Parental rights advocates want the Legislature to block a proposed Department of Education rule that would direct school counselors to respect student confidentiality.
Joe Lawlor
Staff Writer
Joe Lawlor writes about health and human services for the Press Herald. A 24-year newspaper veteran, Lawlor has worked in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia before relocating to Maine in 2013 to join the Press Herald. He is still considered “from away” but since then, he has learned what a “dooryard” is, eaten “whoopie pies” drank Moxie and boiled some “lobstahs.” The stories he enjoys most are when he learns something and meeting inspiring people.
He lives in South Portland - aka “SoPo” - with his wife, Melanie, and two school-age children.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Maine House Speaker Talbot Ross touts ‘housing first’ plan
The plan would devote $13 million to support permanent housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
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Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Proposals to roll back school vaccine requirements draw crowd to State House
While the bills to reintroduce religious and philosophic exemptions for school vaccines have little chance of passing, advocates on both sides packed a daylong hearing before the Legislature’s Education Committee.
Posted inLocal & State, Schools and Education
Legislative committee endorses bill to study later school start times, longer lunch breaks
Committee members voted against proposals to mandate several such changes in school schedules.
Posted inLocal & State
Premature baby weighing just over 1 pound at birth goes home from hospital
The girl was discharged March 14 after being at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland since her birth last July.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
Bill would require Maine schools to allow students 30 minutes to eat lunch
Advocates say 20-minute lunches do not give students enough time, resulting in food waste.
Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers call for psychiatric treatment facilities to help hospitalized children with nowhere to go
Hospital officials testified that the problem is acute although it’s not known how many children are languishing in hospitals for longer than they should.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Effort to ban flavored tobacco products in Maine builds momentum
A bill sponsored by state Sen. Jill Duson, D-Portland, has key lawmakers among its co-sponsors.
Posted inLocal & State, Nation & World, News
EPA proposal would tighten limits on PFAS in Maine water
While Maine’s drinking water standards are already forcing many water providers to install treatment systems, the proposed national limits are even stricter and would force more suppliers to filter drinking water or find new sources.
Posted inHealth, Local & State
3 years later, the pandemic cocoon is giving way to social butterflies
Long after Maine’s first case of coronavirus, communal activities and gatherings are reaching pre-pandemic levels again, though troubling remnants of isolation persist.