writes Emily Oster, in a new piece for The Atlantic magazine. “We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID,” she says. Oster is an economist at Brown, a member of the smart set who spent 2020 and 2021 cheerleading the most draconian policies. Now, she’s one of many founding members of the Anthony Fauci Fan Club issuing a half-hearted mea culpa. She now understands schools were closed too long, social distancing and masking was bogus, and data on vaccines were total deficient. Great…

Trinity College in Hartford, CT, ordered the removal of a student’s American flag and attempted to confiscate the flag, according to a viral video depicting the incident. In the video, an unknown woman who appears to work for the college removes a student’s flag, citing a request from an unspecified dean’s office. The American flag is stylized with blue, green, and red stripes, a nod to members of law enforcement, service members, and firefighters. The woman orders the student to stop filming her and asks a colleague to call campus safety. She then attempts to steal the flag, claiming she…

The Maine Department of Corrections is providing padded bras to juvenile inmates without breasts and chest binders to juvenile inmates with breasts following a March 2020 policy directive from MDOC Commissioner Randall Liberty, an MDOC spokeswoman has confirmed. “We purchase the chest binders through Amazon as needed when requested,” Jane Tower said in an email. Tower said MDOC purchases the padded bras through Bob Barker, a contractor that works primarily with prisons. The policy directive aimed at juvenile detention facilities states the following: “Clothing, personal hygiene and grooming items, and other gender-specific property items allowed to a transgender or intersex…

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and Republican former Gov. Paul LePage clashed once again Thursday night in a debate that may help determine the shape of Maine’s executive branch for the next four years. The candidates covered Mills’ decision to mandate COVID-19 injections for health care workers and fire those who refused, whether Maine schools will force a similar mandate on school children, how Maine will fare once federal Pandemic Era funding dries up, and more. Check out the highlights below, and follow The Maine Wire on Twitter and Facebook. https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1585988617469833216 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1585987472324177921 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1585987981516902400 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1585989115715407873 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1585992329575399426 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1586017483420581889 https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1586017989224271874

The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), fresh off their Pandemic Era advocacy for school closures and masking small children, are pouring money into Maine’s local political races in a bid to keep their allies in the Maine Democratic Party in control of the State Legislature and the Blaine House. The NEA and AFT are the two largest, most powerful teachers unions in the country, and they operate together according to a partnership agreement negotiated more than twenty years ago. According to that agreement, the two unions jointly fund activities and share in decision making.…

Blame it on the public education system or declining mental health care, but whatever the cause, the new crop of left-wing environmental activists have gone absolutely bonkers. In the last few weeks, viral videos have showed young activists throwing soup on a Vincent Van Gogh painting, smearing mashed potatoes on a Monet, spray painting an Aston Martin dealership, and dumping perfectly good milk all over the floor of a supermarket. https://twitter.com/GoingParabolic/status/1581616977503977474 https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1584219828914569217 https://twitter.com/Abigail_Evanss_/status/1581565844353478656 https://twitter.com/RebelsAnimal/status/1581251694444564486

The Institute for Research on Presidential Elections (IRPE), a supposedly non-partisan non-profit, has invited some Maine lawmakers on an indulgent Miami Beach junket, but the invitation may not be advertised honestly. Invitations for the trip, originally scheduled for mid-November but now delayed to January, bill it is an “educational seminar on presidential elections and the Electoral College.” The Institute generously promises to cover costs for travel and accommodation for up to three nights. The invitation does not say that IRPE has a specific agenda, but the organization is controlled and staffed by advocates for the National Popular Vote interstate compact…

President Joe Biden is slated to join Pennsylvania senate candidate Jon Fetterman on the campaign trail today, but that move is the exception rather than the rule. Unlike former President Barack Obama, who was and remains in high demand during congressional campaigns, Biden’s fellow Democrats have been less eager to have him come to their states. Asked about Democratic Party candidates’ reluctance to have him on the campaign trail, Biden snapped at a reporter Thursday. “That’s not true! There’ve been 15. Count kid, count,” he said. https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1583117263921561604 President Biden has not visited Maine to support Reps. Chellie Pingree (CD-1) and…

Maine Wire EIC Steve Robinson joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler show Tuesday morning to talk about Maine Wire’s exclusive reporting on the controversy over a Gray-New Gloucester teacher subjecting an 8th grade student to bizarre political ranting. Gray-New Gloucester Middle School teacher Ann Cook was secretly recorded on tape lecturing a student with brazen, one-sided left-wing ideas, and that recording was provided by parents to The Maine Wire. In the interview, Hale asks an interesting question: Why haven’t the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News (or Maine Public) touched this story? Listen here:

A Hermon third grade teacher who also heads the Hermon Teachers Association has a message for parents who are upset with the content of classroom instruction: Buy a new house and get out. https://youtu.be/-f3ngPGoVQ0 “To the citizens of Hermon, the fact is, we work in a public district, our schools are for every child, educators here know what’s best for our students, we have the training, we have the knowledge, we have the experience, please trust us,” said Hermon Education Association President Erin York in an October 3 public meeting. “And those of you that don’t trust us, you can…

American’s trust major corporate media outlets less than ever, American polling firm Gallup reported Tuesday. “At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign,” the Gallup’s Megan Brenan reported. “Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. adults say they do not have very much confidence and 38% have none at all in…

The price of a gallon of No. 2 heating oil in Maine is back around $5.00 per gallon, according to information tracked by the Maine governor’s office and the federal government. In other words, a Maine resident who needs 1,000 gallons to keep warm during the winter will pay more than $5,000 — an increase of almost $2,500 over prices last year at this time. Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills last week circulated a tip sheet for surviving Maine winter with high energy costs in which she blamed the price increases on the Russian invasion of Ukraine without citing any…

A scientific laboratory in Boston says it has created a deadlier version of the COVID-19 virus that led governments around the world to shutdown economies, harshly restrict freedom, and destroy millions of lives. Boston Universities scientists have apparently added a spike protein from the hyper-contagious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus and added it to the original strain that originated in Wuhan, China. Gain of function research, the term that describes adding additional capabilities or qualities to a virus, is the technique some researchers believe led to the COVID-19 outbreak in the first place. Here’s a screenshot from the research…

Add another Hunter Biden Corruption story to the pile of items Americans must learn about in the British press. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported exclusively on the financially lucrative relationship between President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina. The emails, which were discovered by a Kazakh anti-corruption group, show Hunter Biden’s real estate company received a $40 million investment from Baturina, the billionaire widow of a former Moscow mayor. From the Daily Mail: “The relationship between the president’s son and Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor, has already been flagged as alarming…

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden received thunderous boos and even an R-Rated chant last night when she attended Lincoln Financial Field for the Philadelphia Eagles football game against the Dallas Cowboys last night. When Biden, who has a doctorate in education, was shown on the jumbotron, the crowd booed and began chanting. Have a listen for yourself. https://twitter.com/TPPatriots/status/1582014192735105027

A New York Times / Siena College poll released Monday suggests Republican candidates have gained ground with independent voters after polling throughout the summer indicated Democratic Party candidates were in the lead. The poll also suggests that the economy, rather than abortion, remains the most important issue for voters. The big poll out today comes from the New York Times and Siena College: “Republicans enter the final weeks of the contest for control of Congress with a narrow but distinctive advantage as the economy and inflation have surged as the dominant concerns, giving the party momentum to take back power…

Maine Wire EIC Steve Robinson joined WGAN Morning News host Matt Gagnon this morning to cover his reporting on a secret audio recording on a Maine public school teacher’s shocking political rant to an 8th grader. Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/newsradio-wgan/steve-robinson-1?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

A Rumford man whose 2016 arrest for fentanyl trafficking landed him in jail — and in former Gov. Paul LePage’s infamous “binder full of drug dealers” — was arrested again in August on charges of fentanyl trafficking. Rashaud Lavoie, 30, was one of eight Maine residents charged with drug-related crimes following a joint operation between the FBI’s Southern Maine Gang Task Force, Mexico Police, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, and Maine State Police. Lavoie has had frequent run-ins with Maine law enforcement since relocating to Maine from Lawrence, Mass. His first arrest in Maine came in 2013 following his involvement in…

Maine Gov. Janet Mills is blaming Russia for the high price of energy as Maine heads into winter. “Energy prices are expected to remain high this winter due to continued world market volatility from the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the governor’s office said in a “Winter Heating Season Tips and Resources” sheet that the Mills administration emailed around yesterday. Mills does not list any other factors that may be contributing to increased energy prices, such as state and federal policies that prohibit or make it harder to produce energy in America. The claim on the fact sheet is inline with…

Maine Wire EIC Steve Robinson joined WGAN Morning Show host Matt Gagnon to talk about his coverage of Dr. Meryl Nass’s hearing before the Board of Licensure in Medicine (BOLIM). https://soundcloud.com/newsradio-wgan/steve-robinson?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing BOLIM suspended Nass’s medical license and ordered to to undergo a neuropyschological evaluation after activists reported to the board that Nass was spreading “misinformation.” Although the board now claims the case against Nass revolves around medical record keeping errors, Nass and her attorneys hold that the investigation and subsequent punishment are politically driven attacks on a prominent critic of state and federal COVID-19 policies. Full disclosure: The Maine Wire…

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a.k.a. the mega celebrity AOC who boasts 13.5 million Twitter followers, was lambasted by protesters opposed to escalating U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine. Two activists who purported to be former supporters of AOC confronted the Bronx pol over her support of supplying U.S. arms and financial support to Ukraine as it struggles to ward of invading Russian forces. “I believed in you, and you became the very thing you sought to fight against. That’s what you’ve become,” one of the protesters shouted. “You are the establishment.” https://twitter.com/JosBtrigga/status/1580364662419312641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1580364662419312641%7Ctwgr%5Ee1549e7de70dfd7237637eabffaa6c7308c8d253%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2022%2F10%2F13%2Falexandria-ocasio-cortez-town-hall-protesters-shouting-ukraine-war-viral-video%2F The nearly empty town hall meeting, and…

Boston Red Sox employee Peter Tolan was arrested Monday on the charge of child enticement. “When we learned of the allegations against Peter Tolan, involving events unrelated to his Red Sox employment, he was suspended without pay from his position. We will have no further comment going forward,” the spokesperson said in a statement to media.  Tolan, 58, was arrested by police in East Bridgewater, Mass., after sending sexually explicit text messages to someone he thought at a 15-year-old girl. Police said he agreed to meet up for sex with the recipient of those messages, who turned out to be…

The number of parents submitting Freedom of Access Act requests to Maine’s government-run schools is “out of control,” according to Maine School Management Association Vicki Wallack. “I am on the Right to Know Committee for MSMA and a strong defender of Right to Know, but requests are out of control,” Wallack said in an email to school officials inviting them to testify at a meeting of the committee on Thursday, October 13. “[O]ur concern is the number of FOIA (sic) requests we are seeing around gender identity discussions in schools and pushback on posters that support acceptance of our gay,…

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday the results of a deep investigation into the stock trading of federal government officials, revealing for the first time that top government bureaucrats frequently buy and sell shares in companies whose financial health will be affected by agency decisions. From WSJ: A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that thousands of officials across the U.S. government’s executive branch disclosed owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions their agencies made.Across 50 federal agencies ranging from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, more than 2,600 officials reported stock investments in companies while…

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a blanket pardon for Americans who have been convicted of simple marijuana possession and called on state governors to do the same from state-level marijuana law violators. https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1578097879390031874 Biden also announced his intention to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, a major step toward decriminalizing the drug at the federal level. https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1578097880744820736 The decision is an obvious attempt to swing voters, coming a little more than one month before midterm elections will decide whether Democrats retain control of the House and Senate for the final two years of his first presidential term. The…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the world understand that western countries cannot be dependent on autocratic nations for oil, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-1) said Thursday in an interview on Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s “Maine Calling” radio show. “It has dramatically made the world understand that we cannot be dependent on foreign oil to have brutal dictators like Russia,” Pingree said. “We have to speed up our timing on energy independence.” Pingree, who is seeking an eighth term in the U.S. Congress, has been a staunch opponent of domestic oil and natural gas production, including backing several bills that…

President Joe Biden may have won the election, but he’s not really in charge, according to former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who’s seeking a third non-consecutive term as governor of Maine. “I believe that President Biden won the election, I’m just not sure who’s running the country,” LePage said at the first gubernatorial debate in Lewiston. “He’s obviously not capable of running the country,” he said, “and I don’t know who’s waving the strings.” https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1577772678928277514 Questions over President Biden’s mental fitness for the office have been common among right-wing commentators since before his election. But after Biden, 79, appeared to…

New York Times reporter Stuart A. Thompson labeled the story a far-right “conspiracy theory” involving a Michigan company whose software was used in the 2020 presidential election.The following day, Thompson reported significant elements of the conspiracy theory were indeed true.Here’s Thompson’s first story, published Monday: At an invitation-only conference in August at a secret location southeast of Phoenix, a group of election deniers unspooled a new conspiracy theory about the 2020 presidential outcome.Using threadbare evidence, or none at all, the group suggested that a small American election software company, Konnech, had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had…

Political campaigns are in full swing and, once again, the debate on health care is dominating the landscape, specifically how Americans will get their health care and who will pay for it. On the campaign trail in 2016, Medicare for All became synonymous with Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid. In 2020, the term “public option” is growing in popularity among those who do not want to be tied to a complete government takeover of health care. As of late, US Senate candidate Sara Gideon and US Rep. Jared Golden have voiced support of the idea, but what exactly is the public option…