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 […]
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Bills meant to bolster services and access for Maine vets get hearings
AUGUSTA — A slate of bills aimed at helping more Maine veterans get access to the services and benefits available to them are set for public hearings at the State House next week. The bills, all the result of recommendations from a special legislative commission that worked over the summer to review the state’s Bureau […]
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Think tank ‘oinks’ at government spending
AUGUSTA — A conservative think tank rolled out its latest report on state government largess, leveling criticism at both Republicans and Democrats in its “Maine Piglet Book” on Thursday. The Maine Heritage Policy Center’s report, released at a State House news conference, notes that spending in the office of Republican Gov. Paul LePage shot up […]
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Report: Maine’s Bureau of Veterans Services should be upgraded, expanded
AUGUSTA — A new report released Friday is recommending Maine’s Bureau of Veterans Services be expanded and revamped so it can better serve the state’s estimated 140,000 military veterans. The report shows it’s been more than 15 years since the bureau has received any updated policies or targeted funding, and that younger veterans — those from […]
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Vet Center still short-staffed in Lewiston
AUGUSTA — Just a day after officials with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notified members of Maine’s congressional delegation that they had filled one of four vacant mental health counseling positions for Lewiston’s Vet Center, a veteran who attends counseling sessions at the center said another counselor has left. On Thursday, a Korean War […]
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Group rallies for passenger rail to L-A and western Maine
AUBURN — If there’s one thing the politicians of Lewiston-Auburn agree on, it seems to be the notion that the Twin Cities should be the next place in Maine to enjoy passenger rail service. Bringing that service to downtown Lewiston-Auburn and expanding it west to Oxford County was the focus of a rally hosted by […]
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Bill to set up vets commission stuck in LePage’s legal limbo
AUGUSTA — A bill that creates a short-term task force of veterans to review and make recommendations for change to the state’s Bureau of Veterans Services is among a group of 65 bills in legal limbo as the Legislature and Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s lawyers prep to duke it out in the state’s highest court. […]
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Gov. LeRage: Paul LePage says area lawmakers, cartoonist should be shot
AUGUSTA — A top advocate for expanding passenger rail to Lewiston-Auburn said Thursday that Republican Gov. Paul LePage said state lawmakers from Lewiston should be “rounded up and executed in the public square.” Tony Donovan, a Portland-based real estate developer and member of the executive council for the Sierra Club Maine, said LePage made the […]
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Funds to study passenger rail for Lewiston-Auburn survive LePage veto
AUGUSTA — A $400,000 state-funded study aimed at developing a plan to bring passenger train service to Lewiston-Auburn remains on track despite an attempt by Gov. Paul LePage to derail it. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate on Friday overturned a LePage line-item veto of the study that was part of the state’s new, […]
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Maine service members lost since 9/11 honored at State House
AUGUSTA — State Sen. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, never knew her dad. He was killed in 1944, near the end of World War II while serving with the U.S. Army in the Philippine Islands. Haskell joined a group of lawmakers and surviving family members of other Mainers who lost their lives serving their country since Sept. […]