AUGUSTA – A group hoping to reform Maine’s campaign finance laws with a statewide ballot question this November rallied at the State House on Tuesday with about 200 supporters in tow. The ballot question requires more disclosures for political advertising and steep increases in the fines for campaigns and candidates that violate Maine election laws. […]
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Posted inLivermore Falls Advertiser, Maine
Junk food bill passes House
AUGUSTA — A bill that would see Maine ask the federal government for permission to disallow the purchase of junk food with state and federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds, once called Food Stamps, cleared the House of Representatives on a 73-70 vote Monday. The bill, LD 526, directs the Department of Health and Human […]
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Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Maine
Maine House rejects hands-free only cell phone bill
AUGUSTA — The Maine House of Representatives on Tuesday defeated a bill that would have made it illegal to drive while using a hand-held mobile phone. The 55-88 vote against LD 185, a measure penned by state Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, followed broad support for the bill in the state Senate earlier this month. Lawmakers in the […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, News
Maine Senate votes to prohibit cellphone use while driving
AUGUSTA — The Maine Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would make it illegal to use a mobile phone while driving if it is not connected by a “hands-free” device. In a 24-10 bipartisan vote, senators rejected an effort to kill the measure and passed it in a procedural vote. The measure substantially beefs […]
Posted inMaine
Bill by Augusta Republican allows non-party voters primary participation
AUGUSTA — State Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said Wednesday that he wants Maine to allow its large number of unenrolled voters to participate in party primary elections. Katz, considered a moderate Republican, said his bill, LD 744, would allow registered voters not enrolled in either party to cast a ballot for either a Republican or a […]
Posted inMaine
Lawmakers hear from Maine’s conservation commission on ranger restructure
AUGUSTA — Maine’s agriculture Commissioner Walter Whitcomb on Tuesday shared new details of a plan that would restructure the state’s Forest Service, including the elimination of between 12 and 13 forest ranger positions. Whitcomb told a joint meeting of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations and Agriculture committees that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation wanted […]
Posted inBusiness, Franklin, The Franklin Journal
Court decisions allow Delaware couple’s lawsuit against Sugarloaf to proceed
FARMINGTON — A Franklin County justice has ruled that the majority of a lawsuit filed by a Delaware couple in connection to three family members who were seriously injured when a chairlift broke at Sugarloaf in 2010 can move forward. Justice Nancy Mills dismissed a counterclaim May 29 that was filed by corporations linked to […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Committee sends Medicaid expansion to Maine Senate
AUGUSTA — A proposal by two moderate Republican senators to expand Medicaid and incorporate drastic changes in the state Medicaid program has cleared the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee and will now be taken up by the full Senate. The bill — crafted by Assistant Senate Minority Leader Roger Katz of Augusta and Sen. […]
Posted inMaine
Who’s really ripping ME off?
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, […]
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 […]