KENNBUNKPORT (AP) — The town of Kennebunkport is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to reconsider its ruling vacating the right to public access to Goose Rocks Beach. The York County Coast Star (http://bit.ly/1hwcM4S) reported that the town says the decision makes it unclear if previous rulings that sided with public access are automatically overturned. […]
Maine
Posted inMaine
Maine pays lawyers $300 to $333 per hour to defend CDC officials in whistle-blower case
AUGUSTA — The private attorneys hired by the state to defend the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention from a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee are being paid $300 per hour. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has authorized the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to spend up to $50,000 […]
advertisement
Posted inMaine
Advocates push bill to restore solar rebates for Maine
AUGUSTA — Solar energy advocates, state lawmakers and companies that install solar-energy systems said Tuesday that Maine should catch up with the rest of New England. The group, including the Natural Resources Council of Maine, touted a bill that restores a $2,000 rebate for those who install solar-energy systems. But state Rep. Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, […]
Posted inMaine
Maine DHHS seeks to steer conversation away from $1 million welfare report
AUGUSTA — Officials within the Maine Department of Health and Human Services appear to be working behind the scenes to change the public and political discussion about an expansion of Medicaid. Email messages, published by the Portland Press Herald, after they were inadvertently sent to the newspaper, suggest DHHS officials may be trying to downplay the […]
Posted inMaine
Mills assures her office is prosecuting all forms of welfare fraud
Maine’s top lawyer said in an open letter released Monday that state prosecutors would continue to clamp down on all forms of welfare fraud while suggesting that some people might be tempted to exploit the problem during an election year. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills was responding to a letter from state legislative leaders who […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
New mental health unit at Maine State Prison met with optimism
WARREN — Last spring, Maine Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte said that during a cabinet meeting Gov. Paul LePage leaned over and said to him that more beds for the seriously mentally ill were needed. And with the state’s psychiatric hospital grappling with handling violent patients, the state came up with a plan. That led to […]
Posted inMaine
Maine expands program for problem gamblers
AUGUSTA — A program meant to help problem gamblers stay out of Maine’s two casinos is expanding, according to the state’s Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and the Maine Gambling Control Board. Working with Hollywood Casino in Bangor and Oxford Casino in Oxford, the agencies are adding to the places people can […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine bishop to be installed Friday
PORTLAND (AP) — More than 30 bishops and archbishops from across the country are scheduled to be in Maine as the new leader of the state’s 193,000 Roman Catholics is installed. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, is presiding over Friday’s installation of the Most Rev. Robert Deeley as bishop of the Diocese of Portland. […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Evangelical Shapleigh family sues Portland over abortion clinic buffer zone
PORTLAND — An Evangelical Shapleigh couple and two of their seven children are challenging a Portland city ordinance preventing protests within 39 feet of an abortion clinic, arguing in a lawsuit filed Wednesday the buffer zone is an infringement on their constitutional right to free speech. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District court the […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine lawmaker proposes cold case unit
AUGUSTA (AP) — A Maine lawmaker wants the state to establish a new law enforcement unit to re-examine unsolved major criminal cases. State Rep. Stephen Stanley’s bill would create a four-person unit in the state Attorney General’s office to work exclusively on cold cases, with a prosecutor, police detectives and a crime laboratory worker. The […]