BANGOR, Maine — The man charged Saturday with trying to set on fire a cruiser parked at the Bangor police station told investigators he had hoped to draw national attention to Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed MaineCare cuts by blowing up a police car. Ian Bodger, 61, of Bangor used pieces of The New York Times […]
Paul LePage
Posted inMaine, sj-web
New study disputes LePage administration on MaineCare’s childless adults
AUGUSTA, Maine — The childless adults Gov. Paul LePage has proposed dropping from MaineCare are far from young and healthy, despite rhetoric to the contrary, according to a report released Monday by an advocacy group for the poor. More than 40 percent of childless adults covered through MaineCare are older than 45 and many have […]
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Maine Senate sustains LePage vetoes
AUGUSTA — The state Senate on Tuesday sustained three of Gov. Paul LePage’s vetoes, including a bill that would have created energy efficiency standards for projects that receive state funding. Each veto was sustained largely on party-line votes. The efficiency bill, LD 1264, passed the Legislature with unanimous votes in both chambers last year but […]
Posted inMaine, Op-Eds
Analysis: Action by Maine Legislature may not help Maine get waiver for DHHS cuts
AUGUSTA — During a Dec. 15 press conference, Gov. Paul LePage said the Legislature will first have to approve his proposed cuts in the state’s Medicaid program in order to receive a waiver from the federal health care law to make some of those reductions legal. The governor went so far as to say that legislative action […]
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LePage opposes renewable energy mandate in Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Gov. Paul LePage is urging residents not to sign a referendum petition aimed at requiring at least 20 percent of Maine’s electricity come from new renewable energy sources by 2020. In his weekly radio address Saturday, LePage says the Maine Citizens for Clean Energy Coalition is collecting signatures for a November […]
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LePage nominates Keliher for DMR post
Gov. Paul LePage’s five-month search for a new commissioner for the Department of Marine Resources has ended where it began last summer. The governor on Friday nominated Patrick Keliher to head one of the state’s most demanding agencies. Keliher, of South Gardiner, has served as the deputy DMR commissioner since the abrupt resignation of LePage’s first […]
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LePage kicks off re-election three years ahead of next gubernatorial vote
AUGUSTA, Maine — A $500-per-person fundraiser was held Tuesday by Gov. Paul LePage’s re-election committee just one day before the start of the 125th Legislature’s second regular session. Since money cannot be raised from lobbyists during a legislative session, many Democratic and Republican groups held fundraisers before the session. But LePage appears to be running […]
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Democrats issue symbolic rejection of LePage’s DHHS budget plan
AUGUSTA — Democrats on Wednesday used a symbolic gesture to ratchet up their opposition to Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed $220 million cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. After several work sessions and emotional public hearings, the governor’s budget proposal made its way into bill form on the first day of the second […]
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Republicans won’t support LePage’s cut to elder care facilities
AUGUSTA — The co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee said his Republican colleagues can’t support one of the largest and most controversial cuts in Gov. Paul LePage’s Department of Health and Human Services budget proposal. Rep. Patrick Flood, R-Winthrop, the House chairman of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday Republicans won’t back the governor’s plan […]
Posted inMaine, Op-Eds
Political Pulse: Will LePage dominate 2012 like 2011?
Gov. Paul LePage owned Maine politics in 2011. If intrigue and controversy are the metric for memorable, it would seem hard to top the governor’s first year in the Blaine House. Comments like “kiss my butt,” “little beards,” “the idiots” and many others are notorious enough to stand without context. The governor’s verbal mishaps affected […]