AUGUSTA — A bill submitted by Republican Gov. Paul LePage that aims to eliminate the state’s estate tax came under fire Thursday as Democrats assailed him for offering “another tax cut” to the state’s “super wealthy.” A law change in 2015, passed over LePage’s veto, increased the exemption for estates from $2 million to $5.45 […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
Donald Trump comes to Maine, blasts Mitt Romney
PORTLAND — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump blasted Mitt Romney in Maine on Thursday after the party’s 2012 nominee criticized him, saying Romney would have “dropped to his knees” for his endorsement four years ago. The billionaire mogul rallied with Gov. Paul LePage, who became a top Trump surrogate after endorsing him last week, in the […]
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Mitt Romney says Donald Trump ‘playing the American public for suckers’
Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s most recent presidential nominee, took the unusual step of criticizing the odds-on favorite to be the party’s next nominee in a blistering speech that labeled Donald Trump a fraud who is playing the American public for suckers. “Let me put it plainly, if we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Obama administration blasts Paul LePage for food stamp policy
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has lashed out at Gov. Paul LePage for reducing the number of people on food stamps the wrong way. Vilsack told The Huffington Post on Wednesday that the LePage administration has simply kicked people out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program without doing enough to help them achieve financial independence. “I […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
State rejects more than 55,000 signatures on casino petitions
AUGUSTA — A frantic, controversial effort to get Maine voters to hand a York County casino to a Las Vegas developer won’t be on the 2016 ballot after the secretary of state’s office invalidated most of its signatures on Wednesday. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s office said in a news release that it validated less […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Bernie Sanders promises Portland a ‘landslide’ win
PORTLAND — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says he can win in Maine “if there’s a large turnout.” Sanders rallied a capacity crowd at Portland’s State Theater on Wednesday, telling supporters that pundits once thought of him as a “fringe” candidate and Hillary Clinton as the “inevitable nominee.” He told supporters, “Guess what? She’s not […]
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Marijuana legalization fails to make ballot
David Boyer, Maine political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said Wednesday afternoon that his group intends to challenge the ruling. “Based on documents they have provided, it appears that more than 17,000 valid signatures from registered Maine voters were excluded from the count because the signature of a single notary — whose notary commission […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Ben Carson sees no way forward but won’t suspend campaign
Carson, however, will not formally suspend his campaign. Instead, the Republicans said, he has decided to make a speech about his political future on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, just outside of Washington. But the announcement will serve as an acknowledgement that Carson’s candidacy is all but over following a disappointing […]
Posted inMaine
Bills to boost services to Maine veterans advance unanimously
AUGUSTA — A pair of bills that would add three staff members to Maine’s Bureau of Veterans Services sailed through the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on Wednesday with unanimous approval. The bills, one of which seeks to make the bureau the lead agency on tackling the issue of homeless veterans, were the result […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. Paul LePage proposes restrictions on prescriptions for addictive meds
AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage proposed Wednesday to place strict new limits on the prescription of addictive opioid painkillers and benzodiazepines. The bill comes amid a prolonged effort at the local, state and national levels to curb a drug addiction epidemic in Maine and elsewhere. Sponsored by Assistant Senate Majority Leader Andre Cushing, R-Hampden, […]