AUGUSTA — Early last year, the national media turned its gaze to Maine and the tawdry story of a Zumba-instructor-turned-prostitute in the affluent seacoast village of Kennebunkport. The exploits of Alexis Wright, including the fact that she managed a client list of more than 100 people and often secretly videotaped her encounters with her customers, […]
politics
Posted inMaine
Parties clash over unemployment report
AUGUSTA — Sparks flew Friday as state lawmakers engaged in a brief but rancorous political discussion of a federal report that charged Gov. Paul LePage with interfering in the unemployment compensation appeals process last year. Debate over the report, delivered by the U.S. Labor Department a day earlier, split along party lines in what otherwise […]
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Bill meant to fix MaineCare rides program passes
AUGUSTA — The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would revamp the state’s non-emergency medical ride program for those on MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid system. The $40 million program has been fraught with problems since a trio of companies, at the behest of the federal government, were put in […]
Posted inBusiness, Maine
Feds warn Maine DOL that LePage administration interfered in hearing process
Read the U.S. Department of Labor investigation report An April 11, 2013, Sun Journal investigative report cited sources who said Gov. Paul LePage had summoned Labor Department employees to a mandatory luncheon at the Blaine House on March 21 and scolded them for finding too many unemployment-benefit appeals cases in favor of workers. They were […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine may delay elver season by two weeks
PORTLAND — The Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner says the opening of Maine’s lucrative elver season next month could be delayed by two weeks and possibly longer. Commissioner Patrick Kelleher said Thursday that’s there is a “50-50” chance the start of the season on March 22 will be pushed back because the state will […]
Posted inFranklin, The Franklin Journal
Androscoggin County GOP to caucus Saturday in Lewiston
LEWISTON — The Androscoggin County Super Caucus will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 1, at Geiger Elementary School, 601 College St. Republican candidates seeking election are scheduled to attend. Attendees will elect delegates and alternates to the state convention, which will be held April 25-26 in Bangor. They will also elect members to […]
Posted inMaine
Maine budget committee eases forward with fix ideas for 2014 and 2015
AUGUSTA — State lawmakers on the budget-writing Appropriations Committee are gaining steady ground as they work to create a supplemental budget that will balance spending and revenues for 2014 and 2015. The Maine Constitution requires a balanced budget, and without a supplemental budget offering from Republican Gov. Paul LePage, the committee has been left largely […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage administration continues campaign against Medicaid expansion
Agriculture Commissioner Walter Whitcomb said the state’s natural resource agencies — Agriculture, Conservation, Marine Resources, Environmental Protection, and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife — had lost $13 million in state funding in just five years, a reduction he attributes to regular annual shortfalls in the the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers MaineCare. “We […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama seeks $300 billion for roads, railways
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $300 billion to update the nation’s roads and railways. Obama plans to make the proposal Wednesday at the Union Depot rail and bus station in St. Paul, Minn. The Highway Trust Fund finances federal highway and transit programs but is forecast to go broke as early […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage lets revenue sharing bill become law
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine legislation that prevents $40 million in cuts to state aid for cities and towns next year became law Wednesday after Gov. Paul LePage took no action on it, the Republican governor’s office said. The law takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns in April. The measure has been a […]