Augusta
Maine State Police lieutenant not disciplined after gun went off inside
AUGUSTA, Maine — An investigation by a division of the Maine State Police was unable to determine why a lieutenant’s firearm accidentally discharged during a computer training session. Lt. Shawn Currie, commander of the state police commercial vehicle enforcement division, was not disciplined after the Feb. 27 incident. Currie was ...
If more people are on Medicaid, why are Maine hospitals giving away more care for free?
The financial health of Maine’s hospitals has landed at the center of State House debate this spring as lawmakers tussle over whether Maine should expand its Medicaid program under the federal health care reform law. The issue came to a fore this past week as debate erupted over a Democratic ...
Democrats kill bills that would have given rights to fetuses, changed abortion requirements
AUGUSTA, Maine — Two abortion-related bills and a third giving legal rights to fetuses, which drew more than six hours of public testimony Thursday, were rejected Friday by a majority of lawmakers on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. For the most part, Democrats said little during the work session before seven ...
Liquor, hospital debt and Medicaid expansion headed for vote — all in one bill
AUGUSTA, Maine — A sharply divided legislative committee voted Thursday to support a Democratic proposal that ties an expansion of Medicaid to Gov. Paul LePage’s top priority of the legislative session: paying back Maine’s $484 million debt to its 39 hospitals. The Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted 7-5 ...
Law enforcement officials gather for solemn memorial of 83 fallen Maine officers
AUGUSTA, Maine — Dozens of police officers and civilians gathered Thursday for a solemn ceremony in remembrance of the 83 law enforcement officers from Maine who have died while on duty. Expressions on the faces of the law enforcement officers were grim and tears streaked the faces of some audience ...
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 ...
Judge won’t change probation conditions for Maine woman who killed foster child
AUGUSTA, Maine — A Superior Court judge on Tuesday denied a motion to modify probation conditions for the woman who is still serving a 17-year sentence for manslaughter in the the asphyxiation death of her 5-year-old foster child in 2001. Sally Ann Schofield , now 51, of Chelsea was convicted ...
POLL QUESTION
Maine House votes against creating food sovereignty act
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives dealt a blow to local food sovereignty advocates Wednesday, voting 93-49 against a bill that would have established the Maine Food Sovereignty Act of 2013. Nine Maine towns have passed local ordinances that claim home rule rights that contradict state food licensing ...
LePage vetoes bill to let school districts change how they pass budgets
AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a Republican-sponsored bill that drew unanimous support in the Legislature, and the Maine Senate on Wednesday fell one vote short of overriding it. The measure addresses how school districts organized as alternative organizational structures pass their annual budgets. The veto, which LePage issued ...
Lawmakers hope they have an energy bill LePage, Democrats can agree on
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Legislature’s Energy Committee unveiled a multipronged bill Tuesday that incorporates elements from nine different measures aimed at expanding Maine’s natural gas infrastructure, boosting funding for energy efficiency, directly lowering businesses’ electricity costs and making it more affordable for residents to abandon oil heat. The combined bill ...
Lawmakers ask: Are business tax breaks working to create jobs in Maine?
By John Christie and Naomi Schalit, Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on May 15, 2013, at 5:38 a.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — Over the past 50 years, Maine legislatures and governors have added millions of dollars in tax breaks for businesses without doing the detailed analysis to find out which are effective and which are wasteful. But now that may be changing. In recent weeks, a growing list of ...
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 ...
Democrats move Maine teacher evaluation rules forward after scolding from Bowen
AUGUSTA, Maine — A dust-up around the introduction of new teacher and principal evaluation rules appeared to calm Tuesday with Democrats vowing to pull the measure into the process within a week. At issue are rules written by the Department of Education in response to a bill enacted last year ...
LePage to Maine mayors: I made tough choices, so can you
AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday dismissed three suggestions by a group representing mayors of 12 Maine cities that they say improve upon his plan to balance the next state budget by suspending municipal revenue sharing for two years. In a letter Tuesday to LePage, the Mayors’ Coalition ...
Public, professors to rub elbows at Augusta summit, discuss role of humanities in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine — Understanding the ethical implications of science is an art. That’s one of the messages representatives of the University of Maine Humanities Initiative hope to convey during a free summit Friday at the Governor Hill Mansion in Augusta. The goal of the summit is to bring together scholars, ...
Republican lawmaker to propose major amendment to marijuana legalization bill
AUGUSTA, Maine — The face of a bill that would clear the way for legalizing recreational marijuana in Maine could change drastically Tuesday at the hands of a Republican-led amendment at the committee level. Rep. Corey Wilson, R-Augusta, said he will present an amendment to LD 1229, An Act to ...
West Gardiner Firemen’s Association president says fired chief not qualified
WEST GARDINER, Maine — Vicki Dill, who became the town’s first female fire chief in March after agreeing to drop a 2009 sexual discrimination lawsuit against the town, was fired because she was unqualified for the job, a fire official said Tuesday. “There is no way she’s qualified to be ...
House vote sustains LePage veto of rule allowing superintendents to live outside school district
AUGUSTA, Maine — More than 30 legislators in the House of Representatives voted Tuesday against overriding Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill they originally supported. The vote sustains the veto of LD 6, An Act to Prohibit a Requirement That a Superintendent Reside in a School Administrative Unit, which ...
GOP: Flaw in Obamacare language should delay decision on expanding Medicaid
AUGUSTA, Maine — Republicans and Gov. Paul LePage have drawn attention to a drafting error in the federal Affordable Care Act in recent days as they resist attempts by Democratic legislative leaders to tie an expansion of Maine’s Medicaid program to one of LePage ’s top priorities: repayment of the ...
Police seeking tips about pickup truck possibly connected to Glenburn teen’s disappearance
Since 1971, seven Maine children reported missing have not been found
Authorities ask for volunteers in search for missing Glenburn teen Nichole Cable
Company seeks $200,000 for retrieving lost lobster boat
A letter to Michelle Obama in light of military sex assault epidemic
Scandals, real and imagined
IRS targeting
Manchester 15-year-old off to impressive start for Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports
Houlton council, community still concerned about costly Millar Civic Center
For those who are too fat for Abercrombie and Fitch
Kitchen Nightmares meltdown or: How to lose an argument online
Market Basket in Biddeford starts hiring 300 workers
Arguments over gun control and abortion will never be settled
