AUGUSTA — The Maine House on Tuesday passed a bill that returns control of county jails to the counties. The bill, LD 186, repeals a 2007 law change that aimed to consolidate the operations of the state’s 15 county jails with the Maine Department of Corrections through a unified state Board of Corrections. The bill […]
Maine
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Posted inBusiness
Measure of Maine home prices ties four-year high in May, at $185,000
PORTLAND — The median sale price for single-family homes rose by just more than $15,000 in May as the number of homes that changed hands rose slightly compared with the same month last year. The jump in median price of about 8 percent, to $185,000, was the largest so far this year and tied June […]
Posted inMaine
Maine House says, ‘yes’ to General Assistance for immigrants
AUGUSTA — The Maine House approved a bill Monday allowing asylum-seeking immigrants to collect up to 24 months of General Assistance payments from cities and towns. The bill faces additional hurdles in the Legislature and a likely veto from Republican Gov. Paul LePage. The House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, largely split along party lines. […]
Posted inLivermore Falls Advertiser, Maine
Junk food bill passes House
AUGUSTA — A bill that would see Maine ask the federal government for permission to disallow the purchase of junk food with state and federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds, once called Food Stamps, cleared the House of Representatives on a 73-70 vote Monday. The bill, LD 526, directs the Department of Health and Human […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Maine
Legislature overrides Paul LePage’s veto of bill to study hayride regulations
Also on this page: Legislators busy overturning vetoes AUGUSTA — The Legislature on Monday overturned a veto of a bill to create a task force to examine the safety and possible regulations for farm amusement rides, such as the haunted hayride that claimed the life of an Oakland teen last fall. The House voted 146-0 to overturn by […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Deer management study raises eyebrows, plenty of questions
The Fish and Wildlife Department recently released its official deer harvest report. Deer hunters in Maine harvested 22,490 deer last fall. This number is a far cry from the deer harvests in the past. It’s a slight improvement, however, and the Fish and Wildlife Department, understandably, made the best of a bad situation with a […]
Posted inMaine
Funds to study passenger rail for Lewiston-Auburn survive LePage veto
AUGUSTA — A $400,000 state-funded study aimed at developing a plan to bring passenger train service to Lewiston-Auburn remains on track despite an attempt by Gov. Paul LePage to derail it. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate on Friday overturned a LePage line-item veto of the study that was part of the state’s new, […]
Posted inMaine
Maine lawmakers move ahead despite Paul LePage’s historic veto actions
AUGUSTA — Probably the only thing liberal about Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been his use of the veto pen, but state lawmakers continue to rebuff him, voting time and again to overturn vetoes in recent weeks. In 47 minutes on Friday, the Republican-controlled state Senate took 128 votes, each one overturning, by broad margins, […]
Posted inMaine
Maine’s city lawmakers stand together in support of immigrant aid
AUGUSTA — A group of lawmakers from Maine’s largest cities opposed a new, two-year state budget that makes it easier to deny financial help to asylum-seeking immigrants. During a series of floor speeches late Tuesday night, lawmakers from Lewiston, Bangor and Portland decried the rejection of changes in the state budget that would have allowed […]