The Legislature easily passed a budget proposal on Tuesday, including funds to send $850 checks to more than 850,000 Mainers.
Penelope Overton
Staff Writer
Penny Overton is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and spent a fellowship year exploring the impact of climate change on the lobster fishery with the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. Before moving to Maine, she has covered politics, environment, casino gambling and tribal issues in Florida, Connecticut, and Arizona. Her favorite assignments allow her to introduce readers to unusual people, cultures, or subjects. When off the clock, Penny is usually getting lost in a new book at a local coffeehouse, watching foreign crime shows or planning her family’s next adventure.
Posted inLocal & State
State lawmakers approve bill to force insurance companies to cover fertility treatments
Maine and Vermont are the only two New England states that don’t provide such coverage now, but opponents say it will cost too much and drive up insurance rates for everyone.
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Posted inLocal & State
Legislature’s budget panel supports payments to taxpayers, expands eligibility
Under the committee plan, couples earning up to $200,000 a year would now receive $850 relief payments.
Posted inLocal & State
Senate approves bill to give the Passamaquoddy Tribe authority over water on its own lands
But the bill granting the tribe the right to regulate its own drinking water supplies would have to pick up at least one more vote to override a possible veto from Gov. Janet Mills.
Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers shield state tobacco fund, but expand its mission
A bill approved by the House and Senate would create a board of trustees to oversee the state’s tobacco settlement money, while also broadening the trust’s mission from tobacco prevention to public health.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State
Lawmakers quietly shelve bill to double motor vehicle inspection fee
The House killed the bill without discussion Monday after Gov. Janet Mills threatened to veto it and the Senate voted to table it indefinitely.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Maine lawmakers approve ban on pesticides containing PFAS by 2030
The legislation, which has divided the state’s farming community, was passed by the Senate on Monday after gaining approval in the House last week.
Posted inLocal & State, Uncategorized
Bill to ban sludge recycling and spreading divides farmers
While some farmers support a ban on sludge spreading to protect Maine farms from forever chemicals, a group that includes farmers and wastewater treatment operators want a ‘science based approach’ to monitoring PFAS levels to avoid increased fertilizer and sewer costs.
Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers vote to give more Maine children access to affordable healthcare
The bill would raise the income eligibility cap to 300 percent of the poverty level, waive the waiting period and premiums, and add 19- and 20-year-olds.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State
Bill would double vehicle inspection fee across most of Maine
The extra revenue would help pay to convert the inspection system to a more efficient electronic one, but Gov. Janet Mills said Wednesday she would veto the bill if it reaches her desk.