In addition, it wants to eliminate a number of rights parents are currently guaranteed, such as the right to visit their children at any time during the day and the right to be informed of any licensing deficiencies.
Matthew Stone
Opinion Page Editor
Maine Focus
What LePage really plans to do with $100M meant for Maine families in poverty
The administration has orchestrated this major budget shift on its own, largely beyond public view and mostly without adding to the support available to help low-income Mainers escape poverty.
MAINE FOCUS
How Mary Mayhew consolidated control over DHHS
The inner workings of Maine’s largest state agency have fundamentally changed during the past six years.
MAINE FOCUS
Bill to let infant death review group do its job gets initial approval
The legislation follows reporting last summer by the BDN’s Maine Focus team that found Maine was the only state to see a long-term increase in its infant mortality rate over the past two decades.
MAINE FOCUS
Bill that restores public health nursing program earns initial approval
The legislation, LD 1108, follows a BDN Maine Focus story last summer that detailed the major, unannounced contraction of Maine’s public health nursing program in recent years.
Maine Focus
DHHS has blocked lawmakers from public data on nursing program
The experience of requesting public information and not receiving it has become the norm in recent months for state Sen. Brownie Carson and others who have sought details and basic documents about public health nursing from the Maine CDC.
Maine Focus
LePage cut ranks of nurses who prevent outbreaks. Now lawmakers are trying to rebuild
In recent years, the number of public health nurses has fallen by more than half.
MAINE FOCUS
LePage administration paid $315K for a consultant to rethink child care, then did nothing
The state told federal regulators it planned to carry out the consultant’s recommendations and re-upped with the consultant after its first proposal. But it appears there are no plans to follow through.
MAINE FOCUS
King wants rural towns to compete for money to turn around their future
If current trends hold, Maine’s rural regions are destined for a future in which communities will continue to shrink, and some might cease to exist as municipalities.
How Maine is failing working parents by leaving millions unspent on child care
on March 20, 2017, at 6:08 a.m.
The typical cost of care for infants at a child care center, almost $9,700 annually, is more than in-state tuition at the University of Maine. Yet in each of the past four years, the state has simply not spent at least $4 million in federal funds meant to help working moms and dads.
MAINE FOCUS
How $13M in unlawful spending took shape in Mary Mayhew’s DHHS
Internal emails and other communications show that state finance staff questioned the Department of Health and Human Services’ plans to spend more than $13 million in ways that ran afoul of a federal law.
Maine Focus
Group charged with understanding Maine infant deaths to meet after 3-year hiatus
Lawmakers aim to give the panel more authority, especially after a rise in the state’s infant mortality rate that no one can fully explain.
MAINE FOCUS
Mary Mayhew insists on photo IDs for infant nutrition program and loses $1.4M
The demand by Maine’s top health official has stalled an upgrade required by federal law to a program that helps new moms buy healthy food.
A simple change could give Maine’s hungry, rural people more food
on Dec. 23, 2016, at 6:38 a.m.
The first in-depth look of its kind shows that 59 percent of people are using food pantries more this year than last.
This remote Maine region has a chance to grow
on Dec. 07, 2016, at 6:10 a.m.
“If you don’t change, you die.”
Father, son on fishing trip haul rifle from Augusta river
The Penobscot County Jail is trying something new to fight the opioid crisis
Trooper slightly injured forcing wrong-way driver off Maine Turnpike
Why LePage might not get a budget to veto before shutdown
Maine budget negotiators work toward a last-minute deal to avoid shutdown
Sacrificing everything at the altar of tax cuts
To reach a budget deal, Maine needs leadership from LePage, not a game of chicken
Shutting down free speech
My faith calls on me to oppose the Senate’s immoral health care bill
Problems with Trumpcare start with its meanness
UMaine softball player wows social media with football toss
Hampden Academy football coach steps down to assume athletic administrator post
Red Sox manager Farrell suspended, fined for ump confrontation
Hockey coach added to UMaine Sports Hall of Fame class
Kesha and Seinfeld’s ‘hug’: Boys have boundaries, too
How to make traditional Maine bean hole beans
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Andrew Wyeth honored by U.S. Postal Service with stamps