AUGUSTA — A legislative working group set up to make recommendations on how Maine should regulate drivers who use marijuana offered a divided report to lawmakers Tuesday. The majority of panel members agreed marijuana should be regulated like alcohol, including a blood-content test that sets limits for impairment, but a minority on the panel disagreed. The […]
politics
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
FAA requires registrations for drones
WASHINGTON — Owners of many small drones and model airplanes will have to register them with the government. The Federal Aviation Administration announced the requirement Monday in response to increasing reports of drones flying near manned aircraft and airports. The requirement covers aircraft weighing from a half pound to 55 pounds. Drone owners who are […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
USDA says Maine is too slow to process SNAP applications
AUGUSTA — The United States Department of Agriculture says Maine is the slowest state in the country at processing applications for food stamps. Officials with the USDA sent a letter to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 7 that says data for the first six months of this year show the […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Analysis: Why conflict is very likely in the 2016 legislative session
The question going into the January legislative session is whether that rift will block hopes of any effective legislative action in a four-month session that will open and close with the specter of November legislative elections enshrouding the State House dome. LePage spent the final weeks of this year’s session vetoing nearly every bill that […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Ill-conceived voting petition aimed at Lewiston collegians
If I am ever tempted to claim that I am involved in the local community, I stop myself and remember others whose work puts me to shame. Consider Melody, from whom I recently heard. I know her personally, but I didn’t know just how much she was using her spare time to work in the […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Mainers to feel costly impact of Question 1
Nancy Pelosi once famously said of the Affordable Care Act that the U.S. Congress had “to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” The same could be said by Southern Maine voters who last month voted to pass Question 1, which drastically increased the amount of state funding going into […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Democracy works better when there is mutual respect
It is time for Republicans to ask ourselves a question: Are we so obsessed with the damage we believe Barack Obama and the American left are doing to the values we hold dear that we would ignore the serious threat posed by the candidacy of Donald Trump — or is there something even more dangerous […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Good Shepherd hopes Shaw’s reinstates donations statewide
AUBURN — News that Shaw’s Supermarkets had reversed its decision to discontinue donations to a Brunswick-area food bank earlier this week had officials at the Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn hopeful the grocer would reinstate donations statewide. When Shaw’s discontinued donations of perishable foods that were near their expiration dates in 2013, the impact […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine Department of Education ‘cautiously optimistic” about latest federal law
On Thursday, President Barack Obama capped a years-long congressional negotiatoin when he signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is the new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was the new version of the No Child Left Behind Act. The new law gives states increased flexibility to design accountability systems, academic interventions […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Why it takes so long to hire, train MDEA investigators
AUGUSTA — While Maine’s political leaders seem to have reached agreement on a plan to put more drug crimes investigators to work in Maine, it could be months before those agents hit the streets. In response to the rampant spread of heroin trafficking in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers this […]