WASHINGTON — Republicans are claiming a triumph by pushing their legislative centerpiece scuttling much of President Barack Obama’s health care law through the House. It was a perilous journey, and its Senate pathway will be at least as bumpy with little doubt the measure will change, assuming it survives. Thursday’s 217-213 House passage — with […]
politics
Posted inBusiness
U.S. employers add 211,000 jobs; unemployment 4.4%
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States rebounded in April as employers added a brisk 211,000 jobs, a reassuring sign that the economy’s slump in the first three months of the year will likely prove temporary. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.4 percent — its lowest point in a decade — from 4.5 percent in […]
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Posted inNation / World
Last-minute bargaining keyed passage of GOP health care bill
President Donald Trump, accompanied by GOP House members, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 4, 2017, after the House pushed through a health care bill. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was ready to celebrate. On the day House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to […]
Posted inMaine
Maine bill aims to prohibit female genital mutilation on minors
AUGUSTA (AP) — A Republican’s bill would make performing female genital mutilation on a minor a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Under federal law, a five-year prison sentence is possible. Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki’s bill also would make it a crime for a parent or guardian to consent to or permit […]
Posted inMaine
LePage: Lawmakers who pushed for time zone change need therapy
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, testifies during a House Natural Resources subcommittee oversight hearing on the Antiquities Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) A proposal that would put Maine and perhaps much of New England into a new time zone is crazy, Gov. Paul LePage said in a […]
Posted inMaine
LePage administration paid over $385,000 on private lawyers
AUGUSTA — Records reviewed by The Associated Press show Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration has paid more than $385,000 to a couple of private law firms since 2014. LePage is suing Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills, saying her refusal to legally represent him has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. His office hasn’t […]
Posted inMaine
Legislators to debate bill to standardize teacher pay
A core priority of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposals to reform Maine’s public education system will face its first big public test this afternoon at the State House when a bill to create a statewide teachers contract is introduced to the Legislature’s Education Committee. LD 864 would establish a single contract for all public school teachers, as well as […]
Posted inNation / World
Stephen Colbert says Trump joke was too crude but ‘I would do it again’
In this Aug. 10, 2015, file photo, Stephen Colbert participates in “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” segment of the CBS Summer TCA Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. Colbert says he has no regrets about insulting President Donald Trump in a monologue that included a crude sexual reference and prompted calls to fire him and […]
Posted inNation / World
U.S. House to vote on health care bill Thursday
Updated 11:03 a.m.: The Republican health care bill has cleared an early House hurdle, and party leaders are pushing the measure toward a climactic final vote they say they will win. The measure moved forward by 235-192, setting up a roll call on final passage that was expected to be close. A late amendment adding […]
Posted inMaine
Gov. Paul LePage’s call for military help wasn’t what he meant to say
In the midst of a diatribe against growing anger in the country, Gov. Paul LePage told a radio interviewer that “we’re developing an internal domestic problem” and then appeared to say that he may have to deploy the military in response. But in his mangled phrasing to the host for Auburn radio station Z105.5’s Breakfast […]