Articles by Scott Thistle
State workers in Lewiston protest pay freeze
LEWISTON, Maine — About a dozen state workers marched along Main Street and just outside their Department of Health and Human Services office Wednesday protesting more than four years without a raise. The workers, all members of the Maine State Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, used their lunch hour to ...
Lawmakers say budget work will go on after LePage bars his advisers from testifying
AUGUSTA, Maine — State lawmakers on the Legislature’s powerful, budget-writing Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee said Tuesday that work on the state’s next two-year budget would continue despite an order from Gov. Paul LePage that bars commissioners in his Cabinet from appearing before the committee. LePage said last week he ...
‘Historic’ energy bill clears Maine legislative committee, 12-1
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill aimed at lowering the costs of energy while dramatically changing the way Mainers consume it vaulted out of a key legislative committee on a near unanimous, 12-1 vote Friday. The vote comes after months of hearings, negotiations, compromise and downright wrangling between Democrats, Republicans and ...
POLL QUESTION, VIDEO
LePage tells legislative leaders he’s moving out of State House because of ‘censorship’
AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic legislative leaders said Thursday that Republican Gov. Paul LePage told them he would move his office from the State House in a protest over not being able to have a television display outside his office. But LePage said his staff would remain there “until partisan leaders ...
Lawmakers push off pay-freeze bill until 2014
AUGUSTA, Maine — State lawmakers Wednesday iced a bill that would have docked lawmakers’ pay if the Legislature failed to reach a budget agreement and Maine government shut down. Despite saying they favored the concept, offered by state Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, members of the State and Local Government Committee ...
Maine tax overhaul would raise sales tax, cut almost all income-tax deductions
The bill helps solve a current state budget shortfall of more than $800 million that lawmakers are trying to close as the end of the state’s fiscal year approaches on June 30.
Workforce development bill sails through Maine Senate
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that’s being heralded as “first-of-its-kind” legislation aimed at closing the state’s “skills gap” easily cleared the Maine Senate on Wednesday. The bill, LD 90 — the work of a special committee of the Legislature — was rolled out last week and broadly praised as a ...
Committee shoots down bill that would allow school staff to be armed
AUGUSTA, Maine — In another emotionally charged vote, the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted down a bill Wednesday that would have allowed some public school workers to carry concealed handguns. The bill, LD 1430, offered by Sen. David Burns, R-Whiting, would have left the decision to local ...
POLL QUESTION
Bill requiring food producers to label products containing genetically modified organisms passes state committee test
AUGUSTA, Maine — Despite concerns that any law forcing food producers to label products containing genetically modified organisms could lead to a challenge in the courts, the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee approved a labeling measure on an 8-3 vote Tuesday. The bill, LD 718, offered by Rep. Lance ...
Bill to temporarily ban tar sands oil in Maine turns into plan to study transport across state
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that would have set a 2-year moratorium on the transportation of oil sands crude in Maine left the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Monday as a resolve directing state officials to expand a study already in the works. The committee vote was unanimous. ...
Legislative oversight panel OKs probe of document shredding allegation
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee has approved the scope of an investigation into the Maine Center for Disease Control, including whether CDC workers unfairly distributed program funding or destroyed public documents. The committee also decided to let the federal government finish its investigation into concerns over a ...
Olympia’s List makes its first campaign donation — to Maine Sen. Susan Collins
AUGUSTA, Maine — Former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, announced on Facebook on Friday her political action committee, Olympia’s List, would be donating to the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. In the post Snowe writes the contribution is the Olympia’s List’s first “major gift of the 2014 ...
Maine’s Legislative Council approves $30,000 to help victims of Lewiston fires
AUGUSTA, Maine — The 10-member Legislative Council voted unanimously Thursday to send the City of Lewiston $30,000 to help some of the 200 people left homeless by three downtown fires last week. The council, which includes the minority and majority leaders in both the House and Senate as well as ...
Bill submitted by Bangor senator seeks greater transparency for hospital financial data
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that creates a special commission and an annual study of hospital financial data for tax-subsidized hospitals in Maine may be the first step toward a more transparent health care system, according to proponents of the measure. Just finding out how much any given medical procedure ...
Bill to allow police to use drones without search warrant heads to Maine Senate
AUGUSTA, Maine — In a narrow decision, lawmakers accepted an amendment to a bill offered by Sen. John Patrick, D-Rumford, that could allow police to use a drone without a search warrant. In a 7-6 vote on May 1, the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee sided with Maine Attorney General Janet Mills ...
Legislative committee mulls 2-year moratorium on ‘tar sands’ oil
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill creating a two-year moratorium on the transportation of “tar sands” oil in Maine pit environmental groups against those who say the ban would have far-reaching negative effects on the economy during testimony before the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Monday. The bill, LD ...
Sponsor of bill says Maine will legalize marijuana, one way or another
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that would let Maine voters decide in a statewide referendum if the state should legalize marijuana for recreational use saw dozens of people testify before the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Friday. Those who support the law change said prohibition doesn’t work ...
Lawmakers endorse gun show background checks, kill plan to allow concealed weapons without permit
AUGUSTA, Maine — On a 7-6 vote Thursday, lawmakers on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee rejected a bill that would have made it legal to carry a concealed handgun without a permit in Maine. The bill, LD 660, would overturn Maine’s requirement that only trained and vetted ...
Lawmakers to review bill that removes concealed handgun permit requirement in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that allows most people to carry a concealed handgun without a state-issued permit is back before the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Thursday. The bill, LD 660, would overturn Maine’s requirement that only trained and vetted individuals who pay a permit fee are ...
Lawmakers can’t agree on plan to pay Maine’s $480 million debt to hospitals
AUGUSTA, Maine — Legislative party leaders exchanged partisan jabs again Tuesday, extending the debate over how and when the state should pay off its more than $480 million debt owed to 39 hospitals across Maine. Adding a new wrinkle in the debate was new information from the federal Department of ...
LePage speaks frankly to Dirigo Girls State delegates
Orono man enters not guilty pleas in Cable kidnapping, murder
Handful of Republicans being pressured to override LePage Medicaid veto
LePage fails to surprise on Medicaid expansion
We don’t understand female politicians
The cost of requiring more renewable power
Maine Sports Hall of Fame revokes Dana Wilson’s 2012 induction
American Lung Association retires number of cyclist killed in Trek Across Maine
Retiring Hermon High School athletic administrator Soucy maintains love of sports
Pats’ Hernandez questioned in homicide case
Midcoast multibajillionaire knows what her husband is doing before he does it
The Esther II: A father’s boat, a son’s heart