Last week, LD 2003, a bill sponsored by Speaker Ryan Fecteau to reform local and state-level housing policy, passed engrossment votes in…
Mainers deserve access to high-quality health care with an affordable price tag. Following the events of the last two years,…
Both the House of Representative and the Senate convened on April 19 for the penultimate day of the 130th Legislature’s…
With only three days left in the 130th Legislature’s second session, both the Senate and House of Representatives held sessions…
In March, Maine’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, a decrease from February’s 4 percent unemployment rate. According to the Maine…
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, even alarmist government officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci have admitted that it’s time to…
The Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs (AFA) met late on the evening of April 14 and voted unanimously to…
The trend of people quitting Portland government (councilors Nicholas Mavodones, Jill Duson, Spencer Thibodeau, city manager Jon Jennings, police chief…
Tax Day is a fitting day to revisit where our tax-and-spend ways have gotten us. When the president’s own stimulus-spending…
With one week left in the legislative session and work on the supplemental budget still unfinished, both the Senate and…
Inflation has surged across much of the developed world in the past year as COVID-19 lockdowns eased and pent-up demand…
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a comparable internal…
On April 7, the Maine Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee voted 8 to 4 to adopt a new sponsor’s amendment…
(If you read my column “Have We No Recourse?”, this column is intended as a sequel to that one.) To…
The Maine Senate on April 7 voted to indefinitely postpone a bill that would have doubled the state’s vehicle inspection…
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data now show fentanyl overdose to be the top cause of death…
How can we end the cycle of recrimination from which we are suffering and restore faith in our government? We…
The House of Representatives on April 5 failed to pass a bill that would have created a ballot question asking…
Another day, another alarming inflation metric. We just got the numbers for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index (PCE), the Federal…
The 130th Maine Legislature is currently scheduled to adjourn its second session on April 20, giving legislators a little more…
It’s hard to decide who is worse, actor Jussie Smollett, who faked a racist and homophobic attack in order to…
Over the last year, frequent communications from University of Maine System leaders Chancellor Malloy and UM/UMM President Ferrini-Mundy endorsed “equity”…
A bill to keep veterans’ homes in Machias and Caribou open was passed by the Senate and signed into law…
For the last two school years, Maine has received a waiver from the federal government exempting it from federal reporting…
Mandatory motor vehicle inspections already cost Mainers $14 million and countless hours of wasted time every single year, but just…
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate met on March 29 for the ninth legislative day of the 130th…
Despite inflation running at a 40-year high, the Biden administration is pushing ahead with plans to hike wages for federal…
As a physician – one who has dedicated his career to treating lung diseases – it has become clear to…
During a joint session of the Maine Legislature on March 24, the Senate finally passed 15 pieces of legislation. The…
Maine’s unemployment rate was 4 percent in February, a small change from January’s rate of 4.1 percent. The number of…
A disagreement between the presiding officers of the Maine Legislature––House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) and Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook)––resulted…
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, I asked a simple question. Could Sweden’s laissez-faire approach to the coronavirus actually work? Unlike…
Both chambers of the Maine Legislature convened on March 22 for the first of two scheduled sessions this week. The…
On March 18, the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology held a work session on Gov. Janet Mills’…
In December of 1994, a United States Capitol Police Officer shot and killed Marcelino Corniel in front of the White House. Corniel…
During a work session on a bill proposing to return surplus money to taxpayers, Democrats on the Maine Legislature’s Committee…
Gov. Janet Mills unveiled her change package to the supplemental budget on March 18, which spends all but $20 million…
President Woodrow Wilson wanted a professional bureaucracy that was apolitical. The theory sounded great but was unfortunately based on a…
Ten months ago, Jeremy Siegel issued a dire warning about the trajectory of prices. “The money supply since the beginning…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing (LBHS) on March 16 voted to advance an amended version of Speaker of…
Weakness is a contagion. Years in the future, when the historians are done analyzing our present moment, they may well…
Maine’s unemployment rate was unchanged from December 2021 to January 2022. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1% in January. The…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) voted against a bill Monday that would have allowed Mainers…
Ghislane Maxwell’s attorneys say that three jurors concealed their experience of sexual abuse. One described in an interview with the…
This article is excerpted from LiberatED, a weekly email newsletter where FEE Senior Education Fellow Kerry McDonald brings you news…
For the sixth time during the 130th Maine Legislature’s second session, the House of Representatives and Senate met on March…
Approximately five months after being forced to vacate the position of state auditor, Matt Dunlap has received internal auditor credentials.…
With the retail price of gasoline in Maine over $4 per gallon and matching the national average, Republican legislators seek…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing held a public hearing March 7 on a bill that would make…
On Feb. 25, the CDC made its expected announcement that it was updating its framework to monitor and contain COVID-19.…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Health and Human Services (HHS) voted to advance two pieces of legislation which would replace…
I was working on several items closer to home but events in Ukraine overtook me. Last week was one of…
Maine’s Legislative Council voted unanimously on March 3 to change its requirement that legislators and staff wear masks inside the…
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Maine Department of Education (DOE) will drop its statewide recommendation…
One day I’m reading an internal memo commissioned by the Democratic Party to provide advice to dealing with Covid policy.…
Maine’s General Fund revenue forecast will increase by approximately $411.6 million following a March 1 meeting of the Revenue Forecasting…
On February 28, Gov. Janet Mills signed a proclamation expressing solidarity with the people of Ukraine and called on the…
Russian soldiers flooded into Ukraine Thursday under orders from President Vladimir Putin, threatening to obliterate a peace that has existed…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business convened on February 22 to hold a public hearing…
The Maine Legislature convened on February 23 to debate several pieces of legislation, including a bill that would ban the…
One of the basic functions of government is to right wrongs. When all else fails, we resort to the legal…
The Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing February 22 on LD 1959, a bill presented…
Emil Westerlund recently left the University of Maine’s (UMaine) men’s ice hockey team because he did not want to receive…
At a “ladies night” fundraiser in Toronto in 2013, an up-and-coming politician was asked which nation’s administration he admired most…
Antitrust is a hot topic in Washington lately. The pervasive reach of big technology companies into our personal lives and…
At least nine Maine hospitals are not complying with a federal price transparency rule, according to the findings of a…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing held a public hearing on February 14 concerning LD 1673, a bill…
On February 15, Gov. Janet Mills released her supplemental budget proposal, which includes $850 million in proposed spending and provides…
On February 2nd, the 2022 Walk-for-Vets kicked off in Augusta. People are walking 2.2 miles in 22 states for a 22 day-long…
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban recently announced his latest, ground-breaking innovation, and it’s one that should catch the attention of Americans.…
The New York Times Style Section’s Modern Love column on February 13 was entitled “What Is Black Love Today” and described as…
A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supposedly shows that wearing a face mask in public…
During her annual State of the State address, Gov. Janet Mills announced her intention to return $411 million of the…
The following is Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ State of the State Address as prepared for delivery on February 10, 2022:…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Health and Human Services (HHS) convened on February 9 to hold public hearings on two…
The dominoes are falling. In just the last month, public leaders of numerous (though not all) European countries, the nation of Israel,…
Central Maine Power provides electricity about 80% of residential customers in Maine, including my house. Factors that influence electricity consumption include the size of…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Marine Resources (MAR) met on February 8 to discuss two bills intended to help the…
The Portland City Council voted unanimously on February 7 to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in the city.…
On February 7, Gov. Janet Mills unveiled an $8 million proposal intended to strengthen Maine’s child welfare system that will…
In late January, Gov. Janet Mills announced her administration has partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation to launch a pilot program…
It takes incredible arrogance for lawmakers and bureaucrats to assume they know what’s best for us. But that quality—arrogance—is precisely what we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic.
The Maine Legislature will vote on a bill this session intended to protect the rights of student-athletes to profit from…
We’re into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. From mask mandates to vaccine passports, government restrictions on our liberties remain…
On February 2, Gov. Janet Mills unveiled draft legislation intended to reform oversight of Maine’s private utility companies. Included in…
On January 27, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his intention to resign at the end of the current term…
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is updating the processes it uses to track and respond to…
It wasn’t long ago that “normal” schooling meant public school, understood as some variation on the theme of classes punctuated…
The Legislative Council met on January 27 and considered after-deadline bill requests to be introduced during the Maine Legislature’s ongoing…
Maine’s truancy rate tripled between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, increasing from just under 5% to just under 15%.…
Members of the Maine Legislature’s House of Representatives failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ veto on Wednesday of a bill…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills will deliver the State of the State address on February 10. She will not release her…
Can we do anything lawful and legitimate to “protect, defend, and preserve” America as we know it? I don’t know…
Last week, Democrats brought to the Senate floor The Freedom to Vote Act and The John Lewis Voting Rights Act.…
Maine’s unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.7% in December 2021, according to a release issued Tuesday by the Maine Department…
On Saturday, newly minted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared an end to mask mandates in the state’s public…
On Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided new research showing that, during the recent Delta…
A preliminary estimate of drug-related deaths indicates 636 people died in Maine as a result of drug overdoses in 2021,…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing voted not to move LD 555, a bill that would have given…
On January 13, the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)…