#MaineMonitor

susan collins

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced her reelection campaign in February by posting a video that showed her opening a box of New…

campaign signs for Troy Jackson and Bobby Charles.

At the Maine State House last week, Republican candidate for governor David Jones showed voters how he would rank himself and other GOP…

Janet Mills speaks during a press conference

The State of Maine has a formal process for political candidates to remove themselves from the ballot if they decide to withdraw from an…

truck passing through gated entrance

The proposed expansion of the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town and Alton comes as Maine grapples with where to put the PFAS-contaminated…

jared golden speaks during an event

Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, has developed a reputation for voting against the Democratic Party in major moments — he was the…

signatures obtained as part of the referendum petition process are shown on a screen.

During a hearing at the Maine State House earlier this month, the secretary of state’s office heard testimony from an unlikely source: a man…

Sawin Millett poses for a photo

When Lincoln County Commissioner William Blodgett, 89, retires at the end of the year, he is all but guaranteed to be replaced in the role by…

ChatGPT open on a laptop screen.

The state’s public university system plans to award its first contract for an artificial intelligence platform to ChatGPT Edu, an OpenAI chatbot tool for higher…

powerlines overhead

As more people in Maine and New England buy heat pumps and electric vehicles, power grid operator ISO New England expects electricity use in the region to grow by about…

people gather on a lawn with the state house visible in the background

More than 400 Christian Mainers gathered in and around a large tent erected in the shadow of the Maine State Capitol in Augusta last week, braving the mud with camp…

voters waiting in line to cast their ballot.

Mainers decided to begin using ranked-choice voting in elections for the state Legislature, governor and federal offices all the way back in November of 2016 — the…

an image of graham platner with some of his reddit comments overlayed.

Graham Platner’s since-deleted Reddit comments became a flashpoint during his Democratic primary campaign against Gov. Janet Mills for U.S. Senate, but they didn…

farmers picking crop

Washington County farmers face mounting economic uncertainty, but they will not see a proposal for relief funds on the November ballot.

Lawmakers made several…

a man inserts his ballot into a box

A quarter of rural voters in U.S. Senate battleground states said they are more likely to make voting decisions based on their faith than on their finances, according…

a law enforcement vehicle blocks a road.

After Maine’s red flag law was passed via ballot referendum last fall, advocates expressed hope that the law would expand pathways for family members to get dangerous…

a construction worker during the building of a house

In 2022, the Maine Legislature took a rare step and required municipalities to adjust local zoning rules in an effort to spur housing construction, a move that…

PFAS well

Nearly four dozen water systems that provide drinking water across Maine would be at risk of violating new limits on “forever chemicals” if the state began…

statehouse dome

Maine lawmakers passed the nation’s first statewide ban on large data centers Tuesday in what they say is an attempt to buy time and study how the power-hungry…

books in a library

AUGUSTA — The Maine Library Commission met Monday for the first of two special meetings to begin drafting new public library standards.

The meeting, which the…

screenshot of dashboard

Maine has spent just over a third of the opioid settlement funds it has received during the past four years, according to new data released this week by the Maine…

sold sign outside of a house.

A tax generated by property sales helps power Maine’s various affordable housing initiatives, including a program that assists first-time home buyers and another to…

farmers picking crop

MACHIAS — Farm owners and land stewards in Washington County will have to wait to see whether a $45 million funding package is coming their way after state legislators…

statehouse

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights 

school bus driving down a street.

Last year, a federal government decision to eliminate grant funding for counselors, social workers and other mental health professionals left some Maine schools without…

Zach Schwartz stands by doors at the entrance of a building

It’s been seven years since Scott Nussinow became the chair of a new safety and security committee at Temple Shalom, a Jewish synagogue in Auburn, and started thinking…

sketch of the morse memorial school plus a recent photo of the building.

When the town of Brooks first envisioned the brick school near its crossroads in the 1930s, it was designed to hold up to 350 students. By the time the town voted to…

steven michaud speaks during a panel event

Steven Michaud stepped down on March 1 as president of the Maine Hospital Association after serving 26 years as the state’s top lobbyist for hospitals and after being…

transmission lines

Maine and New England must choose between two divergent paths for how to generate electricity in the coming years, according to two noteworthy reports released this…

kids looking at a screen that displays the word 'snap'

In Raymond Elementary School’s pre-kindergarten classroom, boys and girls huddled together on a rug with their teacher to learn a foundational skill for reading and…

books in a library

AUGUSTA — The Maine Library Commission reviewed a draft rule last week that would impose new requirements on the state’s libraries, including annual training for…

people kayaking past trees

Ten wetland restoration projects will receive $4.6 million from the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program, including funding for a project in Acadia National Park…

A sign that reads, “Every overdose is a policy failure. We need action.”

Local governments spent $3 million in opioid settlement funds last year on projects ranging from addiction treatment in jails to prevention workshops in schools,…

statehouse dome

Lawmakers are considering two bills that attempt to increase access to dental care in Maine by studying ways to establish specialist residency programs in the state and…

statehouse dome

AUGUSTA — A bill originally written to offer bankruptcy protections for towns and counties in Maine has evolved into a proposal requiring county governments to file…

a crowd holding signs in support of L.D. 1870

As Maine grapples with how to pay to fix roads, piers and other infrastructure damaged by severe storms that are increasing as the climate changes, lawmakers are…

people stand in line to vote.

Republicans are trying their best to tie Democrats to fraud this election cycle.

President Donald Trump has spent months hammering Minnesota for its handling of…

electricity meter

In the wake of a lengthy cold snap that caused natural gas prices to spike to their highest level ever across New England, Maine policymakers met this past week to…

statehouse dome

As Maine is grappling with its first case of measles since 2019, lawmakers last week considered two bills that would increase access to vaccines by expanding the…

Brian Milakovsky places a lab-grown beetle colony on a hemlock tree

A combination of deep freezes and control measures have knocked back some prominent Maine forest pests and diseases over the past couple of years, providing relief to…

statehouse dome

AUGUSTA — A bill that would let Maine towns and counties seek bankruptcy protection received little support at a legislative hearing last week.

Democratic candidates in Maine came out strongly against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s new surge in the state, bringing deportation efforts to the forefront in…

staff walking down the hall of a nursing home

One in five long-term nursing home residents in Maine are still receiving antipsychotic medication, despite statewide efforts to reduce reliance on these medications,…

exterior of the US Capitol Building

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine is frustrated the Department of Homeland Security is ignoring her requests for more information on its deportation surge in her state.…

closed portion of a trail

The state awarded $7.5 million to 

Law enforcement blocks a road

Maine’s new red flag law, which was approved by voters in November, is set to take effect next month, offering a new way to temporarily remove guns from people who…

National wildlife refuges have played an important role in American conservation efforts for over a century. 

Late last month, as many people were winding…

books in a library

AUGUSTA — On Monday the Maine Library Commission voted unanimously to start a lengthy rulemaking process that will set new standards for public libraries.

The…

students attending a UMaine class.

Three of Maine’s public universities received failing grades in 2023 for one of the most critical things they do: prepare future educators to teach kids how to read.…

statehouse dome

The Maine Legislature kicked many major funding decisions down the road during the first half of the 132nd legislative session, bills related to the environment…

statehouse dome

There will be many debates about health care during the upcoming legislative session, which begins on Jan. 7.

I spoke to six health organizations about their top…