Tag Archives: Maine

The Bangor Daily News reports: A push to remove protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation from the Maine Human Rights Act has been abandoned, according to the person who started it. Michael Heath of Chelsea said Thursday that he will not submit the 61,123 signatures from registered Maine voters required to put a referendum question on the statewide ballot. …

The Bangor Daily News reports: A man protesting against LGBT rights earlier this week at the University of Maine during the school’s Coming Out Week celebrations was met with a counter-protest: an a capella song. The unidentified man, holding a sign printed with Bible verses about sexual immorality, had been standing in front of the Memorial Union on campus for …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Gray-New Gloucester’s top school official told WMTW television a high school football coach is no longer employed by the district after allegations he told players to taunt an opponent for having two mothers. Maine School Administrative District 15 Superintendent Craig King told WMTW the district “takes concerns about the safety and security of students very …

At a press conference streamed live on Facebook just now, Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced that she will not leave the Senate next year to run for governor of Maine. Collins put an end to months of speculation when she made her announcement at the Samoset Resort in Rockport Friday morning. Collins is Maine’s senior U.S. Senator, having held her …

The Hill reports: Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) on Thursday defended President Trump’s claim that “both sides” were responsible for the violence that erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, comparing Confederate memorials to those put up to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. “I think what they are standing for …

The Portland Press-Herald reports: Gov. Paul LePage said today that he would propose increasing the age to vote or join the military to 21 to be consistent with a new law hiking the legal age to buy tobacco. Unfortunately for LePage, two things would stand in his way: the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. military. Six days after the Legislature …

The Hill reports: The governor of Maine attacked the press earlier this week and accused reporters of spreading false information that he threatened to go on vacation during a government shutdown, but a new recording of a voicemail captures him mentioning the vacation. Gov. Paul LePage (R) accused the press of writing false news stories about him going on a …

Positively Trumpian. The Associated Press reports: Gov. Paul LePage lashed out at the media for reporting he planned to leave the state during a budget impasse, and he suggested he sometimes concocts stories to mislead reporters. The Republican governor also characterized the state media as “vile,” ″inaccurate” and “useless.” “I just love to sit in my office and make up …

The Portland Press-Herald reports: Amid intense budget negotiations and a state shutdown, Governor Paul LePage has told lawmakers he’s taking a 10-day vacation. “He called the Senate president (Michael Thibodeau) and Sen. (Roger) Katz this morning to say he was leaving the state to go on vacation,” Thibodeau spokeswoman Krysta West said Monday afternoon. West said Thibodeau, R-Winterport, told her …

The New York Times reports: A class-action lawsuit about overtime pay for truck drivers hinged entirely on a debate that has bitterly divided friends, families and foes: The dreaded — or totally necessary — Oxford comma, perhaps the most polarizing of punctuation marks. What ensued in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and in a 29-page …

The Portland Press Herald reports: Maine State Police and Sanford police are investigating the shooting death of Portland Press Herald columnist M.D. Harmon at his home Wednesday afternoon in Sanford. Police say Michael D. Harmon, 71, died at his home on Brunelle Avenue after a handgun he was showing to a teenage boy went off while the 16-year-old was handling …

Portland’s NBC affiliate reports: The only gay nightclub in Portland is closing. The owner calls it a bittersweet sign of the times. “We don’t have the crowd we used to,” said Joshua Moody, who has owned Styxx for 12 years. It’s in line with a nationwide trend: as more members of the gay community branch out and feel welcomed and …

The Associated Press reports: Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he’s proud to be “deplorable,” taking a jab at the insult leveled by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at her rival’s supporters. LePage made the wisecrack Thursday while introducing Donald Trump’s son, Eric, who came to Maine to stump for his father, the Republican presidential candidate. The younger Trump, accompanied by …

Uh huh, yeah. Via Politico: Maine Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday blamed a reporter in part for his fiery outburst to a state lawmaker last week and vowed never to speak with the press again. Despite telling a local radio station on Tuesday that he may or may not resign and acknowledging “maybe it’s time to move on,” his position …

GOP Maine Gov. Paul LePage isn’t sorry for his racist tirades, but he still might resign. So he says today, at least. The Portland Press Herald reports: Gov. Paul LePage raised the possibility Tuesday that he may not finish his second term, amid mounting pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to amend for his recent actions. “I’m …

From the New York Daily News: In a failed attempt to rebuke claims that he is a racist, Maine’s unhinged governor Paul LePage told a room full of reporters that people of color are the “enemy” in his state’s war against drugs. “You shoot at the enemy, don’t you?” LePage said during a tense press conference the day after leaving …

Mother Jones reports: Just one day after claiming 90 percent of the drug-traffickers arrested in Maine are either black or Latino, the state’s combative governor Paul LePage left a threatening voicemail in which he called a state representative a “son of a bitch, socialist cocksucker.” According to LePage, Rep. Drew Gattine, a Democrat, was one of several local lawmakers who …

Raw Story reports: Donald Trump booted a baby out of a rally earlier this week, so it’s not so surprising that he’d boot out people waving copies of the Constitution at his rally. During a rally in Maine on Thursday, several protesters stood up and held out pocket copies of the United States Constitution. Even though they were standing and …

Back in April, I reported that Maine has approved ballot language for a referendum that would repeal LGBT protections in that state. Today we learn that the Christian group behind the referendum has bigger plans. Bangor’s CBS affiliate reports: Mike Heath and other former heads of the Christian Civic League of Maine have formed a new group, “Equal Rights, not …

And the list just keeps getting longer. From Portland’s NBC affiliate: The Portland City Council voted unanimously in favor of restricting travel by city employees to states with laws that discriminate against the LGBT community. All eight councilors had already publicly backed Mayor Ethan Strimling’s proposal before Monday night’s meeting. They don’t want the city spending money for city employees …