AUBURN — The newly elected mayor of Auburn is calling out the LePage administration for excluding him and other city officials from Thursday’s job creation forum at Central Maine Community College. Jonathan LaBonte, elected Nov. 8, originally believed that LePage shut him out of the forum because LaBonte, a Republican, last year publicly supported independent […]
Paul LePage
Posted inMaine, sj-web
$11.3 million raised for Maine community colleges
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Campaign for Maine’s Community Colleges says $11.3 million has been raised by the private sector to support the state’s seven community colleges. Monday’s announcement marked the end of the first phase of the campaign, which began in early 2010 and sought to raise a minimum of $10 million. The […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
After Maine vote, focus shifts to voter ID bill
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Now that Maine voters have made clear their support for same-day voter registration, the focus shifts to another hot election-related proposal that will come up during the 2012 legislative session: voter ID. The bill requiring voters to show photo identification in order to cast ballots comes up after voters rejected by […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Mayor: Lewiston betrayed by native son, LePage
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — When he was a kid, Maine’s governor spent time on the streets, homeless, not far from the spot where folks in Lewiston wanted to build a casino. Following the casino’s rejection on Tuesday’s statewide ballot, some in the former mill city feel betrayed by their native son, Gov. Paul LePage. Lewiston […]
Posted inMaine
Maine clean elections on the precipice: Program has flaws, but what happens without it?
Last year, John Nutting, a Leeds Democrat, eyed a fourth consecutive term in the state Senate. Nutting, who had used Maine’s publicly financed clean elections campaign system in 2008 and 2006, decided in 2010 to run as a traditional, privately financed candidate. Strategists in the Maine Republican Party immediately took note. In their view, Nutting’s […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage wants drug tests for those on welfare
JAY, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he will propose a bill in January to require random drug testing for welfare recipients The Legislature added provisions in the budget this year that allow the state to test those who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds if they have a prior felony conviction. […]
Posted inFranklin
LePage urges welfare reform at Jay event
LIVERMORE FALLS — Gov. Paul LePage told local Chamber of Commerce members Friday that Maine needed to be less generous when it came to welfare and urged those in attendance to contact their lawmakers to support reform. LePage spoke to the chamber in Jay Friday before visiting a medical center under construction in Livermore Falls. […]
Posted inOur View
Saluting Paul LePage’s late honeymoon
Usually, a new governor enjoys what, in political circles, is called a honeymoon. Like a real honeymoon, it is usually short-lived — a brief period of political bliss in which the new governor has the goodwill of the people and the press. This is especially so when a governor wins by a large margin and […]
Posted inMaine
Affordable housing project overrun raises stakes for Maine Housing, McCormick
AUGUSTA — Dale McCormick, director of the Maine State Housing Authority, called an emergency meeting late last week with stakeholders of Elm Terrace, a 35-unit affordable housing project in Portland. McCormick had bad news for those assembled at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library. Elm Terrace, she said, was too expensive. In late September, […]