AUGUSTA | Health groups, doctors, students and others turned out in force Monday at the State House to oppose a budget initiative that would take away roughly $20 million in funding for community-based smoking cessation and prevention services. The plan, part of Gov. Paul LePage’s two-year budget proposal, would …
Mario Moretto
State House Reporter
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
GOP operative convicted of illegal political coordination has Poliquin connection
on March 02, 2015, at 10:59 a.m.
Tyler Harber, a 34-year-old GOP campaign operative in the D.C. area who coordinated $325,000 in spending between a super PAC and a Virginia congressional campaign in 2012, became the first person ever convicted of illegal campaign-finance coordination when he pleaded guilty on Feb. 12. That’s a milestone in campaign finance law, for …
LePage challenges AG Mills on use of settlement cash
AUGUSTA | Apparently not content with the numerous battles he’s already fighting with Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, Gov. Paul LePage announced Thursday that he’ll submit a bill aimed at curtailing the attorney general’s authority to receive and spend money from lawsuit settlements. As part of multi-state lawsuit against …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Open Internet advocates King, Pingree hail FCC decision on net neutrality
on Feb. 26, 2015, at 4:27 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, on Thursday hailed the Federal Communications Commission’s 3-2 decision to classify broadband Internet service as a public utility. The FCC is trying to close the debate between two competing visions for what Internet access should look like. On one side, net neutrality advocates say broadband service …
Maine high court weighs separation of powers between LePage, Mills
PORTLAND | Lawyers for Gov. Paul LePage and Attorney General Janet Mills on Thursday took the latest clash between the two political foes to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, which heard oral arguments on whether the governor should be allowed to hire outside counsel without Mills’ approval. The court …
LePage plan could make forestry top priority in managing public lands
AUGUSTA | Conservationists are skeptical about Gov. Paul LePage’s budget for the natural resource departments, fearful that it would open the gates for expanded commercial harvesting of state-owned property. LePage wants to do away with the state’s Bureau of Parks and Lands, which is responsible for the management of …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Are Obama and LePage veto soulmates?
on Feb. 25, 2015, at 7:30 a.m.
Good morning from Augusta, where everyone today is turning their attention to faraway Bald Mountain, more than 200 miles north in the heart of Aroostook County. It’s far removed from the State House, but the mountain — said to contain vast deposits of copper and zinc — has been the …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Are Obama and LePage veto soul mates?
on Feb. 25, 2015, at 7:30 a.m.
Good morning from Augusta, where everyone today is turning their attention to faraway Bald Mountain, more than 200 miles north in the heart of Aroostook County. It’s far removed from the State House, but the mountain — said to contain vast deposits of copper and zinc — has been the …
Maine chief justice wants fewer people jailed before trial
AUGUSTA | Maine Chief Justice Leigh Saufley on Tuesday announced a new effort to keep more people who are awaiting trial out of the state’s county jails. More than 60 percent of people held in Maine’s jails have not been convicted, she said, and many don’t pose a risk …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Saufley to deliver ‘State of the Judiciary’ speech
on Feb. 24, 2015, at 7:27 a.m.
Good morning from frigid Augusta, where cold means more than the relationships between political opponents. There’s a lot on the docket today with the House and Senate returning to session after a week’s vacation and many of the Legislature’s committees plowing through bills. On that latter front, the Agriculture, Conservation …
Sales tax hike puts Maine at disadvantage, business groups complain
AUGUSTA | The Legislature’s budget negotiators wrapped up their fourth and final day of public hearings on Gov. Paul LePage’s massive tax reform plan Monday with a parade of business interests pleading to be exempted from the governor’s expanded, increased sales tax. Many goods and nearly all services in …
LePage joins governors group pushing for offshore drilling
AUGUSTA | Gov. Paul LePage has joined a group of Atlantic and Gulf coast governors working to expand offshore energy production, becoming the first member of the group from a northeastern state. The OCS Governors Coalition includes the Republican governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
LePage cracks down on state employees viewing porn on work computers
on Feb. 20, 2015, at 4:44 p.m.
Gov. Paul LePage on Friday issued an executive order to stiffen policies prohibiting state employees from accessing pornographic material on government computers or devices — even when they’re off the clock. According to the governor and his human resources chief, it’s a type of misconduct that persists, albeit infrequently. “Employees of …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Rhode Island vs. Maine in a battle for New England’s seniors
on Feb. 19, 2015, at 7:30 a.m.
Good morning. I’m not sure how it looks where you are, but here in Central Maine, as of Thursday morning, the snow is just starting to hit. If the weather cooperates, budget negotiators in Augusta will entertain dozens of members of the public for the third day in a row as the Appropriations …
‘Here we go again’: Maine communities fight LePage plan to cut state aid
AUGUSTA | In what has become an annual event, municipal officials from around the state descended Wednesday on the State House to lobby against proposed cuts to state aid that they say will hurt towns’ and cities’ ability to provide essential services. The revenue sharing program, established in 1972, …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Public weighs in on LePage budget; support for ranked-choice grows
on Feb. 18, 2015, at 7:30 a.m.
Good morning from Augusta, where the Legislature’s budget negotiators will continue with open hearings on Gov. Paul LePage’s $6.57 billion budget proposal. Members of the Appropriations Committee will hear testimony from the general public today about LePage’s proposed elimination of state aid to municipalities, a program established to divert some income …
Democrats say LePage tax plan won’t stop Maine’s population decline
AUGUSTA | One of the underlying assumptions about Gov. Paul LePage’s big tax reform pitch is that lowering individual and corporate income taxes and eliminating the estate tax will help reverse Maine’s well-documented population decline. Proponents of the tax reform plan say it will put Maine on the demographic …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
LePage hails Texas judge’s decision to block Obama’s immigration agenda
on Feb. 17, 2015, at 1:01 p.m.
A U.S. District Court judge in Texas on Monday blocked President Barack Obama’s plan to protect about 4.7 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, saying the president’s use of executive orders to enact the policy had exceeded his authority and wrongly bypassed Congress. The lawsuit was heard in Texas, the state leading the charge …
STATE & CAPITOL (blog)
Daily Brief: Lobbyists prep for budget hearings; job approval from Ike to Obama
on Feb. 17, 2015, at 7:30 a.m.
Good morning from Augusta, where the first waves in a parade of lobbyists, advocates and possibly even some regular Maine residents are gathering to add their voices to the coming budget debate. The Appropriations Committee, responsible for turning Gov. Paul LePage’s $6.57 billion two-year budget proposal into a deal that will …
Emily Cain reflects on election defeat, looks to the future
ORONO | It’s been more than three months since Election Day, when Republicans in Maine made big gains by winning the Blaine House, the Maine Senate and, for the first time in 20 years, the 2nd Congressional District. That day also was the first stumbling moment in what had …
Testing the test: Mainers push back against standardized testing
State police investigating suspicious death in Houlton
Former girlfriend of Kyle Dube testifies at Nichole Cable murder trial
After race, Can-Am musher greeted by litter of 7 new sled puppies
LePage’s ‘welfare reform’ won’t set Maine up for shared prosperity
A workshop of facts on the minimum wage for BDN commenters
Man drives car through Westbrook pharmacy
How Dr. Seuss, Justice Kagan can save Obamacare
Respect the ecosystem for Bagaduce oysters
Skijoring adds another day of dog-powered sports to Can-Am weekend
Top plays, players, efforts in the Maine high school basketball championship games
Frozen Motor Mayhem II Coming to the County Soon
More than two years later, tough decision to stay in Maine worth it
Midwives once again pursue licensing, birth rights bill
Horror film shot in Maine to premiere at South by Southwest festival
‘Dumps, billboards, parks': Bangor reformers aimed to improve city
Weezer set for summertime concert on Maine State Pier in Portland, July 31