Gov. Paul LePage reacted appropriately Thursday, without jumping to conclusions, to an undercover video purportedly showing Maine at risk of welfare fraud. At a news conference, two conservative groups unveiled a secretly recorded video showing an interaction between an actor pretending to apply for MaineCare benefits and two state employees. The response of the first […]
Maine
Posted inLocal Sports
College football: For now, Black Bears staying off schedule
ORONO — Looking for a 2011 University of Maine football schedule? Don’t ask any of the players for one. Maine started practice this week with its Sept. 3 opener against Bryant, not to mention subsequent meetings against Pittsburgh and CAA rivals Delaware, UMass or UNH, the furthest things from its mind. In fact, head coach […]
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Posted inMaine
University of Maine System vehicles used sparingly for student voting
LEWISTON — Data from the University of Maine System released this week show university vehicles were used sparingly to take student voters to the polls on Election Day in 2008 and 2010. The information contrasts sharply with claims by Maine Republican Party Chairman Charles Webster that university resources were used to help Democratic organizers flood […]
Posted inBusiness, Maine, sj-web
Maine settles allegations of unfair trade practices with debt-management company
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The state of Maine has reached an agreement with a Texas debt management company to settle allegations of unfair trade practices. Attorney General William Schneider said Tuesday that the settlement with Credit Solutions of America Inc. and its owner Douglas Van Arsdale was reached after two days of trial that began […]
Posted inOur View
Annual Maine festival season benefits us all
The late summer festival season is in full swing, bringing color, entertainment and tourist dollars to Western Maine. While we’re not the overcrowded coast of Maine, the three-county region — particularly Oxford and Franklin counties — draws hundreds of thousands of seasonal visitors. Many come for a week or two. Some for the entire summer, […]
Posted inOur View
Theater space rescued by deal
The Auburn City Council took a sticky problem and guess what? They solved it. Politely. Logically. Cooperatively. Key Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” please. This has happened so rarely over the past two years that it’s worth taking time to recognize the feat. When councilors first voted in November to tear down the Great Falls School, we […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Incumbency benefits some more than others
Will being incumbents help President Barack Obama when he runs next year and Maine Gov. Paul LePage, should he seek re-election in 2014? History suggests that Obama may get less from incumbency than LePage. The governor might benefit from a three-way race — an unlikely event on the national level. Political wisdom is that incumbency […]
Posted inOur View
Maine leads in banning smoking in public housing
The Auburn Housing Authority made a radical decision in 2004: new residents moving into its buildings would not be allowed to smoke indoors. While that doesn’t seem like a novel idea today, it was then, and Auburn became the first housing authority in the state, and only the fifth in the U.S., to do so. […]
Posted inOur View
State staging witch hunt for college voters
Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster stood before reporters and TV cameras Monday waving a list of 206 college students who “may have conducted voter fraud here in Maine.” Then, on Thursday, Secretary of State Charlie Summers alleged that high-ranking officials in the Secretary of State’s Office and Bureau of Elections destroyed documents showing that […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Feeling tasked by all these studies
Maine’s former governor, John Baldacci, liked trying to solve problems by creating task forces. In fact, during his tenure, task forces were almost as commonplace in Augusta as state workers. For a politician, a task force is irresistible. First, it’s a clever way to put the problem-solving burden on the shoulders of others. Secondly, the […]