‘Constitutional Crisis:’ Maine Bill Nationalizes Transgender Hormones as the U.K. Halts Them for Kids

Child at doctor's visit

Conservative elected officials sometimes accuse California of making policy choices for all Americans by dint of its population size and concomitant regulatory power.

Now they are threatening legal action against a Golden State mini-me for legislation that would purportedly override other states’ laws restricting abortion as well as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgeries for gender confusion.

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Maine’s Public Schools Purchased Taxpayer-Subsidized Electric Buses but Say They are Defective

School Bus Driver

Maine’s Department of Education is reportedly urging school districts to stop using taxpayer-subsidized electric school buses that were purchased within the last year.

The districts reported problems with the new buses, which were supplied by Canada-based Lion Electric Co., last fall, according to CentralMaine.com. The windshields on the buses would leak whenever it rained, as the glass didn’t appear to be securely in place.

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Maine’s Highest Court Dismisses Trump Ballot Case Appeal

Trump Maine

Maine’s highest court has declined to take up an appeal of a ruling over a move to take former President Donald Trump’s name off the state’s GOP primary ballot.

In a decision issued Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Court dismissed an appeal by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, asking justices to overturn a lower court ruling delaying a decision on the ballot challenge. The court said it would be improper to rule on a case that has yet to be decided.

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Republicans Threaten to Remove Biden from 2024 Ballot, Mirroring Efforts to Jettison Trump

Biden Voting

Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to be removed from the 2024 primary ballot as former President Donald Trump is facing challenges to remove him from ballots in multiple states.

As challenges are brought to disqualify Trump from 2024 GOP primary ballots in more than 30 states for allegedly instigating an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Republicans are suggesting that Biden should be removed from the ballot in response, but because of the increased volume of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. through the southern border.

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China is Running an Operation to Get Americans Hooked on Illegal Drugs, Former DEA Boss Warns

Fentanyl

Police operations from California to Maine have busted Chinese nationals operating illegal marijuana growing sites. U.S. officials have clear evidence China is providing Mexican drug cartels the precursor chemicals to make the fentanyl flowing into America. The Drug Enforcement Administration has substantial evidence dating back a decade of Beijing’s role in flooding U.S. cities with a wide range of addictive and harmful drugs.

Experts say there is growing evidence that communist China has launched concerted operations to hook Americans on drugs as part of a larger effort to supplant the United States as the world’s No. 1 superpower. Adding to the problem, the insecure border of the Biden era has only accelerated operations that have killed tens of thousands of Americans from fentanyl poisoning alone. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl increased by 279% from 5.7 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021.

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Illegal Chinese Pot Grows Are Taking over Maine and Law Enforcement Isn’t Stopping Them

Illegal marijuana grows run by Chinese nationals have sprung up all across the state of Maine, and residents say law enforcement isn’t doing enough to stop their spread.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified 270 suspected Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations in the state that could be making an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, which are often used for more criminal activities or are sent back to China, the DCNF exclusively reported in August. The DCNF visited dozens of properties identified as suspected Chinese marijuana grows by the DHS memo, as well as other locations reported to be possible Chinese marijuana grows by The Maine Wire.

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Officers Knew About Maine Shooter’s Paranoia and Threats for Months, Reports Show

Officers in Sagadahoc County, Maine, attempted to conduct multiple wellness checks on mass shooter Robert Card in September, an officer report released by the county sheriff’s department showed.

The U.S. Army Reserve, incorrectly named as the U.S. Guard in the document, asked the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department to complete a wellness check on Card after one of his friends alerted their commanding officer that he was concerned Card would “snap and commit a mass shooting,” according to the incident report. An officer attempted to contact Card at his main residence on Sept. 15 and 16, but was only able to make contact with Card’s brother, Ryan, who promised he would confiscate Card’s weapons and “use his judgment” to determine if Card needed “an evaluation.”

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States with Weaker Marijuana Laws See More Impaired Driving, Report Finds

A new report found that states with less restrictive marijuana policies have higher incidents of residents driving while high.

The Drug Free America Foundation released a new report showing that states that have legalized or weakened restrictions around high-THC marijuana, either for medical or recreational use, saw 32% more marijuana-impaired driving than states that have not adopted the same policies.

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Professor Fired for Challenging Science Behind COVID Mandates Can Sue University, Judge Rules

A tenured professor fired less than a month after seeking the scientific evidence behind her public university’s COVID-19 policies and challenging the legality of its vaccine mandate will get to continue her First Amendment retaliation lawsuit against the University of Maine System.

Patricia Griffin has sufficiently alleged “the subject matter of her speech pertained to a matter of great public concern and was outside the scope of her duties as a professor of marketing” at the University of Southern Maine, U.S. District Judge Jon Levy ruled last month, clearing the way for trial on that issue while dismissing Griffin’s other claims.

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Illegal Chinese Marijuana Grow Operations Are Taking over Blue State, Leaked Memo Says

Lucrative Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations are popping up all over Maine, according to a federal memorandum distributed within Border Patrol that was obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Law enforcement in Maine identified 270 suspected properties used for Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations that could produce an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, the July memo states. Chinese nationals who either have resident status in the U.S. or asylum claims that prevent them from being removed from the country tend to operate such grows, a federal law enforcement source, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.

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Anti-Catholic Activists in Maine Target Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo After Latest Supreme Court Decisions

Federalist Society Co-Chairman Leonard Leo, who served as an advisor in the selection process of former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointees, has been targeted in his home town in Maine by what a prominent Catholic leader calls “anti-Catholic bigots” in the wake of recent rulings by the High Court.

Activists have been protesting at Leo’s home in Northeast Harbor, tying him to Supreme Court rulings with which they disagree.

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Maine Governor Signs Bill Allowing Access to Late-Term Abortions

Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) signed a bill into law Wednesday that expanded access to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, making the state one of the least restrictive in the nation when it comes to ending the lives of unborn babies.

LD 1619, dubbed “An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws,” states an abortion may be performed “after viability,” i.e. when the unborn baby can survive independently outside his or her mother’s womb, “when the abortion is necessary in the professional judgment of a licensed physician.”

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Maine Governor Signs Bill Allowing Teenagers to Obtain Cross-Sex Hormones Without Parental Consent

Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) signed into law legislation this week that eliminates the requirement of parental consent for 16-17-year-old minors to be provided cross-sex hormones to change their physical appearance to correspond to their gender identity at a given point in time.

L.D. 535, titled an Act Regarding Consent for Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy for Certain Minors, states “a health care professional may provide gender-affirming hormone therapy and follow-up care to a minor without obtaining the consent of the parent or guardian of the minor,” with the requirements being that the minor is at least 16 years old; has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; has been judged by a healthcare professional to be experiencing “harm” from not obtaining cross-sex hormones; and the minor’s parents do not support the hormone treatment.

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‘Gender-Affirming’ Pediatricians Help Kill Maine Bill to Prohibit Children’s Social Transition at School Without Parental Consent

With the help of pediatricians from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Democrats in the Maine House and Senate killed a bill Friday that would have prohibited public school staff from helping children to socially transition to another gender by allowing them to use new names and pronouns without written consent from parents.

LD 678 was defeated by house Democrats by a vote of 76-52, and by senate Democrats, 20-12.

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Maine House Democrats Pass Gov. Janet Mills’ Radical Late-Term Abortion Bill

Democrat lawmakers in the Maine House narrowly voted Thursday night to approve Gov. Janet Mills’ (D) radical late-term abortion bill, one that Planned Parenthood spent heavily in Mills’ and other Democrats’ 2022 campaigns to bring to fruition.

LD 1619, dubbed “An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws,” passed by a vote of 74-72 in the state House, but the Senate, which had been expected to vote to approve the measure on Friday and send it to Mills’ desk for signature, adjourned without doing so.

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Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ Administration Sued for Discrimination Against Catholic Schools

St. Dominic Academy in Auburn, Maine filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the administration of Gov. Janet Mills (D) and the Maine Human Rights Commission that alleges the state has continued to “outmaneuver” the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin by excluding religious schools from its longstanding program whereby students residing in districts without a public school are given the opportunity to attend the public or private school of their family’s choosing.

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Maine Elementary School Skips Math, Literacy Classes to Organize Children in Black Lives Matter March

Videos and other documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE) have revealed an elementary school in Portland, Maine, cancelled its math and literacy classes to enable teachers to organize students in a social justice march that included children chanting “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” and waving signs.

The national parental rights organization that opposes indoctrination in schools submitted a public records request to Portland Public Schools for the documents and emails related to the BLM march that was reported to have been originally planned at Presumpscot Elementary School on February 28 – the end of “black history month,” but was ultimately delayed until March 3.

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Maine Governor’s Expert Witness for Bill to Legalize Abortion Until Birth Authorized Abortion on New Mexico Woman Who Died from Complications of Procedure

The OB/GYN tapped by Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) to champion her bill that would allow abortions up until birth has been found to have authorized the 24-week abortion of a woman who later died in Albuquerque from complications due to the procedure.

Dr. Shannon Carr was named in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against her employer, Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), the Maine Wire reported Friday.

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Border Patrol Busts Stash House Full of Illegal Migrants in Northern Border State

Border Patrol agents in Maine busted a stash house full of illegal migrants Tuesday, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statement.

Authorities found 17 illegal migrants from Nicaragua and Guatemala in a house located in Lisbon, Maine, according to CBP. The incident comes amid a surge in illegal migration at the northern border, where Border Patrol apprehended more than 2,800 illegal migrants between October 2022 and February 2023, according to agency data.

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Grassroots Parents Organization Files Complaints Claiming Discrimination in Schools Separating Students Based on Race

Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots parental rights organization, filed three complaints Tuesday with the Biden Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that allege discrimination in schools that formed “racial affinity” groups or “community circles” to separate students based on their race.

The complaints allege that discrimination occurred in schools in Oregon, Maine, and Vermont where students were organized according to their race, which, the complaints argue, is in violation of the 14th Amendment.

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Activists Push States for Free School Meals

At least a dozen states are considering implementing or already have free student meal programs to continue the federal government’s COVID-19 giveaways, while some activists are demanding for more things to be made free.

Congress allowed a pandemic-era free student meal waiver to expire on Sept. 30, returning to the pre-COVID posture where only students at some schools or those whose families met specific income requirements were given free or reduced-price meals.

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Commentary: Ranked-Choice Voting Is Just Another Way of Letting Elites Tilt the System in Their Favor

Americans want honest, straightforward and fair elections that they can trust. Regardless of whether candidates win or lose, voters deserve far better than the incompetence, mismanagement and multi-week delays in counting votes that we’re seeing in so many states today. So, at a time when trust in elections is at an all-time low, why are some establishment Republicans teaming up with Democrats to push a complex, confusing and painfully slow method of voting in America?

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House Democrat Blasts Biden over ‘Fancy Dinner’ that Includes Maine Lobster

A U.S. House Democrat blasted President Joe Biden for his planned ritzy dinner with France’s leader Emmanuel Macron.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, called out Biden on Twitter, suggesting the president is a hypocrite for crushing the lobster industry with strict regulations while purchasing 200 lobsters from Maine for the state dinner with Macron.

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Maine Fisherman Rips Whole Foods for Ending Purchase of Lobsters: ‘We Have Done Our Due Diligence’

Maine fisherman Jason Lorde joined a chorus of others who are denouncing a decision by upscale supermarket chain Whole Foods to stop purchasing Maine lobsters for its stores due to environmentalist pleas for the safety of the rare right whale, a move that affects the livelihood of hundreds of lobstermen.

The decision by Whole Foods has sparked outcry toward what many are describing as an example of environmental extremism.

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Democratic Secretaries of State Warn ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ Would Upend Elections

Thirteen Secretaries of State led by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper, a case that will have the court considering the “independent state legislature” theory.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moore v. Harper in December, a case brought forth after the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature adopted a new congressional voting map based on 2020 Census results. A group of Democratic voters and nonprofit organizations alleged the map was a partisan gerrymander that violated the state constitution and challenged it in court, according to Ballotpedia.

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Teachers’ Unions Condemn Supreme Court Decision Upholding Religious Freedom and School Choice

National and state teachers’ unions condemned the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday that held a Maine tuition assistance program that bars families from using the taxpayer funds for religious schools is in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Union officials denounced the ruling as one that “attacks public schools,” “erodes democracy,” “harms students,” and undermines “the separation of church and state.”

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Supreme Court Rules Maine Law Excluding Religious Schools from Tuition Assistance Is Unconstitutional

In a major decision for religious freedom and school choice, the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a Maine law that barred taxpayer tuition assistance funds from families choosing religious schools.

The Court ruled, 6-3, in Carson v. Makin, the Maine law that governs its tuition program’s exclusion of religious schools, while accepting other private schools, is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and is, therefore, unconstitutional.

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Maine Democrat Governor’s ‘Climate Council’ Recommends Paying ‘Disadvantaged’ People to Attend Its Meetings

The Equity Subcommittee of Maine Governor Janet Mills’ (D) Climate Council is recommending a plan to pay “disadvantaged” and “overburdened” state residents to attend its meetings because, according to its ideology, victims of systemic discrimination suffer greater impact from climate change than average Maine residents.

The Equity Subcommittee’s report, released in February, claims that some individuals in Maine, particularly those who are victims of “historical and systemic discrimination, underrepresentation, and isolation” are “more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than others.”

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FEC Records Show Tight Financial Contest Between Democrat Incumbent and Republican Challenger in Race for Maine’s Second Congressional District

Bruce Poliquin and Jared Golden

Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records show a tight financial contest between incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Jared Golden and the nearest Republican challenger, former U.S. Representative Bruce Poliquin, in the race for Maine’s Second Congressional district.

As of the December 31, 2021 filing deadline, Golden has raised $2,136,842.68 for the 2022 election cycle and has $1,426,268.38 on hand. Republican challenger Poliquin has raised $1,482,065.91 and has $1,397,129.24 cash on hand in the bank. That’s a cash on hand edge for Golden of less than $30,000, a paltry sum in a highly competitive congressional race.

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College Bans ‘Caste’ Discrimination from Campus

A feminist professor has succeeded in banning discrimination based on “caste” at one Maine college.

According to an article from Bangor Daily News — to which Colby College media relations director George Sopko directed Campus Reform — the school added “caste” to a list of grounds for prohibited discrimination that includes race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, political beliefs, and other identity categories.

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Maine Healthcare Workers Challenging Vaccine Mandate

Healthcare workers

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Maine healthcare workers attempting to block the state’s vaccine mandate.

The group of unvaccinated workers argued that the law violated their First Amendment rights because the law doesn’t have a religious exemption.

According to the Associated Press, Maine is one of three states including New York and Rhode Island that have vaccine mandates that lack religious exemptions for healthcare workers.

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Educational Think Tank Calls on Supreme Court to Uphold the Constitutional Rights of Parents

Supreme Court building

In a press release Friday, The Buckeye Institute announced that they are “filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in Carson v. Makin calling on the court to make clear – as it has in many other cases – that it is a violation of the U.S. Constitution to deny students and their families financial aid that is available to all other students on the basis that family chooses to use their aid to send their children to a religious or ‘sectarian’ school.”

Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of the educational think tank said, “The core constitutional issues before the high court have been asked and answered many times: the government cannot discriminate against religion in administering benefit programs.”

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Letter to the Editor: A Warning from Maine About the Taxpayers’ Role in Refugee Resettlement Programs

My home state has been ground zero for America’s failed, taxpayer abusive resettlement schemes for decades. Thousands of welfare dependent refugees, migrants, and illegal immigrants have been forced on our overburdened taxpayers in economically deprived cities, and the results have been disastrous. If Tennessee citizens fail to act, you will endure the same fate.

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Commentary: Maine and Nevada Show Why the Electoral College Helps Small States, Not Red States

by Hans Von Spakovsky   Last month, both Maine and Nevada did what was in the best interests of their states: They rejected bills that would have enrolled their states in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an unwise effort to override the Electoral College. In Maine, it was killed by legislators in the state House after it passed Maine’s Senate. In Nevada, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak vetoed the bill that had been passed by members of his own party in the Legislature. The National Popular Vote compact, which is an agreement between states, requires a participating state to award all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes across the nation, not to the candidate who actually won the vote in that state. In other words, states are agreeing to ignore what the majority of voters in their state decides when it comes to who they believe should be president. This interstate compact has been sold to state governments as a means to abolish what supporters wrongly claim is the “outmoded, undemocratic Electoral College.” What is “undemocratic” is an agreement that means that even if every single voter in a state voted against a presidential…

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Nine States Back Environmentalists Trying to Shutdown Search for Oil in Atlantic

by Tim Pearce   Nine states are intervening in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for approving oil and gas companies to search for oil and gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Thursday the states would join environmental groups in a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from allowing seismic testing off the coast of South Carolina. “The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued what are called incidental harassment authorizations. They would, by their own terms, result in harm to hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins and porpoises,” Frosh said. “The permits eliminate a major obstacle to testing and we content that the authorizations are illegal.” Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia accompanied Maryland in intervening in the lawsuit. The NMFS, an agency under the Commerce Department, issued “incidental take” permits Nov. 30 allowing oil and gas companies to conduct the tests. Environmental groups sued the federal government Nov. 11 to prevent the seismic testing, which involves air guns booming in the ocean seconds apart for days at a time. Environmentalists contend the permits violate the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammals Protection Act and other regulations. The federal…

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Battleground State Report: Judge Says Maine’s ‘Rank Voting’ System Constitutional, But Originalists Disagree

On Friday’s Battleground State Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – a one hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication rollout – the two hosts discussed the concept in Maine’s new “rank voting” system, who’s behind it, why it’s being implemented and how, and what it stands to gain for the Democrats. Gill and Leahy go into mind bending depth on the complexity of this concept and how it stands to challenge the interpretation of the Constitution. Gill: I know this whole Maine thing is a bit confusing but so we’re trying to walk through it because this may be what the Democrats try to impose in other states to give themselves an edge.  They’re trying to automatically put felons back in the ability to vote because overwhelmingly about sixty to seventy percent of felons will vote for the Democrats. They’re trying to bring in more illegal aliens to vote in this country because that helps the Democrats. And this rank voting system, which rank means stink, as well as ranking the votes it applies in both standards is another way that Democrats may be able to set up a system where they…

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Wisconsin and New Jersey are Among the States Looking To Copy Minnesota Model Of Using Federal Funds To Lower Insurance Premiums

Minnesota capitol

by Evie Fordham   Several states including Wisconsin and New Jersey are seeking to copy Minnesota’s model of federal reinsurance program funding that contributed to a 13-percent drop in premium rates in the state from 2017 to 2018. The Minnesota legislature adopted the program, which uses mostly federal funds to help insurers cover people with medical bills typically between $50,000 and $250,000, in 2017, reported Kaiser Health News. The program enables insurers to lower premiums and is a policy encouraged by the Trump administration. Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker is focusing his campaign on his health care accomplishments, including support for his state’s reinsurance program, reported RealClear Politics. He says premiums will be 11 percent lower than they would have been without the program in 2019, reported HealthLeaders Media. Minnesota’s 2018 reinsurance program received $131 million from the federal government, and many other states have applied or are applying for reinsurance program funding. Alaska and Oregon have programs similar to Minnesota’s in place. The main difference between Alaska’s program, which started in 2016, and other states’ is that Alaska’s covers all costs for people with “highest-cost conditions.” Wisconsin and Maine were approved in July, while Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland and New Jersey are working toward having programs set up by…

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Maine Upholds Governor’s Veto Blocking Retail Marijuana Sales

A bill establishing a legal framework for selling recreational marijuana in the state of Maine has met its demise after lawmakers sustained Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of legislation regulating retail weed sales. Maine’s House of Representatives voted 74-62 on Monday in support of the Republican governor’s veto, slashing the odds of recreational marijuana sales starting in…

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Lawmakers in Maine, With Democrats in the Lead, Fail to Protect Girls from Female Genital Mutilation

Tennessee Star

Incredibly, Democratic legislators in Maine have submitted to the dictates of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others determined to prevent the state from criminalizing the mutilation of little girls’ genitals. If this decision stands, Maine risks becoming a safe harbor for mutilators. Female genital mutilation (FGM) defies all standards of humanity, and the United…

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