The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal for injunctive relief on October 29 in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Maine’s…
We shouldn’t be too surprised that the ongoing exodus from public schools is leading those loyal to government-run schooling to…
Cigarette sales in the United States rose last year for the first time in two decades, according to data published by the Federal Trade…
Recent enrollment numbers released by the Maine Department of Education (DOE) show that the number of students who are being…
On October 25 the Legislative Council met to consider bill requests for the 130th Maine Legislature’s upcoming second session. The…
Gov. Janet Mills held a press conference on October 25 to announce funding for four programs intended to address Maine’s…
The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic will go down in American history as one of loss, economic suffering, and…
Maine’s unemployment rate remained largely unchanged between August and September. The unemployment rate ticked down slightly, from 4.9% in August…
Should government officials be allowed to choose which journalists report on them? Most Americans probably would say no, because the First…
It is now less than a month before voters will go to the polls and cast their votes on ballot…
For years, my son has leased land from Christian Camps in Jackman to tap trees for maple syrup, so I’m…
The Portland City Council voted unanimously on October 18 to change the city fee structure for licenses of amusement devices.…
A commission directed by the Maine Legislature to create a plan to incorporate the state’s probate courts into the judicial…
On October 16, a U.S. District Court judge blocked the implementation of a seasonal ban on lobster fishing in Maine…
Many parents pulled their children out of school last year for homeschooling and other private options, as schools remained shuttered…
As of October 7, there have been just under 3,000 reported cases of COVID-19 in Maine schools within the last…
The Maine Legislature’s Republican leadership sent a letter to their Democratic counterparts on October 12 urging them to reconvene the…
As one-size-fits-all COVID vaccine mandates sweep government, academia, and corporate America, new data are emerging that undermine the public health…
A new publication from Maine Policy Institute shows which municipalities in Maine allow public K-12 education funding to follow their…
As the date of enforcement for Gov. Janet Mills’ COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers approaches, hospitals and emergency medical…
The Legislative Council met on October 7 to discuss its legal response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)…
That darn First Amendment. This week, The Maine Wire learned that the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)…
Today, Maine Policy Institute released a new analysis on the scope of educational options available for Maine families based on…
On Monday, US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona touted new academic research to show that masks have been effective at reducing…
Since the world learned of a novel coronavirus emerging from Wuhan, China in December 2019, there has been no shortage…
At midnight on October 1, the position of state auditor will become vacant. Maine statute requires that the state auditor…
The pandemic was a test of America’s public health bureaucracy. It failed.
The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced the state’s minimum wage will increase by 60 cents on January 1,…
The Maine Legislature convened on September 29 and approved new maps for federal congressional districts, state House of Representatives and…
Arcadia National Bar, an arcade-themed bar in Portland, has been closed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bar’s…
Hours ahead of its September 27 deadline, the Apportionment Commission met for the final time and approved new district maps…
President Biden and his progressives allies are advancing a historic $4.5+ trillion spending plan that would vastly expand the government’s…
In the wake of a devastating pandemic and the resulting economic consequences, the United States has incurred a considerable amount…
Maine’s Apportionment Commission voted to approve new district maps for Maine’s House of Representatives and congressional districts during its September…
Maine’s Legislative Council voted to reinstate its COVID-19 Prevention Policy, which requires face masks to be worn in the State…
On September 9th, President Joe Biden ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency tasked with regulating workplace safety,…
The Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have sent a letter to the White House asserting that “the security…
According to the Maine Department of Labor’s (DOL) Center for Workforce Research and Information, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs…
Occupational licensing has already been called out for hobbling opportunity, impeding mobility, protecting established practitioners from competition, and for raising…
The Apportionment Commission held a public hearing on September 20 to hear public input on some of the district maps…
In May, the Treasury Department released the Biden administration’s revenue proposals for fiscal year 2022. One aspect of this document…
Note: I am teaching Environmental Policy this fall, for perhaps the last time. I first taught it more than 30…
On September 14, the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Marine Resources met and discussed the impact new rules recently released by…
Approximately 25 percent of jobs in the United States require some kind of occupational license. A condition on which many…
During a September 15 meeting of the legislature’s Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, Department of Education (DOE) Commissioner Pender…
The Apportionment Commission, which is responsible for using the 2020 census data to redraw Maine’s political districts, hopes to hold…
There are a growing number of legal challenges to Gov. Janet Mills’ requirement that healthcare workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine.…
This fall may be the biggest moment of truth for public education since the 1970s. After seeing enrollment in government-run…
The number of state legislators who have signed a letter calling for President Biden to reverse a recent decision that…
According to Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS) Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew, Maine healthcare workers will not be able to…
Maine’s lobstermen and women are under attack by the Biden Administration after a recent set of rule changes restricting seasonal lobster fishing in 950 square miles of…
Gov. Janet Mills’ administration recently announced it is awarding Maine hospitals and long-term care facilities $146 million to support workforce…
New federal regulations created to protect the endangered right whale will close off a nearly 1,000 square mile strip in…
It’s always frustrating to read about the many ways the federal government wastes our money, from millions spent putting lizards…
A newly published medical study found that infection from COVID-19 confers considerably longer-lasting and stronger protection against the Delta variant…
The ACLU on Tuesday announced it is bringing a lawsuit against South Carolina over its mask policy. The Palmetto State…
On August 12, Maine Governor Janet Mills issued an emergency rule change through the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)…
The future of the Shawmut Dam remains in question. Following a draft ruling that announced the Maine Department of Environmental…
Jennifer Bridges knew what was coming when her director at Houston Methodist hospital called her up in June to inquire…
Maine’s Apportionment Commission, which is responsible for using the 2020 census data to reapportion the state’s legislative and federal congressional…
Despite some improvements to Maine’s economy, the leisure and hospitality industries remain among the slowest to recover from the pandemic.…
Though the legislature failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a bill that would have created a consumer-owned utility…
At the end of July, Governor Mills and the Maine CDC issued a recommendation that all K-12 students wear face…
A viral Instagram post claimed that COVID-19 is 99 percent survivable for most age groups—the elderly being an important exception. The post…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced a new vaccine requirement for healthcare workers on August 12, and it didn’t take long…
On August 12, Gov. Janet Mills announced that all Maine healthcare workers will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19…
Over a recent 12-day period the Milwaukee Brewers had nine players test positive for COVID-19. While we don’t know the…
During its August 11 meeting, the Government Oversight Committee (GOC) voted unanimously to endorse a report on the citizen initiative…
The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced on August 11 it is extending the deadline for its Back to Work…
According to estimates from the White House, Maine will receive just over $1.9 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Investment…
On August 6, the Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced that approximately 7,400 unemployment claimants receiving federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance…
States are sovereign political entities. The United States Constitution lays out the powers relinquished by the several states and the people and loaned to the federal government…
Last week I received a letter from my children’s school district. “We will start the school year this fall -…
On August 4, a citizens’ petition that would put a question about the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) on the Massachusetts…
The Maine Department of Labor’s (DOL) Back-to-Work grant program will close applications on Friday, August 6. The program allows employers…
When former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was sworn in as the state auditor on January 4, he did not…
On August 4, just days after allowing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium to expire…
Unions dropped a whopping $67 million in hidden political spending between 2019 and 2020, according to a new study from…
As the data stand right now, deaths are not on pace with new infections across the country, and we are still in a much better position in the pandemic than just a few months ago, so let’s act like it.
It is far past time to reopen the border between the United States and Canada. Even Gov. Janet Mills agrees…
The Maine Department of Education has certain requirements students must complete before they can earn a diploma. Four years of…
Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman famously quipped that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” If only he’d known…
On July 28, Gov. Janet Mills announced updates to Maine’s recommendations for wearing face coverings in indoor settings. The state…
On July 27, the U.S. Senate voted to bring President Joe Biden’s appointee to head the Bureau of Land Management…
Bad infrastructure and an unreliable power grid. These are among the top reasons CNBC ranked Maine in 48th place for…
Progress is progress, and that should be celebrated. These billionaires going to space is the first step in the democratization of space travel, and they are doing it far more efficiently than our government ever could.
According to Maine Department of Education (DOE) Commissioner Pender Makin, ensuring every student in the state has access to full-time,…
Clearly, the vast majority of people taking advantage of IRAs are everyday Americans who have a modest amount saved for their retirement. Congress was the one to create this avenue for saving, and now they are trying to backpedal.
The unemployment rate in Maine remained stuck at 4.8% for the fifth straight month, according to recent report from the…
Whether you think Obamacare was the worst health care policy of the decade or you join Bernie Sanders in supporting…
Don’t let Gov. Janet Mills play you for a fool. In a recent press release, Mills took credit for Maine’s…
Last week’s economic reports revealed that President Biden has apparently found a DeLorean time machine, equipped with a Chinese-made flux…
In another attempt to “follow the science,” a pediatrics group has issued guidance that does the exact opposite. The American…
Gov. Janet Mills fortunately stopped a sloppy, misguided attempt to put a loaded ballot question to voters in November, but…
On July 19, the Maine Legislature voted to approve a plan for spending the $1.1 billion the state received from…
The big picture of this rate increase and the surrounding conversation is simple: it is the fault of federal regulators, not CMP. Outside competitors are funding ads that are aimed to hurt CMP and blame them for something completely out of their control.
The changes include an increase of one dollar– from $3 to $4– for drivers who pay in cash at the York toll plaza and the slashing of discounts for frequent E-ZPass-holding travelers.
LD 1045 sets the stage for a disastrous and expensive government takeover of Maine’s health care system.
Though the bill is dead, voters may still see the question LD 1708 would have posed on the ballot next November.
“The Invisible Hand” is a notion coined by Adam Smith in the context of economics, and in particular, the free-market…