It’s the day of reckoning in Augusta. We’ve been giving you updates on the state budget process day after day and ticking off a number of deadlines by which lawmakers must act or cause a government shutdown. Today marks perhaps the hardest deadline yet. The six-member conference committee formed by legislative leaders two weeks ago […]
politics
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Health-care bill could strip public schools of billions for special education
WASHINGTON — School superintendents across the country are raising alarms about the possibility that Republican health care legislation would curtail billions of dollars in annual funding they count on to help students with disabilities and poor children. For the past three decades, Medicaid has helped pay for services and equipment that schools provide to special-education […]
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Unafraid of Trump, senators feel free to 'go their own way'
Here’s what happened after Senate Republican leaders on June 27 decided to postpone a vote on a health-care bill aiming to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. (Whitney Shefte, Rhonda Colvin, Malcolm Cook, Bastien Inzaurralde / The Washington Post) WASHINGTON — Scrambling to line up support for the Republican health-care bill, President Donald Trump got on […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage visits Washington on Wednesday
AUGUSTA (AP) — Republican Gov. Paul LePage is headed to Washington, D.C., as a state budget shutdown looms large back home in Maine. The Trump administration invited the governor to participate in an energy-themed event on Wednesday. LePage’s office declined to provide details. LePage has been fighting to lower energy costs, saying Maine’s high energy […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Fake Time Magazine cover with Donald Trump hangs in his golf clubs
The Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold breaks down a fake TIME magazine cover that is displayed in at least two of President Trump’s golf resorts. (Peter Stevenson / The Washington Post) The framed copy of Time Magazine was hung up in at least four of President Trump’s golf clubs, from South Florida to Scotland. Filling […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
U.S. Senate delays vote on GOP health care bill
Coverage of the Republican legislation overhauling the Affordable Care Act (all times EDT): Updated 1:50 p.m.: Sources tell the Associated Press that Senate Republican leaders have abruptly delayed the vote on their health care bill until after the July 4th recess. That’s the word Tuesday as the GOP faced five defections from its ranks just […]
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Hidden video of CNN producer posted after journalists resign
Coverage of CNN’s retracted Russia story (all times local): Updated 11:40 a.m.: CNN says President Donald Trump is wrong to suggest the network is failing. The president, in a morning tweetstorm related to CNN’s retraction of a story about a Trump associate’s meeting with a Russian financial leader, suggested that the network is looking at […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage says government may shut down but state parks won't
AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage may not think the state government can stay open because of a budget dispute, he is optimistic that state parks will stay open. Sides agree that a shutdown at the start of tourism season would be costly. But LePage told WVOM-FM Tuesday that “the future of Maine […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Senate Republicans scramble to keep alive plans to overhaul Obamacare
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders scrambled Tuesday to keep alive their plans to overhaul the 2010 Affordable Care Act as a growing number of senators expressed doubts about the measure following the release of a fresh budget analysis. The current GOP proposal would cause an estimated 22 million more Americans to be uninsured by the […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage: 'We’re going to shut down Friday night'
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage said Tuesday it’s worth putting state government into a shutdown to ensure the two-year state budget lawmakers are struggling to pass won’t harm Maine’s economy for the next decade. LePage, speaking during a radio interview on WVOM, accused Democrats of backing measures that will “do damage” to the state, namely […]