Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services Commissioner Kirsten Figueroa told lawmakers the state will use $270 million of $1.25 billion in federal aid to keep the state’s unemployment trust fund solvent.
Scott Thistle
Scott Thistle is the State House reporter for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. He has covered politics and government in Maine since 2006. Prior to that he served as the State House reporter for the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minnesota. A Maine native, Thistle has worked in journalism since 1990, when he got his start at a weekly newspaper in rural Oxford County, Maine. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and an active volunteer with the National Ski Patrol. He resides with his wife, Amy and his two sons Finn and Kai, in Auburn, Maine.
Posted inLocal & State, Nation & World, News
Panel recommends ways for Mills to address racial disparities in Maine
The state commission is urging several steps, including using federal CARES Act funding to support a response to the COVID-19 pandemic for minority populations in the state.
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Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Would-be Clean Elections candidates find it harder to qualify during pandemic
Social-distancing requirements and other restrictions have made collecting $5 qualifying contributions needed to obtain public financing more difficult.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Ranked-choice opponents file signatures to try to repeal Maine’s law
A campaign funded largely by the GOP submitted petitions with 72,000 voter signatures in an attempt to prevent ranked-choice voting from being used in presidential elections in Maine.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Towns across Maine looking at budgets crunched by coronavirus
As municipal governments near the end of their budget year, local officials are considering cuts to services and programs to make up for revenue losses caused by the pandemic.
Posted inLocal & State, Nation & World, News, Politics
Trump praises Guilford workers, jabs at Mills in visit that draws supporters, protesters
The governor fired back in a statement, accusing Trump of stoking divisions and questioning the value of his efforts to help Maine’s fishing industry by lifting restrictions in a conservation area far from the Maine coast.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Group warns Trump protesters to avoid Guilford, gather in Bangor
Some are concerned about potential violence if protesters and Trump supporters gather outside Puritan Medical Products in Guilford, where the president plans to visit Friday.
Posted inElections, Local & State, News, Politics
Requests for absentee ballots in Maine up threefold from 2016
Nearly 40,000 Maine voters have already requested ballots for the July 14 primary election.
Posted inLocal & State, Nation & World, News, Politics
Members of Maine’s congressional delegation criticize Trump’s response to protests
Rep. Pingree says the president abused his power, while Sen. King lists ‘many things wrong’ and Sen. Collins says Trump’s use of force against D.C. protesters wasn’t justified. Rep. Jared Golden cautioned the president about deploying U.S. troops on American soil.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Mills raises security concerns about Trump’s plan to visit maker of test swabs in Maine
The governor raised issues during a conference call in which Trump berated governors, telling them to ‘dominate’ protests of racial injustice. Mills added more pointed criticism at a news conference in which she said the country needs leadership, ‘not more hatred and more division.’